scholarly journals Selecting and analysing climate change adaptation measures at six research sites across Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2145-2161
Author(s):  
Henk-Jan van Alphen ◽  
Clemens Strehl ◽  
Fabian Vollmer ◽  
Eduard Interwies ◽  
Anasha Petersen ◽  
...  

Abstract. As Europe is faced with increasing droughts and extreme precipitation, countries are taking measures to adapt to these changes. It is challenging, however, to navigate through the wide range of possible measures, taking into account the efficacy, economic impact and social justice aspects of these measures, as well as the governance requirements for implementing them. This article presents the approach of selecting and analysing adaptation measures to increasing extreme weather events caused by ongoing climate change that was developed and applied in the H2020 project BINGO (Bringing Innovation to Ongoing Water Management). The purpose of this project is (a) to develop an integrated participatory approach for selecting and evaluating adaptation measures, (b) to apply and evaluate the approach across six case-study river basins across Europe, and (c) to support decision-making towards adaptation capturing the diversity, the different circumstances and challenges river basins face across Europe. It combines three analyses: governance, socio-economic and social justice The governance analysis focuses on the requirements associated with the measures and the extent to which these requirements are met at the research sites. The socio-economic impact focuses on the efficacy of the measures in reducing the risks and the broad range of tools available to compare the measures on their societal impact. Finally, a tentative social justice analysis focuses on the distributive impacts of the adaptation measures. In the summary of results, we give an overview of the outcome of the different analyses. In the conclusion, we briefly assess the main pros and cons of the different analyses that were conducted. The main conclusion is that although the research sites were very different in both the challenges and the institutional context, the approach presented here yielded decision-relevant outcomes.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk-Jan van Alphen ◽  
Clemens Strehl ◽  
Fabian Vollmer ◽  
Eduard Interwies ◽  
Anasha Petersen ◽  
...  

Abstract. As Europe is faced with increasing droughts and extreme precipitation, countries are taking measures to adapt to these changes. It is challenging, however, to navigate through the wide range of possible measures, taking into account the efficacy, economic impact and social justice aspects of these measures, as well as the governance requirements for implementing them. This article describes and evaluates an approach to selecting and analysing climate change adaptation measures that was applied at six research sites across Europe. It describes the steps that were taken in collecting, selecting and analysing adaptation measures, in a process with local stakeholders, with concrete examples from the case studies. The governance analysis focuses on the requirements associated with the measures and the extent to which these requirements are met at the research sites. The socio-economic impact focuses on the efficacy of the measures in reducing the risks and the broad range of tools available to compare the measures on their societal impact. Finally, the social justice analysis focuses on the distributive impacts of the adaptation measures. In the discussion, we identify some key findings with regard to the different kind of measures. In the conclusion we briefly assess the main pros and cons of the different analyses that were conducted. The main conclusion is that although the research sites were very different in both the challenges and the institutional context, the approach presented here yielded decision relevant outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Aznar-Siguan ◽  
David N. Bresch

Abstract. The need for assessing the risk of extreme weather events is ever increasing. In addition to quantification of risk today, the role of aggravating factors such as high population growth and changing climate conditions do matter, too. We present the open source software CLIMADA, which integrates hazard, exposure and vulnerability to compute the necessary metrics to assess risk and to quantify socio-economic impact. The software design is modular and object-oriented, offering a simple collaborative framework and a parallelization strategy which allows for scalable computations on clusters. CLIMADA supports multi-hazard calculations and provides an event-based probabilistic approach that is globally consistent for a wide range of resolutions, suitable for whole-country to detailed local studies. This paper uses the platform to estimate and contextualize the damage of hurricane Irma in the Caribbean in 2017. Most of the affected islands are non-sovereign countries and do also rely on overseas support in case disaster strikes. The risk assessment performed for this region, based on remotely available data available shortly before or hours after landfall of Irma, proves to be close to reported damage and hence demonstrates a method to provide readily available impact estimates and associated uncertainties in real time.


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayan Wedawatta ◽  
Bingunath Ingirige ◽  
Dilanthi Amaratunga

