Chile drought may prompt water management rethink

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Consumer Confidence ◽  
Southern Chile ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
Prolonged Drought ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Impact

Subject The impact of the current drought on water management proposals. Significance Chile is divided as to whether a severe and prolonged drought that now extends to almost all the country is a result merely of the El Nino oscillation or also of climate change. However, it presages the latter's expected effects and has highlighted deficiencies in the management of water resources. Impacts Climate change forecasts suggest that rainfall in agricultural southern Chile could fall by 40% over the next 15 years. The drought's impact on food prices will hamper recovery of consumer confidence, currently at its lowest level since 2008-09. Conflicts over water use are likely to increase, particularly between farmers and mining companies in northern Chile.

Impacts of a saline water control project on aquaculture livelihoods in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thu Trang Thi Ngo ◽  
Hong Quan Nguyen ◽  
Timothy Gorman ◽  
Quang Ngo Xuan ◽  
Phuong Lan Thi Ngo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Mekong Delta ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Livelihood Capitals ◽  
The Impact

PurposeDrought and salinity intrusion aggravated by climate change threaten agricultural livelihoods in Viet Nan's Mekong Delta. In response, authorities have built water management infrastructure for irrigation and salinity protection. This study assessed the impact of one such project, the Ba Lai dam in Ben Tre province, on the livelihoods of aquaculture farmers.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to assess the impact of the Ba Lai dam on the livelihood capitals of 18 farming households in four communes, located both upstream and downstream of the dam.FindingsThe authors find that, apart from some positive effects, the dam has also brought negative environmental consequences, such as increased water pollution. The authors also find that farmers have responded to the changes by adapting their livelihood practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe samples were relatively small, encompassing four communes in Ben Tre province. On the other hand, this case study is instructive to the many ongoing infrastructure projects in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.Social implicationsThe project have caused an increase in water-related social conflict.Originality/valueThe case of the Ba Lai dam provides a cautionary example for infrastructure-based water management plans, both in Viet Nam and more broadly. The study suggests the need to strengthen community participation and prioritize impacts of farmers' capital assets when constructing water management infrastructure for climate change adaptation.

scholarly journals Current state and perspective of water management policy in terms of climate change

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 796-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanja Stojkovic Zlatanovic ◽  
Milan Stojkovic ◽  
Mihailo Mitkovic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
European Union ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Morava River ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Morava River Basin

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to set out the policy guidelines and recommendations to harmonise the Serbian water legislation with European Union standards in the area of water system management as impacted by climate change. Design/methodology/approach The EU Water Framework Directive is analysed in the context of implementation of the integrated water management policy presented in the Serbian Water Law (2010), as well as the National Water Management Strategy (2016). It has been found that the water management legislation that deals with the impact of climate change on water resources is incomplete. Although there are numerous challenges related to research of climate change and water systems, water policy and legal aspects cannot be neglected. The so-called soft law instruments represented in a form of strategy documents could be a valuable response in terms of an adaptive and integrated water policy approach. Findings The research is applied to a case study of the Velika Morava River Basin, at Ljubicevski Most hydrological station. Long-term projections suggest a decrease in annual precipitation levels and annual flows up to the year 2100 for climatic scenarios A1B and A2, accompanied by a rapid increase in air temperatures. Originality/value This study proposes a water management policy and provides recommendations for the Velika Morava River Basin as impacted by climate change, according to the European Union legislation.

Gated communities in Ankara: are they a tool of social segregation?

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 687-702
Author(s):  
Leyla Alkan-Gökler
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive View ◽  
Social Segregation ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Gated communities, surrounded by walls or fences, have emerged as a new trend in almost all cities in Turkey, and are homogenous in terms of the socioeconomic status of their occupants. Within these communities, several facilities and services are provided that are available only to the residents, with restrictions on access from the outside, and this has led to criticisms of social segregation. This study aims to analyze the impact of these communities on social segregation in Ankara, through two different surveys aimed at investigating the attitudes of the residents of local neighborhoods and gated communities toward each other. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyzes how the process of gating has affected social segregation in Ankara through two separate surveys: with the residents of gated communities and with the residents of local neighborhoods around these gated communities. Findings The study revealed that the residents of gated communities tended to have a positive view of the residents of local neighborhoods. In contrast, the responses of the local residents show evidence of feelings of social segregation, based on the presence of the high walls, fences and guards that are in place to keep them out of the community. Originality/value This study shows that, although segregation from the rest of the society is not the main reason for gating, the emergence of gated communities in Ankara leads inevitably to a socially and economically segregated city in which local residents feel excluded from these gated areas.

