CFAES Signature Areas

Survey on Practical Examples of Urban Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA)

The Friends of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (FEBA) Urban EbA Working Group has developed this survey to identify practical examples of Urban EbA planning and implementation. The Working Group, co-chaired by IUCN and PlanAdapt, brings together researchers and practitioners from the fields of urban development, EbA and Green-Grey Infrastructure to share successes and failures to help learn and improve future urban EbA initiatives in the Global South and Global North. Your participation in this survey contributes to the knowledge base of the growing area – in theory and practice – of Urban EbA. Follow this link to take the survey.

Sourced from: Friends of EbA

Urban Gardens Growing Strong Amid COVID Pandemic

Mike Levenston stands over a half-harvested stalk of kale, eyeing the autumnal remnants slowly disintegrating into the soil. It’s a familiar scene for Levenston, an urban gardener who has been growing food and community in the garden he founded, dubbed City Farmer, for more than 40 years.

At the time, it was almost unheard of to grow food in cities, and gardens weren’t given much thought in city planning efforts. No longer: Urban gardens are thriving worldwide, especially this year as pandemic-bound city dwellers have sought sustenance in gardens, parks, and other green spaces.

“I’m there seven days a week. It’s the best place for my family to be in COVID times because it’s a garden with lots of space,” Levenston said. “We’re busier than ever because of the backyard garden craze. We sell city compost bins (and) people are picking them up every day, and (there) are a lot of new gardens (in the city).”

Canadians like their gardens, especially in 2020. A report released earlier this month by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab found that roughly 51% of Canadians grow at least one variety of fruit or vegetable at home. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: Morning Ag Clips

Leading Edge Dialog Series: Urban Green Infrastructure Workshop

Every Leading Edge Dialogue (LED) held at the 2019 National Urban Extension explored innovative shifts in Extension’s vision of its future and its role in the communities it serves. While this workshop was not an official LED, the discussions that took place regarding Extension’s role (or future) in urban green infrastructure (UGI) as a programming area is a practical example of many of the points raised in the LEDs held during the conference. Follow this link to read the paper.

Sourced from: Western Center for Metropolitan Extension and Research

10th Annual Ohio Food Policy Summit + Ohio Local Food Council Workshop

Join the Ohio Food Policy Network (OFPN) and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs for the 10th Annual Ohio Food Policy Summit and Ohio Local Food Council Workshop, which is being held virtually this November. 

Ohio Food Policy Summit
Monday, November 16, 1-4 p.m. E.T.

• Keynote speaker Tom Philpott, author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It
• Presentation of the OFPN draft policy framework and the opportunity to interact with the framework, setting the course of the OFPN policy agenda
• Presentation of the OFPN Food Hero award

Ohio Local Food Council Workshop
Tuesday, November 17, 4-6 p.m. E.T.

• This interactive workshop will prepare local food policy councils to operationalize their policy agendas
• Topics addressed include how to work within the law, steps in campaign building and tools to move forward

Follow this link to register.
Follow this link to join the Ohio Food Policy Network

 

Sourced from OFPN

The Two Sides of Participation in Urban Food Policy

In many countries around the globe, urban food policies were born in an era of increased public participation in local policymaking. However, food raises specific questions when it comes to participation. Indeed, how do you foster participation around a topic that is new to local actors? An article published in Politics and Governance analyses participation at the onset of local food policy in the city of Ede, in the Netherlands. Researchers looked at the way local civil servants in charge of developing food policy viewed both their role and that of non-governmental actors. They unveiled a tension between two very different ways to see what participation is about. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Urban Food Futures

Green Stormwater Infrastructure Series

Many American communities have realized considerable financial and water quality gains by incorporating green infrastructure strategies for reducing and managing stormwater. The same green infrastructure that helps manage urban stormwater and improves water quality provides a wealth of other benefits to our communities including reducing urban heat island effects, providing evaporative cooling and shade, improve air quality by removing pollutants, human health benefits, and tangible economic benefits such as increase property values and green jobs.

Join Penn State Extension for this Green Storwmater Infrastructure Webinar Series to learn how research and work across Pennsylvania are providing cost effective approaches to managing stormwater. Explore how to properly prepare soils, select appropriate vegetation, plant, and maintain green stormwater infrastructure systems. The series begins this month. Follow this link to learn more.

To learn about Ohio State’s Stormwater Management Efforts, you can contact Dr. Ryan Winston, or  follow this link.

Take A Break! Live Healthy, Live Well Challenge

Join Jenny Lobb, Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Franklin County, for the Take A Break! Live Healthy, Live Well fall email wellness challenge. The challenge will begin the week of October 19, 2020 and run through November 25, 2020. Participants will receive two email messages weekly with tips and encouragement on topics such as play, rest, creativity, nourishment, and more.

Follow this link to learn more.
Follow this link to sign up.

Sourced from: OSU Extension, Franklin County

Webinar: Green Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Design, and the Urban Heat Island

Jean-Michel Guldmann
Department of City and Regional Planning

Green Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Design, and the Urban Heat Island: Mitigation Strategies in the Era of Climate Change

October 7, 2020  *  4-5 p.m.
CarmenZoom: link to be distributed via email to registered participants

Nested within the global warming problem, the urban heat island (UHI) is a specifically local warming problem that is becoming critical in most metropolitan areas of the world. Columbus and Beijing will be used as a case study settings of the phenomena. He will illustrate how expanding greenery at both ground level and on building roofs can reduce temperatures and how the UHI varies across seasons including the dual beneficial role of vegetation, reducing temperatures in the summer, but increasing them in winter.

The Ohio State University Emeritus Academy Lecture Series

Registration Link