scholarly journals Adaptation strategies against growing environmental and social vulnerabilities in mountain areas

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narpat S Jodha
Keyword(s):  
Resource Use ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Growth Options ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Mountain Communities ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Hindu Kush ◽  
Social Vulnerabilities

This paper deals with the strategies adopted by the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HK-H) mountain communities in response to adverse natural and human induced circumstances. The quality of life and growth options in mountains (including hills) are deeply rooted in mountain specificities (e.g., fragility, marginality, diversity). Hence, the disregard of these mountain specificities while using mountain resources reduces communities’ options and makes them more vulnerable to environmental and economic distresses. The paper first introduces the concept of vulnerability and the traditional low-intensity system of resource use. It then deals with the decline of such traditional systems due to the intensification of resource use caused by the integration of the relatively isolated mountain areas into mainstream economies. The paper concludes with a call for introduction of macro level policies to: (i) Minimize the vulnerability potential of globalization and global environmental change and (ii) Enhance local capacities to withstand and adapt to the changes promoted by these global processes. This discussion covers larger part of the present paper. Himalayan Journal of Sciences 3(5) 2005 p.33-42

scholarly journals Impact of Landuses on Air and Water Quality- A Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (Special issue 1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
KALYANI SUPRIYA ◽  
R K AGGARWAL ◽  
S K BHARDWAJ
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Quality Of Water ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Land Use Impact

Landuse alteration is one of the primary causes of global environmental change. Changes in the landuse usually occurred regionally and globally over last few decades and will carry on in the future as well. These activities are highly influenced by anthropogenic activities and have more serious consequences on the quality of water and air. In the present study relationship between land use impact on water and air quality have been reviewed.

scholarly journals From needs to actions: prospects for planned adaptations in high mountain communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 163 (2) ◽  
pp. 953-972
Author(s):  
Graham McDowell ◽  
Leila Harris ◽  
Michele Koppes ◽  
Martin F. Price ◽  
Kai M.A. Chan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Mountain Communities ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Support Mechanisms

AbstractAdaptation needs in high mountain communities are increasingly well documented, yet most efforts to address these needs continue to befall mountain people who have contributed little to the problem of climate change. This situation represents a contravention of accepted norms of climate justice and calls attention to the need for better understanding of prospects for externally resourced adaptation initiatives in high mountain areas. In response, this paper examines the architecture of formal adaptation support mechanisms organized through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and how such mechanisms might help to meet adaptation needs in high mountain communities. It outlines key global adaptation initiatives organized through the UNFCCC, clarifies idealized linkages between these global adaptation initiatives and meeting local adaptation needs, and evaluates actual progress in connecting such support with discrete adaptation needs in the upper Manaslu region of Nepal. The paper then critically examines observed shortcomings in matching adaptation support organized through the UNFCCC with local adaptation needs, including complications stemming from the bureaucratic nature of formal adaptation support mechanisms, the intervening role of the state in delivering aid, and the ways in which these complexities intersect with the specific socio-cultural contexts of mountain communities. It concludes by highlighting several prospects for increasing the quantity and quality of adaptation support to mountain communities. These opportunities are considered alongside several salient concerns about formal adaptation support mechanisms in an effort to provide a well-rounded assessment of the prospects for planned adaptations in high mountain communities.

scholarly journals Introduction: The Metabolism of Islands

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9516
Author(s):  
Simron Jit. Singh ◽  
Marina Fischer-Kowalski ◽  
Marian Chertow
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Industrial Ecology ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Biocultural Diversity ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Climate Action

This editorial introduces the Special Issue “Metabolism of Islands”. It makes a case why we should care about islands and their sustainability. Islands are hotspots of biocultural diversity, and home to 600 million people that depend on one-sixth of the earth’s total area, including the surrounding oceans, for their subsistence. Today, they are on the frontlines of climate change and face an existential crisis. Islands are, however, potential “hubs of innovation” and are uniquely positioned to be leaders in sustainability and climate action. We argue that a full-fledged program on “island industrial ecology” is urgently needed with the aim to offer policy-relevant insights and strategies to sustain small islands in an era of global environmental change. We introduce key industrial ecology concepts, and the state-of-the-art in applying them to islands. Nine contributions in this Special Issue are briefly reviewed to highlight the metabolic risks inherent in the island cases. The contributors explore how reconfiguring patterns of resource use will allow island governments to build resilience and adapt to the challenges of climate change.

scholarly journals Migration and global environmental change: methodological lessons from mountain areas of the global South

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1711-1749 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Milan ◽  
G. Gioli ◽  
T. Afifi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Global South ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Study Results

