Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments
The design of adaptation strategies that promote urban health and well-being in the face of climate change requires an understanding of the feedback interactions that take place between the dynamical state of a city, the health of its people, and the state of the planet. Complexity, contingency and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37884 |
| _version_ | 1848755170010202112 |
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| author | Proust, Katrina Newell, B. Brown, Helen Capon, A. Browne, C. Burton, A. Dixon, J. Mu, L. Zarafu, M. |
| author_facet | Proust, Katrina Newell, B. Brown, Helen Capon, A. Browne, C. Burton, A. Dixon, J. Mu, L. Zarafu, M. |
| author_sort | Proust, Katrina |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The design of adaptation strategies that promote urban health and well-being in the face of climate change requires an understanding of the feedback interactions that take place between the dynamical state of a city, the health of its people, and the state of the planet. Complexity, contingency and uncertainty combine to impede the growth of such systemic understandings. In this paper we suggest that the collaborative development of conceptual models can help a group to identify potential leverage points for effective adaptation. We describe a three-step procedure that leads from the development of a high-level system template, through the selection of a problem space that contains one or more of the group’s adaptive challenges, to a specific conceptual model of a sub-system of importance to the group. This procedure is illustrated by a case study of urban dwellers’ maladaptive dependence on private motor vehicles. We conclude that a system dynamics approach, revolving around the collaborative construction of a set of conceptual models, can help communities to improve their adaptive capacity, and so better meet the challenge of maintaining, and even improving, urban health in the face of climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:52:02Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-37884 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:52:02Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-378842017-09-13T16:06:42Z Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments Proust, Katrina Newell, B. Brown, Helen Capon, A. Browne, C. Burton, A. Dixon, J. Mu, L. Zarafu, M. leverage points system dynamics co-effects conceptual models cities systems thinking climate adaptation urban health The design of adaptation strategies that promote urban health and well-being in the face of climate change requires an understanding of the feedback interactions that take place between the dynamical state of a city, the health of its people, and the state of the planet. Complexity, contingency and uncertainty combine to impede the growth of such systemic understandings. In this paper we suggest that the collaborative development of conceptual models can help a group to identify potential leverage points for effective adaptation. We describe a three-step procedure that leads from the development of a high-level system template, through the selection of a problem space that contains one or more of the group’s adaptive challenges, to a specific conceptual model of a sub-system of importance to the group. This procedure is illustrated by a case study of urban dwellers’ maladaptive dependence on private motor vehicles. We conclude that a system dynamics approach, revolving around the collaborative construction of a set of conceptual models, can help communities to improve their adaptive capacity, and so better meet the challenge of maintaining, and even improving, urban health in the face of climate change. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37884 10.3390/ijerph9062134 Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) fulltext |
| spellingShingle | leverage points system dynamics co-effects conceptual models cities systems thinking climate adaptation urban health Proust, Katrina Newell, B. Brown, Helen Capon, A. Browne, C. Burton, A. Dixon, J. Mu, L. Zarafu, M. Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments |
| title | Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments |
| title_full | Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments |
| title_fullStr | Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments |
| title_short | Human Health and Climate Change: Leverage Points for Adaptation in Urban Environments |
| title_sort | human health and climate change: leverage points for adaptation in urban environments |
| topic | leverage points system dynamics co-effects conceptual models cities systems thinking climate adaptation urban health |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37884 |