Policies and Governance/Science and Policy

Nature-based Solutions against hydro-meteorological hazards

Alejandro Gonzalez Ollauri, Slobodan Mickovski, Rohinton Emmanuel

Glasgow Caledonian University School of Engineering and the Built Environment, Glasgow, UK

Summary

Hydro-meteorological hazards (HMHs) are caused by extreme meteorological and climate events, producing serious damages to natural and urban ecosystems. Examples of HMHs are landslides, erosion, floods, draught, or storm surges. The intensification of the hydrological cycle due to climate change will increase the virulence of HMHs globally. Nature-based solutions (NBS) -i.e. actions that use nature to tackling socio-environmental issues - may contribute to mitigate HMHs while providing bundles of co-benefits and ecosystem services, making human communities more resilient to climate change. However, the implementation, operationalisation, and performance of NBS on hazard-prone zones requires urgent investigation. This multi-disciplinary Session aims at collecting a series of original, high-quality presentations illustrating examples on Nature-based Solutions against Hydro-Meteorological hazards and on how these NBS can be co-created through participatory and stakeholder engagement approaches.

Sustainability and resilience of cities

Mahfuzuar Rahman Barbhuiya

Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), Delhi, India

Summary

Cities are facing problems due to reasons which policymakers and planners could not think of a few decades back. With the ever-increasing population and migration of people from rural to urban areas for better facilities and quality of life; cities are facing new problems every year.
Poor air quality, drinking water shortage, regular floods, traffic congestion, housing shortage, power shortage and crime etc. are some of the problems faced by almost all cities around the globe. All these problems are because the cities were not designed to accommodate such a huge population. United nation's sustainable development goals talk about seventeen goals; all of these goals are very relevant and crucial for cultural and heritage cities. The immediate focus needs to be given to these goals else we will start losing cities and it will be very difficult to make them habitable again. In this side event, we will be discussing various problems faced by the cities around the world and we will try to find strategies and policy recommendations for the same. These recommendations will be general as well as specific and thus they can be taken up by city administrators for improving quality of life.

From hilltops to oceans – the role of coastal habitats for ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic change

Jenny Hillman¹, Caitlin Blain¹, Emily Douglas², Luitgard Schwendenmann¹

¹The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. ²National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Hamilton, Hamilton, New Zealand

Summary

Human land use is increasing nutrient, organic matter and sediment loads to waterways, with implications for the health and functioning of coastal ecosystems. Key habitats within these ecosystems are hotspots for transformation of nutrients and organic matter at the land-ocean interface. Conserving and restoring such habitats, and the links between them, allow mitigation of the impacts of increasing inputs, as well as future anthropogenic stressors and environmental shifts associated with climate change. Here we look to identify key coastal habitats and assess the capacity of these habitats to mitigate change through ecosystem functions such as denitrification and carbon sequestration. This symposium will feature collaborative research that draws attention to the importance of enhancing healthy coastal habitats and ecosystem functions to solve environmental problems.

An optimal design of supply chain in healthcare under uncertainty by regarding environmental impacts

Reza Eslamipoor

Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Summary

In this article, we present a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) to design and optimize supply chain design network (SCND) for blood products with three goal functions in this research. We constructed a model under uncertainty because of the presence of certain uncertain data in supply chain network. A fuzzy possibilistic programming strategy was used in this case. Additionally, we built an integrated Harmony search annealing approach (SA). We examined the results given by CPLEX and two suggested methods using randomly generated data. We have provided a methodology in this study that incorporates human relief actions into sustainable operations. The objective of this study is to educate the worldwide community and local stakeholders on the importance of sustainable operations in tough times. The model proposed here is expandable in a variety of ways. The Taguchi experimental design is very efficient in detecting initial approximation.

Innovations for sustainable agriculture

Lisa Norton

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK

Summary

Farmers are innovating novel agro-ecological practices practices to ensure their long term sustainability, improve the food they produce and the land that they produce it from. They are also innovating co-operative approaches to everything from cross-continent to local knowledge transfer in order that they can learn from one another. Such forms of innovation may be the kinds of innovation that we need in agriculture to transform current destructive practices and maintain the capacity of land to continue to produce for future generations. This session will explore the potential for transformational agriculture to come from within the industry and discuss the roles of science and effective knowledge transfer. The work will draw on the EU FAB farmers project and numerous national projects (I don't hve time to list them now, but if you are keen on the session I'll co-ordinate a group)

Cutting through the greenwashing: Regenerative organic certification

Emily Gantz, Zach West

Rodale Institute, Pennsylvania, USA

Summary

We know that Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People, and organic certification can create healthy soil, but what if you want to go above and beyond? What does “regenerative” agriculture actually mean, and how is it different from “Regenerative Organic”? Join the Rodale Institute to discuss the Regenerative Organic Certification program and how farmers across the world are implementing this certification on their farm, and how it will change the way our food is produced for generations to come.

3DP technology and applications for response to sustainability and climate change needs

Muammer Koc¹, Shoukat Alim Khan²

¹Hamad Bin Khalifa Univeristy, Doha, Qatar. ²Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

Summary

The provision of fast, inexpensive, durable and resilient solutions is a tremendous and urgent need for sustainability and climate change needs. However, existing solutions are slow, expensive, and insufficient. They lead to further problems and technical barriers, causing the lack of decent and humanitarian solutions for oppressed people in need. 3D Printing (3DP) technology could provide a stronger and more resilient solution to several basic human needs in these conditions. Covid-19 is a recent example where the 3D printing technology has proved its ability to address the severe challenges in case of medical emergencies. Similarly, 3DP technology has been developed to a level that can be now implemented in building fast and affordable housing. The significant and additional benefits and impact of 3DP can be around to act in emergencies and disasters to bring resiliency and sustainability. Hence, this symposium is planned to include different 3D printing applications for sustainability, resiliency and climate change need, including, but not limited to:

3D printing for built environments, including housing, bridges, critical infrastructures
3DP for medical needs such as orthopaedics, surgical implants, and custom surgical equipment in case of emergencies
3DP for bioprinting and organs
3D printing’s custom, one-off methods make it perfect for prosthetics
3DP for transport in emergencies such as vehicles, drones and boats
3DP for the resilient supply chain of spare parts
3DP for basic human necessities such as shoes, clothing etc.

A model for sustainable coastal landscapes: Policies, programs, and strategies from the University of Florida, Florida-Friendly Landscaping™

Esengul Momol¹, Gail Marie Hansen De Chapman², Susan Haddock³, Lynn Barber⁴, Taylor Clem², Tom Wichman²

¹University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. ²University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. ³University of Florida, Seffner, USA. ⁴university of Forida, Seffner, USA

Summary

This symposium proposes to highlight sustainable landscaping practices in Florida, where outdoor water use can consume up to 74 percent of the total household water budget. With 13,500 kilometers of coastline and 14.5 million of its 21-million-person population living in coastal counties, Florida faces significant current and future challenges in watershed and coastal resource protection. Nutrients, including those directly linked to residential fertilizer use, are driving widespread riverine and estuarine algal blooms that are increasing in both frequency and duration. Further, Florida’s population is projected to grow an additional 25 percent in the next 20 years. Consequently, the state of Florida has enacted a statewide water conservation and protection program called Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ (FFL). The program promotes sustainable landscape design and maintenance practices that are documented with preventing more than 30,000 kg of nitrogen per year from entering Florida waters. Symposium speakers will overview the FFL program and expand on its core principles that include sustainable yard design, home irrigation systems design and operation, proper fertilization practices that contain nutrients; highlight the Green Industries Best Management Practices (GI-BMP) program that, as mandated by Florida law, provides training to all landscaping professionals who fertilize and, since 2006, has trained over 55,000 landscapers statewide in BMPs; cover the use of FFL mobile web applications to reach specific target audiences and overview several case studies that highlight program successes; discuss elements of sustainable landscape design and strategies to overcome behavioral constraints that hinder residents from adopting sustainable landscaping practices in their yards.

Green finance: Bringing sustainability and resilience home

Sandhir Sharma, Shivani Inder

Chitkara University, Punjab, Rajpura, India

Summary

Green Finance is pivotal to the discussion on building resilience and sustainability of ecosystem. Recent confrontations with pandemic has brought our attention back to rethink and reset ways to survive and carry out business. Using the lens of sustainable markets, ecosystem can be reimagined and realigned with UN SDGs. Green finance offers an opportunity to leap frog towards sustainable pathways, and manage environmental and social risks.

