Download MC3-Network: Mediterranean Cities and Climate Change.

MC3-Network:
Mediterranean Cities
and Climate Change.
A Mediterranean Network
for Urbanism and Climate
Change
In the face of increasing urban population concentration on both sides of the
Mediterranean Sea, it is important, following the recommendations of the UNHabitat and the GIEC, to estimate the contribution of the city to climate changes,
and the impact of these changes on urban practices. There are, however, few
measurement tools for climate at intra-urban scale, and few programs focusing
on the collective understanding of climate change and the practices of urban
planning. This project proposes the establishment of a Mediterranean network
of institutions, a survey of current knowledge and measurement tools at the
interface between climate change and town planning.
This network will be established by research institutions, by urban monitoring
observatories, and by institutions related to urban design, planning and
management. It will provide two surveys of current knowledge. The first concerns
the measurement tools and used and usable indicators regarding climatology and
urban microclimatology. The second will be based on an inventory and an
analysis of the existing programs, and experiences of city planning including
issues related to climate change. The work will be summarized in a white paper
on urban planning at Mediterranean scale, and research perspectives and a
proposal for a program at Euro-Mediterranean scale.
The four aims are: 1-to develop partnerships with the research institutions, monitoring centers and networks around the
Mediterranean Sea, to exchange experiences and develop new research programs; 2-to develop strategies for institutional
relations between observatories and research laboratories on the theme of urban planning and climate change; 3- to update
and develop the systems for the observation and knowledge of cities on the basis of targeted programs; 4-to generate a
dynamic for the setting up of a Euro-Mediterranean program on this theme.
The program will be based on South-North coordination, and for the organization of exchanges between the various
participating institutions. From an initial core of institutions, the first task will be to broaden the network and to build a
collaborative Web tool; the second task will be to explore the measurement tools for climate change; the third will focus on
investigating tools and innovations related to town planning; the last task will be to present a survey highlighting the
Mediterranean specificities of this climate change - urban planning interface.
"This work is been carried out thanks to the support of the A*MIDEX project (n° ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02) funded by the «
Investissements d’Avenir » French Government program, managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR)"
Today, it goes without saying that the city and urban
growth are at the core of current concerns regarding
sustainable development. The recent reports of the GIEC
(Revi et al., 2014) and those of the Blue Plan for the
Mediterranean Sea (Chaline, 2001; Plan-Bleu, 2012)
constantly remind us of the enormous challenge which
the control of urban growth constitutes. "Adaptation to
climate change depends centrally on what is done in
urban centers - which now house more than half the
world's population and concentrate most of its assets
and economic activities" (Revi et al., 2014, chapter 8,
p.5).
The world is becoming increasingly urbanized, a trend
that shows no sign of abating, increasingly concentrating
the activities at the source of the problems of climate
change: transport, industrial activity, discharge of
contaminants, dispersal of energy, reverberation,
impermeability, etc. (Oke, 1973; Mills, 2007; Desplat et
al., 2009; Colombert et al., 2012); activities which often
suffer from a total lack of control with regard to their
expansion, in the countries of the South in particular.
The consequences of climatic risks impact the most
vulnerable populations from the point of view of the
housing environment or health issues (United-Nations,
2011a; b); they are also indirect, with an impact on
resources (water, air, food), generating vulnerability
related to disparities regarding access.
The Mediterranean urban areas are particularly sensitive
to these forms of impact. They combine vulnerability
related to the climate (extreme heat and low availability
of water), intensive urban expansion in the coastal areas
(climate-related events, pollution), and the absence of
urban regulation (extensive unstable housing
environment,
deregulation
of
construction,
mismanagement of waste); to this may be added the
high risk of natural disasters. According to the Blue Plan
(Plan-Bleu, 2012), this vulnerability is aggravated by the
very strong socio-spatial imbalance In access to services
and to resources, which the political authorities are
today incapable of managing.
