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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to emergent understandings in research into urban climate change-related disasters (such as extreme heat), which recognise that present-day actions or failures of cities to address climate risk are rooted in a historical context.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses content of scientific journals produced by the not-for-profit Kyushu Environmental Evaluation Association in Fukuoka since the 1970s. The aim is to evaluate the shifting understanding and conception of a liveable urban environment within Fukuoka over time and assess how this narrative has informed capability to understand and manage extreme heat as an emergent disaster risk.FindingsThe strong technical competences enabling Fukuoka to undertake evidence-based management of risks from climate-related disasters today exist at least partially because of earlier environmental concerns within the city and an early emergence of techno-scientific competence within the city's research institutions working at the science–policy interface.Originality/valueThe findings suggest a need to avoid uncritically exporting "lessons" from apparent urban climate "success stories", without full recognition of the historical context enabling production and utilisation of weather and climate knowledge in specific locations.

This research evaluates the contribution of nature-based solutions to urban resilience in post-disaster situations. Post-disaster recovery planning is an opportunity to 'build back greener' by fostering ecosystem approaches towards social and ecological resilience. Yet understanding of specific post-disaster resilience benefits which nature-based solutions provide is still emerging. This paper contributes to this field through evaluation of how ecosystem approaches bring resilience benefits in Futaba County, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Content analysis is undertaken on disaster recovery plans produced by the 8 municipalities in Futaba County. The ecosystem services included in each plan are identified, as well as the extent to which municipalities are capable of assessing the services provided. This is supplemented with insights from field visits and wider documentation produced by the municipalities. The analysis shows that cultural ecosystem services feature especially strongly within the plans, and that these cultural services are critical to recovering sense of identity and pride post-disaster. However, the analysis also indicates that municipalities may lack the technical competence to assess ecosystem services, especially in a post-disaster setting where resources are stretched. One implication from the research is the need for further consideration in other empirical contexts of how cultural services – especially citizen participation – can be integrated with more technical approaches to post-disaster ecosystem management. A second implication is that whilst ecosystem approaches offer post-disaster resilience benefits, these should be an aid to recovery and not a substitute for long-term support from national governments.

This research evaluates the contribution of nature-based solutions to urban resilience in post-disaster situations. Post-disaster recovery planning is an opportunity to 'build back greener' by fostering ecosystem approaches towards social and ecological resilience. Yet understanding of specific post-disaster resilience benefits which nature-based solutions provide is still emerging. This paper contributes to this field through evaluation of how ecosystem approaches bring resilience benefits in Futaba County, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Content analysis is undertaken on disaster recovery plans produced by the 8 municipalities in Futaba County. The ecosystem services included in each plan are identified, as well as the extent to which municipalities are capable of assessing the services provided. This is supplemented with insights from field visits and wider documentation produced by the municipalities. The analysis shows that cultural ecosystem services feature especially strongly within the plans, and that these cultural services are critical to recovering sense of identity and pride post-disaster. However, the analysis also indicates that municipalities may lack the technical competence to assess ecosystem services, especially in a post-disaster setting where resources are stretched. One implication from the research is the need for further consideration in other empirical contexts of how cultural services – especially citizen participation - can be integrated with more technical approaches to post-disaster ecosystem management. A second implication is that whilst ecosystem approaches offer post-disaster resilience benefits, these should be an aid to recovery and not a substitute for long-term support from national governments.

The purpose of this article is to elaborate the ways in which social and cultural context can act as barriers to change in cities and regions that rely heavily on carbon-intensive industries, and to consider how factors such as pride in productivity and innovation may be redeployed to facilitate low-carbon transitions in carbon-intensive regions. These issues are assessed through the case of Tomakomai City in Hokkaido, Japan, with particular focus on how the city government has used carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology as a symbol of how industries might adapt and evolve to meet the challenge of climate change. Summary: Tomakomai City illustrates that carbon-intensive industries such as petrochemicals and paper manufacturing can come to be integral to citizens' sense of place. As such, the presence of favourable economic conditions and available resources, whilst certainly helpful, may be just one factor influencing the likelihood of a managed low-carbon transition taking root in a city or region which has deep connections to industries associated with high emissions. Finding ways to rigorously and systematically assess the socio-cultural landscape is hence an important part of understanding how low-carbon innovations can best be framed to get broad-based buy-in in carbon-intensive contexts such as Tomakomai.

