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  • Sea level rise induced impacts on coastal areas of Bangladesh and local-led community-based adaptation
    Publication . Roy, Bishwajit; Penha-Lopes, Gil; Uddin, M. Salim; Kabir, Md Humayain; Lourenço, Tiago Capela; Torrejano, Alexandre
    Bangladesh is as a low-lying country, susceptible to various Sea Level Rise (SLR) induced impacts. Previous studies have separately explored SLR effects on Bangladesh’s coastal ecosystems and livelihoods, across multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, empirical studies acknowl- edging local population’s perceptions on the causal factors to different SLR induced physio- graphic impacts, their effects at societal scale and ongoing adaptation to these impacts of SLR have not been able to establish a causal-linkage relationship between these impacts and their potential effects. Our study explores how SLR has already impacted the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities in Bangladesh and how these have been responded by adopting different adaptative measures. We applied a qualitative community-based multistage sampling procedure, using two Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools, namely Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Community Meetings (CM), to collect empirical data about SLR effects on livelihoods and implemented adaptation responses. Our study found that both man-made and natural causes are responsible for different physiographic impacts of SLR, and which seem to vary between place and context. Five major SLR induced impacts were identified by coastal communities, namely: salinity increase, rising water levels, land erosion, waterlogging and the emergence of char land. Salinity increase and land erosion are the two most severe impacts of SLR resulting in the largest economic losses to agriculture. Our results highlight how coastal communities in Bangladesh perceive the impacts of SLR and the benefits of different adaptation processes set in motion to protect them, via development projects and other local interventions.
  • Framing the application of Adaptation Pathways for agroforestry in Mediterranean drylands
    Publication . Vizinho, André; Avelar, David; Fonseca, Ana Lúcia; Carvalho, S.C.P.; Sucena-Paiva, Leonor; Pinho, Pedro; Nunes, Alice; Branquinho, Cristina; Vasconcelos, Ana Cátia; Santos, Filipe; Roxo, M. J.; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    Adaptation Pathways is a decision support tool designed to create adaptation policies under different climate change scenarios. This tool has been used successfully in several sectors and contexts such as coastal and river adaptation, urban heat waves, floods and rural livelihoods but its use in natural resource management, has faced several challenges and limitations. In the sector of agroforestry its use has seldom been done or documented and one of the reasons for this may due to some of its specific challenges. In this study, these challenges were addressed when using the Adaptation Pathways for the adaptation planning of three case studies in the semi-arid Alentejo region, a Mediterranean dryland of southern Portugal. This tool was integrated in a participatory approach combined with the Scenario Workshop method, to plan the adaptation of the agriculture and forestry sector of one municipality (Mértola) and two agroforestry farms (221 ha and 1000 ha). The methodology included, for each case study, 20 interviews, two workshops, literature review, expert analysis and the use of indicators of efficacy of adaptation measures, to define tipping points. The adaptation process and the resulting adaptation plans were evaluated by questionnaire and expert review. This combination of methods has supported the choice of effective adaptation measures for the case studies and when combined with several adaptation pathways and a landscape approach it supported the creation of integrated climate change adaptation plans that are now in implementation. We discuss how this combination of methods deals with limitation to Adaptation Pathways identified in the literature, conclude that the method was able to create adaptation plans that are now under implementation and present avenues for future research.
  • Towards a necessary regenerative urban planning. Insights from community-led initiatives for ecocity transformation
    Publication . Crowley, Duncan; Marat-Mendes, Teresa; Falanga, Roberto; Henfrey, Thomas; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    This article suggests that to adequately tackle climate breakdown, urban planning needs to move beyond sustainability to incorporate regenerative development frameworks. Key to this is activating and increasing citizen participation in a fractallike, multi scaled, community-led, bottom up planning process, where active citizens design, construct and are part of the futures they desire for their territories. 2019’s declarations of climate emergency show that decades of sustainable development have not worked. The Sustainable Development Goals are a positive step, but sustainability’s dependence on economic growth is problematic. Recognising Earth’s limits, this article builds on degrowth ideas and doughnut economic frameworks to examine the role of community-led urban transitions in catalysing a regenerative world, where ecocities are the normative goal of contemporary cities. Challenges in scaling the Global Ecovillage Network’s process to large cities are identified and some radical governance experiments examined. Attempting to bridge activism and academia, a transdisciplinary participative action research method is used to develop a Communities of Practice ecosystem to support an eco-social just transition. This work contributes to the European Network for Community-Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability, ECOLISE, the Horizon 2020 project UrbanA investigating Sustainable and Just Cities, and the Communities for Future action platform enabling translocal communities to connect, co-create a knowledge commons and help shape policy. Insights from Lisbon are examined with three community-led initiatives; Bela Flor, Ajuda and Marvila. These processes are still at the margins, but could soon become core activities of regenerative urban planning. Re-Making our cities is everyone’s business.
