scholarly journals Three-stage quantitative approach of understanding household adaptation decisions in rural Cambodia

Author(s):  
Xi Jiao ◽  
Yuan Zheng ◽  
Zhen Liu

Purpose A better understanding of the processes that shape households’ adaptation decisions is essential for developing pertinent policies locally, thereby enabling better adaptation across scales and multiple stakeholders. This paper aims to examine the determinants of household decisions to adapt, it is also possible to target factors that facilitate or constrain adaptation. This helps to identify key components of current adaptive capacity, which leads to important insights into households’ competence to adapt in the future. Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a full-pledged approach examining factors and processes that shape households’ climate adaptation decision-making in rural Cambodia at three levels: adaptation status, adaptation intensity and choices of adaptation strategy. The three-stage analyses are materialized by applying the double hurdle model and multivariate probit model, which provides a potential way to systematically assess household adaptation decision-making in rural settings. Findings Results show a high level of involvement in adaptation among local households who are facing multiple stressors including climatic risks. The findings suggest that perceived climate change influence households’ decisions in both adaptation status and intensity. Access to financial credit, farmland size, water availability and physical asset holdings are identified as key factors promoting the adoption of more adaptation measures. To facilitate adaptation, collective effort and support at community level is important in providing knowledge based climate information dissemination and early warning systems. Public sector support and development aid programs should focus on positive triggers for targeted community and household adaptation. Originality/value The study, to the authors’ best knowledge, is one of the first studies to investigate the determinants of local adaptation decision-making systematically in Cambodia. It also provides a comprehensive approach to improve understanding of adaptation decision-making processes by exploring how various capital assets are associated with different stages of adaptation decisions. The findings contribute to policy implications enlightening adaptation planning at multi-scales with knowledge of key factors, which enhance local adaptive capacity to reduce climate change vulnerability.

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W.N. Steenberg ◽  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Irena F. Creed ◽  
Jacqueline N. Serran ◽  
Camille Ouellet Dallaire

In response to global climate change, Canada is transitioning towards a low-carbon economy and the need for policy approaches that are effective, equitable, coordinated, and both administratively and politically feasible is high. One point is clear; the transition is intimately tied to the vast supply of ecosystem services in the boreal zone of Canada. This paper describes four contrasting futures for the boreal zone using scenario analysis, which is a transdisciplinary, participatory approach that considers alternative futures and policy implications under conditions of high uncertainty and complexity. The two critical forces shaping the four scenarios are the global economy’s energy and society’s capacity to adapt. The six drivers of change are atmospheric change, the demand for provisioning ecosystem services, the demand for nonprovisioning ecosystem services, demographics, and social values, governance and geopolitics, and industrial innovation and infrastructure. The four scenarios include: (i) the Green Path, where a low-carbon economy is coupled with high adaptive capacity; (ii) the Uphill Climb, where a low-carbon economy is instead coupled with low adaptive capacity; (iii) the Carpool Lane, where society has a strong capacity to adapt but a reliance on fossil fuels; and (iv) the Slippery Slope, where there is both a high-carbon economy and a society with low adaptive capacity. The scenarios illustrate the importance of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and the role of society’s adaptive capacity in doing so. However, they also emphasize themes like social inequality and adverse environmental outcomes arising from the push towards climate change mitigation.


Author(s):  
P. E. Perkins ◽  
B. Osman

Abstract This chapter explores the livelihood and care implications of the climate crisis from a gendered viewpoint that includes the implications of this approach for climate decision making at multiple scales, from local to global. The focus is on grassroots political organizing, activism, and movements as well as women's community-based actions to (re)build social resilience in the face of climate chaos. Challenges and policy implications are discussed as governments struggle to meaningfully and equitably address climate change. Also highlighted are the transformational imperatives of care and livelihood priorities which cast into stark relief the unsustainability of the long-established gender inequities that serve as the foundation for economic systems everywhere.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara J. Wilkinson ◽  
Kimberley James ◽  
Richard Reed

PurposeThis paper seeks to establish the rationale for existing office building adaptation within Melbourne, Australia, as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2020. The problems faced by policy makers to determine which buildings have the optimum adaptation potential are to be identified and discussed.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts the approach of creating a database of all the buildings in the Melbourne CBD including details of physical, social, economic and technological attributes. This approach will determine whether relationships exist between attributes and the frequency of building adaptation or whether triggers to adaptation can be determined.FindingsThis research provided evidence that a much faster rate of office building adaptation is necessary to meet the targets already set for carbon neutrality. The findings demonstrate that a retrospective comprehensive examination of previous adaptation in the CBD is a unique and original approach to determining the building characteristics associated with adaptation and whether triggers can be identified based on previous practices. The implication is that a decision‐making tool should be developed to allow policy makers to target sectors of the office building stock to deliver carbon neutrality within the 2020 timeframe.Practical implicationsDrastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required to mitigate global warming and climate change and all stakeholders should be looking at ways of reducing emissions from existing stock.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the existing body of knowledge by raising awareness of the way in which the adaptation of large amounts of existing stock can be fast tracked to mitigate the impact of climate change and warming associated with the built environment, and in addition it establishes a framework for a decision‐making tool for policy makers.


