scholarly journals Exposure to Floods, Climate Change, and Poverty in Vietnam

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mook Bangalore ◽  
Andrew Smith ◽  
Ted Veldkamp
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Socioeconomic Conditions ◽  
Socioeconomic Data ◽  
The City ◽  
Level Analysis

Abstract. With 70 percent of its population living in coastal areas and low-lying deltas, Vietnam is highly exposed to riverine and coastal flooding. This paper examines the exposure of the population and poor people in particular to current and future flooding in Vietnam and specifically in Ho Chi Minh City, using new high-resolution flood hazard maps and spatial socioeconomic data. The national-level analysis finds that a third of today’s population is already exposed to a flood, which occurs once every 25 years, assuming no protection. For the same return period flood under current socioeconomic conditions, climate change may increase the number exposed to 38 to 46 percent of the population. Climate change impacts can make frequent events as important as rare ones: the estimates suggest a 25-year flood under future conditions can expose more people than a 200-year flood under current conditions. Although poor districts are not found to be more exposed to floods at the national level, the city-level analysis of Ho Chi Minh City provides evidence that slum areas are highly exposed. The results of this paper show the benefits of investing today in flood risk management, and can provide guidance as to where future investments may be targeted.

scholarly journals Role of water infrastructure programs for family farmers in strengthening adaptive capacities to climate change: lessons from the Cisterns Program in Semi-arid Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-152
Author(s):  
Patrícia dos Santos Mesquita ◽  
Louise Cavalcante
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
National Level ◽  
Specific Capacity ◽  
Water Infrastructure ◽  
Family Farmers ◽  
Institutional Actors ◽  
Water And Food Security ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Semi Arid

The semi-arid region of Brazil, marked by low human development indicators, has historically suffered from water scarcity, being the focus of public policies to reduce socioeconomic, water, and climatic vulnerabilities for more than a century. Among the recent initiatives, the Cisterns Program stands out as an attempt to guarantee water and food security for family farmers through the construction of social technologies for water storage, such as cisterns production. Thus, the research objective was to analyse the perception of farmers and institutional actors involved with the Program about the impact of the 2011-2018 drought on the functioning of cisterns and to discuss how water infrastructure programs can improve the adaptive capacity of farmers affected by climate change. Through semi-structured interviews with institutional actors at the regional/national level and with farmers in semi-arid Brazil in the years of 2017/2018, the results indicate that access to the social technology seems to strengthen the relationship between water and food security, and the specific capacity of farmers in dealing with climatic risks. We conclude with lessons and recommendations from the Brazilian experience that can be useful for actors from other semi-arid regions involved in water infrastructure programs.

scholarly journals Examining the Barriers to Gender Integration in Agriculture, Climate Change, Food Security, and Nutrition Policies: Guatemalan and Honduran Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Howland ◽  
Mariola Acosta ◽  
Juliana Muriel ◽  
Jean-Francois Le Coq
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
National Level ◽  
National Development ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
International Level ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Gender Integration ◽  
Policy Translation ◽  
Food Security And Nutrition

Gender mainstreaming is seen, at international level, as critical to achieving national development goals and addressing key global challenges such as climate change and food and nutrition insecurity in the agriculture sector. Our study examined the barriers leading to poor gender mainstreaming and potential solutions in policies applying to gender, agriculture, climate change, food security and nutrition, in both Guatemala and Honduras. We used a case study approach to analyze the barriers to gender integration in these governments' policies. Based on semi-structured interviews and policy document analysis, we conducted a methodology based on policy mix, policy integration and policy translation. Results show that, despite having made multiple international commitments on gender issues and having gender-labeled policy and governmental gender bodies, gender mainstreaming in the policy cycle is lagging. There are multiple barriers of a different nature and at different levels that explain the lack of gender integration in the policy cycle, related and linked to: (1) policy translation from the international level; (2) structural policy barriers at national level; (3) behaviors and corruption; and (4) lack of knowledge and capacity. Solutions to address these barriers have been identified. Our results confirmed the literature findings and also introduce new elements such as the importance of considering the nature of the relationship (purely technical and/or political) between governments and international cooperation actors to evaluate the level of gender integration in policy. Furthermore, we stress that for key informants, there are no (easy) solutions to redress the poor gender integration strategies implemented. Finally, we noted that no solutions were provided relating to structural racism and machismo, religious extremism, power groups, and censorship of civil society.

