Abstract
This paper is part of the Green and Blue Space Adaptation for Urban Areas and Eco-towns (GRaBS) project, funded by the EU with the objective of improving the adaptive capacity of towns and cities to the impacts of climate change. The aim of this contribution is to facilitate the inclusion of climate variables into the decision-making processes within the planning, design and operation of the transport system. The aim is to accomplish this through pursuing win-win solutions which both mitigate the future effects of climate change at the global scale, while strengthening the local adaptive capacity of transport systems to cope with the inevitable impacts of changes in climate. The paper further shares the main objective of the GRaBS project, to promote climate-resilient urban development through green and blue infrastructure, largely through enhancing walking and cycling as the most climate-sustainable modes of transport.
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Notes
- 1.
Though it is not determined whether additional deaths occurred in urban settings, it is highly probable, as more than 80% of European population lives in urban areas and because the urban heat island effect is likely to exacerbate the impacts of heatwaves. For additional information, please see the Comptes Rendus Biolgies report (referenced).
- 2.
Price elasticity of demand is a measure used in economics to show the responsiveness, or elasticity, of the percentage change in quantity demanded of a good or service in response to a 1% change in price. Being the ratio between 2%, elasticity is a pure number, therefore without measurement unit. The same concept is also used with variables different from price. In this context an elasticity of 0.068 of road use demand means that an increase of 10% of the monthly mean temperature determines an increase of 0.68% of travelled vehicle-kilometers.
- 3.
The albedo of an object is a measure of how strongly it reflects light from light sources such as the sun. Albedo is defined as the ratio of total-reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation. It is a unitless measure indicative of a surface’s or body’s diffuse reflectivity.
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Inturri, G., Ignaccolo, M. (2011). The Role of Transport in Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts in Urban Areas. In: Otto-Zimmermann, K. (eds) Resilient Cities. Local Sustainability, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0785-6_46
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