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Green Urbanist - Sustainable Placemaking, Planning and Urban Design
100+ episodes exploring climate action in cities and neighbourhoods.
This show provides actionable advice and case studies on:
- Sustainable urban design and placemaking principles.
- How to design cities and neighbourhoods for biodiversity net gain and wildlife.
- Climate adaptation: How to build resilience to climate change in cities.
- Net zero carbon masterplanning and architecture.
- Circular economy: How to minimise waste and emissions in new development.
- Transport: How to transition cities away to sustainable and active travel.
- Regenerative Design: Delivering positive benefits for the environment and communities.
Who is it for? Urban designers, planners, developers, architects, landscape architects, urban ecologists, engineers, transport professionals and urban citizens.
The Green Urbanist podcast is hosted by Ross O'Ceallaigh, an urban designer and sustainable placemaking consultant.
Green Urbanist - Sustainable Placemaking, Planning and Urban Design
#59: Why cities need Transformational Adaptation and what it could mean for urban ecosystems
Climate change is causing local weather patterns and ecosystems to shift and transform. In order to thrive in this new climate era, we will need to transform our cities and urban ecosystems. This is called 'Transformational Adaptation'.
My co-host today is Giulia Mori and in this episode we discuss:
- What is Transformational Adaptation and why we need it
- How ecosystems are transforming due to climate change
- 2 case studies of transformation and what we can learn from them
- Some thoughts on how we could reimagine urban parks for the future
Key Reference:
Colloff, M.J., Wise, R.M., Palomo, I., Lavorel, S. and Pascual, U. (2020) ‘Nature’s contribution to adaptation: insights from examples of the transformation of social-ecological systems’, Ecosystems and People, 16(1), pp. 137–150. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2020.1754919.
Barcelona Case Study:
Zografos, C., Klause, K.A., Connolly, J.J.T. and Anguelovski, I. (2020) ‘The everyday politics of urban transformational adaptation: Struggles for authority and the Barcelona superblock project’, Cities, 99, p. 102613. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102613
Select bibliography of other relevant papers:
Brown, R.D., Vanos, J., Kenny, N. and Lenzholzer, S. (2015) ‘Designing urban parks that ameliorate the effects of climate change’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 138, pp. 118–131. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.006.
Burley, H., Beaumont, L.J., Ossola, A., Baumgartner, J.B., Gallagher, R., Laffan, S., Esperon-Rodriguez, M., Manea, A. and Leishman, M.R. (2019) ‘Substantial declines in urban tree habitat predicted under climate change’, Science of The Total Environment, 685, pp. 451–462. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.287.
Esperon-Rodriguez, M., Ordoñez, C., van Doorn, N.S., Hirons, A. and Messier, C. (2022) ‘Using climate analogues and vulnerability metrics to inform urban tree species selection in a changing climate: The case for Canadian cities’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 228, p. 104578. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104578.
Gill, S.E., Handley, J.F., Ennos, A.R. and Pauleit, S. (2007) ‘Adapting Cities for Climate Change: The Role of the Green Infrastructure’, Built Environment, 33(1), pp. 115–133. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.33.1.115.
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The Green Urbanist podcast is hosted by Ross O'Ceallaigh.