scholarly journals Modeling the Cascading Infrastructure Impacts of Climate Change

Eos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Wheeling

New research highlights how interdependences among infrastructure systems like roads can complicate climate adaptation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tendayi C. Garutsa ◽  
Chipo P. Mubaya ◽  
Leocadia Zhou

Background: Various studies on climate change treat men and women as unitary categories with contrasting needs. There is a dearth of studies which use a social inclusions lens to understand the impacts of climate change on gender. Other social markers that give an in-depth insight of the social differences within and between genders to the impacts of climate change are consequently ignored. Methods: Utilizing a mixed methods approach, this study aimed to explore and investigate the gendered crops grown as a climate adaptation strategy to respond to perennial droughts, increased temperatures and unreliable rainfall patterns amongst the Shona in Marondera rural district. Results: The findings indicated that social differences between gender lines like age, household types, income, education and employment status amongst other social variables produce differentiated vulnerabilities and potential opportunities towards climate adaptation. Conclusions: The main position advanced in this article is that treating gender as the primary cause of vulnerability produces a narrow analysis making other social markers (age, types of households, income and ethnicity) analytically invisible. This paper recommends a holistic and comprehensive analysis to inform climate change programming and policy frameworks. This would in turn address and improve climate adaptation strategies within and between genders which are often obscured to address the needs of all vulnerable members of a given economy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 899-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nithya Natarajan ◽  
Katherine Brickell ◽  
Laurie Parsons

An emerging body of work has critiqued the concept of climate adaptation, highlighting the structural constraints impeding marginalised communities across the Global South from being able to adapt. This article builds on such work through analysis of debt-bonded brick workers in Cambodia, formerly small farmers. It argues that the detrimental impacts of climate change experienced by farmers-turned-workers across the rural – urban divide is due to their precarity. In doing so, this article draws on a conceptualisation of precarity which recognises it as emerging from the specific political economy of Cambodia, and as something that is neither new, nor confined to conditions of labour alone. As such, in looking to precarity as a means of conceptualising the relations of power which shape impacts of climate change, we advance a ‘climate precarity’ lens as a means of understanding how adaptation to climate change is an issue of power, rooted in a specific geographical context, and mobile over the rural–urban divide.


Author(s):  
Feraldo D. Joffre ◽  
Berkley N. King Jr.

This study assessed the knowledge, concern and support of policy relative to climate change impacts of Grand Bahamians. Specifically the study assessed the awareness and concern of Grand Bahamians; examine the difference in participants’ awareness and concern of climate change impacts; analyze the factors that influence the awareness and concern of climate change impacts of participants; and assess the predictive ability of the Value Belief Norm Theory in relation to the participants’ intent to support policy for climate change issues. A survey questionnaire and focus group discussion were used for ata collection Findings showed that Grand Bahamians have a low level of scientific knowledge, a high level of concern regarding climate change and a strong intent to support policy for climate adaptation. Despite this low level of scientific knowledge, they have a developed experiential knowledge due to their frequent exposure to extreme climate events they perceive to be associated with climate change. The high level of concern influenced their desire to support policies aimed at adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kornél Németh ◽  
Nóra Hegedűsné Baranyai ◽  
András Vincze ◽  
Nikoletta Tóth-Kaszás ◽  
Erzsébet Péter

Abstract Although the issue of the coronavirus pandemic has temporarily overridden discussions on the impacts of climate change on tourism, they have not lost their relevance at all. The exposure of the tourism industry to these effects is indisputable. This study, conducted in 2019–2020, examined the perceptible impacts of climate change that generate further changes, and the issue of climate adaptation involving certain supply-side players in the tourism sector at the local and regional levels. In the questionnaire used to explore the topic, questions were asked about a number of perceptible phenomena and their effects on everyday life, recreational habits, and adaptation. The quantitative surveys involved 1,615 respondents from the Transdanubian region of Hungary (NUTS1/HU2). The results of the research clearly confirm that the problem of climate change is no longer a concern only for scientists, and although the different generations perceive and evaluate the phenomenon differently in many cases, it increasingly affects people’s everyday lives and recreational habits. The perceived effects experienced by the respondents clearly influence the enjoyment of certain tourism product groups (beach holidays, hiking, attending open-air events) and the comfort and satisfaction experienced by individuals.


2020 ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
Janis Sarra

Chapter 2 offers an analysis of the state of science and its direct implications for business. It explores how the physical impacts of climate change are already evident, discussing impacts on human health and well-being; on food security and food production systems; on the ecosystems of oceans, lands, and wetlands; and impacts on freshwater resources and on the cryosphere. The chapter examines the concept of climate tipping points and the implications for businesses. It also explores why mitigation is crucially important to reversing the negative impacts of climate change and discusses why climate adaptation is important and necessary, but not, in itself, sufficient to change the current trajectory of global warming. The chapter focuses particularly on what companies need to know about the current science on climate change.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T Kingsford ◽  
James E M Watson

