Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities: Emerging Approaches and Tools for A Climate-Sensitive Urban Development

Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities: Emerging Approaches and Tools for Climate-Sensitive Urban Development starts with a presentation of three widespread Urban Metaphors, which are gaining increasing attention from urban planners and decision-makers: Smart City, Resilient City and Transition Towns, being all of them focused on the need for enhancing cities’ capacities to cope with the multiple and heterogeneous challenges threatening contemporary cities and their future development and, above all, with climate issues. Then, the Authors provide an overview of current large-scale and urban strategies to counterbalance climate change so far undertaken in different geographical contexts (Europe, United States, China, Africa and Australia), shedding light on the different approaches, on the different weights assigned to mitigation and adaptation issues as well as on the main barriers hindering their effectiveness and translation into measurable outcomes. Opportunities and criticalities arising from the rich, ‘sprawled’ and ‘blurred’ landscape of current strategies and initiatives in the face of climate change pave the way to a discussion on the lessons learnt from current initiatives and provide new hints for developing integrated climate strategies, capable to guide planners and decision makers towards a climate sensitive urban development

Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities: Emerging Approaches and Tools for Climate-Sensitive Urban Development merges a scientific approach with a pragmatic one. Through a case study approach, the Authors explore strengths and weaknesses of institutional and informal practices to foreshadow innovative paths for an adaptive process of urban governance in the face of climate change. The book guides the reader along new governance paths, characterized by continuous learning and close cooperation and communication among different actors and stakeholders and, in so doing, helps them to overcome current ‘siloed’ approaches to climate issues.

Links resilience, smart growth, low-carbon urbanism, climate-friendly cities, sustainable development and transition cities, being all these concepts crucial to improve effective climate policiesIncludes a number of case studies showing how cities, different in size, geographical, cultural and economic contexts are currently dealing with climate issues, grasping synergies and commonalities arising from current institutional practices and transition initiativesProvides strategic and operative guidelines to overcome barriers and critical issues emerging from current practices, promoting cross-sectoral approaches to counterbalance climate change

1. The Smart City Metaphor to Foster Collaborative and Adaptive Decision-Making Processes in the Face of Climate Issues 2. The Resilient City Metaphor to Enhance Cities’ Capabilities in the Face of Complexities and Uncertainties Arising from Current and Future Climate Scenarios 3. The Transition Approach in Urban Innovations: Local Responses to Climate Change 4. Smart, Resilient and Transition Cities: Commonalities, Peculiarities and Hints for Future Approaches 5. European Strategies and Initiatives to Tackle Climate Change: Towards an Integrated Approach 6. The American Approach to Climate Change: A General Overview and a Focus on Northern and Arctic Regions 7. Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiatives in Africa: The Case of the CDKN ‘Working With Informality To Build Resilience In African Cities’ Project 8. Addressing Climate Change in China: Policies and Governance 9. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies in the Face of Climate Change: the Australian Approach 10. European Cities Addressing Climate Change 11. Adaptation and Spatial Planning Responses to Climate Change Impacts in UK: the Case Study of Portsmouth 12. Land-Use Planning and Climate Change Impacts on Coastal Urban Regions: The Cases of Rostock and Riga 13. Importance of Multi-Sector Collaboration in Dealing with Climate Change: The Case of Belgrade 14. Genoa and Climate Change: Policies and Adaptation 15. The Evolution of Flooding Resilience: The Case of Barcelona 16. Athens Facing Climate Change: How Low Perceptions and the Economic Crisis Cancel Institutional Efforts 17. Sustainability of Climate Policy at Local Level: The Case of Gaziantep City 18. Towards Integration: Managing the Divergence between National Climate Change Policies and Urban Planning in Ghana 19. Spatial Planning for Climate Adaptation and Flood Risk: Interpretation of the Sponge City Program in Guangzhou, China 20. Climate Change and Australian Local Governments: Adaptation between Strategic Planning and Challenges in Newcastle (NSW) 21. Transition Initiatives: Three Exploration Paths 22. Transition Towns Network in United Kingdom: The Case of Totnes 23. Transition Towns Network in Italy: The Case of Monteveglio 24. Model for Integrated Urban Disaster Risk Management at the Local Level: Bottom-Up Initiatives of Academics 25. Enhancing Community Resilience in Barcelona: Addressing Climate Change and Social Justice Through Spaces of Co-Management 26. Barriers to Societal Response and a Strategic Action Plan Towards Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Resilience in Turkey 27. Victims or Survivors: Resilience from the Slum Dwellers Perspective in India 28. Bottom-Up Initiatives for Climate Change Mitigation: Transition Cities in Newcastle 29. Integrated knowledge in climate change adaptation and risk mitigation to support planning for reconstruction 30. Boundaries, Overlaps and Conflicts between DRR and Adaptation to CC: Are there Prospects of Integration? 31. The Contribution of  Economic Thinking to Innovate Disaster Risk Reduction Policies and Action 32. Flood Resilient Districts: Integrating Expert and Community Knowledge in Genoa 33. Drawing Lessons from Experience 34. Future Perspectives: Key Principles for a Climate Sensitive Urban Development