Environmental Change and Migration: Legal and Political Frameworks

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1045-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan F Martin
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Humanitarian Emergencies ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Competition For Resources ◽  
Slow Onset

With this paper I focus on international legal norms and organizational roles and relations applicable to migration induced by environmental change. I examine movements stemming directly and indirectly from environmental factors related to climate change—including, for example, movements resulting from intensified drought and desertification affecting livelihoods, rising sea levels, intensified acute natural disasters, and competition for resources that result in intensified conflict. The analysis focuses on the extent to which legal and institutional responses affect patterns of mobility, especially in slow-onset situations, and the extent to which governance, more generally, affects the likelihood that people will migrate as a result of environmental factors, especially in humanitarian emergencies. I conclude that immigration policies, governance, and the level of development in affected countries play a crucial role in determining the responses to natural hazards and conflict. They also help determine if migration poses technical or managerial challenges or presents political challenges. Given the current gaps in appropriate migration policies, more attention needs to be placed on identifying and testing new frameworks for managing potential movements. Attention needs to be given to both sides of the environment and migration nexus: (1) identifying adaptation strategies that allow people to remain where they currently live and work; and (2) identifying migration and relocation strategies that protect people's lives and livelihoods when they are unable to remain.

scholarly journals Spatial Habitat Suitability Models of Mangroves with Kandelia obovata

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shang-Shu Shih
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
Mangrove Forests ◽  
Kandelia Obovata ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Inundation Frequency ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Mangrove Trees ◽  
Mangrove Biomass ◽  
Spatial Habitat

Mangrove forests provide important estuarine ecosystem services but are threatened by rising sea levels and anthropogenic impacts. Understanding the habitat characteristics required for mangrove growth is significant for mangrove restoration and integrated management. This study aims to build spatial habitat suitability index (HSI) models for Kandelia obovata mangrove trees. Biological and habitat-related environmental data were collected in the Wazwei and Guandu wetlands in northern Taiwan. We adopted inundation frequency, soil sorting coefficient, and water salinity as the key environmental factors to build HSI models. The dependent variable of these environmental factors was the mangrove biomass per unit area. Significant differences were found for the mangrove biomass on different substrata and shore elevations. The tidal creek had the lowest elevation, and mangrove areas were found at the highest elevations. The oxidization level of the substrate under mangrove forests was high, indicating that the root system of mangroves could carry oxygen into the soil and result in oxidation. Human activities were found to lead to the reduced growth conditions of mangroves. The validation of the HSI model, considering the inundation frequency and soil sorting coefficient, proved to be reliable, with an accuracy ranging from 78% to 90%. A better simulation was found after revising the model by incorporating the factor of water salinity. The model forecast of the mangrove responses to the sea-level rise indicated an increase in the inundation frequency and thus an induced shift and shrinkage of the mangrove area. The increased HSI values of the bare mudflat area demonstrate an option for the potential restoration of mangrove trees. Given the findings of this study, we concluded that mangroves could spread from estuaries to upstream areas due to rising sea levels and might be limited by humanmade impacts. Restoring degraded floodplains is suggested for mangrove habitat rehabilitation.

scholarly journals Climate-Induced Relocation and Social Change in Keta, Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul-Moomin A Salifu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Household Members ◽  
Positive Social Change ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Slow Onset

In this article, I analyze the resettlement of three communities in the Keta municipality of Ghana as a result of rising sea levels that threatened life and property. Although a few studies have documented the effects of relocation because of slow-onset climate-induced environmental change, little is known about how such resettlements have contributed to positive social change in the affected communities. I used critical theory to determine whether Keta’s relocation process contributed to positive social change. Transcriptions of interviews with a purposeful sample of 35 household members were coded and categorized into themes for essence description. Improved educational infrastructure for personal development, improved housing facilities, saved lives and protected culture, and improved healthcare facilities and general well-being were among the positive outcomes. Hence, through this study, I provide evidence to consider the need to prioritize the positive social change such resettlements will make in the lives of the affected populations in climate-induced resettlement and adaptation in Ghana and other parts of the world. <em>Keywords</em>: Climate change, relocation, resettlement, social change, sea level rise, improved livelihoods

People Moving in the Context of Environmental Change: The Cautious Approach of the European Union

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-429
Author(s):  
Monika Mayrhofer ◽  
Margit Ammer
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cautious Approach ◽  
Environmental Migration ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Commission Staff Working Document

