In the face of uncertainties associated with climate change, building adaptive capacity and resilience at the community level emerges as an essential and timely element of local planning. However, key social factors that facilitate the effective building and maintenance of urban resilience are poorly understood. Two groups of US cities differing markedly in their commitment to climate change are contrasted with respect to their planning approaches and actions related to mitigation and adaptation strategies, and also in relation to social features that are believed to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. The first group manifests a strong commitment to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the second group has demonstrated little or no such commitment. These cities are compared with respect to several noteworthy social features, including level of social capital, degree of unconventional thought, and level of cultural diversity. These characteristics are postulated to contribute to the adaptive capacity of communities for dealing with the impacts of climate change. The aim is to determine to what extent there is a relationship between social/cultural structures and urban commitment and planning for climate change that could discriminate between climate change resilient and nonresilient urban areas. 1. Introduction In their efforts to promote sustainability local governments around the world are confronting the challenge of mitigation and adaptation to climate change because climate change-related disturbances can transform the face of communities in profound ways. It is clear that no thorough plan promoting sustainability should ignore the potential impacts of climate change. Sustainability is closely related to the capacity of systems to persist and transform themselves in the presence of significant perturbations and still provide the ecosystem services that sustain life. Holling [1] has defined sustainability as “the capacity to create, test, and maintain adaptive capacity” while Lebel et al. [2] argue that in order to attain sustainable development, societies need to enhance their capacity to manage resilience. To deal successfully with climate change, decision makers in urban areas have to apply adaptive management, develop the ability to live with uncertainty, and foster transformations without losing opportunities for achieving a sustainable future. Climate change is one of the main sources of uncertainty facing all levels of government today. According to Wilson [3], “building climate change considerations into
References
[1]
C. S. Holling, “Understanding the complexity of economic, ecological, and social systems,” Ecosystems, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 390–405, 2001.
[2]
L. Lebel, J. M. Anderies, B. Campbell et al., “Governance and the capacity to manage resilience in regional social-ecological systems,” Ecology and Society, vol. 11, no. 1, article no. 19, 2006.
[3]
E. Wilson, “Adapting to climate change at the local level: the spatial planning response,” Local Environment, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 609–625, 2006.
[4]
P. Kirshen, M. Ruth, and W. Anderson, “Interdependencies of urban climate change impacts and adaptation strategies: a case study of metropolitan boston usa,” Climatic Change, vol. 86, no. 1-2, pp. 105–122, 2008.
[5]
G. Peterson, G.A. DeLeo, J. J. Hellman, et al., “Uncertainty, climate change, and adaptive management,” Conservation Ecology, vol. 1, no. 2, article 4, 1997.
[6]
Y. Strengers, “Environmental culture change in local government: a practised perspective from the international council for local environmental initiatives—Australia/New Zealand,” Local Environment, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 621–628, 2004.
[7]
W. Budd, N. Lovrich, J. C. Pierce, and B. Chamberlain, “Cultural sources of variations in us urban sustainability attributes,” Cities, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 257–267, 2008.
[8]
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2005.
[9]
N. Prasad, F. Ranghieri, F. Shah, Z. Trihanis, E. Kessler, and R. Sinha, Climate Resilient Cities: A Primer on Reducing Vulnerabilities to Disasters, The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA, 2009.
[10]
C. Folke, C. S. Holling, and C. Perrings, “Biological diversity, ecosystems, and the human scale,” in Foundations of Ecological Resilience, L. Gunderson, C. Allen, and C. S. Holling, Eds., pp. 152–165, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2010.
[11]
C. Folke, S. Carpenter, B. Walker et al., “Regime shifts, resilience, and biodiversity in ecosystem management,” Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, vol. 35, pp. 557–581, 2004.
[12]
L. Gunderson, “Adaptive dancing: interactions between social resilience and ecological crises,” in Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change, F. Berkes, J. Colding, and C. Folke, Eds., pp. 33–52, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2003.
[13]
C. S. Holling, “Engineering resilience versus ecological resilience,” in Foundations of Ecological Resilience, L. Gunderson, C. Allen, and C. S. Holling, Eds., pp. 51–66, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2010.
[14]
J. Norberg, J. Wilson, B. Walker, and E. Ostrom, “Diversity and resilience of social-ecological systems,” in Complexity Theory for a Sustainable Future, J. Norbeg and G. Cumming, Eds., pp. 46–80, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2008.
