Connecting Past and Present Lessons in Urbanization and the Environment (original) (raw)

Dear friends of the UGEC project, I am pleased to share with you this eighth issue of UGEC Viewpoints which marks a special turning point in my involvement with the UGEC project. As many of you know, I have been working with UGEC as project coordinator since 2009, which has afforded me the great privilege of being part of a dynamic group of international researchers and practitioners-a group that has been instrumental in the advancement of urbanization and global environmental change science and related activities. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to lead the project, as it begins a particularly exciting phase of its lifecycle. Many of you are not only familiar with, but actively engaged in the process that is currently underway towards creating 'Future Earth' (http://www.icsu.org/future-earth)-a restructuring of the global environmental change research agenda with the overall goal of better responding to the world's pressing environmental and social challenges. This is an extraordinarily worthwhile and equally ambitious endeavor and the UGEC project has been eager from the start to collaborate and share our input; in particular, we've been working to ensure that the 'urban' theme is well-represented as a research priority. It is certainly an exciting time to be a part of the global environmental change research community and additionally, our project is now entering into its third phase or seventh year of operations. These events have provided the opportunity for us to think seriously about how to best shape the future of our project-to remain a strong multidisciplinary programme which will not only work to continue coordinating and facilitating original as well as synthesis research, but also to better promote knowledge exchange, and the interaction and cooperation between researchers, practitioners and decision-makers working under the UGEC theme. Our world continues to become increasingly urban, and it's clear that the associated sustainability challenges will require collaborative approaches to finding interconnected solutions. This eighth issue of UGEC Viewpoints is comprised of regionally and thematically diverse articles, each highlighting research that emphasizes this point. You will read articles which focus on urban adaptation and mitigation responses to climate change and implications for policy, (

Sign up for access to the world's latest research.

checkGet notified about relevant papers

checkSave papers to use in your research

checkJoin the discussion with peers

checkTrack your impact