The Postgraduate programme “Environmental Conservation and Management” and the Terrestrial Ecosystems Management Lab – Temlab of the Open University of Cyprus (OUC) is honored to host Associate Professor Yaser Abunnasr of the Metropolitan Landscape Laboratory of the American University of Beirut in the context of the Erasmus+ International Mobility Programme for a short teaching programme. Under this framework, Associate Professor Abunnasr will give an online talk entitled “Adapting Urban Regions to Climate Change” on Wednesday April 6, 2022, at 18:00 (GMT+3, CY Local time) through the OUC eLearning Platform at this weblink: https://bit.ly/3uKZJFq
Adaptation cities to climate change has gained prominent place in the latest IPCC report of 2022 with a string focus on ecosystem based adaptation. For the past five years, the Metropolitan Landscape Laboratory has been conducting research on the use and implementation of green infrastructure and nature based-solutions, both sub-categories of ecosystem based adaptation. The research approach combines applied and social science to integrate land, people, and governance to enable the sustainable and resilient planning of cities for climate change adaptation. This presentation will provide an overview of the latest climate change findings with a focus on the past and current work completed on the subject with specific focus on addressing the urban heat island and its interactions with climate change.
Dr. Yaser Abunnasr is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and environmental planning at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He is the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Department Head of the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management and Program Landscape coordinator of the Landscape Architecture Program, the first accredited program by the ASLA outside the USA worldwide. He is also a senior research fellow at UCL, UK. He is trained as an architect, landscape architect and a planner and holds degrees in all fields. His research and practice is on adaption to climate change in cities ecosystems, and cultural landscapes with a focus on ecosystem-based adaptation approaches. He is the co-author of the book “Planning for Climate Change: A Reader in Green infrastructure and Sustainable Design for Resilient Cities”. Dr. Abunnasr is currently working on the urban heat island (a local climate change phenomenon) and its implications to retrofitting cities with adaptation measures that account for social inequities. He is the founder of the Metropolitan Landscape Laboratory at AUB. Dr. Abunnasr lectures internationally, published widely, and continues to advise masters and PhD students on related topics.