Our cities, and the systems that support them, have not been designed to address the FWE nexus. There exist gaps in awareness of the role and impacts of climate change. Improving communication among stakeholders with the support of scientific evidence is the key to narrowing the gaps. This book approached this issue with a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary moveable nexus approach through the lens of FEW nexus under the project of the Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative of Belmont Forum. It presents a collection of evidence/science-based planning decisions and participatory practices by using Tokyo as the focal area. It visualizes the stock and flow of the Food-Water-Energy (FEW) supporting the worlds largest metropolitan area, explores how the actors have worked together to secure the resilience and sustainability of resources, and demonstrates the potential of resources in making the city adaptive to climatic and social changes. It is designed for researchers in urbanization, nexus research, urban design research, environment, disaster risk reduction, and climate change studies, and can be used as a textbook for university courses. It is also a useful tool for practitioners and policymakers in applying collective knowledge to policy and decision-making
Abstract The changes in climatic conditions and their associated impacts are contributing to a worsening of existing gender inequalities and a heightening of women's socioeconomic vulnerabilities in South Africa. Using data collected by research methods inspired by the tradition of participatory appraisals, we systematically discuss the impacts of climate change on marginalized women and the ways in which they are actively responding to climate challenges and building their adaptive capacity and resilience in the urban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We argue that changes in climate have both direct and indirect negative impacts on women's livelihoods and well-being. Less than one-half (37%) of the women reported implementing locally developed coping mechanisms to minimize the impacts of climate-related events, whereas 63% reported lacking any form of formal safety nets to deploy and reduce the impacts of climate-induced shocks and stresses. The lack of proactive and gender-sensitive local climate change policies and strategies creates socioeconomic and political barriers that limit the meaningful participation of women in issues that affect them and marginalize them in the climate change discourses and decision-making processes, thereby hampering their efforts to adapt and reduce existing vulnerabilities. Thus, we advocate for the creation of an enabling environment to develop and adopt progendered, cost-effective, transformative, and sustainable climate change policies and adaptation strategies that are responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups (women) of people in society. This will serve to build their adaptive capacity and resilience to climate variability and climate change–related risks and hazards.
Agro-pastoralists of Bobirwa sub-district depend mainly on rain-fed agriculture as a source of their livelihood. However, this agro-pastoralism is affected by climatic variability. Advanced warning of upcoming weather information is, therefore, important in informing farming decisions. Traditional weather forecasting is often a major planning tool used to inform agro-pastoralists' decision making and has been handed from one generation to another. For instance, local knowledge indicators are used to determine onset of rainfall and quality of the rainfall expected. However, there are numerous factors that may have affected the effective use of and dependence on traditional weather forecasting over the years. For this reason, it is critical to examine the current state and use of traditional weather forecasting among the agro-pastoralists. This thesis describes the traditional weather forecasting that agro-pastoralists in Bobirwa sub-district Botswana hold and use in planning for agricultural activities to cope with climate variability. It also examines changes that have been observed in the use of traditional weather forecasting over time. By exploring the knowledge used to generate early warning systems and coping strategies to climate variability of agro-pastoralists, we examine underlying vulnerabilities and resilience possibilities. Data was collected through purposively selecting a total of 101 agro-pastoralists who were further stratified by age and gender. The following qualitative techniques were used in data collection: semi-structured interviews (54 interviewees constituting 37 forecasters and 17 non-forecasters), focus group discussions (47 participants consisting of between 4 and 12 participants), and key informant interviews (11 forecasters who use multiple indicators). The snowballing technique was the main sampling strategy. Knowledgeable traditional forecasters in FGD's were used to identify key informants with whom semi-structured interviews were conducted. All data was analysed using the thematic analysis method. Data was constructed using a cyclical process to generate themes which consisted of the initialisation (capturing participants' accounts), construction of themes, relating the themes and developing results. From the study, it was found that male and female elderly agro-pastoralists in Bobirwa are more knowledgeable about traditional weather forecasting and use the traditional weather forecasting techniques to inform their decisions, while the less-knowledgeable adults and youth expressed having limited use of traditional weather forecasting in decision making. There were also differences in the use of specific traditional indicators based on the positionality of an individual in the society as well as age and gender. While the participants indicated that traditional weather forecasting is a reliable technique, climate change is believed to have resulted in unpredictable trends in recent years. For example, excessive floods, patchy and reduced rainfall, extensive heat spells with no specific patterns, changes in biological indicators, and thus, present a challenge to these agro-pastoralists. In all, traditional weather forecasting remains a cultural artefact in the community and will always be practised by the agro-pastoralists. However, many elements threaten the existence of the traditional weather forecasting such as the death of custodians of knowledge, the disruptive nature of climate change, youth migration to cities and the ubiquity of modern practices. Further to this, the prevalence of modern practices, for example Christianity, is transforming the use and beliefs of individuals in traditional weather forecasting leading to reduced intergenerational transfers of the traditional weather forecasting. It is prudent to expect that as cultural practices change within societies, cognisant of the fact that culture is dynamic, it is also expected that the use of traditional weather forecasting will change. It should, however, not be construed that the changes in the use of traditional weather and seasonal forecasting are an indication of the unreliability of traditional indicators, but inability of individuals to forecast. In turn, the study recommends the conservation of the traditional weather forecasting and traditionally important biological indicators. This can be promoted through documentation and teaching of traditional weather and seasonal forecasting techniques in conventional educational programmes. Alongside this, integration of traditional and scientific weather forecasting could be used to develop national policies to facilitate effective drought and flood coping strategies that are inclusive and aimed at limiting the traditional weather forecasting knowledge gap among agro-pastoralists of different age and gender groups. Interventions by the government can be redirected to traditional leaders or elders who bear extensive knowledge on traditional weather indicators to create awareness and facilitate knowledge exchange especially in aiding agro-pastoralists to cope with climate variability. Also, for those who are sceptical of traditional weather forecasting, the use of religious gatherings of different denominations can be an option to facilitate awareness raising of coping strategies that can be explored to reduce vulnerability amongst this group of agro-pastoralists by teaching them to adapt to the changing weather using local knowledge.
"'Design for a Radically Changing World' brings to light the impact of design on our everyday lives and offers innovative ways that design can help address some of the world's most pressing issues and urgent crises. From rethinking the future of work and the integration of live/work/play in our daily lives, to addressing climate change and revitalizing our urban cores, design can bring people together, elevate the human experience, and provide hope for the future. Reflecting on decades of design experience and offering unique case studies, Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins, co-CEOs of Gensler, uncover the design solutions impacting our lives and offer actionable advice for business leaders, designers, and all people, to embrace the power of design to create a better world for all"--
In Punjab, the continuous floods in the last six years especially in 2010 and 2014, due to climatic and non-climatic reasons, have exposed physical, socio-economic, and environmental vulnerabilities. The flood disaster management in Punjab is primarily focused on rescue, relief, and dependence of structural measures. The assessment of vulnerability is limited to district level (in form of mapping) which is incapable of identifying essential socio-economic drivers of vulnerability and local ability to cope and adapt. The mega flood of 2010 inflicted several changes in government structure and within communities. This research study assessed the vulnerability and capacity of flood affected communities as well as fluctuation in their vulnerability and capacity by analyzing planned and unplanned post flood responses. The study also determined the role of spatial planning in reducing flood vulnerabilities. To conduct the study, a vulnerability assessment framework was modified from sustainable livelihood and BBC framework. Qualitative and quantitative analysis and their triangulation were conducted to apprehend the pertaining issues. Interviews with officials of disaster management and spatial planning institutes were conducted to analyze changes after 2010 flood and government interventions. Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) for two flood events (2010 and 2014) and household survey provided the vulnerability and capacity assessment of four flood affected communities in two severely affected districts (Jhang and Muzaffargarh) of Punjab. The results indicated that government interventions were limited to financial aid and early warning. These measures remained victim to political biasness, mismanagement, and lack of coordination and communication between departments. Other formal changes (legislation, policies, plans etc.) seemed to be less effective due to top-down approach, lack of technical man power; disaster management knowledge and financial constraints. Spatial planning appeared ineffective in mitigating flood risk as it was limited to urban areas and deficient incorporation of DRR measures in development plans. The results of PRA and household survey indicated that vulnerability of immovable assets increased or remained the same after 2014 flood disaster, but reduced significantly for moveable assets. Complex relationships existed within and between various dimensions of vulnerability that fluctuated vulnerability of related elements and factors. These relationships demonstrated that lack of physical infrastructure and awareness were the key drivers of vulnerability in Punjab.
Due to the combined inertia of the climatic and socio-economic systems, policymakers cannot avoid making early decisions on climate mitigation "in a sea of uncertainties", even though the very legitimacy of economic analysis to address equity issues (who pays for climate mitigation, and when) faces widespread skepticism. This thesis aims at demonstrating that public economics remains a powerful tool to (i) assess the consistency of the various discourses relative to climate mitigation, (ii) provide robust insights into climate decisions, and thus (iii) try and put some rationale into the debate. We use a set of compact integrated climate policy optimization models to articulate and numerically assess the prominent issues at stake. Our analysis yields three main results. We first demonstrate that the trade-off between present and future efforts cannot be reduced to the controversy over the value of the discount rate. Under uncertainty, in fact, the margins of freedom we bequeath to future generations—notably the technical and institutional systems we transmit to them—prove more important for short-term decision than the value of the discount rate. Secondly, we model various quota allocation rules proposed in the literature to enlarge Annex B to developing economies, and show that their distributive outcome critically depends on ex ante assumptions about future economic and emissions growth. A careful design of the institutions surrounding the tradable permits market to smooth out sensitivity to economic and emissions paths is thus a necessary condition to enhance the system's negotiability and robustness. Last, this thesis illustrates the complementarity between ethics and economics: though economists do not have any particular legitimacy to say what is fair or just, their toolbox is powerful enough to show how intuitively appealing ideas—such as a zero discount rate to take care of both present and future generations alike, or an equal per capita allocation of emissions quota—may sometimes lead to very questionable outcomes. ; Alors même que les incertitudes sur l'effet de serre sont loin d'être résolues, l'inertie du système climatique nous interdit d'attendre avant de prendre une décision en matière d'effet de serre: il nous faut décider " sous controverses ". Dans un tel contexte, la légitimité même de l'économiste à examiner une double question d'équité spatiale (qui paye pour le climat ?) et temporelle (quand ?) est remise en cause. L'objet de cette thèse est de montrer que le calcul économique reste néanmoins un outil opératoire pour révéler des éléments de cohérence robustes face à l'incertitude, et aider ainsi à mettre un peu de rationalité dans le débat public. Une série de modèles d'optimisation des politiques climatiques nous permet d'introduire progressivement, d'articuler et d'évaluer numériquement ces différentes questions. Nous obtenons trois résultats principaux. En premier lieu, nous montrons que l'arbitrage entre court terme et long terme ne saurait se réduire au seul débat sur la valeur du taux d'actualisation. Sous incertitudes, les marges de manoeuvre que nous offrons à nos descendants, via les systèmes techniques ou institutionnels que nous leur laissons en héritage, se révèlent en effet tout aussi importantes. Ensuite, négocier l'entrée des pays du sud dans les politiques climatiques avec des règles d'allocation des quotas d'émissions apparaît difficile tant leurs conséquences dépendent des anticipations sur la croissance économique future. Rendre le système robuste impose un encadrement institutionnel du marché de permis d'émissions négociables. Enfin, cette thèse illustre la complémentarité entre éthique et économie: si l'économie n'a pas à définir ce qui est équitable, le calcul économique permet de montrer comment des raisonnements intuitivement justes, comme annuler le taux d'actualisation pour ne pas pénaliser les générations futures, ou allouer les quotas d'émissions au prorata de la population, peuvent en fait avoir des implications particulièrement discutables.
Due to the combined inertia of the climatic and socio-economic systems, policymakers cannot avoid making early decisions on climate mitigation "in a sea of uncertainties", even though the very legitimacy of economic analysis to address equity issues (who pays for climate mitigation, and when) faces widespread skepticism. This thesis aims at demonstrating that public economics remains a powerful tool to (i) assess the consistency of the various discourses relative to climate mitigation, (ii) provide robust insights into climate decisions, and thus (iii) try and put some rationale into the debate. We use a set of compact integrated climate policy optimization models to articulate and numerically assess the prominent issues at stake. Our analysis yields three main results. We first demonstrate that the trade-off between present and future efforts cannot be reduced to the controversy over the value of the discount rate. Under uncertainty, in fact, the margins of freedom we bequeath to future generations—notably the technical and institutional systems we transmit to them—prove more important for short-term decision than the value of the discount rate. Secondly, we model various quota allocation rules proposed in the literature to enlarge Annex B to developing economies, and show that their distributive outcome critically depends on ex ante assumptions about future economic and emissions growth. A careful design of the institutions surrounding the tradable permits market to smooth out sensitivity to economic and emissions paths is thus a necessary condition to enhance the system's negotiability and robustness. Last, this thesis illustrates the complementarity between ethics and economics: though economists do not have any particular legitimacy to say what is fair or just, their toolbox is powerful enough to show how intuitively appealing ideas—such as a zero discount rate to take care of both present and future generations alike, or an equal per capita allocation of emissions quota—may sometimes lead to very questionable outcomes. ; Alors même que les incertitudes sur l'effet de serre sont loin d'être résolues, l'inertie du système climatique nous interdit d'attendre avant de prendre une décision en matière d'effet de serre: il nous faut décider " sous controverses ". Dans un tel contexte, la légitimité même de l'économiste à examiner une double question d'équité spatiale (qui paye pour le climat ?) et temporelle (quand ?) est remise en cause. L'objet de cette thèse est de montrer que le calcul économique reste néanmoins un outil opératoire pour révéler des éléments de cohérence robustes face à l'incertitude, et aider ainsi à mettre un peu de rationalité dans le débat public. Une série de modèles d'optimisation des politiques climatiques nous permet d'introduire progressivement, d'articuler et d'évaluer numériquement ces différentes questions. Nous obtenons trois résultats principaux. En premier lieu, nous montrons que l'arbitrage entre court terme et long terme ne saurait se réduire au seul débat sur la valeur du taux d'actualisation. Sous incertitudes, les marges de manoeuvre que nous offrons à nos descendants, via les systèmes techniques ou institutionnels que nous leur laissons en héritage, se révèlent en effet tout aussi importantes. Ensuite, négocier l'entrée des pays du sud dans les politiques climatiques avec des règles d'allocation des quotas d'émissions apparaît difficile tant leurs conséquences dépendent des anticipations sur la croissance économique future. Rendre le système robuste impose un encadrement institutionnel du marché de permis d'émissions négociables. Enfin, cette thèse illustre la complémentarité entre éthique et économie: si l'économie n'a pas à définir ce qui est équitable, le calcul économique permet de montrer comment des raisonnements intuitivement justes, comme annuler le taux d'actualisation pour ne pas pénaliser les générations futures, ou allouer les quotas d'émissions au prorata de la population, peuvent en fait avoir des implications particulièrement discutables.
Due to the combined inertia of the climatic and socio-economic systems, policymakers cannot avoid making early decisions on climate mitigation "in a sea of uncertainties", even though the very legitimacy of economic analysis to address equity issues (who pays for climate mitigation, and when) faces widespread skepticism. This thesis aims at demonstrating that public economics remains a powerful tool to (i) assess the consistency of the various discourses relative to climate mitigation, (ii) provide robust insights into climate decisions, and thus (iii) try and put some rationale into the debate. We use a set of compact integrated climate policy optimization models to articulate and numerically assess the prominent issues at stake. Our analysis yields three main results. We first demonstrate that the trade-off between present and future efforts cannot be reduced to the controversy over the value of the discount rate. Under uncertainty, in fact, the margins of freedom we bequeath to future generations—notably the technical and institutional systems we transmit to them—prove more important for short-term decision than the value of the discount rate. Secondly, we model various quota allocation rules proposed in the literature to enlarge Annex B to developing economies, and show that their distributive outcome critically depends on ex ante assumptions about future economic and emissions growth. A careful design of the institutions surrounding the tradable permits market to smooth out sensitivity to economic and emissions paths is thus a necessary condition to enhance the system's negotiability and robustness. Last, this thesis illustrates the complementarity between ethics and economics: though economists do not have any particular legitimacy to say what is fair or just, their toolbox is powerful enough to show how intuitively appealing ideas—such as a zero discount rate to take care of both present and future generations alike, or an equal per capita allocation of emissions quota—may sometimes lead to very questionable outcomes. ; Alors même que les incertitudes sur l'effet de serre sont loin d'être résolues, l'inertie du système climatique nous interdit d'attendre avant de prendre une décision en matière d'effet de serre: il nous faut décider " sous controverses ". Dans un tel contexte, la légitimité même de l'économiste à examiner une double question d'équité spatiale (qui paye pour le climat ?) et temporelle (quand ?) est remise en cause. L'objet de cette thèse est de montrer que le calcul économique reste néanmoins un outil opératoire pour révéler des éléments de cohérence robustes face à l'incertitude, et aider ainsi à mettre un peu de rationalité dans le débat public. Une série de modèles d'optimisation des politiques climatiques nous permet d'introduire progressivement, d'articuler et d'évaluer numériquement ces différentes questions. Nous obtenons trois résultats principaux. En premier lieu, nous montrons que l'arbitrage entre court terme et long terme ne saurait se réduire au seul débat sur la valeur du taux d'actualisation. Sous incertitudes, les marges de manoeuvre que nous offrons à nos descendants, via les systèmes techniques ou institutionnels que nous leur laissons en héritage, se révèlent en effet tout aussi importantes. Ensuite, négocier l'entrée des pays du sud dans les politiques climatiques avec des règles d'allocation des quotas d'émissions apparaît difficile tant leurs conséquences dépendent des anticipations sur la croissance économique future. Rendre le système robuste impose un encadrement institutionnel du marché de permis d'émissions négociables. Enfin, cette thèse illustre la complémentarité entre éthique et économie: si l'économie n'a pas à définir ce qui est équitable, le calcul économique permet de montrer comment des raisonnements intuitivement justes, comme annuler le taux d'actualisation pour ne pas pénaliser les générations futures, ou allouer les quotas d'émissions au prorata de la population, peuvent en fait avoir des implications particulièrement discutables.
Local communities are conscious of changing climatic conditions, the main variables, and their impacts on human livelihood requirements. This study describes the local community members' perception of rainfall scarcity and its impact on water and food resources. Semi-structured interviews with a sample of 150 participants produced data about the perceptions of rainfall scarcity, its main variables and the impacts on water and food resources. The health impacts of poor status water resources and poor production of subsistence crops involve lack of reliable water provision for household consumption, and malnutrition and poverty as a result of subsistence crop production. A major recommendation from the study is an exploration of coping, adapting, and building the resilience capacities of local communities towards the impacts of climate change on water and food resources.
In: Asekomeh , A , Azubuike , S I & Gershon , O 2022 , Post-COVID-19 and African Agenda for a Green Recovery: Lessons from the European Union and the United States of America . in E Osabuohien , G Odularu , D Ufua & R Osabohien (eds) , COVID-19 in the African Continent:Sustainable Development and Socioeconomic Shocks . Emerald Publishing Limited , pp. 309-322 .
The concept of a 'green new deal' for Africa will provide a joined-up approach to managing the impact of extreme climatic events. In this regard, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) green deal arrangements offer Africa lessons to consider in a green agenda. By recourse to green theory, which is a critique of existing power structures and nationalistic and political positions concerning climate change, we explore mechanisms for fostering collective action and collaboration through an African green deal. Building on the African Union's existing agencies and arms, this chapter argues that an African Union Green Deal post-COVID-19 is crucial to achieving sustainable economic growth and development within the continent's Agenda 2063. The African continent should take advantage of collaboration opportunities within the continent and the European Union, thereby strengthening its financing and governance structures.
The concept of a 'green new deal' for Africa will provide a joined-up approach to managing the impact of extreme climatic events. In this regard, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) green deal arrangements offer Africa lessons to consider in a green agenda. By recourse to green theory, which is a critique of existing power structures and nationalistic and political positions concerning climate change, we explore mechanisms for fostering collective action and collaboration through an African green deal. Building on the African Union's existing agencies and arms, this chapter argues that an African Union Green Deal post–COVID-19 is crucial to achieving sustainable economic growth and development within the continent's Agenda 2063. The African continent should take advantage of collaboration opportunities within the continent and the European Union, thereby strengthening its financing and governance structures.
We may translate anthropogenic climate change as a reaction of our planet to our unsustainable economic activities. This research explores whether environmental policies have been impacted by extreme climatic events like droughts, floods, storms, tornados, and wildfires. We use yearly panel data from 1990 to 2017 for the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries to examine such a relationship. To have an impartial analysis, we control major variables influencing environmental policies such as energy consumption, gross domestic product (GDP), population, technology, head of the state's political affiliation, carbon emission, and waste generation. The analysis results suggest that policymakers make more stringent environmental decisions as the death rate increases and environmental threats become more imminent putting human life is at risk; this correlation is stronger in the case of European Countries.
An important component of forest firefighting strategies is related to the accurate prediction of fire risks. This article describes the development process of special decision support system (ForestFire GIS) - for the analysis of climatic conditions and definition of fire risks in Belarus including radioactively contaminated territory. The application consists of two basic modules: fire danger rating module and module of radionuclides transfer during the fire event. Fire danger rating module uses data on daily temperature, dew point and 24-hour rainfall to calculate weather based fire hazard index (FHI). The program provides recommendations for firefighting officials about efficient wildfires suppression strategy. GIS core (based on the MapWinGIS) performs all basic operations with map layers (scaling, moving, geocoding etc.), load and save changes. The ForestFire GIS was tested for the beginning of fire seasons in Gomel region in Belarus.
Climate change has developed into a global problem that threatens human existence. The European Union (EU) was the first to start climate governance, and has formed an effective, mature governance model and the rule of law system. The recognition of climate and social rules has led to the formation of a multi-party governance network. The analysis of the gains and losses of EU climate control aims at deepening our understanding of climate governance laws and providing new ideas for climate governance in different countries. The rapid and extensive development in China has also brought a series of climatic problems, but the "fragmentation" governance scheme has suffered "bottleneck" in the governance effect. This paper introduces the practice and legal experience of European Union climate control to give some enlightenment and promotion to China's climate control.
This scientific approach has been initiated in the context of the rapid and unpredictable developments of climatic factors that generate a major challenge for military critical infrastructure protection systems. The proposed methodology integrates on a specially designed decision-making platform the two approaches specific to risk management: adaptive-preventive (risk assessments at the local area based on the connection between climate change vectors–the asset of infrastructure–the potential impact on medium and long term) and adaptive-reactive (real-time event monitoring using emerging technologies: integration of sensors on a robotic aerial platform). The architecture of the research model was designed to meet both user requirements (modular, flexible, scalable) and the needs to overlap the stages of the risk management process. Model testing on simulated scenarios under laboratory conditions demonstrated the functionality and highlighted the expected performance.
