Consider the following quote from Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change: “Resilience can be applied to cities. They too need to last, to respond to crisis and adapt in a way that may cause them to change and grow differently; cities require an inner strength, a resolve, as well as a strong physical infrastructure and built environment. (Newman, Beatley, & Boyer, 2009).
This is the question:
Consider the following quote from Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change: “Resilience can be applied to cities. They too need to last, to respond to crisis and adapt in a way that may cause them to change and grow differently; cities require an inner strength, a resolve, as well as a strong physical infrastructure and built environment. (Newman, Beatley, & Boyer, 2009).
For this assignment, choose a U.S. city that you are familiar with or one you would like to learn more about. After choosing a city, write at least 1,000 words, double-spaced, font size 10 to 12, answering the questions below. Before tackling the questions, you may find it helpful to review the Building Resilient Regions website, and specifically its Resilience Capacity Index, which provides data and ranks 361 U.S. metropolitan areas in terms of their resiliency: http://brr.berkeley.edu
Provide a brief introduction about the city and why you chose it.
What, if anything, makes this city vulnerable with regard to climate change?
What might happen to this city in the future if it continues ‘business as usual’ and no steps are taken to increase its resiliency?
How can the city’s built environment be changed to increase its resiliency?
How can the city’s transportation system be modified to increase resiliency?
What might be an effective way to implement a resiliency plan for this city, or improve upon an existing plan?
Feel free to use GIS, photos, maps, or other creative visual images or techniques to illustrate your point.
This is the requirement for revising:
-1 of 2 #4 – This question is asking about the built environment. You are right about education and community involvement, and these are good examples of ways to increase resiliency, but they are not related to the built environment
-1 Grammar
This is my essay:
New York City is a well-known and the largest city in the state of America. New York is a city that is found in a state of New York. According to a census carried out 2014 it indicates that New York has roughly a population of 8,491,079. The United States Census Bureau in its census has listed this city as the city with the highest population. New York has a gradual population increase of 3.86% as compared to a census carried out in 2010. Historically this city began with the settlement of the Dutch in 1609. Choosing this city came as a result of realizing that this city have a very large population compared to other cities. The large population would mean that many activities take place in this city hence a prime suspect of causing climate change.
City state 2014 2010 change 2014 area 2010 area location
| 1 | New York[6] | New York | 8,491,079 | 8,175,133 | +3.86% |
302.6 sq mi 783.8 km2 |
27,012 per sq mi 10,430 km−2 | 40.6643°N 73.9385°W |
Human activities are solely the greatest cause of climatic change. New York City having a very large population. This is purely a clear indication that there are so many human activities that take place in the city. New York City has many industries that operate in it. These industries produces harmful gases that lead to the climatic change. The large population also indicates that there is a very large possibility of huge amounts of waste. Both from the industries and the residential areas. Transportation in this city must comprise of many vehicles meaning that there is so much gas that emitted to the air by the vehicles hence the climate change. These human and government activities makes the city vulnerable to climate change. The government may play a role since it is involved in the provision of essential services like electricity production which is a high contributor to climate change. The congestion in the city also leaves it vulnerable to climate change.
When New York City continues business as usual it is bound to suffer some impacts in future. One effect is that there will be the destruction of the ozone layer exposing the citizens to the dangerous rays of the sun. This would later turn to causing the destruction of crops grown after being exposed too much heat. This is what is commonly known as global warming caused by the emission of gas by the industries. This large population if it will not control the transportation sector then the gas emitted by the vehicles will increase leading to acidic rain which is not favorable for growing crops. If the city does not come up with proper drainage system then this means that waste will be lying everywhere and this will cause a climatic change. The high growth rate in the city indicates that if it will not be controlled everyone might end up living in a city. Having a large population in New York in the future means that there will be an acceleration in all the factors that lead to climatic change. Industries will increase in number as well as human activities and the energy sector. Failure to change business as usual in the city can lead to extreme weather as well as climate change.
The city however can be built to increase resiliency. One strategy is by building awareness. Holding a civic education would be one effective way to increasing resiliency. Encouraging companies as well as individual is a good way. Companies should be notified on the risk of the gases that the industries produced and as well notify them on how to reduce the rate. Another method would be by assessing the vulnerabilities. Businesses should be involved in coming up with a risk assessment to the climate change in the city. This way people will be able to realize the activities to be involved in and those to reduce the rate. Managing risks and pursuing opportunities would also be a good strategies for the companies in New York City. This is because many will opt to be involved in risk assessment and management systems. New York City would also increase the resiliency by encouraging people to move to rural areas. This would curb the problem of congestion. The government could as well levy a charge on those industries found dumping their waste into the water sources.
The city transportation system can be modified to increase resiliency by adopting the use of the electric train. This would be a way to reduce the many public vehicles available in the city. This would in turn reduce the amount of gas emitted by these vehicles. The encouraging of the citizens to use bicycles or walking to work as a form of exercise would be a way to cut the usage of these vehicles. Encouraging the people to use vehicles that use renewable sources of energy would be one great way to reducing gas emission. The city should upgrade the existing infrastructure. Reducing the number of flights would also be a remedy though it would affect the economy. The reduction of flights would mean that there would be less usage of fossil fuels by the airplanes. Water transport could be modified into using ships and boats that does not use coal to be propelled. The government should come up with a policy of the age that a person should be found driving in the city to reduce the high number of vehicles available in the city. The transport sector carries a huge percentage of contributing to the climatic change in this city. Therefore the authority should also burn the use of vehicles that are not roadworthy either for personal use or public means. By upgrading the infrastructure in the city the government would be encouraging the people to opt to using means that favor the creation of a better climate.
An effective way to implement a resiliency plan by first hardening the power grid in the city. This way the power usage will be regulated thus assisting in energy control. This reduces the high energy intensive economic system to a low energy intensive economic system. The city should adopt the urban building strategy. This is a strategy to curb population congestion. The system should always should be easy and understandable to make sure it is implementable. By using these strategies the resiliency plan will be implemented as well as improved.
REFERENCES
Miller, A. (2015, December). Is Peak Oil Dead and What Does It Mean for Climate Change?. In 2015 AGU Fall Meeting. Agu.
Holmgren, D. (2012). Future scenarios: how communities can adapt to peak oil and climate change. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Stocker, T. F. (Ed.). (2014). Climate change 2013: the physical science basis: Working Group I contribution to the Fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press.
Kirtman, B., Power, S. B., Adedoyin, J. A., Boer, G. J., Bojariu, R., Camilloni, I., … & Prather, M. (2013). Near-term climate change: projections and predictability. Climate change, 953-1028.
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