This symposia brings in our moment to ponder over

Building sustainable and resilient ecosystems through green finance
Infrastructure and green growth
Building communities on green finance
Public sector support to green finance
Green financial institutions

Bridging the gap between climate adaptation planning and cultural heritage management

Sandra Fatorić

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft, The Netherlands

Summary

- Climate change risk, vulnerability, impact assessments of various cultural heritage types (e.g., historic buildings, archeological sites, intangible heritage, traditional practices)
- Planned and implemented climate adaptation solutions for cultural heritage
- Benefits and opportunities of cultural heritage for informing climate change adaptation and mitigation policies
- Decision-making process for adapting or "letting go" cultural heritage at risk from changing climate

Climate change and coastal cities

Damain Cox, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia

Summary

The proposed symposium brings together academics from three Faculties within Bond University to address multifaceted challenges of climate change in coastal cities from legal, health, Indigenous, international relations, environmental planning, and architectural design perspectives. Some papers will also link their discussion to UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Ocean science for sustainable livelihoods in the blue pacific

Paul Hamer¹, Simon Nicol¹, Jerome Aucan²

¹Pacific Community, Noumea, New-Caledonia. ²Pacific Community (Pacific Community Centre for Ocean Science - PCCOS), Noumea, New-Caledonia

Summary

Pacific Island countries have Exclusive Economic Zones that cover expansive areas of the Pacific Ocean – constituting an ocean continent, the ‘Blue Pacific’. Their primary natural resource base is the Ocean. The tuna fisheries in the Blue Pacific are the largest in world, making critical economic contributions to support the development of Pacific Island countries. Coastal fisheries and reef ecosystems are essential to food security and are central to culture and daily lives. Climate change, through its impact on the ocean environment, threatens to erode not only Pacific Island land masses but also impact on the productivity and accessibility to fisheries in their waters. This symposia will focus on the critical ocean science to underpin management, policy, mitigation or adaptation to support sustainable ocean based livelihoods in the Blue Pacific.

Climate change adaptation and resilience amongst migrants and displaced people: Towards the fortification of at-risk communities against climate hazards

Lazarus Chapungu¹, David Chikodzi¹, Claris Mudzengi², Kaitano Dube³, Godwell Nhamo⁴

¹University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa. ²Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo, Zimbabwe. ³Vaal University of Technology - Upington Campus, Upington, South Africa. ⁴University of South Africa School of Management Sciences, Pretoria, South Africa

Summary

Climate change-induced hazards’ effects on human mobility, migration, and displacement across the world are substantial and diverse in nature. The IPCC AR6 predicts a medium to high-risk chance that climate change will exacerbate migration and displacement. This compromises the social, economic, and physical security of individuals, pulling back the world’s ability to attain sustainable development goals by 2030. Relief programs have not provided sustainable solutions that enhance the capacity of migrant communities to adapt and be resilient. Migration due to climate-induced disasters is not gender-neutral with women, and girls often being disproportionately affected. This symposium seeks to unpack frameworks and strategies that can be used in intervening with actions that enhance the sustainable social, economic and physical security of at-risk communities and individuals.

Study of antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-cancer activity of algae extracts

Fatima Kies¹, Patricio De Los Rios Escalante²

¹Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. ²Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Químicas, Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Casilla 15-D, Temuco, Chile

Summary

In the literature, extracts of the various seaweeds have revealed remarkable antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-cancer activity, describing these algae as a great source of natural active products. The purpose of these working groups is to study and evaluate the quality of these raw extracts of seaweed and their exploitation to immunize the environment and human health.

Social innovations for adaptive transitions: Learning from climate change mitigation projects in the Southern coast of India

Thomson Kaleekal

Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, India. Centre for Social Innovations and Development Studies, Kochi, India

Summary

The social ecological systems in developing countries have been seriously affected by beach erosion due to the combined influences of developmental activities and climate change. Although the state has designed and instituted seawall, modern industries, harbors etc. as a general solution to resist beach erosion its suitability has often been challenged by local communities. Instead, they co-design adaptive transitions by proposing several new ideas and products through social innovations to mitigate climate change impacts. This workshop proposes a platform where, community members, policy makers, academicians, ngos and design experts discuss the dynamics of social innovations for adaptive transitions by listing some interesting case studies from India and elsewhere in the light of ongoing challenges of climate change and state failures.

Is resilience the next big opportunity for ESG for corporates – how to make it happen?

Julie McLellan, Dr Andrew O'Neill

Healthy Land & Water, Brisbane, Australia

Summary

With the momentum ramping up for companies to show their sustainability credentials and social license to operate, how do we use this appetite to drive investment into proactive resilience measures?
- How can we flip the funding model to resilience rather than disaster response?
- What will it take to get corporates backing proactive resilience measures, and achieve q-dos for their ESG?
- What’s the quickest, best way to tap in to this market so we can bring about real change faster?
- Is there an opportunity for First Nations led approaches using traditional knowledge?
This high level think tank is designed to make the most of the synergies of the spread of influencers at the conference concentrated on tackling a key issue to achieve real change for resilience in Australia.

