Áhrif loftlagsbreytinga á vatnsveitur og vatnsgæði á Íslandi – áhættuþættir og aðgerðir

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
María J. Gunnarsdóttir ◽  
Sigurður Magnús Garðarsson ◽  
Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir ◽  
Alfreð Schiöth

Climate change is expected to have impact on water supply and drinking water quality in Iceland. Foremost there are three influential weather-related factors; increase in temperature; rise in sea level; and seasonal and regional change in precipitation in both quantity and intensity. In this study international and local reports and articles were analyzed for expected impact on the water resource with emphasis on the northern and the arctic region. Water quality risk factors were analyzed based on surveillance data of the water supplies from the Local Competent Authorities. Preliminary risk assessment of landslides and flooding was performed in one surveillance area in northern Iceland.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott MacKenzie ◽  
Anna Westerstahl Stenport

Impactful communication remains a vexing problem for climate science researchers and public outreach. This article identifies a range of moving images and screen-based media used to visualize climate change, focusing especially on the Arctic region and the efforts of the United Nations. The authors examine the aesthetics of big data visualization of melting sea ice and glaciers made by NASA and similar entities; eye-witness, expert accounts and youth-produced documentaries designed for United Nations delegates to the annual COP events such as the Youth Climate Report; Please Help the World, the dystopian cli-fi narrative produced for the UN’s COP 15; and Isuma TV’s streaming of works by Indigenous practitioners in Nunavut.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-242
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Ren ◽  
Dan Liu

In an era of climate change, economic globalization, and technological innovation, the Arctic region has been increasingly open to competing jurisdictional claims, commercial activities, and outside players. In the meantime, China’s engagement in the Arctic has drawn great attention. While some Arctic commentators are concerned about China as a threat to the region, many Chinese officials and scholars tend to portray China as a “rule-follower” in the Arctic. However, this “rule-follower” image fails to take full account of the evolving nature of Arctic governance and Arctic international law. This paper recasts China’s role in the Arctic. It argues that, to fulfill a “constructive participant” role in Arctic development, China can participate as a rule follower, a constructive challenger, and a keen learner concurrently, depending on the different issue-areas involved.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liang ◽  
Qingsheng Liu ◽  
Gaohuan Liu ◽  
He Li ◽  
Chong Huang

Land cover is a fundamental component of crucial importance in the earth sciences. To date, many excellent international teams have created a variety of land cover products covering the entire globe. To provide a reference for researchers studying the Arctic, this paper evaluates four commonly used land cover products. First, we compare and analyze the four land cover products from the perspectives of land cover type, distribution and spatial heterogeneity. Second, we evaluate the accuracy of such products by using two sets of sample points collected from the Arctic region. Finally, we obtain the spatial consistency distribution of the products by means of superposition analysis. The results show the following: (a) among the four land cover products, Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (CCI-LC) has the highest overall accuracy (63.5%) in the Arctic region, GlobeLand30 has an overall accuracy of 62.2% and the overall accuracy of the Global Land Cover by the National Mapping Organization (GLCNMO) is only 48.8%. When applied in the Arctic region, the overall accuracy of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is only 29.5% due to significant variances. Therefore, MODIS and GLCNMO are not recommended in Arctic-related research as their use may lead to major errors. (b) An evaluation of the consistency of the four products indicates that the classification of the large-scale homogeneous regions in the Arctic yields satisfactory results, whereas the classification results in the forest–tundra ecotone are unsatisfactory. The results serve as a reference for future research. (c) Among the four products, GlobeLand30 is the best choice for analyzing finely divided and unevenly distributed surface features such as waters, urban areas and cropland. Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (CCI-LC) has the highest overall accuracy, and its classification accuracy is relatively higher for forests, shrubs, sparse vegetation, snow/ice and water. GlobeLand30 and CCI-LC do not vary much from each other in terms of overall accuracy. They differ the most in the classification accuracy of shrub-covered land; CCI-LC performed better than GlobeLand30 in the classification of shrub-covered land, whereas the latter obtained higher accuracy than that of the former in the classification of urban areas and cropland.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 380-402
Author(s):  
Natalie Dobson ◽  
Seline Trevisanut

Abstract The effects of global warming in the Arctic region present a particular challenge for the European Union (EU), which seeks to profile itself as a leader in responding to climate change. Although the EU strives to prioritize climate protection, the Arctic region remains one of the EU’s major suppliers of energy, particularly oil and gas. The EU must thus strike a balance between climate change mitigation and adaptation, and energy security. The present article analyses the developments of the EU position in this field, particularly in light of the COP 21 negotiations, and the more recent 2016 Integrated European Union Policy for the Arctic. In doing so it seeks to explore to what extent the EU truly is fulfilling its own leadership aspirations in the field of climate change and energy in the Arctic.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 573-602
Author(s):  
Shahnaj Begum

Abstract Elderly people face increasing challenges in the Arctic region, with global warming figuring prominently among these. The rising average temperature in the region is causing not only the rapid melting of sea ice, but also a range of environmental, social, cultural and economic problems. While the population at large in the region suffers from these problems, the elderly are among the most vulnerable. Climate change has affected their lives in different ways – physically, socially, politically, culturally and psychologically – and the impacts have serious implications for their human rights. This is an issue that has not been adequately researched, particularly in the context of the European High North, and this paper undertakes to present the salient concerns in this regard.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 168-195
Author(s):  
Mikhail N. Dudin ◽  
◽  
Nikolai V. Lyasnikov ◽  
Oleg D. Protsenko ◽  
Valery A. Tsvetkov ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

Recently, the developments of ethics and politics in the Arctic region have again become an issue for international discussion. One main issue is the problem of climate change and sustainability of the Arctic region. This problem is linked to the issue of exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic region, not at least in Greenland. Indeed, the general issue is how we should define ethics of the environment and sustainability as a general principle for the Arctic region. It is important to discuss what is at stake and how we define the problem in relation to the different participating stakeholders. This paper deals with these problems as a case for global ethics and it proposes a vision of ethical and political responsibility for sustainable development in order to deal with such problems.


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