Wider scientific community now accept that the threat of climate change as real and thus acknowledge the importance of implementing adaptation measures in a global context. In the UK, the physical effects of climate change are likely to be directly felt in the form of extreme weather events, which are predicted to escalate in number and severity in future under the changing climatic conditions. Construction industry; which consists of supply chains running across various other industries, economies and regions, will also be affected due to these events. Thus, it is important that the construction organisations are well prepared to withstand the effects of extreme weather events not only directly affecting their organizations but also affecting their supply chains which in turn might affect the organisation concerned. Given the fact that more than 99% of construction sector businesses are SMEs, the area can benefit significantly from policy making to improve SME resilience and coping capacity. This paper presents the literature review and synthesis of a doctoral research study undertaken to address the issue of extreme weather resilience of construction sector SMEs and their supply chains. The main contribution of the paper to both academia and practitioners is a synthesis model that conceptualises the factors that enhances resilience of SMEs and their supply chains against extreme weather events. This synthesis model forms the basis of a decision making framework that will enable SMEs to both reduce their vulnerability and enhance their coping capacity against extreme weather. The value of this paper is further extended by the overall research design that is set forth as the way forward. Santruka Gana daug mokslininku jau sutinka, kad klimato kaitos gresme yra reali, taigi pripažista, kaip pasauliniame kontekste svarbu diegti prisitaikymo priemones. Tiketina, kad Jungtineje Karalysteje fizinis klimato kaitos poveikis bus tiesiogiai jaučiamas per ekstremalius meteorologinius reiškinius. Prognozuojama, kad kintant klimato salygoms ju skaičius ir intensyvumas ateityje dides. Tokie reiškiniai paveiks ir statybu pramone, kuria sudaro per kitas ivairiausias pramones šakas, ūkius ir regionus einančios tiekimo grandines. Taigi svarbu, kad statybu organizacijos būtu tinkamai pasiruošusios atlaikyti ekstremalius meteorologinius reiškinius, kurie daro tiesiogine itaka ne tik šioms organizacijoms, bet ir ju tiekimo grandinems, kurios savo ruožtu gali paveikti atitinkama organizacija. Daugiau kaip 99 proc. statybu sektoriuje veikiančiu imoniu priklauso SVV kategorijai, tad šiai sričiai išties praverstu politika, gerinanti SVV atsparuma ir gebejima susitvarkyti. Šiame darbe pateikiama literatūros apžvalga ir trumpai pristatomas daktaro disertacijos tyrimas, kuriuo siekta išnagrineti statybu sektoriaus SVV ir ju tiekimo grandiniu atsparuma ekstremaliems meteorologiniams reiškiniams. Pagrindinis darbo indelis, pravartus ir mokslininkams, ir praktikams, tai sintezes modelis, kuriame suformuluojami veiksniai, didinantys SVV ir ju tiekimo grandiniu atsparuma ekstremaliems meteorologiniams reiškiniams. Šis sintezes modelis yra sprendimu priemimo sistemos pagrindas, o sistema SVV leis ne tik mažinti pažeidžiamuma, bet ir didinti gebejima susitvarkyti esant ekstremaliems meteorologiniams reiškiniams. Šio darbo verte dar labiau padidina bendras tyrimo modelis, pateikiamas kaip žingsnis pirmyn.


Author(s):  
Jyoti Tripathi ◽  
◽  
Prasad S. Variyar ◽  

Serious social, economic, and ecological consequences of climate change due to the high levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in our atmosphere resulting from a wide range of human activities including the burning of fossil fuels and land use have impacted weather events world over. Extreme weather events and warmer global temperatures are likely to be more frequent with an adverse overall effect on agricultural production unless there is an urgent reduction in GHG emissions. There is thus an immediate need for increasing adaptive capacity in agriculture to long-term climatic trends and increasing variability in weather patterns. Climate change also poses significant challenges to global food safety due to the emergence of new pathogens, insect pests, and toxicants. Food safety threats cause an enormous burden on economies due to disruptions or restrictions in global and regional agrifood trade, food loss, and associated income. Food safety thus plays a critical role across the four pillars of food security—availability, access, utilization, and stability. Climate change is likely to create new safety issues entailing reassessing our tolerance to risk and safety limits presently established for the human food chain. The present review focuses on the factors affecting food security and safety as a consequence of climate change and the pre- and postharvest strategies that need to be adopted to mitigate these effects for enhancing food safety and global food sufficiency in future.


Author(s):  
Jyoti Tripathi

Abstract Serious social, economic, and ecological consequences of climate change due to the high levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in our atmosphere resulting from a wide range of human activities including the burning of fossil fuels and land use have impacted weather events world over. Extreme weather events and warmer global temperatures are likely to be more frequent with an adverse overall effect on agricultural production unless there is an urgent reduction in GHG emissions. There is thus an immediate need for increasing adaptive capacity in agriculture to long-term climatic trends and increasing variability in weather patterns. Climate change also poses significant challenges to global food safety due to the emergence of new pathogens, insect pests, and toxicants. Food safety threats cause an enormous burden on economies due to disruptions or restrictions in global and regional agrifood trade, food loss, and associated income. Food safety thus plays a critical role across the four pillars of food security-availability, access, utilization, and stability. Climate change is likely to create new safety issues entailing reassessing our tolerance to risk and safety limits presently established for the human food chain. The present review focuses on the factors affecting food security and safety as a consequence of climate change and the pre- and postharvest strategies that need to be adopted to mitigate these effects for enhancing food safety and global food sufficiency in future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry S. Levy ◽  
Victor W. Sidel ◽  
Jonathan A. Patz

