Investigating and Analyzing the Role of Institutional Resilience in Facing the Effects of Climate Change on Cities (Case Study: Mashhad City)

Document Type : Scientific-Research

Authors

Keramat alle Zayyari ¹

Abolfazl mansouri etminan ²

mehrdad Mohammadyelsooei ³

¹ Professor of Human Geography and Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

² PhD in Geography and Urban Planning, University of Tehran, Kish, Iran

³ PhD student in Geography and Urban Planning, University of Tehran, Kish, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jgusd.2022.78089.1237

Abstract

Extended Abstract

Introduction

The hazards associated with climate change and its ramifications for urban structures have escalated into a remarkable challenge for municipalities, urban officials, and city managers over the globe. This critical situation emphasizes the imperative for cities to take various strategies for safeguarding citizens through the mitigation, control, or reduction of climate change impacts, or more precisely through enhancing their resilience. Here, the system of urban management and institutions instrumental in urban development play a significant role in confronting the consequences of climate change. City administrators are leveraging urban planning instruments to counteract the deleterious effects of climate change and bolster the adaptive capacity of the citizenry against this phenomenon. Mashhad as Iran's second-most populous metropolis is not an exception of this pressing issue. Such environmental crises and challenges as climate change, global warming, land subsidence, and pervasive pollution (especially air pollution), represent major impediments to the urban management of this city. Among these, climate change and its multifaceted effects are one of the most critical concerns. Conversely, the accelerating the trajectory of urbanization, alongside the intensified human activities, pervasive construction processes, the expansion of the transportation network, and the proliferation of production centers, have worsened the climate of Mashhad. Considering the issues, this study tried to evaluate the efficacy and impact of Mashhad's urban management in making this city resilient to the effects of climate change.
 

Method

The aim of doing this research was investigating and assessing the institutional resilience of the Mashhad urban management, specifically the Municipality as the central entity, regarding the mitigation of the impacts of climate change. This applied study used a mixed-methods (quantitative-qualitative) approach. Accordingly, following a comprehensive review of the theoretical foundations and concepts pertaining to climate change, its urban impacts, and institutional resilience (including its constituent components), measurement criteria and indicators were applied to evaluate the 
institutional resilience status of Mashhad Municipality concerning climate change mitigation. Accordingly, a researcher-made questionnaire of the Likert scale was distributed among 40 experts and personnel of the Mashhad Municipality. The collected data were then subjected to analysis through one-sample T-tests, Pearson correlation analysis, and regression analysis.
 
 

Results

The assessment of the institutional resilience status of the Mashhad urban management, regarding the mitigation of climate change impacts, was systematically evaluated across five principal dimensions: 1) the dissemination of awareness and human resource training concerning climate change phenomena; 2) the efficiency of adaptive measures; 3) the collaboration between urban management, citizens, and governmental bodies in adaptation efforts; 4) the up-to-dateness of guidelines and regulations pertaining to climate change adaptation; and 5) the accessibility of requisite financial and informational resources. The results of the one-sample T-test showed that the mean scores for these components were 2.25, 2.02, 2.24, 2.15, and 2.43, respectively. Since the p-value of all components was less than 0.05, a statistically significant difference was found between the component means and the research criterion mean (mean criterion = 3.0). Moreover, the determination that both the upper and lower confidence limits for these components were negative allows us to infer that the Mashhad urban management lacks the requisite operational resilience in face of the impacts of climate change. Moreover, the Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant and direct correlation between the institutional resilience components and the reduction of climate change effects within the city. This means that the constituent elements of urban management resilience in Mashhad have the potential to exert a substantial influence on mitigating the local effects of climate change. The significance level and the standardized regression coefficient for each resilience component showed that the factor relating to the efficiency and effectiveness of adaptive measures had the greatest potential influence on reducing the localized impacts of climate change in Mashhad.
 

Discussion and Conclusion

Among the the manifest consequences of climate change at the urban scale, particularly in Mashhad, are increased atmospheric pollution, threats to public health, economic and livelihood precarity, damage to both super-structural and infrastructural assets, escalating demands for heating and cooling, heightened vulnerability to flash flooding, and water resource scarcity. These severe challenges definitively emphasize the exigency for strategic planning and the development of effective measures for increasing the resilience of cities and their inhabitants against the counteracting and mitigating the effects of climate change. The findings showed a remarkable paradox: while a strong and positive correlation exists between the components of Mashhad's urban management resilience and the reduction of climate change impacts, the urban management itself does not have the necessary operational resilience. This deficiency can be due to the urban management's failure in providing adequate awareness dissemination to citizens and its failure in the training of its personnel. Moreover, the inefficacy of most adaptive measures of the city’s urban management is attributed to a 
confluence of factors, including the lack of constructive engagement between Mashhad's urban management and local/governmental institutions, the obsolescence of pertinent guidelines and regulations, and the absence of clearly defined financial and informational resource provisions.
 

Keywords

Keywords: Awareness Creating

Urban Heat Islands

Adaptation

Greenhouse Gases

Mashhad Urban Management

Subjects

• urban planinnin

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