[15]
G. Peterson, C. R. Allen, and C. S. Holling, “Ecological resilience, biodiversity, and scale,” in Foundations of Ecological Resilience, L. Gunderson, C. Allen, and C. S. Holling, Eds., pp. 167–193, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2010.
[16]
B. Walker and D. Salt, Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2006.
[17]
B. Walker and N. Abel, “Resilient rangelands-adaptation in complex systems,” in Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, L. Gunderson and C. S. Holling, Eds., pp. 293–313, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2002.
[18]
P. Newman, T. Beatley, and H. Boyer, Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2009.
[19]
L. Gunderson and C. S. Holling, Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2002.
[20]
S. R. Carpenter and W. A. Brock, “Adaptive capacity and traps,” Ecology and Society, vol. 13, no. 2, article no. 40, 2008.
[21]
M. Alberti, J. M. Marzluff, E. Shulenberger, G. Bradley, C. Ryan, and C. Zumbrunnen, “Integrating humans into ecology: opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystems,” Bioscience, vol. 53, no. 12, pp. 1169–1179, 2003.
[22]
D. Paton and D. Johnston, Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Approach, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, USA, 2006.
[23]
T. Beatley, Planning for Coastal Resilience: Best Practices for Calamitous Times, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2009.
[24]
P. Buckle, “Assessing social resilience,” in Disaster Resilience: An Integrated Approach, D. Paton and D. M. Johnston, Eds., pp. 88–103, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, USA, 2006.
[25]
C. Folke, J. Colding, and B. Fikret, “Synthesis: building resilience and adaptive capacity in social-ecological systems,” in Navigating Social-Ecological Systems, F. Berkes, J. Colding, and C. Folke, Eds., pp. 352–387, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2003.
[26]
C. Saavedra and W. W. Budd, “Climate change and environmental planning: working to build community resilience and adaptive capacity in washington state, usa,” Habitat International, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 246–252, 2009.
[27]
P. H. Longstaff and S. U. Yang, “Communication management and trust: their role in building resilience to "surprises" such as natural disasters, pandemic flu, and terrorism,” Ecology and Society, vol. 13, no. 1, article no. 3, 2008.
[28]
R. D. Putnam, “Tuning in, tuning out: the strange disappearance of social capital in America,” Political Science and Politics, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 664–683, 1995.
[29]
W. N. Adger, “Social capital, collective action, and adaptation to climate change,” Economic Geography, vol. 79, no. 4, pp. 387–404, 2003.
[30]
M. Pelling and C. High, “Understanding adaptation: what can social capital offer assessments of adaptive capacity?” Global Environmental Change, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 308–319, 2005.
[31]
E. L. Tompkins and W. N. Adger, “Does adaptive management of natural resources enhance resilience to climate change?” Ecology and Society, vol. 9, no. 2, article no. 10, 2004.
[32]
W. N. Adger, “Social capital and climate change,” Tyndall Centre for Climate Research Working Paper 8., University of East Anglia, UK, 2001, http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/content/social-capital-and-climate-change.
[33]
R. D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, USA, 2000.
[34]
F. Berkes, “Adaptive co-management and complexity: exploring the many faces of co-management,” in Adaptive Co-Management: Collaboration, Learning, and Multi-Level Governance, D. Armitage, F. Berkes, and N. Doubleday, Eds., pp. 19–37, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, Canada, 2007.
[35]
G. P. Kofinas, S. J. Herman, and C. Meek, “Novel problems require novel solutions: Innovation as an outcome of adaptive co-management,” in Adaptive Co-Management: Collaboration, Learning and Multi-Level Governance, D. Armitage, F. Berkes, and N. Doubleday, Eds., pp. 249–267, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, Canada, 2007.
[36]
M. Gadgil, P. Olsson, F. Berkes, and C. Folke, “Exploring the role of local ecological knowledge in ecosystem management: three case studies,” in Navigating Social-Ecological Systems, F. Berkes, J. Colding, and C. Folke, Eds., pp. 189–209, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2003.
[37]
U.S. Census Bureau, “State and county quickfacts,” 2000, http://www.census.gov/.
[38]
International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), “Measuring up: a detailed look at the impressive goals and climate action progress of US cities and counties. Progress and potential in 2009,” http://www.icleiusa.org/.
[39]
P. Mauro, “Corruption and growth,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 681–712, 1995.
[40]
G. I. P. Ottaviano and G. Peri, “The economic value of cultural diversity: evidence from US cities,” Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 9–44, 2006.
