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Recent years have witnessed a growth in research on urban green spaces given their significance to human wellbeing and environmental management. This paper explores the perceived health benefits of urban green areas by drawing on the experiences of 95 participants sampled from three urban communities in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. It is a qualitative study employing a cross-sectional design. The paper argues that participants' perceptions straddle physical and non-physical dimensions of health. From the physical perspective, the participants revealed that green spaces improved physical activity and reduced incidence of cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure. The non-physical health benefits included improved attention, reduced stress and positive emotions such as happiness. The findings of this paper call for broad-based multi-sectoral approach to managing green spaces in urban Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the importance of national governments and national-local relationships for scaling up local climate action to achieve global goals. From the Sustainable Development Goals to the New Urban Agenda to the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the achievement of global sustainability goals will depend on deep changes to national infrastructure and urban systems. Through an analysis of climate action planning and investments in exemplary cases in Africa, the paper highlights the opportunities and challenges that come with integrating national governments into urban-focused priorities and needs, especially for mobilising financial resources. The paper finds that scaling up city climate action in the selected African countries benefits from a constructive multi-level relationship between local and national institutions and stakeholders to shape and improve the legislative, financial and operating frameworks to enable systemic change. Large-scale urban climate action can be enabled by formal multi-level institutional arrangements, links to politically prioritised policy frameworks, and transformative aims that address both climate and socio-economic benefits for communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Residents Against Dirty Energy" (RADE) are a community-led energy activist group in Bristol city, UK. Since their inception, they have effectively lobbied the city council for the deployment of battery storage units in place of diesel generators in Lockleaze, north Bristol. As a result, Lockleaze now hosts battery storage facilities with 15MW of storage capacity able to store excess energy from the grid. Drawing on a focus group (n = 8) with local energy actors in Bristol and in-depth interviews (n = 2) with RADE, alongside document analysis of key secondary data sources, the paper uses three tenets of energy justice (distributional, recognition and procedural justice) to shed light on the role of local energy activism in shaping low-carbon energy infrastructures. The qualitative data reveals RADE's efforts to ensure that local communities are closely involved in energy decision-making, to ensure that the siting of new energy technologies does not burden marginalised communities. However, questions around distributionaleconomic benefits and ownership are secondary to RADE; their primary concern is with the improvement of local air quality and reducing harm to the local population and environment. These issues connect strongly to Bristol's divided landscape, underpinned by an unequal geography of socio-economic division and racial inequality. As such, the paper sees the further integration of "spatial justice" as a core tenet of energy justice as necessary to enhancing its explanatory power, concluding with a call for scholars and policymakers to further consider the visions and efforts of local and civil society energy activists in shaping just transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research on mining and climate change and associated impacts on water resources particularly for the developing world has been limitedly explored. Climate change is expected to make water insecurity in rural areas more severe as weather patterns become unfavourable. The extent to which the mining sector is able to reduce its impact on water resources and adapt to climate change will have implications for host communities. This paper explores the relationship between climate change, mining development and water security and how this places rural communities in a position of risk from mining development and climate change for water security. This paper focuses on the Fuleni and Somkhele rural communities located within the uMkhanyakude District Municipality in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, a climate change-induced water scarce area. Despite drought, mining operations continue. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from key social actors in the Fuleni community (i.e. residents opposing mining development) and with Somkhele residents (already burdening with mining operations). Additionally for Somkhele, a questionnaire was used to ascertain 424 household views on the impacts of climate variability and mining impacts on livelihoods and water. Results indicated an interplay between climate change, mining impacts and water (and food) security. Development must be implemented in an integrated and holistic manner that contributes to sustainable development and does not impact on water resources. Technological innovations related to water and energy and inter-sectoral collaborations must be prioritised between mining, the government, and civil society, to achieve water security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a methodological approach that acts as a tool for active change agents working in community and just transition contexts to increase their capacity to engage a wider public in planning. An innovative contribution is made to the literature through the development of a