The question of the sustainable city (or rather
sustainable city-growth), under the impact of climate
change, cannot be resolved solely by the control of
energy, or the reduction of the effects, but rather by a
more general improvement of living conditions through
a better thought out and better managed city, on the
basis of spatial equity (Theys & Emelianoff, 2001;
Desjardins, 2011; Mancebo, 2011). Numerous studies
have focused on this theme, highlighting the fact that
the city is also a place of innovation, a place where
better opportunities for adaptation to climate change
can be developed, especially in high-income countries
(Satterthwaite, 2013; Revi et al., 2014). Cavin & Bourg,
2010, observe that this debate revolves around two
conceptions of sustainability, which have a not
insignificant impact on ways of developing resilience in
the face of environmental impact.
The first conception, ‘Promethean’, is a race to develop
the technological control of the ‘Total Urban’ in the face
of nature. This means "zero carbon" cities such as Abu
Dhabi, Masdar City, and Dubai, that base sustainability
on a reduction of carbon emissions, through control of
the heating and cooling systems, energy, transport or
waste. Even if the "green" aspect is included in this
conception, nevertheless artificialisation and control
through technology remain intrinsically vulnerable
factors. Nowadays, this approach can provide a model
for the southern countries of the Mediterranean Sea, far
removed from existing local situations and specificities,
as the experience of the El Aznar Park in Egypt, or the
cities of Anfa or Zenata in Morocco (Plan-Bleu, 2012)
have shown, but also for the North, as a look around
Marseille (AGAM, 2013) will confirm.
The second conception, ‘Orphean’, is a response to the
predictable failure of this type of modernity. The
conservation of the natural capital, by means of
ecosystem services, is the priority in the construction of
sustainability, associated with a notion of harmonious
cohabitation and involving mechanisms of participative
democracy. These are the ecological corridors, the green
and blue belts, the eco-districts, etc., which are based on
a rethinking of the organization of the urban space and
the revalorising of spaces with natural character (Bonard
& Matthey, 2010; Clergeau, 2012; Clergeau & Blanc,
2013). In this case, it is also imperative to consider
periurban zones, that may constitute ‘buffer’ areas in
the face of urban sprawl (Djellouli et al., 2010), favorable
for the development of ecosystem services (Delattre &
Napoléone, 2001; Napoléone & Geniaux, 2009; Zasada,
2011).
There is doubtless a possible intermediary path between
these two situations, the logic of which is still not very
clear. The city of tomorrow, the one which will have to
face the consequences of the changes, is being built
today, and we have to make choices without delay.
It would be very difficult at present to propose models
of climatic behavior for urban districts, adapted to local
situations, in the same way that it is impossible to
usefully define the modalities of a new type of town
planning designed to take into account climate-related
events or simply their variability. These concepts exist in
theory (Calthorpe, 2011), but the empirical data remain
weak.
Furthermore, to define these options, what we need
rather is a diagnosis neither of the sources nor of the
impact of climate change, which are already very well
established (Calthorpe, 2011; Bulkeley, 2013; Revi et al.,
2014), nor the doubtless too limited decisions of
international conferences (Mancebo, 2011). It is a
matter of gathering the feedback, the potential and the
constraints which certain cities can mobilize, in
particular in the countries of the South, in relation with
their own conditions and local characteristics.
Observatories are good tools on which to base this, and
there are a large number around the Mediterranean Sea,
but as the diagnosis developed by the LABEX "Urban
Future" indicates, it is necessary to update the
observation systems and knowledge of the cities, to
focus them on the issues of today .
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
3
In this project, we plan to mobilize the existing competencies within the research institutes at Aix
Marseille University, and already established Mediterranean partnerships, to organize a network
for the purpose of developing research at the interface between town planning and climate
change.