Climate change is already affecting many of the world’s ecosystems with far-reaching impacts. In this special issue, contributors focus on the current and projected impacts of climate change across different geographical regions of Oceania (Australia, Pacific Islands and New Zealand). In this synthesis, we examine how climate change is affecting the three main realms: terrestrial, freshwater (broadly including estuarine and inland saline systems) and marine. Within this context, we also examine general strategies for climate adaptation including reducing other threats (e.g., habitat loss and degradation), expanding protected areas, increasing connectivity, restoring habitat and translocations. We show that many of these general strategies will not overcome all the threats caused by climate change and specific solutions are likely to be necessary. Beyond the implementation of these strategies, there are significant future challenges which will hamper effective adaptation that need to be overcome by the scientific community. Our current understanding of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity remains poor; this is particularly true for poor nations in the region. There is also considerable uncertainty in forecasts of climate change, particularly at the local scale, and this uncertainty impacts pro-active planning. This makes effective implementation particularly challenging. Considerable focus is needed into ecosystem-based adaptation where local communities are integrally involved, allied with more active and accountable management of conservation, through adaptive management processes. The world is experiencing far reaching and long-term changes to ecosystems with major impacts on human communities, particularly in relation to ecosystem services. Our ability to develop effective adaptation strategies from the broad scale policy (e.g., emissions control) to local scale management (e.g., building resilience in ecosystems) will be significantly tested but the world is in an important period and scientists and practitioners need to keep trying different approaches and reporting their successes and failures to the wider community.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael B. Schwebel

Abstract Pacific small island states (PSIS) currently experience harsh impacts of a changing climate: sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, internal migration and displacement. Are adaptation strategies based upon island-centric principles more successful than those originating from a more continental point of view? This research examined the principles of island-centric thinking using an island-centric lens by which to determine ‘successful’ climate adaptation planning. The findings illustrate a statistically significant relationship between PSIS that have higher nissological (island-centric) levels displayed within their climate change action plans (CCAPs) and CCAPs that were found to be more successful. In other words, highly nissological states are forecasted to be more successful in planning for the current and future impacts of climate change than those with lower nissological scores. In total, nissology explains approximately 28.37% of a PSIS's success. The policy relevance is rooted in the unique cultural, geographical, and social aspects of islands. Findings are applicable to other islands as well countries that share islander-based qualities. The methodological and quantitative-based areas of the study assist in forming policy-relevant determinations for island societies based on the climate-related parameters and metrics tested and evaluated herein.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samane Ghazali ◽  
Hossein Azadi ◽  
Mansoor Zibaei

Abstract Pastoralists’ livelihood on natural rangelands are constantly influenced by the destructive impacts of climate change. While the phenomenon of climate change continues on a widespread scale, it is expected to put more pressure on unfavorable rangelands and pastoral households whose livelihood source is only based on pastoralism activity. Thus, it is vital to reduce livelihood vulnerability of pastoralists to climate change impacts through appropriate adaptation strategies. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to specify the compatibility of adaptation strategies adopted by pastoralists with their livelihood vulnerability patterns. The evaluation was based on a spatial survey that was conducted with a random sample of 393 Iranian pastoralists distributed in the counties of Eghlid, Sepidan, and Shiraz in the northern Fars province. The results showed that pastoralists were commonly vulnerable in terms of the high-risk exposure and low adaptive capacity. About 27 livelihood vulnerability patterns were detected using data mining based on the relationships among the sub-components of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptation in 3 counties. The scores of the livelihood vulnerability were high in most of the livelihood vulnerability patterns. Only 4 patterns obtained the relatively low vulnerability scores through accurate decisions on adopting the appropriate set of adaptation strategies. According to the low compatibility of adaptation strategies with the corresponding vulnerability patterns, the results of this study can assist pastoralists to adopt appropriate adaptation strategies and thus, decrease livelihood vulnerability to climate change. In this regard, it is suggested that pastoralists in each vulnerability pattern adopt appropriate adaptation strategies according to their vulnerability sub-components.


Author(s):  
Alice C. Hill

The catastrophic risks of pandemics and climate change carry deep uncertainty as to when they will occur, how they will unfold, and how much damage they will do. The most important question is how these risks can be faced to minimize them most. This book draws on the troubled and uneven COVID-19 experience to illustrate the critical need to ramp up resilience rapidly and effectively on a global scale. It exposes parallels between the underutilized measures that governments should have taken to contain the spread of COVID-19—such as early action, cross-border planning, and bolstering emergency preparation—and the steps leaders can take now to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Through practical analyses of current policy and thoughtful guidance for successful climate adaptation, the book reveals that, just as society has transformed itself to meet the challenge of coronavirus, so too will the thinking and policies need to be adapted to combat the ever-increasing threat of climate change.


Author(s):  
Pushp Bajaj ◽  
Chime Youdon

The ever-growing impacts of climate change such as extreme heat, more frequent heavy precipitation events, intensifying tropical revolving storms, and sea level rise continue to pose major threats to India’s critical maritime infrastructure. As the country moves towards its ambition of becoming a leading Blue Economy of the world, a wide range of initiatives have been taken by the central and state governments to expand the maritime sector with a specific focus on the transport sector. However, there is little emphasis being paid on protecting the existing and planned seaport infrastructure against the deleterious impacts of climate change. None of the major ports in India have a dedicated climate action strategy and climate adaptation finds no mention in the policy documents pertaining to the maritime transport sector. In this context, this paper aims to highlight the need for a comprehensive, holistic and dynamic climate change adaptation strategy for India’s port infrastructure including support infrastructure and supply chains. The adaptation strategy, at the individual ports’ level and the national level, must be preceded by rigorous risk assessment studies to identify and prioritise the major challenges arising from climate change at the local level. The paper draws upon international best practices in climate risk assessments and adaptation measures to provide a way forward for Indian ports


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