Climate change is causing increases in temperature, changes in precipitation and extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and other environmental impacts. It is also causing or contributing to heat-related disorders, respiratory and allergic disorders, infectious diseases, malnutrition due to food insecurity, and mental health disorders. In addition, increasing evidence indicates that climate change is causally associated with collective violence, generally in combination with other causal factors. Increased temperatures and extremes of precipitation with their associated consequences, including resultant scarcity of cropland and other key environmental resources, are major pathways by which climate change leads to collective violence. Public health professionals can help prevent collective violence due to climate change (a) by supporting mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, (b) by promoting adaptation measures to address the consequences of climate change and to improve community resilience, and (c) by addressing underlying risk factors for collective violence, such as poverty and socioeconomic disparities.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anni Vehola ◽  
Elias Hurmekoski ◽  
Katja Lähtinen ◽  
Enni Ruokamo ◽  
Anders Roos ◽  
...  

Abstract Climate change places great pressure on the construction sector to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and to create solutions that perform well in changing weather conditions. In the urbanizing world, wood construction has been identified as one of the opportunities for mitigating these emissions. Our study explores citizen opinions on wood usage as a building material under expected mitigation and adaptation measures aimed at a changing climate and extreme weather events. The data are founded on an internet-based survey material collected from a consumer panel from Finland and Sweden during May–June 2021, with a total of 2015 responses. By employing exploratory factor analysis, we identified similar belief structures for the two countries, consisting of both positive and negative views on wood construction. In linear regressions for predicting these opinions, the perceived seriousness of climate change was found to increase positive views on wood construction but was insignificant for negative views. Both in Finland and Sweden, higher familiarity with wooden multistory construction was found to connect with more positive opinions on the potential of wood in building, e.g., due to carbon storage properties and material attributes. Our findings underline the potential of wood material use as one avenue of climate change adaptation in the built environment. Future research should study how citizens’ concerns for extreme weather events affect their future material preferences in their everyday living environments, also beyond the Nordic region.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Loosemore ◽  
Vivien Chow ◽  
Denny McGeorge

Purpose – A predicted increase in climate change-related extreme weather events will present hospitals with new health-related and physical risks which were not originally anticipated in building and infrastructure designs. Markus et al.'s building systems model is used to analyse a range of adaptive strategies to cope with such events. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Focus group interviews were conducted with a wide range of hospital stakeholders across three case study hospitals in Australia and New Zealand which have experienced extreme weather events. Findings – It is concluded that effective adaptive strategies must balance responses across different organisational sub-systems. Contrary to previous research, the findings indicate that hospital managers do see hospital infrastructure as an important component of disaster response. However, it is the least adaptable of all response subsystems, making other options more attractive in the heat of a crisis. Research limitations/implications – A focus on three case studies allowed the researchers to explore in-depth the experiences of stakeholders who had experienced extreme weather events. While producing highly valid results, the inherent limitation of this approach is the lack of breath. So further case studies are needed to generalise from the results. Practical implications – Recommendations are made to improve the adaptive capacity of healthcare facilities to cope with the future health challenges of climate change risk. Originality/value – By acknowledging that no one group holds all the knowledge to deal with extreme weather events, this paper capture the collective knowledge of all key stakeholders who have a stake in the process of responding effectively to such an event. It shows that hospital adaptation strategies cannot be considered in isolation from the surrounding emergency management systems in which a hospital is imbedded.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4-5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. D. Nagyné ◽  
Z. Szabó ◽  
J. Nyéki ◽  
M. Soltész

Within the sector of fruit growing, climate change related tasks cover a rather wide range of activities. According to what is claimed by the literature, all decisions impacting the sector should be made conformably with climate change in order to advance an increase in yield security. This, regardless of the impacts of climate change, is also one of the key questions in fruit growing. Regarding protection against extreme weather events, in addition to technological and technical elements, the level of importance assumed by farmers for the abovementioned protection techniques as well as the type and extent they intend to use of this in practice are also worth of studying. This ongoing research beginning in 2009 mainly focuses on studying the opinions of fruit farmers making up the target group for this analysis. The questionnaire survey primarily intends to study their knowledge on the definition of climate change as reactivity to unfavourable weather events occurring in the growing. The study aims at providing a realistic view on the fruit-farmers’ knowledge on climate change and on how technological elements, new technical solutions applicable to mitigate damage are used during production.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document