Fig. 1: Governance of Urban Social-Ecological-Technological Systems.

a Dependencies across time and space. Shocks and stressors have the potential to impact one or all elements of the SETS across spatial scales, and determine the evolution of the urban system (arrow ‘Temporal Dynamics’). Figure adapted from¹⁷⁵. b Embedded Governance: Embedded actors and SETS elements interact to shape the governance of urban SETS, negotiate the interfaces of the SETS elements, and coordinate transformation processes towards sustainability across spatial and temporal scales. We focus on three interacting elements of particular importance: (1) Equitable and reliable access to resources in urban areas (‘Provision of goods and services’). These are an important basis for urban livelihoods and for inclusive social, economic, and political processes to take place. (2) The interactions of bottom-up processes and economic activities with top-down efforts by government actors (‘Bottom-up and top-down processes’). A balance between ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ dynamics can enable local innovation and experimentation to result in systemic transformations. (3) ‘Power-relations among actors’ determine the choice of policies, the distribution of resources and social influence, and thus, the trajectories of urban SETS. Arrows in (a) and (b) represent the embeddedness of governance.