We assess the relationship between neighbourhood-level deprivation and local greenspace quality in Glasgow, Scotland. There is interest globally in inequality within the accessibility of urban greenspace. It is recognised that social and political inequalities can lead to less well-off areas having less or lower-quality greenspace. We evaluate the relationship between neighbourhood-level deprivation and greenspace quality by combining socio-economic data with assessment of neighbourhood greenspace from Google Street View, subjecting our observations to statistical testing. On nearly all measures of greenspace quality, there is a statistically significant correlation between deprivation and greenspace quality, with more disadvantaged areas having lower-quality greenspace. We show it is not only the presence or extent of greenspace, but also the characteristics within greenspaces, that vary with deprivation. As existing research suggests, greenspace attributes such as tranquillity, greenness and perceived safety are important to unlock the health, wellbeing and resilience benefits that good quality greenspace can provide.

Interest is growing in carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR) as an additional economic incentive for CO 2 injection and demonstration of storage feasibility. However, given increasing societal concern over fossil fuel energy, could CO 2 -EOR unintentionally hinder conventional CCS by reducing support from neutral or cautiously supportive voices? This paper assesses how stakeholders and citizens respond to four scenarios for CCS with CO 2 -EOR in the North Sea, and draws societal implications for deployment in other mature basins. Based on focus group data from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London, we argue that scenarios emphasising maximising oil recovery may be met with scepticism or even opposition, and that there is an expectation for national governments to lead and ensure CO 2 -EOR (and CCS more generally) are undertaken in the public interest. Nonetheless, our data also suggest a certain degree of pragmatism as to the embeddedness of fossil fuels in society, and thus that there may be qualified support for CCS with CO 2 -EOR as making best use of existing fields whilst decarbonising the power and industrial sectors. However, for this support to emerge there is an imperative for coherent and credible policy that positions CO 2 -EOR firmly within a managed transition towards a low-carbon economy.

Interest is growing in carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) as an additional economic incentive for CO2 injection and demonstration of storage feasibility. However, given increasing societal concern over fossil fuel energy, could CO2-EOR unintentionally hinder conventional CCS by reducing support from neutral or cautiously supportive voices? This paper assesses how stakeholders and citizens respond to four scenarios for CCS with CO2-EOR in the North Sea, and draws societal implications for deployment in other mature basins. Based on focus group data from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London, we argue that scenarios emphasising maximising oil recovery may be met with scepticism or even opposition, and that there is an expectation for national governments to lead and ensure CO2-EOR (and CCS more generally) are undertaken in the public interest. Nonetheless, our data also suggest a certain degree of pragmatism as to the embeddedness of fossil fuels in society, and thus that there may be qualified support for CCS with CO2-EOR as making best use of existing fields whilst decarbonising the power and industrial sectors. However, for this support to emerge there is an imperative for coherent and credible policy that positions CO2-EOR firmly within a managed transition towards a low-carbon economy.

Despite extensive enquiry into the socio-political aspects of environmental impact assessments (EIA), empirical material from east- and south-east Asia remains underrepresented in English-language scholarship. This is notable given increasing infrastructural developments and interest in environmental justice in the region. We contribute to this field by evaluating the Miramar Resort EIA controversy in Taitung County, Taiwan, to assess how a developer and a local government conspired to circumvent an EIA process. Through documentary analysis and stakeholder interviews, we assess the argumentation used by different actors to articulate their support for or opposition to the development. We find that much contention rests on claims to economic benefit and environmental protection that cannot be verified, and on limited participation opportunities. We call for further research into strategies used by proponents to discredit the knowledge and experience of opponents within EIA processes, especially given rising global interest in traditional, local and indigenous knowledge.

Interest in nature-based approaches for climate change adaptation in cities is growing. Whilst there is a growing field of scholarship in a European and North America setting, research on the policy and governance of urban greenspace for climate adaptation in subtropical Asia is limited. Given the different development patterns, environmental characteristics and governance arrangements in subtropical cities, plus their comparatively large population and high climate risk, this is a significant knowledge gap. In response, this paper evaluates competences – skill sets, capabilities, and supporting policy and legislation – to enact adaptation through greenspace across different governance contexts; and assesses how international rhetoric on nature-based adaptation becomes localised to subtropical Asian city settings. We conduct interviews with stakeholders, plus review of relevant policy and city-specific research, for three cities with different governance and development contexts: Hanoi (Vietnam); Taipei (Taiwan); and Fukuoka (Japan). Across all three cases, we find that institutional structures and processes for connecting different remits and knowledge systems are a bigger challenge than a lack of appropriate policy or individuals with the required technical knowledge. However, opportunities for civil society participation and consideration of justice issues vary between the cities according to the socio-political context. These findings illustrate the value of individuals and organisations able to work across institutional boundaries in linking greenspace and adaptation agendas for subtropical Asian cities; and the importance of competence in collaboration with developers and civil society so that the rapid development or regeneration seen in subtropical Asian contexts does not tend towards green climate gentrification. More broadly, our findings show that the diverse nature of subtropical Asian cities means the role of greenspace in climate adaptation is likely to be context-specific, and thus that caution must be exercised against uncritically importing best practices from exemplar cases elsewhere.