Urbanisation in and for the Anthropocene

Elmqvist, T, E. Andersson, T. McPhearson, X. Bai, L. Bettencourt, E. Brondizio, J. Colding, G. Daily, C. Folke, N. Grimm, D. Haase, D. Ospina, S Parnell, S. Polasky, K.C. Seto, and S. van Der Leeuw. 2021. Urbanisation in and for the Anthropocene. npj Urban Sustainability 1(6).

Key insights on needs in urban regional governance – Global urbanization (the increasing concentration in urban settlements of the increasing world population), is a driver and accelerator of shifts in diversity, new cross-scale interactions, decoupling from ecological processes, increasing risk and exposure to shocks. Responding to the challenges of urbanization demands fresh commitments to a city–regional perspective in ways that are explictly embedded in the...

Urbanization, Migration, and Adaptation to Climate Change

Adger, W. N., A.-S. Crépin, C. Folke, D. Ospina, F. S. Chapin III, K. Segerson, K. C. Seto, J. M. Anderies, S. Barrett, E. M. Bennett, G. Daily, T. Elmqvist, J. Fischer, N. Kautsky, S. A. Levin, J. F. Shogren, J. van den Bergh, B. Walker, and J. Wilen. 2020. Urbanization, Migration, and Adaptation to Climate Change. One Earth 3(4): 396-399.

Climate change is reshaping the comparative advantage of regions and hence driving migration flows, principally toward urban areas. Migration has multiple benefits and costs in both origin and destination regions. Coordinated policies that recognize how and why people move can reduce future costs and facilitate adaptation to climate change both within borders and internationally.

Supporting Bottom-Up Human Agency for Adapting to Climate Change

Colding, J., S. Barthel and K. Samuelsson. 2020. Supporting Bottom-Up Human Agency for Adapting to Climate Change. One Earth 3(4): 392-395.

The metric focus of sustainability thinking is at risk of downplaying the role of climate-change adaptation as a strategy complementary to climate-change mitigation. The upcoming 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) needs to explore how adaptation based on human agency could contribute to dealing with climate change.

Applying a Systems Perspective on the Notion of the Smart City

Colding, J. M. Wallhagen, P. Sörqvist, L. Marcus,, K. Hillman, K. Samuelsson and S. Barthel. 2020. Applying a Systems Perspective on the Notion of the Smart City. Smart Cities 3(22).

This paper focuses on the need for a widened definition of the notion of technology within the smart city discourse, with a particular focus on the “built environment”. The first part of the paper describes how current tendencies in urban design and architecture are inclined to prioritize high tech-solutions at the expense of low-tech functionalities and omits that information and communication technology (ICT) contrasts the...

The Incremental Demise of Urban Green Spaces

Colding. J., Å. Gren and S. Barthel. 2020. The Incremental Demise of Urban Green Spaces. Land 9(162).

More precise explanations are needed to better understand why public green spaces are diminishing in cities, leading to the loss of ecosystem services that humans receive from natural systems. This paper is devoted to the incremental change of green spaces—a fate that is largely undetectable by urban residents. The paper elucidates a set of drivers resulting in the subtle loss of urban green spaces and...

Applying seven resilience principles on the Vision of the Digital City

Colding, J. M. Colding and S. Barthel. 2020. Applying seven resilience principles on the Vision of the Digital City. Cities 103:102761.

Enabling Relationships with Nature in Cities

Colding, J. M. Giusti , A. Haga, M. Wallhagen and S. Barthel . 2020. Enabling Relationships with Nature in Cities. Sustainability 12(11): 4394.

Limited exposure to direct nature experiences is a worrying sign of urbanization, particularly for children. Experiencing nature during childhood shapes aspects of a personal relationship with nature, crucial for sustainable decision-making processes in adulthood. Scholars often stress the need to ‘reconnect’ urban dwellers with nature; however, few elaborate on how this can be achieved. Here, we argue that nature reconnection requires urban ecosystems, with a...

Our Future in the Anthropocene Biosphere: Global sustainability and resilient societies

Folke et al. 2020. Beijer Discussion Paper 272: Our Future in the Anthropocene Biosphere: Global sustainability and resilient societies. Beijer Discussion Paper Series.

The corona pandemic has exposed the interconnected, tightly coupled and vulnerable globalised world. This White Paper sets the scientific stage for understanding and responding to such crises for global sustainability and resilient societies. We provide a systemic overview of the current situation; where people and nature are dynamically intertwined and embedded in the biosphere, placing shocks and extreme events as part of this dynamic; where...

Countryside within the City: A Motivating Vision behind Civic Green Area Stewardship in Warsaw, Poland

Sanecka, J., S. Barthel, J. and Colding. 2020. Countryside within the City: A Motivating Vision behind Civic Green Area Stewardship in Warsaw, Poland. Sustainability  12(6):2313.

In the midst of the epoch of the Urban Anthropocene, citizen engagement is an important step on the path of creating local and global sustainability. However, the factors that motivate civic urban dwellers to become voluntary stewards of nature environments inside cities need research. This is an empirical study based on deep interviews and a grounded theory approach focused on the “inner world” of people...

Valuing biodiversity and resilience: An application to pollinator diversity in the Stockholm region

Engström, G., Å. Gren, C.Z. Li, and C. Kiran. 2020. Valuing biodiversity and resilience: An application to pollinator diversity in the Stockholm region. Spatial Economic Analysis 15(3):238-261.

This paper characterizes the value of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience by formalizing a stochastic dynamic bioeconomic model of pollinator diversity under climate changes, with an application to oil rapeseed production in the Stockholm region of Sweden. It studies the optimal provision of semi-natural habitat for two different pollinator bee species: bumble bees and solitary wild bees. It is found that, despite being less effective, solitary...