With growing evidence that environmental factors are becoming more and more important in driving migration, many different actors have taken position on so-called ‘environmental migration’ in recent years. Lately, also the European Union (eu) started to approach this topic. While it is still far away from offering a self-standing policy on the issue, the eu has started a process of deliberation with the publication of a Commission Staff Working Document (cswd) in April 2013. This article provides an overview of the related policy process and analyses which rationales are shaping it. It further pursues a stocktaking exercise with regard to existing eu asylum and migration policies and explores which roles the eu could play in the context of environment-related migration and displacement under the existing ‘repertoire’ of eu asylum and migration policy and analyses it in light of the newly published cswd. The paper concludes that the Commission takes in its cswd a very cautious approach and that the policy process was shaped by similar factors as the area of asylum and migration.

An Imperial Disaster

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Kingsbury
Keyword(s):  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Bay Of Bengal ◽  
Full Moon ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Natural Event ◽  
Cholera Epidemic ◽  
British Rule ◽  
Great Rivers ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

The storm came on the night of 31 October. It was a full moon, and the tides were at their peak; the great rivers of eastern Bengal were flowing high and fast to the sea. In the early hours the inhabitants of the coast and islands were overtaken by an immense wave from the Bay of Bengal — a wall of water that reached a height of 40 feet in some places. The wave swept away everything in its path, drowning around 215,000 people. At least another 100,000 died in the cholera epidemic and famine that followed. It was the worst calamity of its kind in recorded history. Such events are often described as "natural disasters." This book turns that interpretation on its head, showing that the cyclone of 1876 was not simply a "natural" event, but one shaped by all-too-human patterns of exploitation and inequality — by divisions within Bengali society, and the enormous disparities of political and economic power that characterized British rule on the subcontinent. With Bangladesh facing rising sea levels and stronger, more frequent storms, there is every reason now to revisit this terrible calamity.

Potential impacts of global warming on water resources in southern California

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 165-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Beuhler
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Salt Water ◽  
Scenario Planning ◽  
Potential Range ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Global warming will have a significant impact on water resources within the 20 to 30-year planning period of many water projects. Arid and semi-arid regions such as Southern California are especially vulnerable to anticipated negative impacts of global warming on water resources. Long-range water facility planning must consider global climate change in the recommended mix of new facilities needed to meet future water requirements. The generally accepted impacts of global warming include increased temperature, rising sea levels, more frequent and severe floods and droughts, and a shift from snowfall to rain. Precipitation changes are more difficult to predict. For Southern California, these impacts will be especially severe on surface water supplies. Additionally, rising sea levels will exacerbate salt-water intrusion into freshwater and impact the quality of surface water supplies. Integrated water resources planning is emerging as a tool to develop water supplies and demand management strategies that are less vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. These tools include water conservation, reclamation, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater and desalination of brackish water and possibly seawater. Additionally, planning for future water needs should include explicit consideration of the potential range of global warming impacts through techniques such as scenario planning.

scholarly journals Effects of climate change on spatiotemporal patterns of tropical cyclone tracks and their implications for coastal agriculture in Myanmar

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Hirano
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Considerable Increase ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Spatiotemporal Patterns ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

AbstractImportant aspects for understanding the effects of climate change on tropical cyclones (TCs) are the frequency of TCs and their tracking patterns. Coastal areas are increasingly threatened by rising sea levels and associated storm surges brought on by TCs. Rice production in Myanmar relies strongly on low-lying coastal areas. This study aims to provide insights into the effects of global warming on TCs and the implications for sustainable development in vulnerable coastal areas in Myanmar. Using TC records from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship dataset during the 30-year period from 1983 to 2012, a hot spot analysis based on Getis-Ord (Gi*) statistics was conducted to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of TC tracks along the coast of Myanmar. The results revealed notable changes in some areas along the central to southern coasts during the study period. These included a considerable increase in TC tracks (p value < 0.01) near the Ayeyarwady Delta coast, otherwise known as “the rice bowl” of the nation. This finding aligns with trends in published studies and reinforced the observed trends with spatial statistics. With the intensification of TCs due to global warming, such a significant increase in TC experiences near the major rice-producing coastal region raises concerns about future agricultural sustainability.

Double displacement – Interactions between resettlement, environmental change and migration

Geoforum ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Fiona Miller ◽  
Tran Thi Phung Ha ◽  
Huynh Van Da ◽  
Ngo Thi Thanh Thuy ◽  
Boi Huyen Ngo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
And Migration
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