Hermosillo UREx Synthesis

 

Hermosillo UREx City Team: Lupita Peñuñuri Soto, Eduardo Hinojosa Robles, Carolina Espinoza, Agustin Robles-Morua, Carmen Isela Ortega Rosas, Diana Meza-Figueroa, Alan Navarro-Navarro

Research Fellows and Interns: Vivian Verduzco, Javier Navarro Estupiñan, Fernando Tandazo Bustamante, Efrain Vizuete Jaramillo, Yuliya Dzuyuban, Jason Sauer, Elana Berlin, Josefina Campoy-Rivera, Marco Antonio Martinez Ramirez, Juan Icedo Palacios, Juan Grijalva Delgado, Alvaro Corral Quintanar
 

Co-Producing Futures and Anticipatory Capacities

The first workshop on future visions for sustainability and resilience to climate change and extreme events was held in Hermosillo on November 6, 2017. During the workshop, approximately 60 practitioners, managers, decision makers, civic and community organization leaders, designers and professors from different institutions shared and developed adaptive scenarios to extreme events and to build transforming scenarios for visions of the future that seek to radically change the city’s infrastructure. Six future scenarios were produced for Hermosillo for the year 2080, including: Smart Urban Development, Mobility and Transportation, Water Security, Safe City, Economic Innovation and Competitiveness and Environmental Health.

The following products from the workshop describe the future visions co-produced for Hermosillo:

• A report (in English and Spanish) summarizing the main goals and strategies for each scenario
• Objectives and strategies of each scenario
• Land use and land cover models for the six scenarios
• Visualizations for the six scenarios
• Pictures of the workshop
• Plenary presentation

 

Extreme heat analyses

Since the start of the UREx SRN, trends of maximum temperatures, heat days, and heat waves were analyzed using historical data from 27 official climate stations located along the state of Sonora, México, including two stations located inside of the urban limits for the city of Hermosillo. Data were used to generate future scenarios and subsequently compared with six downscaled general circulation models (CNRM-CM5, CSIRO Mk3.6.0, HadGEM2-CC, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR and IPSL CM5A-MR) under low and high radiative scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). Results of this work indicate that climate stations in Sonora have exhibited increases in the number of heat days and heat waves in the historical record. Statistical and model-based projections indicate that these trends will continue in the future up to 2060, with less moderate increases and high uncertainty noted for the different scenarios of the downscaled models (Navarro-Estupinan et al., 2018).

Based on the frequency, duration and intensity of heat days and heat waves analyzed in the study of Navarro-Estupinan et al. (2018) a heat field campaign was launched during Summer 2017 in collaboration with the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab (Portland State University) with the purpose of mapping spatial variations of heat throughout the city during the hottest months of the year at different times of the day (morning, afternoon and evening).

Heat maps were related with social variables such as gender, age, marital status, education and health performing a time stability analysis through remote sensing data from LandSat 8 (Navarro-Estupinan et al., 2020). Initial results of this study were included in the heat prevention campaign over Summer 2018.

Finally, during the Summer 2019, a heat perception and thermal comfort of public transit riders study was launched. This project evaluated 1) microclimate conditions and thermal comfort of bus riders at bus-stops, 2) public transit system stakeholder perceptions about the system functioning and heat as one of the challenges, and 3) thermal conditions inside the old and new buses with and without A/C. This project was done in close collaboration with professors and a team of undergraduate and graduate students from ITSON and UES, and support from IMPLAN. In the project folder is available information about bus stops, selected sites, inside bus temperatures and preliminary results report (Spanish).

 

Flooding mapping

During the summer of 2019, results of the blue spots model was verified and explored through interviews and participatory mapping exercises of 88 people across 6 neighborhoods of the city. Participatory mapping was used to compare locations where participants have experienced flooding to the locations where the blue spot model estimates as being at risk of flooding. Further, these participatory mapping results were compared to flood risk zones that were identified through the use of a rational method model and on-site evaluations of flood damages by a local private engineering firm. The interviews sought to record the kinds of damages people suffered from the flooding they identified, as well as their perceptions of the level of danger that flooding posed to people in the neighborhood. Results of this project includes maps and presentations.

 

Knowledge systems

The purpose of this study was to evaluate data sharing and communication processes between different stakeholders on extreme climatic events (Tandazo et al., 2019). The results allowed identification of the perceptions about what are the extreme climatic events of greatest concern and opinions of the main strategies to face it. Including the types and source of knowledge that stakeholders use to make decisions in the face of climate change. Recognizing the main organizations that work as source/producers of knowledge (poster).

 

Air Quality

Vizuete-Jaramillo et al. (2019) worked on the spatial distribution of heavy metals in urban dust under the influence of the North American Monsoon. In this study, 35 schools’ ceilings were analyzed to generate maps of calcium, chromium, iron, lead and copper.

 

Potential sites of green infrastructure

In this project, strategically planned green infrastructure sites were identified to provide environmental, social and economical benefits. Official green areas of the city were ranked for the implementation of new green infrastructure based on multiple ecosystem services such as attenuation of atmospheric deposition of urban dust through adsorption to soils, recharge of the urban aquifer, protection against flooding and protection against extreme heat. This study was financed by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The following products were obtained with this project:

–        Final report (Spanish)

–        Poster presented in 2019 All Hands Meeting

 

Hermosillo 2080: Scenarios Workshop II

The second workshop was held in Hermosillo on February 27 of 2020. During the workshop, approximately 60 practitioners, managers, decision makers, civic and community organization leaders, designers, professors and students from different institutions share and re-define the strategies of future transforming bundles: sponge city, intelligent urban development, quality of natural resources, multimodal inclusive efficient transportation, equitable health and safety, water conservation, alternative energy systems, innovation spaces, city empowerment and creating a new culture, circular economy and zero waste.

The following products from workshop II describe the future visions co-produced for Hermosillo:

–        A report summarizing the main goals and strategies for each scenario (English and Spanish version).

–        Strategies of each bundle.

–        RESQ posters

–        Renders of each bundle.

–        Pictures of the workshop.