scholarly journals Using Adaptive Capacity to Shift Absorptive Capacity: A Framework of Water Reallocation in Highly Modified Rivers

Water ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Peter M. Rudberg ◽  
Timos Karpouzoglou
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Ecosystem Integrity ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Integrated Systems Analysis ◽  
Governance Processes

Damming and water regulation creates highly modified rivers with limited ecosystem integrity and resilience. This, coupled with an ongoing global biodiversity crisis, makes river restoration a priority, which requires water reallocation. Coupled human–natural systems research provides a suitable lens for integrated systems’ analysis but offers limited insight into the governance processes of water reallocation. Therefore, we propose an analytical framework, which combines insight from social–hydrological resilience and water reallocation research, and identifies the adaptive capacity in highly modified rivers as the capacity for water reallocation. We test the framework by conducting an analysis of Sweden, pre- and post-2019, a critical juncture in the governance of the country’s hydropower producing rivers. We identify a relative increase in adaptive capacity post- 2019 since water reallocation is set to occur in smaller rivers and tributaries, while leaving large-scaled rivers to enjoy limited water reallocation, or even increased allocation to hydropower. We contend that the proposed framework is broad enough to be of general interest, yet sufficiently specific to contribute to the construction of middle-range theories, which could further our understanding of why and how governance processes function, change, and lead to outcomes in terms of modified natural resource management and resilience shifts.

Design, simulation and matched structure of a living ecological & energized modules (EEMs) bridge system

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
XiangWen Xiong ◽  
Mingzi Wu
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Ecosystem Integrity ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
Bridge System

<p>This paper presents a novel ecological &amp; energized modules (EEMs) system for transportation and bridge systems. It has a general interest in almost all human living &amp; ecological systems, civil engineering, and infrastructure. As an underlying and fundamental system of zero energy, zero- water-consumption, and zero-carbon with a 100% greening rate and 100% clean energy, high- quality air, and powerful carbon capture system with significant positive spillover for global carbon removal and climate challenges, etc., the EEMs bridge system is easy, fast, efficient, and zero- dependence on the large complex equipment during the construction. It is applied to a wide variety of bridge systems, such as road bridges, footbridges, flyovers, and overpasses. It’s pollution-free, safe, noiseless, and can be used soon after paving, repairing, and re-laying. The EEMs bridge system has unique superiority in ecosystem integrity and connectivity, resulting in available consequences for global biodiversity, local species interactions, ecosystem integrity and connectivity.</p>

scholarly journals Contributions of Nature-Based Solutions to Reduce Peoples’ Vulnerabilities to Climate Change across the Rural Global South

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Woroniecki ◽  
Femke Anna Spiegelenberg ◽  
Alexandre Chausson ◽  
Beth Turner ◽  
Isabel Key ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Global South ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Systematic Map ◽  
Vulnerability Reduction ◽  
Ecosystem Sensitivity

Nature-based solutions (NbS) &mdash;i.e. working with and enhancing nature to address societal challenges&mdash; feature with increasing prominence in responses to climate change, including in the adaptation plans of the most vulnerable nations. Although evidence for the effectiveness of NbS for adaptation is growing, there is less evidence on whether and how NbS reduce vulnerability to climate change in the Global South, despite this region being home to most of the world&rsquo;s most climate-vulnerable people. To address this, we analysed the vulnerability-reduction outcomes of 85 nature-based interventions in rural areas across the Global South, and factors mediating their effectiveness, based on a systematic map of peer-reviewed studies encompassing a wide diversity of ecosystems, climate impacts, intervention types and institutions. We applied an analytical framework based on social-ecological systems and climate change vulnerability, coding studies with respect to six pathways of vulnerability reduction: social and ecological exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. We find widespread effectiveness of NbS in the dataset with 95% providing positive outcomes for climate change adaptation. Overall, nature-based interventions reduced vulnerability primarily by lowering ecosystem sensitivity to climate impacts (73% of interventions), followed by reducing social sensitivity (43%), reducing ecological exposure (37%), and/or increasing social adaptive capacity (34%), ecological adaptive capacity (18%) and reducing social exposure (12%). With an analysis of mediating factors, we show that vulnerability-reduction effectiveness was affected as much by social and political factors as by technical considerations. Indeed configurations of existing and introduced formal and informal institutions appear central to the efficacy and distributive effects of the studied interventions. We conclude that attention to the distinct pathways through which vulnerability is reduced can help maximise the benefits of NbS and that to be successful, careful consideration is required on their applicability to particular circumstances as well as their social dimensions.

scholarly journals Attitude and Actual Behaviour towards Water-Related Green Infrastructures and Sustainable Drainage Systems in Four North-Western Mediterranean Regions of Italy and France

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Maria Piacentini ◽  
Rudy Rossetto
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Related Services ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Actual Behaviour ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
Sustainable Drainage Systems

Water-related green infrastructures (WrGIs), also known as blue infrastructures, and sustainable drainage systems (SuDSs) offer services such as stormwater runoff management, water purification, water storage at the intersection of the built environment, and natural systems by mimicking natural hydrological processes. While several papers document the reliability of such infrastructures in providing a variety of water-related services, few studies investigated the actual behaviour and the attitude of different stakeholders to understand the limitations and barriers in WrGIs/SuDSs implementation. In this paper, we investigated these issues by posing a set of questions to 71 qualified stakeholders in three Italian regions (Toscana, Liguria, and Sardegna) and one French region (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) in the northwestern Mediterranean. The results of the investigation largely show a lack of knowledge on these innovative solutions, although there is a general interest in their implementation both in the Italian and French regions. Barriers are also constituted by the scarcity of the demonstrators implemented, little knowledge on construction and maintenance costs, the absence of a proper regulatory framework, and of fiscal and financial incentives to support private citizens and companies. We finally suggest tools and soft measures that, in our opinion, may contribute to supporting the implementation of WrGIs/SuDSs, especially in view of adapting Mediterranean territories to the challenges posed by climate change. The results of our analyses may be reasonably up-scaled to the whole Mediterranean coastal region.

