【Special Session ⭐️ 2022 ECRs in Sustainability Science 18】Taipei-Canada Hubs Collaboration: Nature-based solutions towards sustainability

Dr. Wei Weng - Nature-based solutions as a win-win between climate and water goals: aerial river management for future water

Nature-based Solutions (NbS), inspired or supported by nature, aim to address societal challenges in a fast-changing environment via an integrated and sustainable approach. We introduce a novel large-scale NbS designed for reducing water scarcity in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Moisture being evapotranspirated from the land, through transportation in the atmosphere, precipitates in the downwind regions. The pathways of these moisture flows constitute invisible aerial rivers connecting regions across juristic and topographic boundaries. The intangible nature of the aerial rivers calls new instruments to facilitate their integration into land-water management. Here we present an example utilizing moisture back-tracking algorithms to inform decision making. We quantify the role of strategic reforestation in supplying important quantities of moisture into the aerial rivers, sustaining freshwater resources at a downwind city. Our simulations report a runoff gain by 26.93% during the dry season for Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) from strategic reforestation. The increase of the renewable water resource could cover 22 to 59% of the city’s growing demand by 2030. Our study underpins the need for a more holistic view of sustainable land-water management. Effective implementation of such intervention certainly requires compliance with specific societal configurations in different geographies.

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Mr. Santiago Ramirez Said - Nature-based solutions towards achieving climate and biodiversity goals: Centering solutions around diversity, equity, and inclusion

If Canada is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, a combination of emissions reduction and innovative carbon sequestration approaches are needed. Nature based Solutions (NbS) are promising, as they could help achieve up to 35% of Canada’s 2030 carbon reduction commitment. In addition, NbS can protect biodiversity and provide multiple ecosystem services that improve the well-being of humanity. However, investment in NbS has been largely motivated and guided for its carbon sequestration benefits with its effects on biodiversity and ecosystem health often being a nice “bonus” rather than an equally important goal.

Even more pressing, the social benefits of NbS are very rarely considered when funding or implementing a project. Recently, several authors have agreed that one of the main reasons why we keep on failing to reach our climate and biodiversity targets is because we have failed to address Climate Change and biodiversity loss as a social challenge. Only by centering NbS around social diversity, equity and inclusion will we truly be able to unleash the full potential of nature towards planetary and human well-being. This panel will explore some potential avenues in which investment and implementation of NbS can be guided with DEI in mind.

講 者 Speakers:
Dr. Wei Weng 翁葳 (台灣大學地理環境資源學系助理教授)
Mr. Santiago Ramirez Said (Project Manager and Explorer - Future Earth, Sustainability in the Digital Age, National Geographic)
主 持 Host: Dr. Wan-Yu Shih 石婉瑜 (銘傳大學都市規劃與防災學系副教授)

日 期 Date: 18th November 2022
時 間 Time: 19:00 - 20:20 pm (GMT+8)
地 點 Venue: Virtual 線上 (Link will be sent after registration 報名後另外通知視訊連結)
語 言 Language: English 英文

👉 Register｜https://pse.is/4fmmf5

講者資訊 Speaker's Info:
https://www.geog.ntu.edu.tw/index.php/en/people/professors/137-faculty-en/wengwei-en
https://www.santiagorsaid.com/plant-photography