As climate change increases the frequency of storm events, flooding risk, prolonged drought, and other hazards, enhancing resilience becomes the goal of cities worldwide. How can societies prepare for and address a multitude of disturbances that can threaten the functioning of a city? A perhaps-unlikely answer is to increase diversity in all its forms. Economic, industrial, environmental, administrative, institutional, and sociocultural diversity are intertwined in cities, and diversity in all of these systems enhances resilience. Diversity as a key element of urban resilience.

In the ecological sciences, increasing biodiversity is the best strategy for achieving resilience. When there are multiple species it is more likely that the extinction of some species will not completely change the state of an ecosystem. As one species becomes extinct, another similar one fills that niche, performing the same ecological functions of the extinct species and preserving the functioning of the entire ecosystem. In this sense, a system is resilient when the functioning of the system continues in spite of disturbances.

Enlace: http://www.watersecuritynetwork.org/diversity-as-a-key-element-of-urban-resilience/

In recent years, we have witnessed significant changes in mountain ecosystems and glaciers. The accelerated retreat of glaciers and the increased number of lagoons are indicators of this process, and even if it means there is a major water reserve, there are risks of disasters that may affect nearby populations with weak adaptive capacity.

Peru, which has great ecological wealth, is considered one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, aggravated by persistent socioeconomic gaps and conflicts arising from the management of natural resources. Indeed, the National Water Authority of Peru reported the loss of more than 40% of its glaciers, which represents a threat to water, food, energy and ecological security.
Enlace: http://www.watersecuritynetwork.org/research-and-decision-making-for-sustainable-mountain-ecosystems-iwsn-at-international-forum/

Ana Melissa, Maria Alejandra, and Miryam Fernanda were awarded the 2016 IWSN Student Prize in July. They are undergraduate students at Universidad de Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico. This summer, they conducted a brief but informative study and submitted a complete report to the local water agency. Here, they explain their research.

Introduction
The world is currently facing a severe water crisis. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to be aware of the value that water has for our lives, for the ecosystems, and the role it plays in our survival and our wellbeing. For this reason, it is essential to achieve water security, because it provides water in acceptable quantity and quality, for our health, and for the survival of every living organism. Water security is about having a sustainable water source, for different social uses including economic development, health, food production, energy, and for the environment.

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Enlace: http://www.aguaysaneamiento.com/docs/AyS-67-17-AGO.pdf

Nicolás Pineda

I am in the City of Mendoza, in the Mendoza Province of Argentina. As a member of a network of scientists interested in water governance in arid regions, I periodically attend meetings that take place in different countries. This year, the meeting is in this city, and in this blog, Adriana and I will tell you about our first impressions.

The city

Mendoza is located at the foot of the Andes Mountains, very far from Buenos Aires and close to the City of Santiago, in Chile, with the Andes Cordillera in between. In fact, the city emerged as a stop of the trading route before crossing the cordillera into Chile. It rains very little, about 200 mm a year (in my hometown – Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico – it rains 300 mm a year) and the natural landscape is arid. The climate also tends to be hot, although not as hot as Sonora. However, the province is crossed by several mighty rivers fed by the melting of the glaciers in the Andes cordillera. These rivers have favored the creation of what they call “oasis” in which there has been a prosperous development of wine industry. There are about 250,000 hectares of vineyards in this area.

It is here that the Malbec Argentinean wines are produced. It attracts my attention the good planning that this city shows and the five plazas distributed throughout the center of the city; a great central plaza in the core area and four in the peripheries. They have explained to me that the city planning dates back to 1862, when the city was reconstructed after a strong earthquake destroyed most of the city and killed half of its population. This is the purpose of the plazas – these are places where refugee centers can be located whenever another earthquake occurs. In addition, the city is filled with trees including eucalyptus, algarrobas (that is how they refer to mesquite trees here) and other species. In order to irrigate these trees, the sidewalks have been equipped with canals called acequias, through which all of the trees in the city are periodically irrigated.

The city had 850 thousand inhabitants in 2009, which make this city very similar in size to Hermosillo. Its population is composed mainly of Spanish and Italian immigrants. This is reflected in the local gastronomy, in which the empanada (a pastry filled with ground meat) seems to be the main dish. It is very interesting that all the time I have spent here, I have encountered that the menus in the restaurants are composed of multiple kinds of pastries and bread, but very few salads and vegetables. Breakfast: mate (local tea) with bread. Lunch: empanadas, pizza or lasagna with wine or soft drinks. Dinner: a traditional beef stew with corn, similar to our Mexican pozole, but here named “locro.”

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Nota de la Dirección de Comunicación UNISON

Noticias Universidad de Sonora,                                                                                                           13 de junio de 2016

http://www.uson.mx/noticias/default.php?id=21951

Por Fernanda Elizalde y Francisco Durazo

21 de mayo de 2016 Sigue leyendo →