HR: 10:55h
AN: H22B-03 [WITHDRAWN]    [Abstracts]
TI: Effects of Global Change on U.S. Urban Areas: Vulnerabilities, Impacts, and Adaptation
AU: * Quattrochi, D A
EM: dale.quattrochi@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Earth Science Office VP61, Huntsville, AL 35812, United States
AU: Wilbanks, T J
EM: wilbankstj@ornl.gov
AF: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge, TN 37831- 6038, United States
AU: Kirshen, P H
EM: paul.kirshen@tufts.edu
AF: Tufts University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mefford, MA 02156, United States
AU: Romero-Lankao, P
EM: prlankao@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Institute for the Study of Society and Environment, Boulder, CO 80307, United States
AU: Rosenzweig, C E
EM: crosenzweig@giss.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, United States
AU: Ruth, M
EM: mruth1@umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: Solecki, W
AF: Hunter College of the City University of New York, Department of Geography, New York, NY 10021, United States
AU: Tarr, J A
AF: Carnegie Mellon University, Department of History, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
AB: Human settlements, both large and small, are where the vast majority of people on the Earth live. Expansion of cities both in population and areal extent, is a relentless process that will accelerate in the 21st century. As a consequence of urban growth both in the United States and around the globe, it is important to develop an understanding of how urbanization will affect the local and regional environment. Of equal importance, however, is the assessment of how cities will be impacted by the looming prospects of global climate change and climate variability. The potential impacts of climate change and variability has recently been enunciated by the IPCC's "Climate Change 2007" report. Moreover, the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is preparing a series of "Synthesis and Assessment Products" (SAP) reports to support informed discussion and decision making regarding climate change and variability by policy makers, resource managers, stakeholders, the media, and the general public. We are working on a chapter of SAP 4.6 ("Analysis of the Effects of Global Chance on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems") wherein we wish to describe the effects of global climate change on human settlements. This paper will present the thoughts and ideas that are being formulated for our SAP report that relate to what vulnerabilities and impacts will occur, what adaptation responses may take place, and what possible effects on settlement patterns and characteristics will potentially arise, on human settlements in the U.S. as a result of climate change and climate variability. We wish to present these ideas and concepts as a "work in progress" that are subject to several rounds of review, and we invite comments from listeners at this session on the rationale and veracity of our thoughts. Additionally, we wish to explore how technology such as remote sensing data coupled with modeling, can be employed as synthesis tools for deriving insight across a spectrum of impacts (e.g. public health, urban planning for mitigation strategies) on how cities can cope and adapt to climate change and variability. This latter point parallels the concepts and ideas presented in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Decadal Survey report on "Earth Science Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond" wherein the analysis of the impacts of climate change and variability, human health, and land use change are listed as key areas for development of future Earth observing remote sensing systems.
UR: http:www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-6/default.php
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1632 Land cover change
DE: 1640 Remote sensing (1855)
DE: 1807 Climate impacts
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly