Papers by Maria Ruiz de Gopegui
Urban Research & Practice, May 2, 2020
This thesis aims to analyse and understand the Ecosystem Services (ES) flow between the main urba... more This thesis aims to analyse and understand the Ecosystem Services (ES) flow between the main urban and peri-urban green spaces (UGS) and the sociological system through a Supply-Demand perspective in Taunggyi, a medium-sized city in Myanmar, in order to assess potential mismatches and provide valuable information to support future urban planning and management. To this end, three questions were posed: (1) Which are the main green spaces in Taunggyi and how is the ES Supply distributed in the city? (2) Which are the main Ecosystem Services demanded in Taunggyi and how is the ES Demand distributed in the city? (3) How is the Ecosystem Services supply-demand balance distributed in Taunggyi and which factors might influence it? In this study, ES supply indicators aim to estimate the flow of an ES actually used or delivered, while demand indicators measure the level required or desired by the population. The research method was a case study, which employed a mixed method approach with bo...
Urban Research & Practice, 2020
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Jun 15, 2023
Although larger cities seem to be hotspots for adaptation action, more than 50% of larger coastal... more Although larger cities seem to be hotspots for adaptation action, more than 50% of larger coastal cities worldwide do not have plans in place (only 59 cities out of the sample of the 136 largest coastal cities worldwide). There is a need to align adaptation policies with climate risks, this can be informed through two assessment frameworks: the Adaptation-Risk Policy Alignment (ARPA) framework and the Adaptation Policy Credibility (APC) framework. The ARPA framework was tested in four early adapter cities. The pilot showed that the gap between adaptation planning and actual implementation still remains. The APC framework was applied in 59 cities worldwide with adaptation policies and was shown to be useful in providing an overall idea of the likelihood of adaptation policies being delivered and sustained in the future. When looking in detail into M&E frameworks of city plans, only 11 of the 59 cities listed adaptation indicators and metrics and the majority focused on outputs (95%), i.e. what is implemented, rather than outcomes-the objectives to be achieved. Although cities are finding new innovative ways to integrate learning and reflect on outcomes, there remains a persistent disconnect between the production of climate science and the implementation of practical and context-specific adaptation actions. Our new project 'IMAGINE adaptation' (2023-2027) addresses the urgent need to evaluate adaptation in urban areas and understand progress across governance levels. Analysis of policy progress can be a useful first step, but it is not indicative of effective adaptation.
Cities play an important role in identifying climate impacts on population, urbanization and infr... more Cities play an important role in identifying climate impacts on population, urbanization and infrastructure, and in making decisions regarding how, how much and when we should adapt. We present here an analysis of the climatic impacts identified in 11 local climate change adaptation plans which are currently in force in the largest Spanish cities. We categorize these climatic impacts around 7 climatic threats: sea-level rise, storm surges, intense rainfall, rainfall decrease, temperature increase, heatwaves and strong winds. We discuss the results, limitations and opportunities for these types of assessments, and propose improvement areas for both climate impact assessment and local climate change adaptation planning practice.
Environmental Research Letters, 2019
The Paris Agreement requires measurement of the progress made on adaptation. Tracking the progres... more The Paris Agreement requires measurement of the progress made on adaptation. Tracking the progress made by governments through analysis of policies provides insight into the goals and means to achieve adaptation targets. Here we show the current state-of-the-art in public adaptation planning affecting 136 of the largest coastal port urban agglomerations, covering 68 countries. We identify 226 adaptation policies: 88 at national level, 57 at regional/state level and 81 at city/metropolitan level. This set of adaptation policies can be considered the latest, most up-to-date database of governmental and public-led adaptations. Our analyses show that (1) in one half of cases, there is no evidence of policy implementation, (2) in almost 85% of cases, planned adaptation actions are not driven by present or future climatic impacts or risks, and (3) formal adaptation planning is relatively recent and is concentrated in more developed areas and countries.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2021
The assessment of public adaptation policies, strategies and plans to evaluate progress, effectiv... more The assessment of public adaptation policies, strategies and plans to evaluate progress, effectiveness and long-term sustainability is challenging. The potential to develop an ex-post evaluation linked to outcomes is limited given the lack of policy implementation globally and the uncertainty related to when and how impacts will happen. Ex-ante evaluations, by contrast, seem more feasible when they focus on policy processes, contents and outputs. Yet, proxies that indicate credible outcomes need to be carefully selected. In both cases, how adaptation is integrated in local planning processes, and previous experience by governments seem to be crucial. In this paper we perform an ex-ante evaluation of adaptation planning in 59 cities, identified across a set of 136 coastal cities of over 1 million inhabitants located in developed and developing world regions. We assess 3 major areas: policy and economic credibility, science and technical credibility, and legitimacy. Overall, 53 metric...
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Papers by Maria Ruiz de Gopegui