First published 2016
Coastal cities face mounting pressure from climate change and rising seas. Eric W. Sanderson brings together more than fifty scholars and practitioners to examine how urban areas can build resilience against an uncertain future. The team focuses on Jamaica Bay, New York's largest natural area that serves millions of residents while hosting JFK International Airport. Sanderson demonstrates how physical conditions, ecological processes, social goals, human politics, and historical factors all influence a city's ability to withstand environmental challenges. The book presents a framework for understanding resilience in urban watersheds, showing how climate, plant life, and human populations interact within social-ecological systems. The authors identify key tools for building resilient watersheds, from monitoring system indicators to computer modeling, green infrastructure, and decision science methods. They examine how boundary organizations like the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay coordinate resilience efforts. The work provides researchers, urban planners, and students with practical information for creating cities that collaborate with natural systems rather than fighting them.
Genres: science, environment, non-fiction, urban, climate-change, academic
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: social-ecological-systems
Setting: Jamaica Bay, New York
Period: 21st-century
312 pages · Kindle Edition · Island Press