Abstract. The relationship between migration and environmental and climatic changes is a crucial yet understudied factor influencing mountain livelihoods in the global South. These livelihoods are often characterized by high prevalence of family farming, widespread dependence on natural resources and high sensitivity to climatic changes. Except for a limited number of empirical case studies, the literature on migration and global environmental change has not yet moved beyond case study results to address and explain global patterns and specificities of migration in mountain areas of the global South. After an introduction to the topic, the authors present their empirical approach combining household surveys, Participatory Research Approach (PRA) tools and key informant interviews through its application in three case studies in Pakistan, Peru and Tanzania. This article suggests that the systematic use of transdisciplinary approaches, with a combination of quantitative and qualitative empirical methods, is the key to understanding global migration patterns in rural mountain areas of the global South. In the future, survey data should be triangulated with PRA results as well as secondary data in order to build household profiles connecting vulnerability (measured through a multidimensional index) with human mobility patterns. Such profiles can be conducive to better understand the feedback processes between livelihoods and mobility patterns both within each case study and across case studies, helping researchers to draw general lessons.

scholarly journals Migration and global environmental change: methodological lessons from mountain areas of the global South

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 375-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Milan ◽  
G. Gioli ◽  
T. Afifi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Global South ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Study Results

Abstract. The relationship between migration and environmental and climatic changes is a crucial yet understudied factor influencing mountain livelihoods in the global South. These livelihoods are often characterized by high prevalence of family farming, widespread dependence on natural resources, and high sensitivity to climatic changes. Except for a limited number of empirical case studies, the literature on migration and global environmental change has not yet moved beyond case study results to address and explain global patterns and specificities of migration in mountain areas of the global South. After an introduction to the topic, the authors present a new synthesis of three field studies combining household surveys, participatory research approach (PRA) tools and key informant interviews in Pakistan, Peru, and Tanzania. This article suggests that the systematic use of transdisciplinary approaches, with a combination of quantitative and qualitative empirical methods, is the key to understanding global migration patterns in rural mountain areas of the global South. The results of our synthesis suggests that survey data should be triangulated with PRA results as well as secondary data in order to build household profiles connecting vulnerability (measured through a multidimensional index) with human mobility patterns. Such profiles can be conducive to better understand the feedback processes between livelihoods and mobility patterns both within each case study and across case studies, helping researchers to draw general lessons.

scholarly journals Environmental problems and environmental governance in the context of dynamic economic growth – the case of China

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Richerzhagen ◽  
Imme Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Global Environmental

AbstractThe fast growing anchor countries have become key players in mitigating global environmental change. China is a very particular anchor country. The size, scope and quality of the environmental degradation associated with its dramatic economic growth is much larger than that of all the other anchor countries. Despite being regarded as an all-embracing emerging superpower, China is a very heterogeneous country regarding its economic, social and environmental structure. Regional differences require an effective response. However, China’s environmental governance system is characterized by a number of weaknesses, which impede the implementation of targets and objectives set by policies and laws. The most significant weakness refers to the insufficient institutional framework for horizontal and vertical policy coordination. Good environmental governance requires measures that address these deficiencies. Furthermore, the diffusion of public information on the costs of environmental degradation and the rule of law have to be promoted as complementary measures.

Piemonte. Tra stasi e sperimentazioni, un quadro chiaroscurale / Piedmont. Between stasis and experimentations, a «chiaroscuro» framework

ARCHALP ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
Antonio De Rossi ◽  
Roberto Dini
Keyword(s):  
Physical Space ◽  
The Other ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Architectural Production ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Contemporary Situation

The contemporary architectural production in the Alps of Piedmont has to be studied taking into consideration the contrasting phenomena of depopulation and tourism that have involved the mountain areas of the region during last century. In the fifties and sixties the percentage of abandonment of the high valleys reaches even 80-90%. Entire communities move to industrial urban centers in the cities on the plain. On the other side we witness to a strong polarization of the winter stations that become real “banlieues blanches” for the free time of the citizens and where the architecture of alpine modernism, with various forms, shapes. The paradox nowadays is that the rarefaction of abandoned and depopulated territories is necessary to force to start and choose new innovative paths. We witness a contemporary situation with different shades: on one side the well-established touristic territories that need projects to promote the redevelopment and diversification, on the other side the marginal places where are rising new visions are practices of reactivation of the territory in which architecture is fundamental. The topic of quality of the construction of the physical space intersects with the regeneration of places on a cultural basis, new agriculture and green economy, innovative development of the patrimony, sustainable tourism, with inclusive and participative paths of nature, by giving new meanings to places and building new economies and identities.

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