The negative impacts of natural hazards on communities at all scales have been increasing.Floods comprise one such natural hazard that has emerged as one of the most destructive in the US and worldwide.While a lot of ...The negative impacts of natural hazards on communities at all scales have been increasing.Floods comprise one such natural hazard that has emerged as one of the most destructive in the US and worldwide.While a lot of damage is estimated in terms of the cost of rebuilding infrastructure and direct loss of economy,the negative impacts of such disruptions go beyond the physical infrastructure.The impact on(and of)the social and institutional framework is rarely examined in conjunction with the physical and technical aspects.This paper examines flood vulnerability and risk of a community at an intersection of social,ecological,technical,and intuitional perspectives,and presents a framework for a holistic flood vulnerability and risk assessment that has a strong foundation in all four aspects of a resilient community.The study builds on the existing risk,vulnerability,and hazard assessment approaches,and refines them with a holistic perspective.The study uses a mixed method approach with qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess flood occurrence probabilities,vulnerability,and risk from the social,ecological,technical,and institutional perspectives.A case study of the City of Atlanta is conducted using the framework to assess the overall vulnerability and risk of the city.The results of this analysis show that the regions that have the highest probability of flood hazard occurrence also appear to have the highest social,ecological,and technical vulnerabilities in the Atlanta area.While the results are intuitive,the applications support a focus on holistic resilience building across these four criteria.This study is potentially useful to practitioners,researchers,government agencies,and community organizations working to mitigate flood risk particularly as this risk continues to evolve with the changing climate.展开更多
We investigated the potential impacts of climate change on water-related ecosystem services(WES).Based on the review of the recent literature,we concluded that climate change will have substantial effects on provision...We investigated the potential impacts of climate change on water-related ecosystem services(WES).Based on the review of the recent literature,we concluded that climate change will have substantial effects on provisioning,regulating,and cultural WES via changes in the distribution and value of water over space and time.However,the effects of climate change on specific WES will be different depending on the extent of the impact of such changes in the distribution of water and the adaptive capacity of the region’s biophysical and social system.The 2015 California drought provides an excellent example of the cascading effects of climate change on multiple WES.Declining streamflow and the concomitant rising stream temperatures have immediately threatened the provision of drinking water and hydropower generation and threatened the health of ecosystems that rely on water.The secondary effects of drought on WES are widespread across different water-dependent industries,including water-based recreation.The findings of our study also show that the impacts of climate change will differ by location,suggesting a need for a place-based flexible climate adaptation strategy.We also suggest that future research directions include the examination of:(1)the multiple cascading effects of climate change on potential synergies and tradeoffs among different WES,(2)the specific effects of changing climate and the connectivity of WES from upstream to downstream WES users,(3)the changing value of WES over space and time under changing climates,and(4)the effectiveness of various climate adaptation measures on the whole suite of WES。展开更多
文摘The negative impacts of natural hazards on communities at all scales have been increasing.Floods comprise one such natural hazard that has emerged as one of the most destructive in the US and worldwide.While a lot of damage is estimated in terms of the cost of rebuilding infrastructure and direct loss of economy,the negative impacts of such disruptions go beyond the physical infrastructure.The impact on(and of)the social and institutional framework is rarely examined in conjunction with the physical and technical aspects.This paper examines flood vulnerability and risk of a community at an intersection of social,ecological,technical,and intuitional perspectives,and presents a framework for a holistic flood vulnerability and risk assessment that has a strong foundation in all four aspects of a resilient community.The study builds on the existing risk,vulnerability,and hazard assessment approaches,and refines them with a holistic perspective.The study uses a mixed method approach with qualitative and quantitative methodologies to assess flood occurrence probabilities,vulnerability,and risk from the social,ecological,technical,and institutional perspectives.A case study of the City of Atlanta is conducted using the framework to assess the overall vulnerability and risk of the city.The results of this analysis show that the regions that have the highest probability of flood hazard occurrence also appear to have the highest social,ecological,and technical vulnerabilities in the Atlanta area.While the results are intuitive,the applications support a focus on holistic resilience building across these four criteria.This study is potentially useful to practitioners,researchers,government agencies,and community organizations working to mitigate flood risk particularly as this risk continues to evolve with the changing climate.
基金This research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation grants no.1026629:Spatial Analysis of ecosystem services Shifts Caused by Climate Change and Land Conversion in the Metropolitan Fringe and no.0966376:Sustaining Ecosystem Services to Support Rapidly Urbanizing Areas.
文摘We investigated the potential impacts of climate change on water-related ecosystem services(WES).Based on the review of the recent literature,we concluded that climate change will have substantial effects on provisioning,regulating,and cultural WES via changes in the distribution and value of water over space and time.However,the effects of climate change on specific WES will be different depending on the extent of the impact of such changes in the distribution of water and the adaptive capacity of the region’s biophysical and social system.The 2015 California drought provides an excellent example of the cascading effects of climate change on multiple WES.Declining streamflow and the concomitant rising stream temperatures have immediately threatened the provision of drinking water and hydropower generation and threatened the health of ecosystems that rely on water.The secondary effects of drought on WES are widespread across different water-dependent industries,including water-based recreation.The findings of our study also show that the impacts of climate change will differ by location,suggesting a need for a place-based flexible climate adaptation strategy.We also suggest that future research directions include the examination of:(1)the multiple cascading effects of climate change on potential synergies and tradeoffs among different WES,(2)the specific effects of changing climate and the connectivity of WES from upstream to downstream WES users,(3)the changing value of WES over space and time under changing climates,and(4)the effectiveness of various climate adaptation measures on the whole suite of WES。