Author(s):  
Sangram Kishor Patel ◽  
Gopal Agrawal ◽  
Bincy Mathew ◽  
Sunita Patel ◽  
Biswajit Mohanty ◽  
...  

Purpose South Asian region is a focal point owing to its vulnerabilities to climate-sensitive diseases, dependence on climate-sensitive livelihoods, projected levels of crop decline in the region, and high rates of poverty and malnutrition. Women are particularly vulnerable to climate change and this affects women disproportionately during different extreme events. The purpose of this paper is to understand the issue of climate change and its impact, and climate resilience among women in South Asia. Further, it also identifies the gaps and suggests future policy implications. Design/methodology/approach Climate change is increasingly being recognised as an alarming issue and the present review is important when South Asian countries are facing the brunt of climate change impacts. This paper tries to understand the issue by review of the literature and conceptual framework methodology. To understand women’s vulnerability due to climate change and its aftermath, the authors conducted both offline and online desk reviews for this study. Findings The findings of this study show a clear linkage between climate change and women’s vulnerabilities in South Asia. Climate change has significant socio-economic impacts on women, and it affects them disproportionately in various domains of agriculture, livelihood, food security, both physical and mental health, water and sanitation in the South Asia region. Practical implications The paper also highlights that the programmes that aim at combating the effects of climate change require a gender-sensitive approach so that climate change does not obstruct the development and reduction of poverty in the region. Social implications The findings of this paper will add value in helping families to come out of poverty by undertaking adaptive measures with proactive assistance from the government and grassroots level organisations. Originality/value The present study also advocates for more gender- and climate-sensitive measures from governments, and implementation of intervention- and evidence-based research in the South Asian countries.


Author(s):  
Nobuaki Kimura ◽  
Akira Tai ◽  
Akihiro Hashimoto

Purpose Extreme weather events introduced by climate change have been frequent across the world for the past decade. For example, Takeda City, a mountainous area in the south-western Japan, experienced a severe river flood event caused by the factors of high flow, presence of bridges and driftwood accumulation in July 2012. This study aims to focus on this event (hereafter, Takeda flood) because the unique factors of driftwood and bridges were involved. In the Takeda flood, high flow, driftwood and bridge were the potential key factors that caused the flood. The authors studied to reveal the physical processes of the Takeda flood. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a fundamental laboratory experiment with a miniature bridge, open channel flow and idealized driftwood accumulation. They also performed a numerical simulation by using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, which can treat fluid as particle elements. This model was chosen because the SPH method is capable of treating a complex flow such as a spray of water around a bridge. Findings The numerical simulation successfully reproduced the bridge- and driftwood-induced floods of the laboratory experiment. Then, the contribution of the studied key factors to the flood mechanism based on the fluid forces generated by high flow, bridge and driftwood (i.e. pressure distributions) was quantitatively assessed. The results showed that the driftwood accumulation and high flow conditions are potentially important factors that can cause a severe flood like the Takeda flood. Originality/value Simulated results with high flow conditions may be helpful to consider the countermeasure for future floods under climate change even though the test was simple and fundamental.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Bodolica ◽  
Martin Spraggon ◽  
Anam Shahid

Subject area Firm success, organizational structure and values, business challenges, corporate change, decision making. Study level/applicability Senior undergraduate courses in Organizational Behavior and Business Policy and Strategy. Case overview This case relates the story of growth of Future Internet, a small media firm launched in 1998 in Dubai, UAE. The case describes the past achievements of Future Internet along with the challenges met on the road, illustrates the key factors and core organizational values that were critical for its business success and discusses the new prospects that the company is seeking to explore in the future. As Future Internet is continuously searching to engage in a path of new business opportunities, what are the most viable strategic choices to be made for securing a sustainable corporate growth and development? Expected learning outcomes Discuss different aspects involved in the management of a small firm operating in a dynamic industry; assess the key factors that might contribute to explaining corporate success; and evaluate the effectiveness of managerial decision making over time (change in structure and values, opportunities' evaluation and selection of strategic options) to achieve sustainable development. Supplementary materials Teaching notes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Judith Helen Lawrence

<p>The ability of decision makers to respond to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and increased flood frequency is challenged by uncertainty about scale, timing, dynamic changes that could lead to regime shifts, and by societal changes. Climate change adaptation decision making needs to be robust and flexible across a range of possible futures, to provide sufficient certainty for investment decisions in the present, without creating undue risks and liabilities for the near and long-term futures. A country’s governance and regulatory institutions set parameters for such decisions. The decision-making challenge is, therefore, a function of the uncertainty and dynamic characteristics of climate change, a country’s institutional framework, and the ways in which actual decision-making practice delivers on the intention of the framework.  My research asks if the current decision-making framework, at national and sub-national scales, and practices under it are adequate to enable decision makers to make climate change adaptation decisions that sufficiently address the constraints posed by climate change uncertainty and dynamic change. The focus is on New Zealand’s multi-scale governance and institutional framework with its high level of devolution to the local level, the level assumed as the most appropriate for climate change adaptation decisions. Empirical information was collected from a sample of agencies and actors, at multiple governance scales reflecting the range of geographical characteristics, governance types, organisational functions and actor disciplines. Data were collected using a mix of workshops, interviews and document analyses. The adequacy of the institutional framework and practice was examined using 12 criteria derived from the risk-based concepts of precaution, risk management, adaptive management and transformational change, with respect to; a) understanding and representing uncertainty and dynamic climate change; b) governance and regulations; and c) organisations and actors.  The research found that the current decision-making framework has many elements that could, in principle, address uncertainty and dynamic climate change. It enables long-term considerations and emphasises precaution and risk-based decision making. However, adaptive and transformational objectives are largely absent, coordination across multiple levels of government is constrained and timeframes are inconsistent across statutes. Practice shows that climate risk has been entrenched by misrepresentation of climate change characteristics. The resulting ambiguity is compounded at different governance scales, by gaps in the use of national and regional instruments and consequent differences in judicial decisions. Practitioners rely heavily upon static, time-bound treatments of risk, which reinforce unrealistic community expectations of ongoing protections, even as the climate continues to change, and makes it difficult to introduce transformational measures. Some efforts to reflect changing risk were observed but are, at best, transitional measures. Some experimentation was found in local government practice and boundary organisations were used as change-agents. Any potential improvements to both the institutional framework and to practices that could enable flexible and robust adaptation to climate change, would require supporting policies and adaptive governance to leverage them and to sustain decision making through time.  This thesis contributes to understanding how uncertainty and dynamic climate change characteristics matter for adaptation decision making by examining both a country-level institutional framework and practice under it. The adequacy analysis offers a new way of identifying institutional barriers, enablers and entry points for change in the context of decision making under conditions of uncertainty and dynamic climate change.</p>


Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh

<p class="NidungTmtt-Abstract"><strong>Abstract</strong>: According to Conference of the Parties 22 (COP22) statement, climate change adaptation is the concern of not only an individual but also the whole society. Since the climate change issue is a multidimensional problem, decision-making in climate change adaptation is a complex process. In this paper, we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of three main group of decision-support tools, namely Expert preference, Monetary valuation, and Multi-criteria analysis (MCA). The paper recommends MCA in general and AHP in particular as effective tools to compensate for the disadvantages of other techniques as well as to overcome the challenges and requirements from the climate change adaptation decision-making process.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: climate change, AHP, MCA, monetary valuation, expert preference</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (03) ◽  
pp. 445-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Li ◽  
Michael Mullan ◽  
Jennifer Helgeson

Abstract:The development of national and sectoral climate change adaptation strategies is burgeoning in the US and elsewhere in response to damages from extreme events and projected future risks from climate change. Increasingly, decision makers are requesting information on the economic damages of climate change as well as costs, benefits, and tradeoffs of alternative actions to inform climate adaptation decisions. This paper provides a practical view of the applications of economic analysis to aid climate change adaptation decision making, with a focus on benefit-cost analysis (BCA). We review the recent developments and applications of BCA with implications for climate risk management and adaptation decision making, both in the US and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. We found that BCA is still in early stages of development for evaluating adaptation decisions, and to date is mostly being applied to investment project-based appraisals. Moreover, the best practices of economic analysis are not fully reflected in the BCAs of climate adaptation-relevant decisions. The diversity of adaptation measures and decision-making contexts suggest that evaluation of adaptation measures may require multiple analytical methods. The economic tools and information would need to be transparent, accessible, and match with the decision contexts to be effective in enhancing decision making. Based on the current evidence, a set of analytical considerations is proposed for improving economic analysis of climate adaptation that includes the need to better address uncertainty and to understand the cross-sector and general equilibrium effects of sectoral and national adaptation policy.


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