Currents: Navigating positive connections between oceans and human health

Catherine Pirkle, Alena Shalaby, Sara Maaria Saastamoinen, Anna Chua, Rachel Dacks, Lorinda Riley

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

Summary

Holistic and interdisciplinary considerations of the human health impacts of marine ecosystems remain insufficient. Most research focuses on the toxicological and microbiological risks to humans from pollution and climate change, with limited research on the barriers to and well-being benefits of healthy marine ecosystems (e.g., increased physical activity, better mental health). These limitations prevent us from systematically articulating economic, educational, and other policies/interventions to ensure healthy people and oceans. We thus propose a symposium that shares the results from a systems mapping research project in Hawaiʻi; 2 presentations from Kānaka Maoli/Indigenous perspectives; 1 on leveraging collective action for change; 3 lightning talks on others’ primary research, and a discussion with the audience—all focused on the links between healthy oceans and people.

Changing role of drought through space and time

Melinda Smith, Alan Knapp

Colorado State University Department of Biology, Fort Collins, USA

Summary

Droughts are intensifying with climate change, with the signature of such change being felt in many regions of the globe. Intensified drought events are expected to have greater and longer-lasting ecological and societal impacts, with these impacts being compounded with the increasing frequency of extreme events. Although dire consequences are expected with more extreme, longer duration and more frequent drought events, predictive understanding of the impact of such events on terrestrial ecosystems remains limited. For this symposium, we will bring together speakers presenting results from experiments, simulation models, and remote sensing that encompass multiple sites and years. The major outcome of the symposium will be to synthesize how drought is affecting ecosystems in space and time and to identify future research priorities.

153

Creating appetite for climate action – the future is now

Rachel Kelly ^1,2, Gretta Pecl ^1,2

¹Centre for Marine Socioecology, Hobart, Australia. ²Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, Australia

Summary

Forward-looking, forward thinking, and imagining going forward: the tools and approaches needed to create and support a mobilising narrative for proactively preparing and responding to climate change are available and being developed on an ongoing basis. This session asks: How can we build appetite for climate action and how can we convince others to take this action? We draw on multi/transdisciplinary expertise and artistic expression (via an interactive panel and other engaging activities) to envision how to build enthusiastic action and discuss how we can better connect people with climate futures. We will explore innovative and creative ways of explaining and visioning the future (think: artistic, futuristic, technologic, pluralistic) and bring diverse expertise and insights together (including: diverse disciplines, non-academics, younger voices) to develop a shared vision for climate action.

163

Imagining and planning for uncertain water futures – perspectives on capabilities, ethics, decision-contexts and youth engagement

Carla Alexandra¹, Stephanie Rosestone¹

¹Australian National University, Institute for Water Futures, Canberra, Australia

Summary

Accelerated impacts of climate change and other global environmental changes pose significant challenges for water management and decision-making, not least because of the increased uncertainty they add to futures that are already hard to anticipate. There is a need to consider how we think about, imagine, and plan for long-term futures.

This symposium brings together academics from the Australian National University, Institute of Water Futures to address the multifaceted challenges of water-related decision-making in the context of climate change and uncertain futures. The symposium provides a platform to explore how alternative futures are imagined and used in decision-making processes, drawing on recent research and case studies from Australia. The session will address the question “how can we use different ways of thinking about uncertain futures to achieve more positive and sustainable outcomes?”

Each speaker will to bring a novel perspective to the question, including futures-thinking and multi-scale approach to scenario planning; youth perspectives and future generations; ethics of technology and modelling; knowledge and uncertainty; and imagination and creativity. The symposium aims to draw out interdisciplinary lessons from futures-thinking and socio-hydrology that may be of relevance beyond water resources to areas such as natural resource management and conservation, ecosystem modelling, and decision-support tools for social-environmental systems.

438

Risk assessment and civil engineering challenges under climate change stress

Alina Barbulescu¹, Dorin Radu¹, Cristian Stefan Dumitriu²

¹Transilvania University of Brasov, Braşov, Romania. ²Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, Bucureşti, Romania

Summary

In a changing climate, extreme phenomena become more frequent, with higher intensity, resulting in augmentation of the damages produced to the natural and human-built environment. Supplementary stress on the population's life is the inefficient use of resources, resulting in environmental pollution. In this context, civil engineers should provide solutions to assess the risk, evaluate the cost, and propose solutions for reducing and controlling its impact. The research presented in this session should answer the some of the following questions. How to better assess the hazards? What kind of indicators are better to be used for this goal? What kind of methods should be used for modeling the hazards and pollution impact on the infrastructure? Innovative solutions to the various problems that civil engineers are facing are also expected to be proposed.