participatory action research (PAR) based approach to social network analysis using a participatory mapping method with relation to sustainable transitions. The method comprises a participatory network mapping approach, adapted from the Net-Map toolkit, which is applied to a multi-stakeholder approach to realising a regional sustainability transition in the Republic of Ireland. Dingle Peninsula 2030 is an initiative aiming to transition a geographic region in the South West of Ireland to a low-carbon society by 2030 across the sectors of energy, agriculture, transport, education, employment, marine and tourism. Due to the scope of the overall project, a diverse range of stakeholders are involved. The method developed is used to undertake a qualitative collaborative social network analysis. The paper focuses on method, by analysing and reflecting upon the use of this participatory approach, in the initial stages of the overall project, in addressing complex sustainability and just transition challenges as they are revealed through a multi-stakeholder approach. Within this, the themes of participatory justice, social learning and visualising complexity are explored; and benefits and future improvements are outlined through reflections from both the researcher and the participant community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to ensure environmental sustainability. Farm households and rural communities are significant producers of manure, crop residues or mixed solid waste daily. Waste management is an important issue in any society and is still a challenge for local authorities in many parts of the world. For many women involved in agriculture, assessing their role in farm and household waste management is essential. This paper seeks to understand the problem of SWM in rural communities and the role of women in its management using a case-series approach. The women who participated in the research reported several challenges regarding the disposal of waste, lack of awareness and information, burnout and degrading of their status and effects of community attitudes and social norms. Some reported the need for collective community efforts and commitment to manage waste in rural areas. Government agencies should introduce policies/schemes for better management. More than this, people should accept the situation and cooperate with existing institutions. Government should create landfill sites in rural areas, put dustbins in place and run programmes for changes in public behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban citizens increasingly need to adapt to climate risk. This is especially the case in informal settlements that have limited state engagement and are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Community-based adaptation (CBA) in the informal settlement has the potential to support the transformation that re-shapes power relations as well as reducing climate risk. This paper explores how multiscalar governance in Cape Town can either empower or undermine CBA to flooding in informal settlements. Drawing on urban political ecology, the analysis reveals significant tension around differing ideas of the temporality of informal settlements, as well as token community inclusivity in participatory planning processes. While everyday governance practices have been used by the City of Cape Town at the local scale, a local community-based organisation has used insurgent planning to envision and enact a more just city. A community designed and spear-headed reblocking process (rearranging shacks in a settlement to allow for flood drainage and service delivery) is a powerful example of CBA and represents the potential of community-based organisations to take steps towards transformative action. In order to enable more widespread urban transformative CBA, it is important to address the drivers of vulnerabilities and underlying power dynamics of political decision-making to destabilise the status quo and move towards real adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste is an urgent global challenge. Patterns of excessive resource consumption and disposal are causing immense environmental and social damage. This paper argues that solutions to the waste crisis must be intersectional – addressing the ways in which multiple, overlapping forms of oppression are embedded in resource consumption and the generation of waste. Existing approaches to reducing waste in the U.K. and other Global North contexts have largely failed to take such an approach, but we identify grassroots innovations as a movement which may be well positioned to confront waste challenges in an intersectional way. Drawing on 19 interviews with practitioners and experts in the field of Grassroots Waste Innovations (GWIs), as well as analysis of select documents relating to key waste prevention projects, the article investigates the extent to which GWIs are taking an intersectional approach, and what this looks like. The research finds that GWIs are not generally understood in an intersectional way, but some compelling examples can be found. Framings, project design, and coalition-building emerge as key features of an intersectional approach. However, there are also some significant constraining factors. These include concerns that placing too much emphasis on multiple political causes will be off-putting to participants, lack of capacity, unhelpful funding structures, and the risk of tokenising people from marginalised groups in an attempt to increase diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catastrophic extreme weather events are destructive, costly, and bring about significant harm and distress. As a consequence of a warming world, extreme weather is only expected to increase in intensity. Unravelling the ways that frontline communities, such as those in the Cook Islands, are experiencing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from, extreme events over time is vital to document, learn from, and share widely. This paper, drawing from 