The impacts of climate change on food security and health in Southern Africa

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.L. Wlokas
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Mitigation Action ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Climate change will have a great impact on Southern Africa according to the IPCC. Two closely related topics, food security and health will be affected by the changes in many ways. Difficulties in transporting food through carbon regulations in air-freight, changing conditions for growing food crops and negative impacts on fishery might occur and will very possible lead to an increase in malnutrition in the region. Changes of the climate will also have an effect on the way illnesses are transmitted and cause a number of extreme weather events which can have an extremely damaging consequence on human living. Two main efforts are being work on in terms of dealing with these concerns. At the inter-national, regional and national levels, adaptation and mitigation action is being planned and imple-mented. Activities at each level are discussed and I argue this in this  paper that currently the most effi-cient way of dealing with the existing and future burdens of climate change impacts are activities at a national level, and enhanced effort has to be made to improve regional and international collaboration in addressing these issues.

Land suitability levels for rainfed maize under current conditions and climate change projections in Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge López-Blanco ◽  
José Luis Pérez-Damián ◽  
Ana Cecilia Conde-Álvarez ◽  
Jesús David Gómez-Díaz ◽  
Alejandro Ismael Monterroso-Rivas
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
National Level ◽  
Land Suitability ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Maize Crop ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Level Analysis

An assessment of land suitability classes for rainfed maize (spring–summer agricultural cycle) with current climate conditions (1950–2000) and projected climate change scenarios was carried out for Mexico. The method considered the most restrictive factors or agroclimatic requirements from different variables needed by rainfed maize. These factors were analyzed spatially in a geographic information systems (GIS) context, resulting in areas classified into four suitability levels: high, medium, low, and not suitable for maize. We considered two general circulation models (GCM): HADGEM2-ES and MPI-ESM-LR; one radiative forcing concentration representative concentration pathways (RCP) 8.5 Wm−2 and the far period (2075–2099). Results at a national-level analysis showed that under actual conditions, 57.5% of the area of Mexico presents some level of suitability for rainfed maize. The high suitability class is 11.4% of the country, while 20.7% and 25.3% had medium and low suitability levels, respectively. Other results showed that with the HADGEM2-ES and MPI-ESM-LR projections of climate change models, 50.4% and 46.7%, of Mexico’s continental area, respectively, present some level of suitability for the rainfed maize crop. In the first case, with respect to the present climate conditions, the HADGEM2-ES model presented an area decrease of −2.4% and the MPI-ESM-LR model of −5.5% in the high suitability level for the rainfed maize crop. Results at a state-level analysis showed there are five states (Jalisco, Campeche, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Michoacán) in the interval of more than 50,000 km2 of surface with high and medium suitability levels, with a maximum extent change between the present to the projected climate conditions of −46% for the HADGEM2-ES and −57% for the MPI-ESM-LR. In general, the MPI-ESM-LR model showed the most adverse projected conditions for rainfed maize growth.

Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Jim Hanan ◽  
Alan Dorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Food Security ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

Impact of climate discourse on national scientific networks in energy technologies: the case of Estonian science and industry linkages

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-45
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
National Level ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
Research Agendas

This article examines how the global climate change discourse influences the implementation of national science policy in the area of energy technology, with a focus on industry and science collaborations and networks. We develop a set of theoretical propositions about how the issues in the global discourse are likely to influence research agendas and networks, the nature of industry-science linkages and the direction of innovation. The plausibility of these propositions is examined, using Estonia as a case study. We find that the global climate discourse has indeed led to the diversification of research agendas and networks, but the shifts in research strategies often tend to be rhetorical and opportunistic. The ambiguity of the global climate change discourse has also facilitated incremental innovation towards energy efficiency and the potentially sub-optimal lock-in of technologies. In sum, the Estonian case illustrates how the introduction of policy narratives from the global climate change discourse to the national level can shape the actual policy practices and also networks of actors in a complex and non-linear fashion, with unintended effects.

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