Extreme weather highlights longer-term Canada concerns

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Extreme Cold ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Significance The extreme cold comes as the province is still dealing with the damage caused by unprecedented levels of heat and wildfires last summer and then record levels of rainfall and flooding in November. Its experience has focused attention on Canada’s wider vulnerability to the impact of shifting weather patterns and climate change. Impacts The natural resource sectors that are vital to Canada’s economy face an increasingly difficult environment for extraction. Indigenous peoples across the country will see their traditional ways of life further disrupted by climate change. The increasingly evident impacts of climate change on day-to-day life will see voters demand greater action from government. Significant investment in green initiatives, clean energy and climate resiliency initiatives will boost green industries.

Financial battle against climate change – assessing effectiveness using a scorecard

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Candauda Arachchige Saliya ◽  
Suesh Kumar Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Financial Risk ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Banking Regulations ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how and to what extent the Fijian sustainable banking regulations or guidelines are designed, communicated, implemented and monitored within the financial system in Fiji. A scorecard is introduced for this purpose to assess the effectiveness of Fiji’s financial battle against climate change (FBACC). Design/methodology/approach This study uses a mixed-method methodology. Data were collected mainly from a survey and supplemented by interviews, observations and documents. The scorecard was developed by building on existing two theoretical frameworks, namely, the Sustainable Banking Assessment and Climate Change Governance Index, to make them more appropriate and practically applicable to less developed financial systems in emerging economies such as Fiji. This FBACC scorecard consists of four perspectives, eight critical factors and 24 criteria. Findings The results show that the overall FBACC score averages 40.75%, and all the perspectives scored below 50%, the benchmark. Only the CF “policy” scored 54.25% because of a high positive response of 82.3% for the “political leadership” criterion. The relative contributions of each perspective in constructing the overall score are distributed as 28%, 25%, 24% and 23% among planning, action, accountability and control, respectively. Research limitations/implications These results were complemented by the information shared during the interviews and confirmed that the existing political initiatives need to be effectively communicated and/or implemented in the financial system by the regulatory agencies. Practical implications This FBACC scorecard can be applied to other underdeveloped systems in emerging countries to assess the effectiveness of the sustainable banking regulations and/or guidelines in those countries in relation to the FBACC. It can also be applied to individual firms to assess their contribution to the FBACC. Originality/value To the authors’ best knowledge, this might be the first study in Fiji that considers the impact of climate-related financial risk on the Fijian financial system.

The impact of the integrated reporting framework on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures – the case of South African mining companies

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Ackers ◽  
Susanna Elizabeth Grobbelaar
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
South African ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stakeholder Orientation ◽  
Mining Companies ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Despite initially being lauded as a revolutionary approach for companies to account to all stakeholders, the shareholder orientation of the international integrated reporting (<IR>) framework gave rise to questions about whether integrated reports would still sufficiently disclose pertinent corporate social responsibility (CSR) information. This paper aims to investigate the extent to which the <IR> framework has impacted the CSR disclosures contained in integrated reports of South African mining companies. Design/methodology/approach The study deployed a mixed methods research approach, involving thematic content analysis of the CSR disclosures contained in the integrated reports of mining companies with primary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The resultant qualitative data were subsequently analysed using a T-test of difference. Findings The study observes that the release of the <IR> framework appears to have had a limited impact on the CSR disclosures in the integrated reports of most companies included in the study. However, where significant differences were identified, the CSR disclosures of some companies were positively impacted after the release of the <IR> framework, whilst others were negatively impacted. Research limitations/implications As South Africa is acknowledged as a leader in the global <IR> movement, the paper’s observations have global relevance and suggest that the fundamental principles of <IR> should be reconsidered to improve the alignment with stakeholders’ information needs, as originally conceived. Originality/value Despite the shareholder orientation of the <IR> framework, the global mining industry is acknowledged as being at the forefront of implementing CSR interventions to mitigate the adverse impacts of their operations on stakeholders, supporting a stakeholder orientation. As the adoption of <IR> continues to gain traction around the world, this paper’s contribution is that it represents one of the few papers to use the global reporting initiative G4 indicators to specifically examine the impact of <IR> framework on the CSR disclosures on the South African mining industry, where both <IR> and CSR reporting are quasi-mandatory disclosure requirements.