1
The LPED, through the establishment of the OPEU (Multidisciplinary Monitoring Center on the Urban
Environment), has developed multiple competencies focused on urban environmental issues, associating
2
multiple research partners and public authorities. Other laboratories of the OSU-Pytheas Institute collaborate
on these questions on the basis of the establishment of monitoring centers, and by participation in OHM
(Monitoring Center Man – Environment: Mining Basin of Provence, Coast, Valley of the Rhône), and especially
3
in the LABEX OT-MED which has launched a " Big City " programme for Marseille, of which the MC3-Network
4
project is a key component. The LPED also participates in the LABEX Med program "The social sciences at the
heart of the interdisciplinary in the Mediterranean Sea" and in research projects on the environment - city
interface with other laboratories.
In addition, there is high potential in the numerous observatories around the Mediterranean Sea, although the
problem of climate change in urban zones is still not taken into account. European Networks such as CAT-MED
or "The Mediterranean City 2014" also focus on the search for a model of sustainable urban development.
Other programmes such as MISTRAL or the Blue Plan, although focused resolutely on climate change, take into
account to some extent the intra-urban question in a general but rather sector-based way (energy, tourism,
coastal zone, etc.).
1
http://lped.org/-Observatoires-Societe-.html
http://www.pytheas.univ-amu.fr/
3
http://www.otmed.fr/
4
http://labexmed.mmsh.univ-aix.fr/Pages/home.aspx
2
The AIM
To position the laboratories of Aix Marseille University as a core element in a Mediterranean
network for research on the city planning - climate change interface.
Secondary aims
1 – To develop partnerships with research institutions, monitoring centers and networks in the Mediterranean
region, with a view to exchanging experiences and developing new research programs;
2 – To develop strategies for institutional relations between observatories and research laboratories on the
theme of city planning and climate change;
3 – To update and develop systems for the observation and knowledge of cities on the basis of targeted
programs;
4 – To generate a dynamic between partners for the development of a Euro-Mediterranean program on this
theme.
Scientific and Technical Work plan
The work program is focused on three major issues:

Measurement systems for assessing climate change in the city, including the measurement of the
contribution of the city to climate change and, inversely, the impact of global climate change on the
intra-urban climate;
 The integration of climate change issues in town planning policies, from the technical, normative,
political and social points of view;
 Mediterranean specificities in choices related to the Town planning - Climate change interface, that is
the investigation of a town planning strategy closely related to the practices of society, including
periurban strategies.
Every question is approached from a theoretical point of view, by compiling and comparing feedback from
experiences, and on the basis of analysis of the stakeholders (institutions, experts and professionals) best
qualified to play a role in a research network on this theme.
To implement this program, the work of the research teams will be based on three types of action:



A compilation of research experiences
(academic part) and applications in city
planning (professional practices), by
identifying indicators and processes used
for
the
understanding
or
the
management of the climatic change town planning interface;
Virtual writing workshops for collecting
and summarizing the results of this
compilation by several observatories; In
parallel with these workshops, thematic
seminars will be organized;
Collaborative research projects for the
purpose of developing a Mediterranean
programme on city and climatic change.
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
5
AGAM, 2013. Marseille et la Méditerranée. Regards de l'AGAM 11: 12.
Bonard Y. & L. Matthey, 2010. Les éco-quartiers: laboratoires de la ville durable. Changement de paradigme ou
éternel retour du même? Cybergeo : European Journal of Geography: 9. doi:DOI :
10.4000/cybergeo.23202
Bulkeley H., 2013. Cities and climate change. New York: Routledge, 280p.
Calthorpe P., 2011. Urbanism in the age of climate change. Washington: Island Press, 138p.
Cavin J. S. & D. Bourg, 2010. Deux conceptions de la durabilité urbaine: ville prométhéenne versus ville
orphique. Philosophie de l'environnement et milieux urbains. T. Paquot & C. Younès. Paris: Éditions la
Découverte, 117-136p.
Chaline C., 2001. L'urbanisation et la gestion des villes dans les pays méditerranéens. Evaluation et perspectives
d'un développement urbain durable: Commission Méditerranéenne du Développement Durable. PNUE PAM - Plan Bleu - Programme d'Actions Prioritaires, 42p.
Clergeau P., 2012. Services écologiques et Trame Verte Urbaine. Vertigo Hors Série 12: 2-5. doi:DOI :
10.4000/vertigo.11834
Clergeau P. & N. Blanc, Eds., 2013. Trames vertes urbaines. De la recherche scientifique au projet urbain. Paris:
Éditions Le Moniteur, 340p.
Colombert M., J.-L. Salagnac, D. Morand & Y. Diab, 2012. Le climat et la ville: la nécessité d'une recherche
croisant les disciplines. Vertigo Hors Série 12: 2-13. doi:DOI : 10.4000/vertigo.1181
Delattre L. & C. Napoléone, 2001. Ecologiser les documents d’urbanisme pour protéger les terres agricoles et
les espaces naturels. Courrier de l'Environnement de l'INRA 60: 63-71.
Desjardins X., 2011. Pour l'atténuation du changement climatique, quelle est la contribution possible de
l'aménagement du territoire? Cybergeo : European Journal of Geography Document 523: 19. doi:DOI :
10.4000/cybergeo.23531
Desplat J., M. Lauffenburger, J. L. Salagnac, R. Kounkou-Arnaud, A. Lemonsu, M. Colombert & V. Masson, 2009.
Projet EPICEA, étude pluridisciplinaire des impacts du changement climatique à l'échelle de
l'agglomération parisienne. Fifth Urban Research Symposium, June 28-30, 2009, Marseille, World Bank: 9p
Djellouli Y., C. Emelianoff, A. Bennasr & J. Chevalier, Eds., 2010. L'étalement urbain. Un processus incontrôlable?
Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 258p.
Mancebo F., 2011. La ville durable est-elle soluble dans le changement climatique? Environnement Urbain 5: 19.
Mills G., 2007. Cities as agents of global change. International Journal of Climatology 27: 1849-1857.
Napoléone C. & G. Geniaux, 2009. Influences urbaines et protection des espaces naturels et agricoles.
Innovations Agronomiques 5: 13-26.
Oke T. R., 1973. City size and the urban heat island. Atmospheric Environment 7(8): 769-779.
Plan-Bleu, 2012. Un diagnostic de la situation des villes méditerranéennes. Contribution au groupe de travail
urbain du Secrétariat de l'Union pour la Méditerranée: Vers une stratégie urbaine durable EuroMéditerranéenne (SUDEM) dans le cadre de l'Union pour la Méditerranée P.-P.-P. Bleu, 13p.
Revi A., D. Satterthwaite & (coord.), 2014. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.
Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Yokohama: IPCC Working Group II
Technical Support Unit (TSU),
Satterthwaite D., 2013. The political underpinning of cities' accumulated resilience to climate change.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
369(1942): 1762-1783.
Theys J. & C. Emelianoff, 2001. Les contradictions de la ville durable. Le Débat 2001/1 - nº113: 122-135.
United-Nations, 2011a. Revealing Risk, Redefining Development: the 2011 Global Assessment Report on
Disaster Risk Reduction. Geneva: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 178p.
United-Nations, 2011b. Cities and Climate Change. Global report on human settlements. London, Washington:
Earthscan U. N. H. S. P. (UN-Habitat), 300p.
Zasada I., 2011. Multifunctional peri-urban agriculture – A review of societal demands and the provision of
goods and services by farming. Land Use Policy 28: 639-648.
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
6
Task 1: Coordination of the network of partners
The aim of this first task is to constitute a network of partners in the Mediterranean region based mainly on
urban observatories. In this partnership, we shall be looking for both research competence in the relevant field,
but also real first-hand experience-based knowledge in the field and active cooperation with public and private
sector managers for the development of city planning programmes.
Working methodology:
1 - Meeting of the initial core members involving OPEU - Marseille, EPAU and CREAD Algiers, INAU Rabat,
Urban Observatory of Istanbul, to draft a charter of cooperation.
2 - Establishing contacts with the programmes and the observatories of the Mediterranean region (see VInternational Partnership) and signature of a cooperation charter.
3 - Coordination of the network and development of an internet blog, and collaborative tools (virtual
workshops, databases).
This task will be undertaken in close collaboration with the axis TWP1- Observation systems and databases, and
the LABEX OT-MED "Big City" programme. All the information generated in this programme MC3 will be
integrated into these two schemes.
Deliverables: Cooperation charters signed with the other institutions. Directory of the urban observatories in
the Mediterranean region. Collaborative Web site. Final report.
Task 2: Measurement systems of climate change in the city
The aim of this second task is to estimate the capability of Mediterranean cities and the associated
observatories to estimate the extent of climatic change at a fine scale (useful for the urban planning
programmes), as well as to determine suitable indicators for urban management. The experimental devices,
the indicators and the programmes will be analyzed here with every institution, monitoring center or
community measuring climatic parameters, carbon assessments, urban biodiversity, processes of erosion
coastal, energy balances, pollution levels, etc., in the urban and periurban areas. Selected indicators will be
either direct (measurement of the climate and modelling) or indirect (dynamics of the species or ecosystems,
alteration of practices, health related dynamics, etc.) and should reflect the two-fold impact city - climate and
climate - city.
This task will attempt to provide answers to the following three questions:
 How can we measure climate change in the city?
 Are there networks offering effective measurement?
 What are the most useful parameters for urban management?
Working methodology:
1 - Survey of the state of the art regarding microclimatic measurement in urban zones, and its grading with
regard to international measurement networks. Critical assessment and discussion on indicators.
2 - Assessment survey on systems of measurement in urban agglomerations of the Mediterranean region,
and their integration in of urban management or city planning programmes.
3 - Drafting of a white paper focusing on the measurement systems, indicators and usages for urban
management
4 - Setting up of an international workgroup with the aim of formulating a proposition for the creation and
coordination of a Mediterranean network for urban measurement on climate, and a pool of general
and specific indicators.
Deliverables: Survey of the state of the art regarding urban climatic measurement systems. White paper on
climate measurement and urban management. Proposition for the creation and coordination of a network.
Methodological guide for use by urban authorities.
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
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Task 3: Climate change and urban planning
Four dynamics should be envisaged with regard to the climate change - town planning interface:
 Innovations in architecture: construction techniques, materials, housing design, components, etc.
 The organization of the infrastructure environment: spacing, layout, presence of green spaces,
accessibility, public transport, etc.
 The organization of the city: compactness, road system and transport, green belts, corridors, uses, etc.
 The contribution of the periurban zone in the development of ecosystem services.
While architects have thoroughly mastered the first aspect, the other two are relatively little known with
regard to practices and impact.
It is consequently important to take these practices into account from the points of view of:
 techniques: construction, organisation, town planning;
 policy: standards, legislation and rules of town planning, including the concerns of public and private
sector stakeholders public regarding climate change issues;
 social: perception and acceptability, for which the questions of urban and periurban practices must of
necessity be taken into account.
This task involves working on a compilation of experiences in these domains, whether in the context of
projects, or studies and research, or realizations having had a positive or negative impact.
Working methodology:
1 – Survey of the state of the art regarding the integration of climate change issues in the programmes and
the regulation of town planning in the Mediterranean countries;
2 - Analysis of some projects and programmes (Study of specific cases);
3 - Constitution of a think-tank focusing on intervention in the face of the impact of climate change.
Drafting of a proposal for a European programme.
Deliverables: Survey of the state of the art regarding climate change and urban practices in Mediterranean
cities.
Task 4: The Mediterranean and the interface
The aim of this Task is to produce an initial report on the previous tasks, focused on the analysis of
Mediterranean specificities in the understanding and regulation of the impact of climate change in urban
zones.