  • Using TanDEM-X Global DEM to Map Coastal Flooding Exposure under Sea-Level Rise: Application to Guinea-Bissau
    Publication . Fandé, Morto Baiém; Ponte Lira, Cristina; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    The increased exposure to coastal flooding in low-lying coastal areas is one of the consequences of sea-level rise (SLR) induced by climate changes. The coastal zone of Guinea-Bissau contains significant areas of low elevation and is home to most of the population and economic activity, making it already vulnerable to coastal flooding, especially during spring tides and storm surges (SS). Coastal flooding will tend to intensify with the expected SLR in the coming decades. This study aimed at quantifying and mapping the area exposed to the coastal flooding hazard using SLR scenarios by the years 2041, 2083, and 2100. The study analyzes and discusses the application of a the simple “bathtub” model coupled with a high-precision global digital elevation models (TanDEM-X DEM) to areas where no other data are available. Therefore, three coastal hazards hot-spots of Guinea-Bissau: Bissau, Bubaque, and Suzana, were used as case study. At each site, the area potentially exposed to coastal flooding was evaluated in a geographic information systems (GIS) environment, by estimating the Total Water Levels for each SLR scenario. For all areas, land exposed to coastal flooding hazard increases significantly and progressively with increasing SLR scenarios. Bissau and Suzana, where housing, infrastructure, and agricultural land are low-lying, presented the greatest flood exposure, while Bubaque, where housing and infrastructure are located in relatively high-lying land and rain-fed agriculture is practiced, present lesser flood exposure. The methodology presented is simple to use but powerful in identifying potentially vulnerable places to coastal flooding hazard, and its results can aid low developed countries to assess their exposure to coastal risks, thus supporting risk awareness and mitigation measures.
  • Ecosystem Based Adaptation: Concept and Terminology in Strategic Adaptation Planning (Municipal and Inter-Municipal) in Portugal
    Publication . Cousiño, Ana; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a nature-based solution that has gained importance in the context of international climate policy, such as in the EU Adaptation Strategy (2013), which explicitly encourages its adoption and which should continue in The European Green Deal. This study aims to analyze how the EbA concept has been adopted in strategic adaptation planning at the municipal and intermunicipal levels in Portugal after the publication of the European adaptation strategy in 2013. Thus, a quantitative content analysis was carried out, based on EbA keywords, of municipal strategies and intermunicipal plans in Portugal. The term “ecosystem-based” has not been transposed as an explicit objective at the municipal and intermunicipal levels. All strategies and plans have included indirect references to the underlying elements of the EbA concept. This study highlights that although the EU Adaptation Strategy explicitly encourages EbA, this does not mean that it is adopted as a preferred adaptation approach at the local level in Portugal. The EbA seems to be more widely understood by the research community than by municipal technicians or private companies. It is necessary to explore how the EbA concept can be more widely accepted through the generation of co-benefits and by synergies between topics.
  • Climate action: is coronavirus what we have been waiting for? (and now what?)
    Publication . Macedo, Pedro; Santos, F.D.; Pedersen, Jiesper Strandsbjerg Tristan; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    In the beginning of 2020, it looked like serious climate action was finally going to take place after decades of procrastination, but we are now inevitably leaving the transformation path. Abruptly (and remarkably), the coronavirus outbreak silenced ongoing efforts to protect climate, while also partly bringing carbon emissions to a halt. A global tragedy is still unfolding with vast social impacts and we are reaching a roundabout with several distinct exits. While embracing the uncertainty of current times, we try to envision likely transition pathways using the multi-level perspective. Climate activists, social innovators, dreamers, and networkers are expected to gain momentum and play critical roles in a sequence of co-evolutionary waves leading to a just, conscious, and regenerative recovery.