10 interviews with local Cook Islanders from both urban and remote settings, explores people's perspectives and experiences of, as well as responses to, extreme weather events, with a focus on droughts and cyclones. We found that the immediate devastation of cyclones and the chronic devastation of droughts has impacted participants in diverse ways, most of which take an emotional toll and affect people's abilities to meet household needs. These participant experiences with extreme weather events and the subsequent lessons that have transpired have led to the development of significant local knowledge and traditional coping strategies which enable anticipation, preparation, and adaptation. We highlight the ways that participants draw on cosmology, worldviews, and community resources for different courses of action in response to extreme weather. Tacit knowledge and endogenous spiritual and community resources offer Cook Islanders agency, hope and resilience in the face of climate change into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on fieldwork in rural Ireland to argue that environmental data can reinforce knowledge systems that shield structural problems and blunt efforts to rethink the role of community engagement in environmental governance. It offers a cautionary reading of how data has been instrumentalised by the EU and Irish State by showing how data diffuses responsibility and depoliticises environmental activism in cycles of funding and data collection. Since the 2000 Water Framework Directive, water governance in the European Union has increasingly relied upon extensive scientific, evidence-based decision-making and community and stakeholder involvement. We explore how these changes shape efforts to document and remediate water pollution. We expand upon Shapiro et al.'s (2018)'s "data treadmill" to understand how data rescales responsibility for pollution and its effects. The "data treadmill" gives name to cycles of data and funding that propel logics and strategies of environmental governance. We show how the data treadmill operates by perpetuating a narrative that effective action requires more precise data and evidence and solves questions of responsibility through bespoke approaches to environmental pollution. The data treadmill constrains communities through prevailing logics that surround data and environmental governance: communities become tied into European funding programmes that require, on one hand, the expertise of various professionals and consultants, on the other, place-based knowledge and social relationships to deliver innovative responses to structural problems. We offer a critical analysis of current institutional and policy in the EU and Ireland to highlight perils and contradictions of data-centric environmental governance as practiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban waterways as a subset of Nature-based solutions promote many functions, particularly in a warming climate by providing benefits for people and nature to adapt to critical social-ecological challenges. It has been widely suggested that a mechanism for unlocking those benefits is to promote active community involvement in governance. However, this practice is not widely adopted despite a common intention to do so. In this article, we review the evidence around such practices and why there is an intention-implementation gap. The review is based on analysis of 51 peer-reviewed scholarly works using a conceptual framework (Values, Rules, Knowledge) that has previously been applied to understand inertia in the adoption of climate adaptation practices. This framework provides an analytical lens to identify critical knowledge gaps by focusing firmly on factors that influence decision contexts. The review has revealed that whilst there are many academic papers outlining the hypothesised benefits of community involvement in urban waterways governance, there is much less detail about practices, risks, costs, or the lived experience of decision-makers. Nor is there much advice on the methods that can be used to implement the practice in a manner that effectively unlocks co-benefits. We argue that such evidence is urgently needed as it will allow the practice to be more widely adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faith communities are increasingly recognised as an important piece of civil society that can contribute to addressing difficult sustainability and environmental problems. This research investigates the environmental activities and engagement of faith leadership organisations in Canada, a region in which faith-based environmentalism has not been studied extensively. The paper traces the evolution of environmental engagement among a diverse, multi-faith group of communities, beginning with the entry into environmental work by some groups in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the years, some programmes have matured, others have faltered, programmes have adapted to address new environmental challenges, and new communities have entered into environmental discourse. The paper also analyses contemporary activities, which can be divided into formation activities, advocacy and activism, and practical actions. Formation activities, such as education and worship programmes, are the most common, and advocacy and activism are often the most contested form of engagement. These activities demonstrate a commitment to a holistic approach, to addressing underlying causes of environmental harm by transforming worldviews, and contributing to societal change through both practical actions and advocacy and activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market for local food has grown considerably over the course of thirty years. At the same time, even robust local food systems may reproduce injustices that have long marred corporatized food systems. In this paper, we explore the relationship of environmental justice to local food systems by asking two questions. First, are farmers markets (FMs) more likely to be found in wealthier, whiter communities? Second, are FMs providing people who are not members of socially privileged groups with an opportunity to buy food grown in accordance with organic principles? Drawing on survey data from FMs in New Jersey, we find that, although community demographics are strongly associated with FM location, social privilege is not associated with where organic farmers sell produce, once the lens of analysis is narrowed to just communities with an FM. But although food grown without agricultural chemicals is widely available at FMs in the study area, organic farmers who accept payment via WIC or SNAP are not more likely to sell at FMs in lower-income communities, and fewer organic farmers than non-organic farmers accept payment via WIC or SNAP. The presence of organic farmers at FMs in a wide range of communities suggests that expanding access to locally sourced fruits and vegetables may be able to play a small but not insignificant role in reducing exposure to agricultural chemicals. However, organic food would be more accessible at FMs in low-income communities if more organic farmers participated in nutrition assistance programmes like WIC and SNAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts are distributed unequally, despite affecting the entire world and its inhabitants. Economically, socially and culturally deprived groups are more vulnerable to climate change impacts. Women comprise the majority among these vulnerable groups, and it is, therefore, crucial to stress gendered perspectives in climate change adaptation strategies that promote gender equality and sustainable development. To that end, this paper documents the adaptation strategies employed by farmers and examines gender differences in climate change adaptation practices in Yunnan Province, China. A random sampling technique was used to select 1520 household heads for the survey. We used descriptive statistics and a multivariate probit model to document four categories of adaptation measures against a set of household features, social network, financial assets and perception variables. We discovered that female and male respondents do not significantly differ in their knowledge and perceptions of climate change, but female- and male-headed household respondents did differ in adopting climate change adaptation measures. The adaptation measures of female- and male-headed households were influenced by different sets of factors. The most significant determinant for both female- and male-headed households was perception of drought events in the last 20 years, followed by access to loans, while income from non-farm-based work had positive and significant impacts only for male-headed households. Findings from this study will help to elucidate the determinants of climate change adaptation decisions for female- and male-headed households in farming communities and the strategic interventions necessary for effective adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the circular economy discourse it is stressed that products ought to be repairable and that repair work is assumed to be growing. However, repair can be organised and performed in different ways – by corporate entities, independent repairers, laypersons and communities. Some corporations are integrating repair and maintenance into their offering, while simultaneously restricting consumers to open, repair or modify their products. In opposition to such developments, there is a movement for "right to repair", which works for consumers' legal rights to repair and modify products, pushing for the free availability of spare parts and manuals. Recent years have also seen a growth of repair cafés and other forms of DIY community repair spaces. This paper explores the discourses of DIY community repair through two Swedish case studies – an NGO-led nationwide repair campaign and a local government initiative of open DIY repair spaces. Our case studies show how DIY community repair works towards enabling all, particularly marginalised groups, to participate and live well in a low-impact future. In contrast to the mainstream circular economy discourse, the purpose of community repair is not only about repairing broken stuff and reducing waste, but about building social relations and practicing non-consumerist forms of citizenship. By elucidating these different perspectives on repair – who is to perform it, with what skills and for what purposes – we highlight how the transition to future, more circular economies, can be enacted and steered in ways that allow for different roles and powers for citizen-consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how institutions responsible for urban public spaces might promote more equitable access. Focusing on the Gujarati community in Leicester, UK it reveals multiple cultural sensitivities that are often not taken into consideration by institutions, even as they seek to enable participation. The research maps invisible boundaries which prevent ethnic minority communities accessing urban public spaces, including complex dynamics of ethnicity, caste and class. We suggest that considering how residents imagine boundaries traversing the urban environment, and how these bound them from others – including powerful institutions – explains why certain physical spaces and spaces of participation remain inaccessible to them. It finds institutional practices perpetuate these boundaries by not recognising such complexities and how they alter local participation. This research demonstrated that the perception of accessible spaces extends beyond distance and physical accessibility to a desire for power to shape those spaces. By critically examining the factors that delimit movement in space, this article extends understanding of access and participation, highlighting that the two are not in a straightforward linear or hierarchical relationship in which one precedes the other. Rather the two can be sought together, with participation a prerequisite for access. Secondly, effective