Communicating water-related climate change hazards to local stakeholders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Müller ◽  
Petra Döll
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Model Ensemble ◽  
Hydrological Hazards ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Due to climate change, the water cycle is changing which requires to adapt water management in many regions. The transdisciplinary project KlimaRh&amp;#246;n aims at assessing water-related risks and developing adaptation measures in water management in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Rh&amp;#246;n in Central Germany. One of the challenges is to inform local stakeholders about hydrological hazards in in the biosphere reserve, which has an area of only 2433 km&amp;#178; and for which no regional hydrological simulations are available. To overcome the lack of local simulations of the impact of climate change on water resources, existing simulations by a number of global hydrological models (GHMs) were evaluated for the study area. While the coarse model resolution of 0.5&amp;#176;x0.5&amp;#176; (55 km x 55 km at the equator) is certainly problematic for the small study area, the advantage is that both the uncertainty of climate simulations and hydrological models can be taken into account to provide a best estimate of future hazards and their (large) uncertainties. This is different from most local hydrological climate change impact assessments, where only one hydrological model is used, which leads to an underestimation of future uncertainty as different hydrological models translate climatic changes differently into hydrological changes and, for example, mostly do not take into account the effect of changing atmospheric CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; on evapotranspiration and thus runoff. &amp;#160;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The global climate change impact simulations were performed in a consistent manner by various international modeling groups following a protocol developed by ISIMIP (ISIMIP 2b, www.isimip.org); the simulation results are freely available for download. We processed, analyzed and visualized the results of the multi-model ensemble, which consists of eight GHMs driven by the bias-adjusted output of four general circulation models. The ensemble of potential changes of total runoff and groundwater recharge were calculated for two 30-year future periods relative to a reference period, analyzing annual and seasonal means as well as interannual variability. Moreover, the two representative concentration pathways RCP 2.6 and 8.5 were chosen to inform stakeholders about two possible courses of anthropogenic emissions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To communicate the results to local stakeholders effectively, the way to present modeling results and their uncertainty is crucial. The visualization and textual/oral presentation should not be overwhelming but comprehensive, comprehensible and engaging. It should help the stakeholder to understand the likelihood of particular hazards that can be derived from multi-model ensemble projections. In this contribution, we present the communication approach we applied during a stakeholder workshop as well as its evaluation by the stakeholders.&lt;/p&gt;

Climate change impact chains in the water sector: observations from projects on the East India coast

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-232
Author(s):  
Sibylle Kabisch ◽  
Ronjon Chakrabarti ◽  
Till Wolf ◽  
Wilhelm Kiewitt ◽  
Ty Gorman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
The Impact

With regional variations, climate change has a significant impact on water quality deterioration and scarcity, which are serious challenges in developing countries and emerging economies. Often, effective projects to improve water management in the light of climate change are difficult to develop because of the complex interrelations between direct and indirect climate impacts and local perceptions of vulnerabilities and needs. Adaptation projects can be developed through a combination of participatory, bottom-up needs assessments and top-down analyses. Climate change impact chains can help to display the causal chain of climate signals and resulting impacts and thereby establish a system map as a basis for stakeholder discussions. This article aims to develop specific climate change impact chains for the water management sector in rural coastal India that combine bottom-up and top-down perspectives. Case studies from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, India, provide a basis for the impact chains developed. Bottom-up data were gathered through a vulnerability and needs assessment in 18 villages complemented with top-down research data. The article is divided into four steps: (1) system of interest; (2) data on climate change signals; (3) climate change impacts based on top-down as well as bottom-up information; (4) specific impact chains complemented by initial climate change adaptation options.

Biden backs rail revival with climate change link

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Kansas City ◽  
Operating Costs ◽  
Rolling Stock ◽  
Urban Transit ◽  
Business Travel ◽  
Content Type ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Rail Industry ◽  
The Impact

Significance The rail industry is also stressing its green credentials as it seeks approval for a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that would create the first company with a pan-North American freight line. Impacts The impact of COVID-19 on demand for long-range travel, especially business travel, remains uncertain. Much of Amtrak's rolling stock is at or near the end of its useful service life, pushing up operating costs. Rail and urban transit modernisation would support Biden's aim of creating more jobs in US manufacturing and infrastructure. Replacing highway-funding petrol taxes with vehicle usage fees would encourage freight to move from road to rail.

scholarly journals Using building adaptation to deliver sustainability in Australia

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara J. Wilkinson ◽  
Kimberley James ◽  
Richard Reed
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Office Building ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Carbon Neutrality ◽  
Building Adaptation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Decision Making Tool

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.

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