CLIMATE CHANGE & CITY PLANNING: PLANNING FOR A BETTER, CLEANER FUTURE? – A GLOBAL STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEA)
The presentation focuses the potential for using SEA principles in coordinating an international response to the global challenges arising from resource depletion, population growth, climate change, biodiversity loss, human injustice and inequalities, technological change and the failures of national leadership and international decision-making. See planninggreenfutures.org
SPEAKER
Peter Nelson (3:02) is Project Lead for Planning Green Futures.Org. He has over 40 years of experience in impact assessment and planning, including applying Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in Water, Minerals, Planning, Forestry, Natural Resource Conservation in Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Montenegro and Sierra Leone. He also has years of experience in regional planning, design and assessment in Scotland. He holds a Diploma in Town and Regional Planning from the University of Leeds (1976), the University of Salford, MSc, Environmental Conservation (1969), and the University of Cambridge, BA Physical Geography (1968).
MITIGATING LONG-TERM CUMULATIVE IMPACTS
We face a Global Predicament– how do we reverse the impacts of potentially catastrophic changes to the biosphere resulting from our species activities? What does the baseline look like? Why is important to look at the trends in Urban Megagrowth to 2050 and beyond? How do we mitigate against long-term Cumulative Impacts? How do we select among Mitigation Alternatives for 2050 ‘STRONG’ sustainability in City Development Strategies? What steps are needed to Improve the City Development Strategy (CDS) process through Strategic Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (E/SIA) and Cumulative Effects Sustainability Analysis. Reasons for optimism: emergent conditions driving rapid social and economic change.
SPEAKER
Weston A. Fisher (11:19) has over 30 years’ experience as an IA practitioner and capacity development professional in less-developed countries, including time living in Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Botswana and Lesotho. He has been a trainer/facilitator in EIA in 21 countries. He joined the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) in 2002. He was a key organizer of two IAIA Climate Change symposia at the World Bank and Aalborg, Denmark in 2010. He received IAIA’s Outstanding Service Award in 2014 and 2022 and has served as Co-chair of the IAIA’s Climate Change Section since 2011. He was instrumental in the development of IAIA’s Climate Change Action Plan and currently oversees its implementation. He holds a Master of Science in geology and Bachelor’s in biology from Stanford University.
CLIMATE CHANGE & CITY PLANNING – PLANNING ISSUES
A closer examination of current cumulative urban environmental and social impacts with examples from Sierra Leone.
SPEAKER
Peter Nelson (44:48) is Project Lead for Planning Green Futures.Org. He has over 40 years of experience in impact assessment and planning, including applying Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in Water, Minerals, Planning, Forestry, Natural Resource Conservation in Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Montenegro and Sierra Leone. He also has years of experience in regional planning, design and assessment in Scotland. He holds a Diploma in Town and Regional Planning from the University of Leeds (1976), the University of Salford, MSc, Environmental Conservation (1969), and the University of Cambridge, BA Physical Geography (1968).
MODERATOR
Heather M. H. Goldstone of Woodwell Climate Change Research Center. Heather is a science communicator working to put climate science in the hands of those in a position to make real-world change. She holds a Ph.D. in ocean science from M.I.T. and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and she brings to her work a decade of experience in research and another decade in journalism. She is an award-winning journalist who founded and hosted Living Lab Radio on Boston Public Radio, a weekly live-interview show about science and society, and also hosted Climatide, a US National Public Radio blog exploring the impacts of climate change on coastal communities. Her research has been featured on: