Ethiopian Church Forests as Monitoring Towers in Reconstructing Climate Change and Its Impacts and to Make Evidence-Based Climate-Smart Restoration Efforts

Author(s):  
Mulugeta Mokira ◽  
Aster Gebrekirstos ◽  
Abrham Abiyu ◽  
Kiros Hadgu ◽  
Niguse Hagazi ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Mizuno ◽  
Nagahiro Kojima ◽  
Satoshi Asano

AbstractEcosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) is an important concept to the adaption of climate change for a sustainable life. In Japan, it is anticipated that damages caused by sediment production will be increased as the intensity and amount of rainfall are increased by climate change. Thus, we need to know the Eco-DRR effect of the forest for planning sustainable land use by evidence-based data. In this study, we focused on the relationship between sediment production rate and the understory coverage rate of a low mountain forest in the granite area. From the results of the field survey and statistical meta-analysis, the sediment production rate was reduced by 97% in granite area mountain forest when the understory coverage rate was 60% or more compared to when less than 30% by evidence-based data. Accordingly, we found that it will be necessary to keep forests with an understory coverage rate of 60% or more when considering the risk-reducing effect of sediment disaster in granite area mountain forests for the adaption of climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Matthew Mo ◽  
Mike Roache

Heat stress events in Australian flying-fox camps have resulted in significant numbers of flying-fox deaths. The frequency and intensity of such events have increased in recent decades, attributed to anthropogenic climate change. Evidence-based interventions are required to address this growing threat. Responders currently use different combinations of a range of intervention methods. We undertook a systematic review of heat stress interventions, which we classified as either ‘camp-scale’ or ‘individual-scale’. Camp-scale interventions included manual and automated misting of roost vegetation, whereas individual-scale interventions included spraying individual animals or removing them for intensive cooling and rehydration procedures. Our study showed that to date, evaluation of the efficacy of heat stress interventions has been largely anecdotal rather than empirical. This highlights the need for dedicated rigorous studies to evaluate the effectiveness of all the intervention methods described here. It will be especially important to understand the relationship between camp temperature and humidity levels and their influence on flying-foxes’ ability to regulate their body temperature, because high relative humidity reduces the ability of mammals to cool themselves using evaporative heat loss. The development of biophysiological measures such as temperature and humidity indices for different flying-fox species would enable meaningful interpretations of intervention trials under controlled conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arefeh Mousavi ◽  
Ali Ardalan ◽  
Amirhossein Takian ◽  
Abbas Ostadtaghizadeh ◽  
Kazem Naddafi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Ensuring public health is crucial in any policy debate on climate change. Paris Agreement on climate change is a global contract, through which countries have committed themselves to a public health treaty. The agreement has laid the foundation for mitigation and adaptation. This study was conducted to provide an evidence-based framework for policy-making in the health system of Iran in order to reduce the adverse effects of climate change on public health and to increase the adaptation of the health system as a result. Methods This is a qualitative study. We first used Delphi method to extract the components of Paris Agreement on climate change that were related to the functions and policymaking of health system in Iran. Twenty-three experts in health and climate change were identified purposefully and through snowball sampling as participants in Delphi. Data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire. We used SPSS software version 25 for data analysis based on the descriptive indices including the mean, the percentage of consensus above 75%, and the Kendall coordination coefficient. Results Seventy-nine components classified within nine categories were extracted. The most important examples of the implementation of Paris Agreement on climate change in the health system of Iran were: participation in the formulation of strategies for mitigation and adaptation, identifying vulnerable groups, assessing vulnerability, increasing the capacity of health services delivery during extreme events, using early warning systems, using new technologies to increase the adaptation, evaluation of interventions, financial support, increasing the number of researches, increasing the knowledge and skills of staff, and finally public awareness. Conclusions Evidence-based policy-making is pivotal to develop effective programs to control the health effects of climate change. This research provided policy translation and customization of micro and macro provisions of Paris Agreement on climate change, in line with the political context of health system in Iran. Our finding will pave the ground, we envisage, for further steps towards capacity building and enhancement of resiliency of the health system, adaptation interventions, and evaluation, identification of barriers and facilitators for adaptation and decreasing the adverse health effects caused by the climate change, in Iran and perhaps beyond.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 4899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrine Nöel Knapp ◽  
Robin S. Reid ◽  
María E. Fernández-Giménez ◽  
Julia A. Klein ◽  
Kathleen A. Galvin

Complex sustainability problems (e.g., climate change) are challenging to understand and manage, leading to an increase in approaches that connect scholars to society and research to action (collaborative approaches). The transdisciplinary approach (TDA) represents one such approach. While TDA is new to many, there are several prior collaborative approaches including collaborative adaptive management, knowledge integration, participatory action research, and indigenous/local knowledge. Other contemporary and parallel approaches include citizen science, translational science, evidence-based practice, and knowledge with action. The varied disciplinary roots and problem areas contribute to a lack of interaction among these parallel but distinct approaches, and among the scholars and stakeholders who practice them. In this paper, we consider the connections, complementarities and contradictions among these distinct but related collaborative approaches. This review offers insights into the interaction between science and practice, including the importance of social processes and recognition of different ways of knowing, as well as how to conduct collaborative approaches on a variety of scales and think about how to generalize findings. The review suggests a need to rethink roles and relationships in the process of knowledge co-creation, both extending the roles of researchers and practitioners, creating new hybrid roles for “pracademics”, and placing greater awareness on issues of power.


Author(s):  
Peter Tangney

Risk-based decision-making is widely considered to be the best means of presenting the science of climate change and for developing and presenting climate change evidence for policymaking. This paper examines some of the justifications provided by climate and decision scientists for their preferred approach, and argues that, although risk-based approaches are indeed analytically and instrumentally helpful, they may not always provide the most politically appropriate framework for resolving the politics of evidence-based policymaking. Decision scientists still promote risk-based decision-making under erroneous ideals of linear-instrumental-rationality, even if they have become more circumspect concerning the worst excesses of past technocratic linear-rationality. Moreover, decision scientists have provided very shallow justification to date for ‘risk’ as default decision framework. A reasonable analysis of the general suitability of risk would include comparative analysis with alternative conceptual frames, not simply in terms of their analytical power, but also their political acceptability in constituencies where particular evidence-frames may be challenged on the basis of their premises, rather than their conclusions.


Author(s):  
Peter Tangney

Risk-based decision-making is widely considered to be the best means of presenting the science of climate change and for developing and presenting climate change evidence for policymaking. This paper examines some of the justifications provided by climate and decision scientists for their preferred approach, and argues that, although risk-based approaches are indeed analytically and instrumentally helpful, they may not always provide the most politically appropriate framework for resolving the politics of evidence-based policymaking. Decision scientists still promote risk-based decision-making under erroneous ideals of linear-instrumental-rationality, even if they have become more circumspect concerning the worst excesses of past technocratic linear-rationality. Moreover, decision scientists have provided very shallow justification to date for ‘risk’ as default decision framework. A reasonable analysis of the general suitability of risk would include comparative analysis with alternative conceptual frames, not simply in terms of their analytical power, but also their political acceptability in constituencies where particular evidence-frames may be challenged on the basis of their premises, rather than their conclusions.<br />Key messages<br />Risk-based decision guidance does not fully account for the politics of evidence-based policy.<br />Decision scientists should avoid conflating the heuristic and prescriptive worth of policy models.<br />Risk-based approaches should be justified from political analysis with alternate conceptual frames.<br />Context-appropriate decisions demand context-sensitive conceptual frames for policy-evidence.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252952
Author(s):  
Laura Cameron ◽  
Rhéa Rocque ◽  
Kailey Penner ◽  
Ian Mauro

Given the climate crisis and its cumulative impacts on public health, effective communication strategies that engage the public in adaptation and mitigation are critical. Many have argued that a health frame increases engagement, as do visual methodologies including online and interactive platforms, yet to date there has been limited research on audience responses to health messaging using visual interventions. This study explores public attitudes regarding communication tools focused on climate change and climate-affected Lyme disease through six focus groups (n = 61) in rural and urban southern Manitoba, Canada. The results add to the growing evidence of the efficacy of visual and storytelling methods in climate communications and argues for a continuum of mediums: moving from video, text, to maps. Findings underscore the importance of tailoring both communication messages and mediums to increase uptake of adaptive health and environmental behaviours, for some audiences bridging health and climate change while for others strategically decoupling them.


Author(s):  
Joanne Nightingale ◽  
Folkert Boersma ◽  
Jan-Peter Muller ◽  
Steven Compernolle ◽  
Jean-Christopher Lambert ◽  
...  

Data from Earth Observation (EO) satellites are increasingly used to monitor the environment, understand variability and change, inform evaluations of climate model forecasts and manage natural resources. Policy makers are progressively relying on the information derived from these datasets to make decisions on mitigating and adapting to climate change. These decisions should be evidence based, which requires confidence in derived products as well as the reference measurements used to calibrate, validate or inform product development. In support of the European Union&rsquo;s Earth Observation Programmes Copernicus Climate Change Service, the Quality Assurance for Essential Climate Variables (QA4ECV) project fulfilled a gap in the delivery of climate quality satellite derived datasets by prototyping a robust, generic system for the implementation and evaluation of Quality Assurance (QA) measures for satellite-derived ECV climate data record products. The project demonstrated the QA system on six new long-term, climate quality ECV data records for surface Albedo, Leaf Area Index, FAPAR, NO2, HCHO and CO. Provision of standardized QA information provides data users with evidence-based confidence in the products and enables judgement on the fitness-for-purpose of various ECV data products their specific applications.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document