scholarly journals Major geological events in the late Guadalupian and carbon–strontium isotope responses in the Yangtze platform, South China

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 1025-1032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zejin Shi ◽  
Guan Yin ◽  
Wenjie Li ◽  
Huaixin Yang ◽  
Jin Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
South China ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Short Interval ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
Strontium Isotope ◽  
Large Igneous Province ◽  
Yangtze Platform ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
C Isotopes

Two sections of marine carbonate strata, Podu and Lengshuixi, from the Yangtze platform, South China, are investigated in terms of major geological events and carbon–strontium isotope responses. The results show a large-scale regression and a Large Igneous Province (LIP) event occurred in succession in the short interval of the late Guadalupian, inducing a biodiversity crisis. The regression event, marked by an increase in the 87Sr/86Sr ratio, is observed in the Jinogondolella postserrata Zone. It contributed significantly to the reduction in species habitat, leading to notable losses within the shallow-water species assemblage. A subsequent LIP event occurred after the appearance of Jinogondolella altudaensis, releasing CO2 and numerous other deleterious gases that further amplified the crisis in shallow-water to deep-sea environments. The corresponding decline in Sr and C isotopes could have been a response to the basaltic eruption (relative increase from mantle-derived Sr) and release of 12C-enriched CO2. During the process of creation of the LIP, the decline in δ13Ccarb was mainly associated with 12C-enriched CO2 release from organic matter in sedimentary strata, and high-temperature isotope fractionation during the volcanic eruption stage (exceeding 1200 °C). This study could further provide valuable clues regarding the development process of the major geological events and the causes of the biodiversity crisis.

scholarly journals Importance and Utilization of Theory-Based Evaluations in the Context of Sustainable Development and Social-Ecological Systems

2022 ◽  
pp. 223-235
Author(s):  
Takaaki Miyaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Development Evaluation

AbstractNumerous challenges confront the task of evaluating sustainable development—its complex nature, complementary evaluation criteria, and the difficulty of evaluation at the nexus of human and natural systems. Theory-based evaluation, drawn from critical realism, is well suited to this task. When constructing a program theory/theory of change for evaluating sustainable development, concepts of socioecological systems and coupled human and natural systems are useful. The chapter discusses four modes of inference and the application of different theory-based evaluation approaches. It introduces the CHANS (coupled human and natural systems) framework, a holistic, analytical framework that is useful in evaluating such complex, social-ecological systems and resonates with the challenging elements of sustainable development evaluation.

scholarly journals The Fimbulwinter theory and the 6th century crisis in the light of Norwegian archaeology: Towards a human-environmental approach.

1970 ◽  
pp. 101-120
Author(s):  
Ingar M. Gundersen
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Temporal Complexity ◽  
Material Change ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
First Case ◽  
Scientific Potential

In this article, I have tried to discuss the Fimbulwinter theory in a research historical perspective, in order to disentangle the premises presented by both advocates and critics alike. By and large, the current debate follows the contours of previous discourses on the 6th century transition, at the risk of entrenching the arguments within two defined and established perspectives: material change as a reflection of crisis, and, secondly, material change as an expression of cultural innovation. Neither of these perspectives is satisfactory, as they both run the risk of downplaying either, in the first case, long-term socio-cultural dynamics or, in the second case, environmental factors. In other words, an environmental perspective is inadequate as an analytical framework, since it is liable to provide simplified and deterministic interpretations of past societal change. The roots of environmental disasters must be studied from a social perspective, in which societal preconditions for vulnerability to hazards are analysed. Consequently, an integrated human- environmental approach must be developed, which takes into consideration the importance of both human and natural systems, and the interaction between them. There is, indeed, no contradiction between the two interpretative frameworks of crisis and a change of practice, as both perspectives are required for an in-depth understanding of the spatial and temporal complexity associated with the transition from the Early to the Late Iron Age. Considerable scientific potential might be obtained by employing a human-environmental approach, in which the 6th century transition is analysed at the interface of human and environmental systems, rather than within an explicit social or climatic interpretative framework. 

scholarly journals Reconciling global priorities for conserving biodiversity habitat

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Mokany ◽  
S. Ferrier ◽  
T.D. Harwood ◽  
C. Ware ◽  
M. Di Marco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Habitat Condition ◽  
Biodiversity Crisis ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Threatened Habitat ◽  
Fine Resolution ◽  
Global Data

AbstractDegradation and loss of natural habitat is the major driver of the current global biodiversity crisis. Most habitat conservation efforts to date have targeted small areas of highly threatened habitat, but emerging debate suggests retaining large intact natural systems may be just as important. We reconcile these perspectives by integrating fine-resolution global data on habitat condition and species assemblage turnover, to identify Earth’s high-value biodiversity habitat. These are areas in better condition than most other locations once supporting a similar assemblage of species, and are found within both intact regions and human dominated landscapes. However, only 18.6 % of this high-value habitat is currently protected globally. Averting permanent biodiversity loss requires clear spatially explicit targets for retaining these unprotected high-value habitats.

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