The vulnerability of cities to extreme solar events is an issue of increasing concern, yet relatively few detailed studies of the impacts of these events on cities have been carried out. We present a new policy for a multidisciplinary research framework aimed at coping with extreme solar events in cities. The four interrelated dimensions of the framework include prediction and warning systems; assessment of urban social, economic, and physical vulnerabilities; urban governance; and mitigation and adaptation policies. This framework will help us determine what research policies should be proposed to increase the resilience of our cities.
KeywordsVulnerabilitySever Solar WeatherCityClimate Change
IPCC—Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007) Climate change 2007: 4th assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
UNISDR-International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. (2010) Making cities resilient: My city is getting ready. 2010-2011 World Disaster Reduction Campaign.
Wardekker, J.A., A. de Jong, J.M. Knoop and J.P. van der Sluijs. (2010) Operationalising a resilience approach to adapting an urban delta to uncertain climate changes. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 7, 987- 998. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2009.11.005
Folke, C., Jansson, A., Rockstr?m, J., Olsson, P., Carpenter, S., Chapin, F., Crépin, A.S., Daily, G., Danell K., Ebbesson, J., Elmqvist, T., Galaz, V., Moberg, F., Nilsson, M., Osterblom, H., Ostrom, E., Persson, A., Peterson, G., Polasky, S., Steffen, W., Walker, B. and Westley F. (2011) Reconnecting to the biosphere. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 40, 719-738.
National Research Council. (2008) Severe space weather events—Understanding societal and economic impacts workshop report. Committee on the societal and economic impacts of severe space weather events: A workshop. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12507.html
OFCM—Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology. (2006) Report of the Assessment Committee for the National Space Weather Program, FCM-R24-2006. http://www.ofcm.gov/r24/fcm-r24.htm
Lovett. R. A. (2011) National Geographic News, 2 March 2011.
Mosher. D. (2011) National Geographic News, 8 June 2011.
NOAA—National Weather Service. (2004) Intense space weather storms October 19-November 7, 2003. NOAA, April 2004, Silver Spring, 1.
Davic, R.D. and H. H. Welsh Jr. (2004) On the ecological roles of salamanders. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematic, 35, 405-434. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.35.112202.130116
Gunderson L. and Holling C.S. (2001) Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island Press, Washington DC.
Adger, W.N. (2000) Social and ecological resilience: Are they related? Progress in Human Geography, 24, 347-364. doi:10.1191/030913200701540465
Pelling, M. (2003) The vulnerability of cities: Natural disasters and social resilience. Earthscan, London.
Leichenko, R. (2011) Climate change and urban resilience. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 3 164-168. doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2010.12.014
Dainty, A.R.J. and Bosher, L.S. (2008) Afterword: Integrating resilience into construction practice. In: Bosher, L.S. Ed., Hazards and the Built Environment: Attaining Builtin Resilience, Taylor and Francis, London.
Andersson, E. (2006) Urban landscapes and sustainable cities. Ecology and Society, 11, 34.
Barnett, J. (2001) Adapting to climate change in Pacific Island countries: The problem of uncertainty. World Development, 29, 977-993. doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00022-5
Ernstson, H., van der Leeuw, S., Redman, C., Meffert, D., Davis, G., Alfsen, C. and Elmqvist, T. (2010) Urban transitions: On urban resilience and human-dominated ecosystems. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, in press.
Folke, C., Carpenter, S.R., Walker, B.H., Scheffer, M., Chapin III, F.S. and Rockstro. J. (2010) Resilience thinking: Integrating resilience, adaptability and transformability. Ecology and Society, 15, 20. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art20/.
Folke, C. (2006) Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Global Environmental Change, 16, 253-267. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.04.002
Rose, A. (2004) Defining and measuring economic resilience to disaster. Disaster Prevention and Management, 13, 307-314. doi:10.1108/09653560410556528
Simmie, J. and Martin, R. (2010) The economic resilience of regions: Towards an evolutionary approach. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2010, 27-43.
Pike, A., Dawley, S. and Tomaney, J. (2010) Resilience adaptation and adaptability. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 3, 59-70.
Pendall, R., Foster, K. and Cowel, M. (2010) Resilience and regions: Building understanding of the metaphor. Cambridge Journal of Economic and Society, 3, 71-84.
Cutter, S.L., Boruff, B.J. and Shirley, W.L. (2003) Social vulnerability to environmental hazards. Social Science Quarterly, 84, 242-261. doi:10.1111/1540-6237.8402002
Vale, J.L. and Campanella, T. J. (2005) The resilient city: How modern cities recover from disaster. Oxford University Press, New York.
Coaffee, J. (2009) Terrorism, risk and the global city: Towards urban resilience. Ashgate Publishing, Farnham.
Jabareen, Y. (2009) Building conceptual framework: Philosophy, definitions and procedure. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8, 49-62.
Jabareen, Y. (2008) A new conceptual framework for sustainable development. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10, 197-192.
Jabareen, Y. (2006) Sustainable urban forms: Their typologies, models, and concepts. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 26, 38-52. doi:10.1177/0739456X05285119
Jabareen, Y. (2004) A knowledge map for describing variegated and conflict domains of sustainable development. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 47, 623-642. doi:10.1080/0964056042000243267