  • Using and Creating Microclimates for Cork Oak Adaptation to Climate Change
    Publication . Vizinho, André; Príncipe, Adriana; Vasconcelos, Ana Cátia; Rebelo, Rui; Branquinho, Cristina; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    In Mediterranean climate regions, climate change is increasing aridity and contributing to the mortality rate of Quercus suber, reducing the success of reforestation efforts. Using and creating microclimates is a recommended climate adaptation strategy that needs research. Our hypothesis is that planting Q. suber in north-facing slopes and water lines results in a higher survival rate than those that are planted in ridges and south-facing slopes. Secondly, our hypothesis is that existing shrubs (in this case, Cistus ladanifer) can be used to create microclimatic sheltering and increase the survival of Q. suber plantations. In experiment 1, we tested the survival of Q. suber plantations in four different topographic conditions. For that, 80 Q. suber plants were planted over four different topographic conditions, where soil probes were installed to monitor soil moisture and temperature. Two years after, the results show an increased survival rate in the north-facing slope and water line when compared to the ridge area (p = 0.032). In experiment 2, we tested if planting in the shade of rows of C. ladanifer increases the survival rate of Q. suber plantations. For that, 1200 Q. suber plants were planted; 600 in a Montado open area with no shade and 600 under the shade of rows of C. ladanifer shrubs. A total of 17 months after plantation, there was a significantly higher survival rate of the shaded plants (p = 0.027). We conclude that microclimates created by topography and shrubs can have a significant impact on the survival of Q. suber plantations and discuss the situations in which these can apply.
  • O caso ClimAdaPT.Local: capacitação e ação climática em Portugal
    Publication . Guerra, João; Schmidt, Luísa; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    Numa época em que as alterações climáticas ganharam relevância e causaram níveis de apreensão social sem precedentes, o objetivo do projeto ClimAdaPT.Local valorizou a integração da dimensão climática nos processos municipais de planeamento. Com base num inquérito por questionário aplicado em três rondas consecutivas, este artigo centra-se nas respostas de um grupo de técnicos municipais que, em conjunto com a equipa promotora do projeto, desenvolveu Estratégias Municipais de Adaptação às Alterações Climáticas. Com foco principal na evolução dos respondentes, no que diz respeito à aquisição de conhecimentos e à mobilização e capacitação ao longo do desenvolvimento do projeto, as principais conclusões serão aqui apresentadas.
  • Learnings from Local Collaborative Transformations: Setting a Basis for a Sustainability Framework
    Publication . Macedo, Pedro; Huertas, Ana; Bottone, Cristiano; del Río, Juan; Hillary, Nicola; Brazzini, Tommaso; Wittmayer, Julia M.; Penha-Lopes, Gil
    The complexity of the sustainability challenge demands for collaboration between different actors, be they governments, businesses, or grassroots movements, at all levels. Nevertheless, and according to previous research, many tensions and obstacles to partnership still exist and results are far from meaningful. By investigating potential synergies, our purpose is to define a sustainability framework to promote better collaboration between community-based initiatives and local governments, in the context of transformation. Specifically, the research aim presented in this paper is to harvest learnings from existing collaborative experiments at the municipal level. As a starting point and using exploratory literature review concerning areas like policy (e.g., public administration) or business and management research, we propose a ‘Compass for Collaborative Transformation’. This heuristic device can support the study of these sustainability experiments. We also introduce a method to map the governance imprint of these collaborations and to provide a ‘proxy’ of transformative efforts. We then present and discuss results from 71 surveyed cases happening in 16 countries in America and Europe, comparing distinctive frameworks involved. Finally, we consider the preconditions of a framework to improve these local collaborations—namely the capacity to support joint navigation through transformative efforts, facing high levels of uncertainty and complexity—and present ongoing efforts to codesign a new sustainability framework.
  • Rethinking the sustainable development goals: Learning with and from community‐led initiatives
    Publication . Henfrey, Tom; Feola, Giuseppe; Penha-Lopes, Gil; Sekulova, Filka; Esteves, Ana Margarida
    This paper explores the actual and potential contributions of community-led initiatives (CLIs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As examples of self-determined practical action for sustainability and social justice, CLIs prefigure many of the intended outcomes of the SDGs. Existing evidence shows that CLIs are already contributing, at local scale, to almost all of the SDGs, and achieving particular success in bringing different goals into synergy. However, these achievements are based on ethics, guiding philosophies, issue framings, practical goals and ways of organising that differ significantly from those behind the formulation and delivery of the SDGs. Embracing those differences, and with them greater plurality and ongoing critical self-reflection, would allow the SDGs to transcend certain self-limiting contradictions, particularly concerning the role of economic growth. Such a shift in orientation is essential if the SDGs are to move from reinforcing to challenging the root causes of unsustainability and injustice.