It will take the form of two seminars organized with the aim of drafting a joint survey report:
 Urban Climate Change: concept and measurement;

Examining Mediterranean urbanism through the perspective of climate change.
All the subjects referred to previously, with regard to both their technical, town planning, political and social
aspects, will be examined in a Mediterranean context in order to understand the specificities and the
constraints.
These seminars will be organized by the partners signatory to the charter, in association with the public and
private sector stakeholders responsible for urban organizations. All members of the project will be represented
at both seminars.
Working methodology:


One seminar more specifically focused on the climate issues and the indicators of climate change;
One seminar more specifically focused on the question of the climate - urban planning interface,
taking into account the issues of the scale of intervention and of public policy, within a Mediterranean
context.
Deliverables: Results (Contribution of the participants and reports) of the seminars. A joint survey report. A
European project proposal.
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
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International Partnerships
This programme is entirely based on the development of partnerships between the two sides of the
Mediterranean. It will start with a partnership already established between the OPEU, LABEX OT-MED and 4
Mediterranean area organisations:
 L'École Polytechnique d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme d'Alger (EPAU - Polytechnic school of
5
Architecture and Urbanism) .
 Le Centre de Recherche en Économie Appliquée au Développement (CREAD - The Research Centre on
6
Applied Economy) .
 l'Institut National d'Aménagement et d'Urbanisme du Maroc (INAU - National Institute on Planning
7
and Urbanism) .
8
 L'Observatoire Urbain d'Istanbul (Urban Observatory of Istanbul), part of l'Institut Français d'Étude
Anatolienne (French Institute on Anatolien Studies).
9
In Marseille, the laboratories associated with the LABEX OT-MED, the LABEX DRIIHM and the OSU-Institut
Pytheas will be mobilized, in particular :
 The TWP1 of OT MED (Observation Systems and Databases)
 CEREGE (measurement of climate at meso-scale, water resources and coastal erosion)
 The INRA Avignon (land use stakeholders and public management of land use change)
 The ECCOREV federation with in particular the OHM Bassin Minier de Provence
 The coastal OHM
 The School of Architecture

We will seek to establish an association with Lab'Urba at Paris Est university, integrated within the
LABEX "Futurs Urbains" (Urban Futures) and specialising in questions of town planning and the
environment in the city, in particular in Europe.

Others, depending on the findings of the inventory.
In the Mediterranean, networks and observatories will be linked to develop exchanges and propose a common
framework of analysis:
 PAYS.MED.URBAIN (Virtual observatory of the Mediterranean urban landscape – European project
Spain - Italy)
 Euro Mediterranean Observatory
 AVITEM
 CAT-MED – Sustainable urban model
 MedCities (Barcelona)
 Plan Bleu
 EURO Cities
 Urban Observatory of Beirut
 Urbanization Observatory - UAB - Barcelona
 Algiers Observatory: launch announced for July 2014.
 National Agency for Climate Change, Algiers (Mr KARA Mustapha Kamel, founder member of the
GIEC).
 Regional Urban Observatory for Greater Tunis (AUGT)
 Contemporary Cairo Urban Observatory (OUCC - CEDEJ)
 UN-Habitat, Cities and Climate Change division
And others
For each participating city, we will attempt to associate the territorial authorities responsible for town
planning, both in order to take into account the issues of climate change in their programs of action, and also
to test with them possible scenarios for action.
5
http://www.vuddlabo.org/
http://www.cread.edu.dz/
7
http://www.inau.ac.ma/siteinauFr/index.asp?page=/siteinauFr/administration/presentation_inau.asp
8
http://oui.hypotheses.org/
6
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
MC3-Network:
Mediterranean Cities
and Climate Change.
A Mediterranean Network
for Urbanism and Climate
Change
Contact:
Hubert Mazurek
[email protected]
+33 413550817
A*MIDEX - MC3-Network Overview
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