Involving Resilience In Assessment of The Water-Energy-Food Nexus For Arid And Semiarid Regions

Abstract The proper planning of the water-energy-food nexus is key for urban sustainability. However, the security of water, energy, and food is posed at risk due to uncertain events such as natural disasters. The quantification of resilience in water-energy-food systems has gained relevance in recent years and has served as a key tool to identify vulnerable areas. This work presents a systematic approach to assessing the resilience of the water-energy-food nexus in arid/semiarid regions that present low availability of resources. A methodology for assessing the resilience of the water-energy-food nexus of an arid region is presented, which allows evaluating the system under the disturbances of natural disasters such as hurricanes, low-temperature events, and droughts. The events in which failures in functional services may occur are analyzed using penalty costs. To apply the proposed approach, scenarios corresponding to past conditions and future projections were evaluated for two Mexican arid cities. The results show that it is possible to identify vulnerable areas related to the existence of natural disasters and thereby look for alternatives to maintain the security of the nexus. The proposed approach is general, and it can be applied to other regions with similar characteristics.

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Narrative Continuity/Rupture: Projected Professional Futures amid Pervasive Employment Precarity

Work and Occupations ◽

10.1177/07308884211028277 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 073088842110282

Author(s):

Elena Ayala-Hurtado

Keyword(s):

Working Conditions ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Institutional Support ◽

University Graduates ◽

Cultural Narratives ◽

Future Projections ◽

Cultural Narrative ◽

The Past ◽

Stable Employment ◽

Past Conditions

As working conditions change worldwide, employment precarity is increasing, including for groups for whom such conditions are unexpected. This study investigates how members of one such group—educationally advantaged young adults—describe their professional futures in a context of unprecedented employment precarity where their expected trajectories are no longer easily achievable. Using 75 interviews with young university graduates in Madrid, Spain, I find that most young graduates drew on a long-standing cultural narrative, which I call the “achievement narrative,” to imagine future stable employment. Simultaneously, most denounced this narrative as fraudulent. To explain this finding, I draw on the concept of hysteresis: the mismatch between beliefs that are dependent on the past conditions that produced them and the available opportunities in the present. I argue that hysteresis can extend into future projections; projected futures can be guided by beliefs based on past conditions more than by lived experiences in the present. Further, I argue that the achievement narrative itself reinforces hysteresis in future projections due to its resonance and institutional support. The paper offers new insights into projected futures and employment precarity by analyzing the future projections of a privileged cohort facing unexpected precarity, further develops the concept of hysteresis, and extends the study of cultural narratives.

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The epidemiology of Sarcocystis spp. in cattle of Western Australia

Epidemiology and Infection ◽

10.1017/s0950268800049554 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 108 (1) ◽

pp. 107-113 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

G. Savini ◽

J. D. Dunsmore ◽

I. D. Robertson ◽

P. Seneviratna

Keyword(s):

Western Australia ◽

Host Age ◽

Semiarid Regions ◽

Sex Influence ◽

Sarcocystis Spp ◽

Artificial Digestion ◽

Management Factors ◽

Arid And Semiarid ◽

Age And Sex

SUMMARYOesophagus samples from 714 cattle from Western Australia were examined by artificial digestion to detect the presence of Sarcocystis spp. The overall prevalence of infection was 52%. The prevalence of infection increased with age and was highest in the entire males (92%). The prevalence was lower in cattle which originated from arid and semiarid regions (9 and 31% respectively) than those from tropical (87%) and temperate (60%) regions. possible reasons for these differences are discussed and it is concluded that environmental and management factors as well as host age and sex influence the prevalence of infection with Sarcocystis spp. in cattle.

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Changes in precipitation from 1958 to 2012 in arid and semiarid regions of northern China

International Journal of Global Warming ◽

10.1504/ijgw.2017.085782 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 16 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jinchang Li ◽

Yanfang Zhao ◽

Xiaohui Fan

Keyword(s):

Northern China ◽

Semiarid Regions ◽

Arid And Semiarid

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A rapid method for quantifying landscape-scale vegetation disturbances by surface coal mining in arid and semiarid regions

Landscape Ecology ◽

10.1007/s10980-018-0726-9 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 (12) ◽

pp. 2061-2070 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Qun Ma ◽

Chunyang He ◽

Xuening Fang

Keyword(s):

Coal Mining ◽

Rapid Method ◽

Landscape Scale ◽

Surface Coal Mining ◽

Semiarid Regions ◽

Arid And Semiarid

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Spatio-temporal variations of the major meteorological disasters and its response to climate change in Henan Province during the past two millennia

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.12365 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. e12365

Author(s):

Xiang Li ◽

Hui Lu ◽

Zhaokang Zhang ◽

Wei Xing

Keyword(s):

Low Temperature ◽

Correlation Analysis ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Temporal Variations ◽

Henan Province ◽

Historical Documents ◽

The Past ◽

Meteorological Disaster ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Meteorological Disasters

In China, historical documents have recorded large quantities of information related to natural disasters, and these disasters have had long-lasting effects on economic and social activities. Understanding the occurrence of the natural disasters and their spatio-temporal variation characters is crucial for sustainable of our society. Therefore, based on the collection and collation of historical documents, and adopting mathematical statistics, Kriging interpolation, correlation analysis and other methods, we systematically explored the meteorological disasters in Henan Province during the past two millennia in analyzing their spatio-temporal distribution characters and driving forces. The results demonstrate that there were five major types of meteorological disasters in Henan Province, including drought, flood, hails, low temperature and frost and insect pests, which presented obvious spatio-temporal variations and have occurred frequently during the past two millennia. According to the historical documents, the major meteorological disasters occurred 1,929 times in Henan from 221 BCE to 2000 CE. On the whole, the disaster frequency show that the occurrence cycle of the meteorological disasters has obvious changes, which mainly occurred in the middle and late stages during the past two millennia, especially after 1300 CE. Furthermore, we also find that the variation of meteorological disaster events is consistent with the variation of temperature in eastern China and the frequency of meteorological disaster increases in the cold period, but decreases in the warm period. In addition, there are obvious differences in the spatial distribution of the major meteorological disaster, which were mainly distributed in the northwest and southern part region of the Henan Province before 1911 CE. While after 1911 CE, the northern and southeastern parts were the meteorological disaster-prone areas in this region during this period. Spatial correlation analysis of each meteorological disaster before and after 1911 CE points out the droughts disaster frequency-occurring district has transferred in different periods, while the hail and low temperature and frost disasters just have a smaller transferred during these two periods. Conversely, the frequency-occurring districts of floods and insect pest disasters have no obviously transferred in different periods. These results can provide an important scientific basis for governmental decision makers and local people to prevent and mitigate meteorological disaster in the future.

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