2020 ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 - 6)

SYMP 24 - A Social-Ecological-Technological systems (SETS) Approach to Advancing Urban Systems Science

Monday, August 3, 2020: 1:00 PM-1:30 PM
Organizer:
Timon McPhearson
Co-organizer:
David M. Iwaniec
Moderator:
David M. Iwaniec
The Anthropocene represents an age of compounded challenges of global urban growth and climate change that threaten the earth system’s sustainability. Though cities are the locus for many sustainability solutions, they are also vulnerable to extreme events like floods, drought, and heat because of their location and concentration of people and infrastructure. Urbanization and climate change are thus on a collision course, and cities need solutions that are affordable and effective in delivering services, including protection from extreme events, while also providing additional synergistic benefits to human well-being. Most approaches to improving resilience are siloed. Technological innovations are the oft-touted solutions to increase the robustness of infrastructure. However, recent extreme events such as Hurricane Harvey (2017) in Houston, Texas, Hurricane Maria (2017) in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Hurricane Sandy (2012) in New York, New York highlight weaknesses and expose the fundamental interdependencies within urban systems. Extreme events often cause cascading and systemic impacts. Decision-makers, designers, engineers, and ecosystem managers need systemic solutions that converge across disciplines and knowledge systems. That is, solutions must converge across social-ecological- technological systems (SETS). This Symposium will discuss advances in developing a convergent urban systems science capable of providing cities with the knowledge and methods for building integrated SETS resilience strategies to extreme events that leverage big data, computational advances, and visualization of urban SETS. We will discuss how the convergence of SETS approaches will allow for transformative change in cities that increases resilience to extreme events and other challenges. Speakers will discuss and provide a basis for further urban ecology research a process that recognizes the relationships between institutions, infrastructure, and the environment, and deploys solutions that leverage aspects of each domain, acknowledging that the urban systems are a complex and dynamic system that should be managed as a single enterprise.
1:00 PM
A SETS approach to understanding social (S) values, visions, and community engagement approaches for urban resilience
Elizabeth M. Cook, Barnard College; Tischa A. Muñoz-Erickson, USDA Forest Service; Marta Berbés-Blázquez, Arizona State University; Nancy Grimm, Arizona State University; Robert Hobbins, Arizona State University; David M. Iwaniec, Georgia State University; Lelani Mannetti, Georgia State University
1:20 PM
A SETS approach to understanding urban ecosystem (E) vulnerability and providing nature-based solutions for urban resilience in cities
Nancy Grimm, Arizona State University; Marta Berbés Blázquez, Arizona State University; Heejun Chang, Portland State University; Elizabeth M. Cook, Barnard College; Stephen R. Elser, Arizona State University; David M. Iwaniec, Georgia State University; Timon McPhearson, The New School; Arun Pallathadka, Portland State University; Jason Sauer, Arizona State University; Tiffany G. Troxler, Florida International University
2:00 PM
A SETS approach to big data, spatial modeling, and data visualization to advance urban systems science for resilience
Timon McPhearson, The New School; Daniel Sauter, The New School; Ahmed Mustafa, The New School; Luis Ortiz, The New School; David M. Iwaniec, Georgia State University; Elizabeth Cook, Barnard College; Tischa A. Munoz-Erickson, USDA Forest Service; Nancy Grimm, Arizona State University
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