participation does not just require power to be shared across the boundary between institution and "community" – it should also be distributed across the community, and traverse social boundaries within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban community gardens provide learning environments for diverse groups, including those who may be experiencing health and social inequalities such as residents in social housing communities. Learning to grow fresh food in safe social spaces provides individuals with opportunities to increase awareness of their personal wellbeing and community life. This paper reports on the findings of a research study that explored broader impacts of a community gardening programme on 42 adult residents living in social housing estates in Sydney, Australia. The mixed-methods study design captured participants' self-perceived benefits of community gardening across six new sites. A final sample of 23 participants across the sites completed both the Sense of Community Index 2 and the Personal Wellbeing Index questionnaires at pre- and post-test (following six to seven months of being involved in the programme). Focus groups involved 42 participants from all six sites. Perceived benefits included enhanced awareness of their overall health and wellbeing, new interest in growing fresh food, enjoyment of shared produce and recipes, feelings of happiness, frequent socialisation and community connectedness. The findings highlight the impactful role of community gardens as effective local learning environments that promote psychological wellbeing and community connection in underserved communities. We conclude by reinforcing the need for sustainable community gardens for addressing social inequality and promoting multiple psychosocial benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extraction of natural resources through mining creates land use conflicts, economic upheaval and environmental harm. Environmental governance is a system developed to allocate different decision making authority levels over environmental resources to different social actors to alleviate recognised environmental dilemmas. However, the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of environmental governance depends on participation of various stakeholders including the state, communities, businesses, and non-governmental organisations and, in countries with the history of colonialism like those in Africa, traditional institutions in regulatory processes. This paper assesses the interaction between traditional and modern institutions regarding environmental governance in mining and explores the potential for integration of the traditional and modern institutions to facilitate environmental governance of mining at the community level in Asutifi North District of Ghana. The case study design was used and a total of 52 respondents (29 households, 23 institutions) were interviewed. Even though the institutions had several fora for interaction, the traditional authorities were not effectively participating in higher levels of decision making in mining environmental governance. There was potential for the activities of the institutions to be integrated if the traditional institutions were given more representation and higher decision making authority in mining governance. Participation of traditional institutions in environmental impact assessment processes were in positions where they could only provide complaints and suggestions to the regulators, however the decision to license the mining and the distribution of the costs and benefits were taken by the state institutions, leading to community agitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutions are influential in mediating the impact of adaptation initiatives at the local level, yet there are disconnects between the goals of multi-scale planning initiatives and community priorities. Research to address this challenge primarily focuses on reform to formal institutions in environmental governance. Meanwhile, knowledge of the specific role informal institutions play in governance processes remains limited. This study increases understanding of the interactions between informal institutions and adaptation using a case study of the Native Village of Wainwright on Alaska's North Slope. Qualitative contextual analysis was employed to identify patterns of informal institution and adaptation associations in historic and contemporary situations in Wainwright. The Adaptation Institutional Analysis Framework developed in this paper extends Elinor Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and is used as a tool to analyse and describe these dynamics. Four primary findings resulted from this analysis (1) identification of informal institutions that have a bearing on adaptation to environmental change and adaptive capacity in Wainwright, (2) insight into how the identified institutions relate to each other and to different aspects of local adaptation, (3) identification of changes in informal institutions that have occurred over time and the potential implications of these changes for local adaptive capacity, and (4) potential opportunities to leverage knowledge of informal institution and adaptation relationships in targeted formal initiatives. The outcomes of this study contribute to an improved understanding of the function and potential of informal institutions in adaptation processes, the benefits of which extend beyond the local context of Wainwright. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based planned adaptation has become a popular vehicle for building the adaptive capacity of communities vulnerable to climate change. In the global south, planned adaptation interventions are often implemented by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with the support of bilateral and multilateral donors. This paper examines the influence of external agencies involved in funding, planning and implementation of community-based adaptation (CBA) initiatives in Bangladesh. We show that the principles of CBA are negatively impacted by top-down project design, simplistic notions of "community", lack of downward accountability and pressures to meet tight timeframes. We found that NGO-initiated CBA interventions tended to repeat the past mistakes of bottom-up approaches, primarily because of embedded institutional culture that inhibits the possibility of achieving socially just, effective and sustainable adaptation outcomes in Bangladesh. We argue that the automatic and normative attribution of NGO interventions as being "good" needs deconstructing to ensure that future initiatives are aligned with and prioritise community needs over external expectations. This requires flexible funding, planning and implementation structure for adaptation projects, which may forge new ways of engaging communities and locally led innovation to adapt to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Waste geographies have focused on informal waste-picking and the emergence of neoliberal waste regimes as responses to inadequate Household Solid Waste Management (HWSM) – exploring cost-benefit relationships, labour, and market dynamics, respectively. Less understood regarding reconfigurations of waste governance is the role and performance of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs) that have attempted to improve HSWM and recycling practices through Community-Based Recycling Interventions (CBRIs). Exploring the case of Wildlands Conservation Trust (WCT) "wastepreneur" initiative in rural and peri-urban communities in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, this study sought to critically assess the sustainability and labour dynamics of the intervention, highlighting its response to changing conditions. The project had initial successes in both facilitating and compensating pro-poor peri-urban waste-picking, generated high expectations and positively impacted recycling practices and perceptions in the process. After a point, however, the initiative experienced financial and institutional challenges which precipitated a restructuring of the initiative in line with prevailing recycling market dynamics – of which it had been naïve – and changing government labour funding; fostering a significant downscaling and disappointment on the part of participants. The findings highlight the limitations of CBRIs in hybrid governance contexts and with underdeveloped recycling markets, and the need for analysis that moves beyond critiques of neoliberalism to consider the ongoing role of the developmental state in local urban service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy security is a growing concern in the circumpolar Arctic. A growing number of Inuit and other Indigenous communities are seeking greater certainty in the sources of heat, electricity and fuel as well as alternatives to carbon-based energy systems. While top-down and large-scale approaches to renewable energy have been proposed, smaller-scale and community-based energy projects may produce greater economic and social benefits for local people, including Indigenous peoples in remote regions. Building on previous research on energy security in Indigenous and northern communities, this study shares insights about the opportunities and challenges of energy security in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (Canada). Twenty-three interviews with a range of community members, including elders and key informants from government and industry within Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk as well as Yellowknife, NT, highlight the energy priorities and motivations, as well as the state of community involvement in energy governance. A key challenge to improving energy security in the region stems from a perceived disconnect between the values and priorities of diverse actors and institutions involved in energy governance at the community, regional, territorial/federal levels. Recommendations include greater effort toward alignment between the many institutions, with the greatest consideration to those most vulnerable to energy insecurity at local scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is disrupting the fundamental conditions of human life and exacerbating existing inequity by placing further burdens on communities that are already vulnerable. Risk exposure varies by where people live and work. In this article, we examine the spatial overlap of the compound risks of COVID-19 and extreme heat in New York City. We assess the relationship between socio-demographic and natural, built and social environmental characteristics, and the spatial correspondence of COVID-19 daily case rates across three pandemic waves. We use these data to create a compound risk index combining heat, COVID-19, density and social vulnerability. Our findings demonstrate that the compound risk of COVID-19 and heat are public health and equity challenges. Heat and COVID-19 exposure are influenced by natural, built, and social environmental factors, including access to mitigation infrastructure. Socio-demographic characteristics are significant indicators of COVID-19 and heat exposure and of where compound vulnerability exists. Using GIS mapping, we illustrate how COVID-19 risk geographies change across the three waves of the pandemic and the particular impact of vaccinations before the onset of the third wave. We, then, use our compound risk index to assess heat interventions undertaken by the City, identify neighborhoods of both adequate and inadequate coverage and provide recommendations for future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaddi's are a tribal community, practicing transhumance in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Indian Himalayas. Transhumance is the seasonal movement (vertical movement) of people with their livestock between fixed higher pasture lands in summer and lower valleys in winter. Due to climate change, the livelihood security of the indigenous community is endangered. The current study explores the problems