Project Details
Projekt
Transformation and resilience on urban coasts
Applicant
Professor Dr.-Ing. Joern Birkmann
Subject Area
Human Geography
Term
from 2013 to 2017
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 240618690
The Transformation and Resilience on Urban Coasts (TRUC) project is transdisciplinary in scope, policy facing in orientation and global in ambition. In a world where risk related to environmental and anthropogenic hazards is increasingly associated with cities, and cities increasingly growing on the coast, TRUC is focussed on the relationships between development, risk, resilience and transformation in six coastal megacities: Kolkata, Lagos, London, New York, Shanghai and Tokyo. TRUC will build an original, integrated, participatory framework in collaboration with stakeholders to first characterise and then identify interactions between bio-physical, land-use and decisionmaking processes. The aim is to reveal the pathways and trade-offs through which systems interactions constrain or open opportunities for resilience or transformation and how these outcomes themselves interact and influence sustainable development; offering scope for considerable theoretical, methodological and practical advancement.TRUC meets the need for more integrated science to inform policy by combining an urban biophysical model (SUEWS) with an adjustment of the WorldRiskIndex (WRI) -- both internationally established methods developed by consortium PIs -- in order to achieve future-oriented assessments and to generate transformation scenarios. This adds considerable value to past investments as well as offering substantial research gains over a relatively short period. Research will have neighbourhood level resolution and be city-wide. Flexibility is built into the modelling and analysis process to accommodate divergent data and stakeholder availability. Local teams will head-up data acquisition and liaise with stakeholders to help frame local questions and ensure effective dissemination. Research will feed into international scientific discussion on development pathways and scenarios within the IPCC, AR5 (three consortium members are authors in AR5). The project will be a flagship research for the IGBP-IHDP project Land Ocean Interaction on the Coastal Zone with three scientific steering committee members included.The project takes advantage of the international and interdisciplinary mission of BELMONT to bring together senior principal investigators (PI) with international expertise in coastal processes (Agboola, Yamamoto) and geomorphology (Chen), urban climatology (Grimmond), urban planning, vulnerability and adaptation assessment (Birkmann, Pelling, Solecki) and coastal zone management (Ramachandran). All PIs have track records in interdisciplinary research and have collaborated with one another in past and current projects. They bring high levels of expertise and substantial stakeholder networks from which TRUC will build, allowing the project to focus on strategic advancement and scientific integration. This is a rare opportunity and generates considerable value added for past research council investments.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
India, Japan, United Kingdom, USA
