Resilience In Region Research Articles

Resilient development and environmental justice in divided territory: political ecology in the San Diego-Tijuana bioregion.

This paper explores issues in the expansion of environmental justice rhetoric to the developing world, and propose insights from resilience theory, political ecology, and bioregionalism as supplements. I do this from the frame of the San Diego-Tijuana region, where regional inequalities are stark and global processes have a heavy local footprint. Sharing a broadly-defined natural region, the growing evidence of ecological crisis increasingly calls for collaboration between two communities which often perceive themselves as relatively disconnected. Understanding challenges to social-ecological resilience and environmental justice in the San Diego-Tijuana region, however, also requires understanding it as an inflection point for global economic, military, and human migration flows occurring at many scales. It is in the context of building effective regional collaboration that environmental justice must engage the analyses of scale and political economy contained in political ecology as a challenge. I suggest, however, that any environmental justice discourse informed by political ecology cannot remain abstract from the local context. A “bioregional” community forged around shared ecological systems may serve as an important resource for creating social-ecological resilience in politically divided territory.

An indicator based approach to assess coastal communities’ resilience against climate related disasters in Indian Sundarbans

The article attempts to develop a five dimensional community resilience assessment framework and a composite resilience index against climate related disasters with special applications to the coastal rural communities’ in the developing world. Consequently, it narrates the case study of Indian Sundarbans, which serves as a typical example of a complex & dynamic ‘socio-ecological’ system characterized by dense mangrove forests, high population density and recurrent climate related disasters. In the present study, ‘community resilience’ of 19 coastal administrative blocks of Indian Sundarbans were assessed through a systematic questionnaire survey of administrative officials and the composite resilience scores were found to vary between 2.51 and 3.63 in a five point scale. Out of the 19 coastal blocks only one could be classified as high resilient block and the rest were found to be in low to moderate resilience categories. In general, the extreme coastal blocks were found to be less resilient due to their high exposure & developmental deficit, however, at the same time, the study finds strong correlation of institutional interventions & effective coastal zone management in enhancing the overall resilience scores. The study concludes with broad recommendation of integrated planning for disaster & climate resilience in this eco-fragile region where low impact economic development remains at the central.

Using sustainability science to analyse social–ecological restoration in NE Japan after the great earthquake and tsunami of 2011

In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated part of northeastern Japan in March 2011, proposals for reconstruction and rehabilitation are still subjects of debate. The claim by many climate scientists that large-scale extreme events can be expected in the future, with similar catastrophic effects in coastal areas, suggests the need for long-term planning that aims at building resilience, the ability for socio-ecological systems to withstand and recover quickly from natural disasters, and continue to develop. We hypothesize that ecosystems and socio-economic resilience will provide affected communities with flexible barriers against future disasters and greater protection in the long run than will hard/engineering solutions such as high seawalls aimed at ensuring only physical security. Building social/ecological resilience in the Tohoku region will increase general security and is anticipated also to contribute to an enhanced quality of life now and for generations to come. This paper argues that building resilience in the affected area requires a transformation to sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries and we describe how the links between satoyama and satoumi, traditional rural territorial and coastal landscapes in Japan, can contribute to this revitalization and to strengthening the relationship between local residents and the landscape in the affected communities. Decision makers at local, regional and national levels need to take a holistic approach based on sustainability science to understand the inter-relationships between these landscapes and ecosystems to develop a robust rebuilding plan for the affected communities. Moreover, this paper suggests that building resilient communities in Japan that demonstrate the strategic benefits of satoyama and satoumi linkages can be a model for building resilient rural and urban communities throughout the world.

Post-fire resilience in the Alpine region estimated from MODIS satellite multispectral data

In this study, a methodology based on the analysis of MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) time series was developed to estimate post-fire resilience of Alpine vegetation. To this end, satellite images of two vegetation indices (VIs), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were used. The analysis was conducted on wildfire affected areas in the Lombardy region (Italy) between 2003 and 2007. Some land surface (LS) descriptors (i.e. mean and maximum VI, growing season start, end and length) were extracted to characterize the time evolution of the vegetation. The descriptors from a burned area were compared to those from an undisturbed adjacent control site by means of analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA). Post-fire resilience was estimated on the basis of the number of subsequent years exhibiting a statistical difference between burned area and control site. The same methodologies were also applied to events aggregated by main land cover (broadleaf forest, prairies and mixed forest). The averaged resilience of broadleaf forest was 5–6 years, whereas prairie ecosystems exhibited a faster response of 0–2 years. Phenological analysis revealed that fire induces a shift of the start and end of growing season in forest ecosystems but has no effect on prairies. The method provides a useful and quantitative insight into complex post-fire vegetation dynamics in the Alps from a remote sensing perspective; results can apply to post-fire forest management and to multi-risk analysis.

Projected Heat-Related Mortality in the U.S. Urban Northeast

Increased heat-related mortality is projected to be among the major impacts of climate change on human health, and the United States urban Northeast region is likely to be particularly vulnerable. In support of regional adaptation planning, quantitative information is needed on potential future health responses at the urban and regional scales. Here, we present future projections of heat-related mortality in Boston, New York and Philadelphia utilizing downscaled next-generation climate models and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) developed in support of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). Our analyses reveal that heat-related mortality rates per 100,000 of population during the baseline period between 1985 and 2006 were highest in Philadelphia followed by New York City and Boston. However, projected heat-related mortality rates in the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s were highest in New York City followed by Philadelphia and Boston. This study may be of value in developing strategies for reducing the future impacts of heat and building climate change resilience in the urban Northeast region.

Food Grain Policy in the Republic of Korea: The Economic Costs of Self-Sufficiency

Previous articleNext article No AccessFood Grain Policy in the Republic of Korea: The Economic Costs of Self-SufficiencyMichael V. Martin and John A. McDonaldMichael V. Martin Search for more articles by this author and John A. McDonald Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 34, Number 2Jan., 1986 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451530 Views: 9Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1986 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Lorena Lombardozzi, Nodir Djanibekov Can self-sufficiency policy improve food security? An inter-temporal assessment of the wheat value-chain in Uzbekistan, Eurasian Geography and Economics 62, no.11 (Apr 2020): 1–20.https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2020.1744462Menas C. Kafatos, Seung Hee Kim, Chul-Hee Lim, Jinwon Kim, Woo-Kyun Lee Responses of Agroecosystems to Climate Change: Specifics of Resilience in the Mid-Latitude Region, Sustainability 9, no.88 (Aug 2017): 1361.https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081361Ekaterina Dorodnykh Economic and Social Benefits of Increased Food Self-Reliance, (Jan 2017): 35–55.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50188-8_4Jennifer Clapp Food self-sufficiency: Making sense of it, and when it makes sense, Food Policy 66 (Jan 2017): 88–96.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.12.001Tae Jeong Lee, Insung Lee Retaining the Quota System in the South Korean Rice Market, Journal of Contemporary Asia 39, no.33 (Aug 2009): 440–462.https://doi.org/10.1080/00472330902944537P. Francks Agricultural adjustment in an industrializing rice economy: The case of pre‐war Japan, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy 2, no.11 (May 2007): 82–100.https://doi.org/10.1080/13547869708724607Larry L. Burmeister State, Industrialization and Agricultural Policy in Korea, Development and Change 21, no.22 (Oct 2008): 197–223.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1990.tb00375.xSteven T. Buccola, Chrispen Sukume Optimal grain pricing and storage policy in controlled agricultural economies: application to Zimbabwe, World Development 16, no.33 (Mar 1988): 361–371.https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(88)90003-4