scholarly journals Sustainability and Socioeconomic Impacts of Bioenergy

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
Buse Şahin ◽  
Seda Aslan ◽  
Zeynep Doğa Ceylan ◽  
Sevim Yolcular Karaoğlu
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6749
Author(s):  
Shuyang Chen

In the literature, very few studies have focused on how urbanisation will influence the policy effects of a climate policy even though urbanisation does have profound socioeconomic impacts. This paper has explored the interrelations among the urbanisation, carbon emissions, GDP, and energy consumption in China using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. Then, the unit urbanisation impacts are inputted into the policy evaluation framework of the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model in 2015–2030. The results show that the urbanisation had a positive impact on the GDP but a negative impact on the carbon emissions in 1980–2014. These impacts were statistically significant, but its impact on the energy consumption was not statistically significant. In 2015–2030, the urbanisation will have negative impacts on the carbon emissions and intensity. It will decrease the GDP and the household welfare under the carbon tax. The urbanisation will increase the average social cost of carbon (ASCC). Hence, the urbanisation will reinforce the policy effects of the carbon tax on the emissions and welfare.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick L. Barnard ◽  
Jenifer E. Dugan ◽  
Henry M. Page ◽  
Nathan J. Wood ◽  
Juliette A. Finzi Hart ◽  
...  

AbstractAs the climate evolves over the next century, the interaction of accelerating sea level rise (SLR) and storms, combined with confining development and infrastructure, will place greater stresses on physical, ecological, and human systems along the ocean-land margin. Many of these valued coastal systems could reach “tipping points,” at which hazard exposure substantially increases and threatens the present-day form, function, and viability of communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Determining the timing and nature of these tipping points is essential for effective climate adaptation planning. Here we present a multidisciplinary case study from Santa Barbara, California (USA), to identify potential climate change-related tipping points for various coastal systems. This study integrates numerical and statistical models of the climate, ocean water levels, beach and cliff evolution, and two soft sediment ecosystems, sandy beaches and tidal wetlands. We find that tipping points for beaches and wetlands could be reached with just 0.25 m or less of SLR (~ 2050), with > 50% subsequent habitat loss that would degrade overall biodiversity and ecosystem function. In contrast, the largest projected changes in socioeconomic exposure to flooding for five communities in this region are not anticipated until SLR exceeds 0.75 m for daily flooding and 1.5 m for storm-driven flooding (~ 2100 or later). These changes are less acute relative to community totals and do not qualify as tipping points given the adaptive capacity of communities. Nonetheless, the natural and human built systems are interconnected such that the loss of natural system function could negatively impact the quality of life of residents and disrupt the local economy, resulting in indirect socioeconomic impacts long before built infrastructure is directly impacted by flooding.


Heliyon ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. e06999
Author(s):  
H.A. Umar ◽  
M.F. Abdul Khanan ◽  
C. Ogbonnaya ◽  
M.S. Shiru ◽  
A. Ahmad ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1564
Author(s):  
Pietro Miele ◽  
Mariano Di Di Napoli ◽  
Luigi Guerriero ◽  
Massimo Ramondini ◽  
Chester Sellers ◽  
...  

In most countries, landslides have caused severe socioeconomic impacts on people, cities, industrial establishments, and lifelines, such as highways, railways, and communication network systems. Socioeconomic losses due to slope failures are very high and they have been growing as the built environment expands into unstable hillside areas under the pressures of growing populations. Human activities as the construction of buildings, transportation routes, dams, and artificial canals have often been a major factor for the increasing damage due to slope failures. When recovery actions are not durable from an economic point of view, increasing the population’s awareness is the key strategy to reduce the effects of natural and anthropogenic events. Starting from the case study of the Pan-American Highway (the Ecuadorian part), this article shows a multi-approach strategy for infrastructure monitoring. The combined use of (i) DInSAR technique for detection of slow ground deformations, (ii) field survey activities, and (iii) the QPROTO tool for analysis of slopes potentially prone to collapse allowed us to obtain a first cognitive map to better characterize 22 km of the highway between the cities of Cuenca and Azogues. This study is the primary step in the development of a landslide awareness perspective to manage risk related to landslides along infrastructure corridors, increasing user safety and providing stakeholders with a management system to plan the most urgent interventions and to ensure the correct functionality of the infrastructure.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie de Bruin ◽  
Jannis Hoch ◽  
Nina von Uexkull ◽  
Halvard Buhaug ◽  
Nico Wanders

