Converging on Solutions to Plan Sustainable Cities

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https://eos.org/science-updates/converging-on-solutions-to-plan-sustainable-cities

Source: By Donald Wuebbles, Ashish Sharma, Amy Ando, Lei Zhao, and Carolee Rigsbee, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Climate change will exacerbate the food, energy, water, health, and equity challenges that urban communities face, but cities also have opportunities to improve sustainability and outcomes. ...a recent influx of “smart city” approaches views cities as mechanistic systems composed of discrete components to be optimized individually. However, cities cannot achieve sustainability without a holistic view of the interdependencies among essential human needs (food, energy, and water); constructed urban infrastructure; associated natural systems (air, water, land, ecosystems); and social, political, and legal decisions spanning all relevant scales (individuals, neighborhoods, municipalities, regions, nations). For example, national policy can limit or enhance what is doable within a city. At the local scale, residents of a single neighborhood can delay projects by tying them up in litigation. Inadequate consideration of these interdependencies can thus result in unintended social stresses, especially for the poor.... 

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