faced by the Gaddi community in the Chamba district, and how climate change is threatening the traditional transhumant lifestyle. To assess the pattern of climate change in the region, data pertaining to monthly average rainfall and temperature were collected from the India Meteorological Department and was analysed for trend analysis. The climatic data were divided into eight clusters and detailed season-wise analysis was done with the help of various statistical tests. Further, a primary survey of 46 households was conducted to assess the ground-level changes. Transhumance routes followed by the Gaddi community were mapped and overlaid on Land Use/Land Cover maps for the period between 1978 and 2018. The results show an increasing trend in the temperature coupled with declining trend in rainfall and a characteristic shift in the land use pattern over the period. The effect of change in the climate and land use pattern is reflected in the altered course of routes followed by the Gaddi's. The study indicates this livelihood practice is on the verge of extinction, special attention needs to be paid to this vulnerable indigenous tribal community for a resilient Himalayan ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the question of what constitutes the "social" in (social) sustainability. It applies a governmentality perspective and focuses especially on how social sustainability is understood in relation to the concepts of society and community. Furthermore, it investigates what social sustainability means, or could mean, in the specific context of water governance in South Africa – one of the most unequal countries in the world. This case study is based on original fieldwork in the country, conducted between 2017 and 2018. The theoretical exploration, together with the empirical study, demonstrate that there are two interrelated tensions between understandings of social sustainability, between approaches that place society/social cohesion in focus and those that emphasise community and between approaches that focus on basic needs and those that emphasise equal access. At stake here, between these different understandings, is the role of equity and to what extent social sustainability takes into account the situation of individuals and groups in relation to one another. Ultimately, the article raises the question of the (South African) elephant in the room: to what extent can large inequities between individuals and groups be accepted in a society considered to be (socially) sustainable? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated preexisting health-related social needs (HRSN) in communities already facing health disparities. Federally qualified health centres (FQHC) are well positioned to understand the unique needs of diverse communities and patients. This singular case study provides a novel look into one Massachusetts FQHC's experience addressing increased hunger and poverty in their patient population. Interviews with the FQHC staff and leadership explored perspectives on the centre's current practices to address food insecurity, barriers they face, and hopes for improving community health. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded using grounded theory methods. Participants were equivocal about whether food insecurity was the largest problem patients are facing. They rather emphasised the intersectional nature HRSN, including housing instability, occupational health hazards, and unemployment. Stigma associated with utilising social services, HRSN screening disruptions, and capacity limitations were barriers to addressing the community's needs. Participants highlighted the importance of patient agency; allowing patients to choose for themselves how and where they spend money to meet their health needs. The need to invest in community-centred and culturally sensitive solutions was also emphasised. Longer-term interventions, such as application assistance to federal nutrition assistance programmes, were highly favoured over emergency aid. Addressing the root causes of poverty and health disparities was recognised as essential to improving community health both during and after the pandemic. Findings highlight the importance of fostering trust and supporting community-centred and justice-oriented interventions that go beyond emergency assistance and individualised care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban heat is a growing problem, especially for vulnerable populations who are disproportionately exposed to higher temperatures. Adaptive capacity and, especially, social capital increases recovery from disasters and enhances adaptation. Social capital is declining nationwide and the Sunbelt States, with highest national temperatures, have the lowest levels of social capital. Social capital is situational and reflects a position within the formal and informal aspects of any issue, and frameworks developed for some purposes may not be relevant for others. Few have fully explored social capital's relation to heat vulnerability. There is a need to understand social capital in the context of urban heat to determine if it is present, used, enhanced or is a latent capacity. This research explores indicators and related questions for effective social capital for urban heat. This research was conducted in one of the hottest United States cities, metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona and, while the geographic and cultural context may be different, the findings have applicability to other warming urban centres. Using social capital as a lens to explore heat vulnerability and better metrics for urban heat social capital can inform policies that deepen networks and increase trust, minimise poor public health outcomes, and facilitate more effective community engagement. Effective social capital for extreme heat can provide a roadmap for decision-makers in working towards climate adaptation at the community scale by increasing their understanding of when and how to assist communities in building their capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study focuses on the extent of land cover change distribution, major livelihood activities and their effects on land cover in peri-urban Accra, using residents of Ablekuma, Agape and Gonse as a case study. The sustainable livelihood and human-environment system concepts were combined to study assets and livelihood strategies changes residents relied on for survival in the study communities. A mixed-method approach, using the cross-sectional and case study designs was applied in the study. Three hundred and thirty respondents answered questionnaires and 40 key informants, were interviewed in the communities. The main findings of the study were that the dominant land cover in the three communities had gone through changes over the years, from 1991 to 2018. The study concluded that there is a shift to other economic activities other than agriculture in the study communities. The study policy recommendation is that local assemblies should encourage residents to plant trees in their houses to improve the biodiversity of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A community-integrated geographic information systems (CIGIS) study assimilating qualitative and quantitative information about human exposures and health was conducted in Colfax, Louisiana, which hosts a commercial open burn/open detonation thermal treatment (TT) facility that destroys hazardous waste from Superfund sites, explosives, military ordnances, and propellants. Fifty-eight percent of residents identified as Black, and median annual income was $16,318, with 90% of the population living below the poverty line. We conducted oral history interviews of twenty-nine residents and mined public records to document the community's experiences. Interviews focused on themes of Colfax's history, changing community fabric, resident health, and air pollution. The oral histories and public comments by community members provided information about lived experiences, including several health conditions, toleration of noise and vibration, property damage, and resulting changes to activity levels. These statements provided insight into the extent of suffering experienced by the local community. We also ran dispersion models for dates in 2020 when the waste stream composition, mass, and burn/smoldering times were provided in the facility's public records. The dispersion models placed the air pollution at the homes of residents during some of the time, and waste stream records from the TT facility agree with community testimony about health effects based on the known health effects of those compounds. CIGIS integration of our community-based qualitative data and maps with quantitative air pollution dispersion model output illustrated alignment between community complaints of impacts to health and property, known toxicological information about waste stream compounds, and dispersion model output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public perceptions of fracking and natural gas have received significant scholarly attention recently. However, opinion research is scant with respect to natural gas export (the transport and sale of natural gas from one country to another via pipeline or ship) and its associated economic benefits and environmental risks. Understanding public views on export, particularly in places where export facilities are proposed, is important because the U.S. has rapidly increased its natural gas exports overseas in the wake of the shale revolution. Moreover, such facilities have been targeted by anti-fossil fuel and climate activists as a weak link in the chain of the fossil fuel economy, particularly on the U.S. West Coast where proposals for export terminals have proven unsuccessful. Using a web-based opinion survey in the state of Oregon (n = 500), we evaluate risk and benefit perceptions of natural gas export and the role of socio-demographic, political ideology, and place-based factors in shaping these perceptions. We find that men, conservatives, urban residents, and those who perceive that their community's economic identity is tied to extractive industries are less likely to perceive risks and more likely to perceive benefits from natural gas export. Respondents with a bachelor's degree and those who perceive that their community's economic identity is tied to renewable energy are more likely to perceive risks and less likely to perceive benefits. Whereas much of energy social science is focused on sites of extraction, our results contribute to the growing understanding of the social dimensions of energy export. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid waste management (SWM) has become a heavy burden in developing countries. In Africa, most urban centres consist of a large part of the waste produced by the inhabitants. This often becomes problematic and leads to poor SWM. South Africa faces the challenges of SWM that are mainly due to population growth and the lack of integrated programmes between local authorities and community members. It is in this context that this study focuses on the roles of local authorities and communities in SWM in Alexandra, Johannesburg, South Africa. Using a qualitative research methodology inspired by the traditional participatory research approach, it finds that a large proportion of urban areas face SWM problems, due to many factors. These factors include poor communication between community members and local authorities, lack of community participation, lack of local government strategies to involve the community, which complicates the situation. This study indicates that both stakeholders (the community and local authorities) do not play their roles sufficiently in the management of solid waste in Alexandra. As a result, the problem is too widespread and difficult to control, often being too costly for the community. The study highlights the importance of community participation in SWM to ease the burden on local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]