<p>The socioeconomic impacts of changes in climate-related and hydrology-related factors are increasingly acknowledged to affect the on-set of violent conflict. Full consensus upon the general mechanisms linking these factors with conflict is, however, still limited. The absence of full understanding of the non-linearities between all components and the lack of sufficient data make it therefore hard to address violent conflict risk on the long-term. </p><p>Although it is neither desirable nor feasible to make exact predictions, projections are a viable means to provide insights into potential future conflict risks and uncertainties thereof. Hence, making different projections is a legitimate way to deal with and understand these uncertainties, since the construction of diverse scenarios delivers insights into possible realizations of the future.  </p><p>Through machine learning techniques, we (re)assess the major drivers of conflict for the current situation in Africa, which are then applied to project the regions-at-risk following different scenarios. The model shows to accurately reproduce observed historic patterns leading to a high ROC score of 0.91. We show that socio-economic factors are most dominant when projecting conflicts over the African continent. The projections show that there is an overall reduction in conflict risk as a result of increased economic welfare that offsets the adverse impacts of climate change and hydrologic variables. It must be noted, however, that these projections are based on current relations. In case the relations of drivers and conflict change in the future, the resulting regions-at-risk may change too.   By identifying the most prominent drivers, conflict risk mitigation measures can be tuned more accurately to reduce the direct and indirect consequences of climate change on the population in Africa. As new and improved data becomes available, the model can be updated for more robust projections of conflict risk in Africa under climate change.</p>


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Dy

Funded by the Australian Government through the Stop Transboundary Animal Diseases and Zoonoses (STANDZ) Programme managed by the OIE SRR-SEA, the study was conducted by the Centre for Development Oriented Research in Agriculture and Livelihood Systems (CENTDOR) in 12 villages of Kampong Speu and Takeo provinces in September 2013.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (23) ◽  
pp. 9719-9738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline M. Dunning ◽  
Emily Black ◽  
Richard P. Allan

Changes in the seasonality of precipitation over Africa have high potential for detrimental socioeconomic impacts due to high societal dependence upon seasonal rainfall. Here, for the first time we conduct a continental-scale analysis of changes in wet season characteristics under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate projection scenarios across an ensemble of CMIP5 models using an objective methodology to determine the onset and cessation of the wet season. A delay in the wet season over West Africa and the Sahel of over 5–10 days on average, and later onset of the wet season over southern Africa, is identified and associated with increasing strength of the Saharan heat low in late boreal summer and a northward shift in the position of the tropical rain belt over August–December. Over the Horn of Africa rainfall during the “short rains” season is projected to increase by over 100 mm on average by the end of the twenty-first century under the RCP8.5 scenario. Average rainfall per rainy day is projected to increase, while the number of rainy days in the wet season declines in regions of stable or declining rainfall (western and southern Africa) and remains constant in central Africa, where rainfall is projected to increase. Adaptation strategies should account for shorter wet seasons, increasing rainfall intensity, and decreasing rainfall frequency, which will have implications for crop yields and surface water supplies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuenga Namgay ◽  
Joanne E. Millar ◽  
Rosemary S. Black

Seasonal cattle movements have been an important part of the living cultural heritage in Bhutan for centuries. Herders migrate south every winter to graze their cattle on subtropical pastures and to work in orange orchards. They return north to their villages in spring to grow summer crops. However, the practice of transhumant agropastoralism is under increasing pressure on account of changes in land-use policies, climate change and a declining labour force as youth seek alternative livelihoods. This research investigated the impact of changes in land-use policy, with emphasis on the Land Act 2007, on current and future livelihoods of transhumant herders in Bhutan. During in-depth interviews with 24 transhumant herders and nine livestock advisors, and seven focus-group discussions with 64 participants including herders, downstream residents and development agency personnel, perspectives on this issue were gathered. Findings revealed a lack of herder awareness of changes in land-use policies and minimal consultation of herders during policy development. Confusion and uncertainty about the proposed redistribution of grazing rights and restrictions on herd movements have resulted in confusion and resentment and have created conflicts between upstream and downstream communities. Herders with no current alternatives are concerned about their future livelihoods, whereas others are leaving it to their children to decide their future. It is concluded that the motive behind nationalisation of rangeland is noble and timely, but there are flaws in the redistribution plan. Transhumant agropastoralism is already in decline and there is no need to push towards its end through legislation. Transhumant practices could be left to evolve towards what may be their natural end. Sudden stoppage of inter-district transhumance without offering meaningful alternatives to herders could result in negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In future, policy development needs to increasingly embrace science and be based on evidence. A genuine participatory process with citizen engagement could avoid the unintended negative impacts likely to be faced by transhumant herders with marginal land holdings, who depend on this production system for their livelihoods.


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