Are smart cities global cities? A European perspective

Typical of the 1990s, the global cities phenomenon preceded the past decade’s massive spread of smart cities. Yet the question of how the two phenomena currently coincide remains to be considered, as well as an analysis based on viewing smart cities as global cities. An analysis related to the European scenario is developed in this article, aimed at giving a response to the previous considerations. An index is also proposed; concerning the global character of the cities, it considers the ability of the cities to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Results of the proposed analysis show that in Europe four main scenarios exist. Two regarding positive and negative correlations between the diffusion of global and smart cities, and another two scenarios demonstrate cases in which the two features are not correlated. The first two cases are respectively related to smart cities that are also global cities. The last two cases deal with the presence of different drivers that are not related to smart urban plans, which could, however, drive the attraction of FDI or which could also promote smart actions without the thrust of FDI. Correlation and regression analyses complement the work.     

Multiple land use planning for living places and investments spaces

Planning is assessed not only based on its ability to improve the living environment through place making, but also based on its role in facilitating investments in the built environment. This paper approaches the combination of these functions as planning for multiple land use. Contracts, rather than plans, are used to bridge these functions. This concept of multiple land use is used to reflect on the contributions in this special issue on regulation of private sector involvement and property market dynamics in urban development. Questions for further research are raised based on the concepts of legitimacy, effectiveness and efficiency. These questions can also be used to assess current planning practice in which private sector investment and place making are combined.     

Climate change resilience in the Canadian Arctic: The need for collaboration in the face of a changing landscape

Human-induced changes to global climate have become increasingly difficult to ignore in recent years. As the frequency and severity of extreme weather events increases, the impacts on both natural and human systems are becoming difficult to manage with the current policies. In Canada, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change is the Arctic, where temperatures are rising at a rate two to three times that of the global average. Warmer seasonal temperatures have led to melting permafrost and increased variability in sea ice conditions, which has contributed to a rise in coastal erosion. The ongoing resilience of Arctic communities will depend heavily on their ability to implement successful long-term adaptation policies. The development and implementation of any action on climate change adaptation should involve collaboration with local stakeholders in order to reflect the views and experience of those living in the Arctic.     

The Role of Pilot Projects in Urban Climate Change Policy Innovation

Cities are taking a leadership role in addressing global climate change and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but policy innovations are needed to help cities move from goals to outcomes. Pilot projects are one means by which cities are experimenting with new ways of governing and financing climate change mitigation. In this paper, we develop a framework for understanding the role of pilot projects in urban policy innovation: their emergence and rationale, and the means by which they ultimately scale up and out to reduce GHG emissions. We use this framework to evaluate a pilot project for retrofitting social housing buildings in Toronto. We find the initial pilot project helped address the challenges of pursuing deep retrofits of social housing. Scaling these lessons up to the city level required overcoming challenges to financing and coordinating a larger project; scaling out to the provincial level revealed institutional and political obstacles to pursuing the co-benefits of deep building retrofits in social housing. Bridging agents play an important role in both scaling processes. The analysis reveals the additive nature of urban policy innovation and the dynamic interplay of change agents and institutional and political context in innovation processes.     

Arctic archaeological sites threatened by climate change: A regional multi-threat assessment of sites in south-west Greenland

Climate change threatens many well-preserved archaeological sites in the Arctic. The paper presents the first Arctic multi-threat assessment focusing on the Nuuk region of Greenland. The results suggest that the majority of the 336 known archaeological sites are already exposed to impacts from microbial degradation, permafrost thaw and vegetation, and that these impacts will increase over the next 80 years. Additional impacts from coastal erosion are only noted at a limited number of sites due to a predominant consolidated and uplifting coast. The applied methods represent an important first step to identify threatened sites and emphasize important data limitations.     

Transnational turns for archaeological heritage: From conservation to development,governments to governance

National sentiments have historically overwhelmed global ones in the modern era. Archaeology was born in the service of the nation-state, as a technical means for engaging with the past within a specific calculus of territory, sovereignty, and nationhood. Significant shifts are currently underway, however, towards transnational modes and mechanisms of governance that have arisen in the wake of international dysfunction and neoliberal reforms. Within this emerging field of action it is development, rather than conservation, that shapes the diverse work of archaeological practice in the world. Transnational sociopolitical contexts for archaeological practice most visibly gained traction with multilateral development banks’ turn to heritage development in the 1990s, built around the tenets of participation, capacity-building, and sustainability. From these roots a second generation of concerns has emerged—transnational communities, heritage rights, and global climate change—for archaeological practice attuned to a “politics of engagement” (Mullins 2011 Mullins, P. R. 2011. “Practicing Anthropology and the Politics of Engagement: 2010 Year in Review,” American Anthropologist 113(2): 235–245. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01327.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in a transnational key.     

Gender and food security in Bangladesh: the impact of climate change

Food security remains a critical global issue, made more difficult because of the rising world population, climate challenges affecting food production and a focus on market-based solutions that undermine subsistence production in vulnerable rural areas. Particularly affected are countries across Asia where poverty, hunger and malnourishment affect a significant proportion of the population. Drawing on Sen’s entitlement theory, we argue that a shift in focus from national food production to intra-household food access enables a critical reflection on consumption smoothing strategies adopted at this level. In particular, we draw attention to the tendency for women and girls to eat less as an intra-household adaptation strategy. We present findings from our research in rural areas of Bangladesh and note that adaptation strategies adopted by households in response to food insecurity. We note that strategies designed to address food insecurity must include gender mainstreaming to ensure that women and girls are not taking a disproportionate responsibility for intra-household food security.     

Mining,morality and the obligations of fossil fuel exporting countries

In this article I argue that countries exporting fossil fuels, such as Australia, have an obligation to bear some of the costs of the harms caused by the use of those fuels. I argue that there is an analogy between other harmful exports – medical waste, tobacco, unsafe jobs, uranium – and fossil fuels. If this is the case, then current methods for allocating emissions and responsibilities for their harms are inadequate and more complex than they appear. I consider several counter-arguments to this claim, such as that it does not recognise the benefits of coal and that exporters are not really responsible. Finally, I consider some of the consequences of this argument and claim that Australia and other fossil fuel exporters ought to have a higher ‘carbon budget’ if this argument is true and that exporters ought to bear a higher share of the costs of climate harms.     

The Influence of Indoor Climate Control on Risk for Damages in Naturally Ventilated Historic Churches in Cold Climate

This article analyzes the indoor climate that creates risk of damages in naturally ventilated churches in the cold climate of Estonia. Indoor temperature and humidity were measured over a one-year period and the results were analyzed on the basis of damage functions: mold growth, risk of cracking and fracturing of wooden objects, and delamination of the gesso layer of panel paintings.

In unheated churches, one of the most dominant problems was very high relative humidity throughout the year, creating a high risk for mold and algae growth. Churches may need background heating to avoid freezing during a long cold winter that causes low surface temperatures of massive walls during the spring–summer period. It was found that mold risk was significantly lower in heated churches than in unheated or intermittently heated churches. The risk of mold growth was not decreased by the use of intermittent heating.

In heated churches, overheating (room temperature >+10ºC) causes a RH below 50% during cold periods, and the favorable period for irreversible response of panel paintings was significantly longer, so there is a higher risk that the gesso may crack or delaminate. From the point of view of the cracking and fracturing of wood, indoor climate conditions are in the safe range for most of the year.