Dynamic Flood Resilience Typology: A Systemic Transitional Adaptation from Peitou Plateau, Taiwan

Resilience practice is a place-based activity. This study incorporates the notion of “Transitional Progress” as an available scoping tool pin-pointing the human-habitat domain; the critical human resilience build-up can be identified by the site-specific and locally adapted practice as the residents’ perception and interaction within the local geographical character are examined. The assessment framework is proposed as a measurable process, followed by an adaptive cycle valuation performed for each of the scales at the different transitional stages. This resilience varies from the degree and time exposed to flood and the resident’s respective responses regarding people, community, and place; accordingly, the semi-structured interview documented respondents’ self-evaluation from the Peitou Plateau in Taipei. The study ascertained that in the face of climate risks: (1) adaptive measures aided and enhanced the information gathered for risk impact is based on the residents’ perception of the habitat and human domain (2) adaptive capacity assessment is an effective mean in understanding residents’ mitigation will and confidence, and (3) community ability to reflect on past actual time scenario. Most importantly, the assessment framework contributes to understanding local adaptation practice and contributes toward the sustainability of the urbanity.

Multiple-Music Versions?

With the advent of sound film in the early 1930s the German film industry produced so-called multiple-language versions as a part of its internationalisation strategy. These versions were produced for the French, English, and Italian markets (often) with a new cast of actors. Despite the importance of music in these films, a systematic study on the role of music in these multiple-language versions is still lacking. This article offers a first case study on the topic by comparing the German, Italian, and French versions of the sound film-operetta Paprika (1932/1933). It will be illustrated that the music (rather than sound) as well as the use of the musical material in the versions of Paprika differed significantly. Musical adaptation was used as an important means to shape the film’s narrative and to create a distinct aesthetic for each of the film’s versions. Historically, there are evident parallels to the adaptation practice of opera and operetta over the past centuries.

Puerto Rican Farmers' Obstacles Toward Recovery and Adaptation Strategies After Hurricane Maria: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Adaptive Capacity

Farmers across the globe are experiencing compounding shocks that make evident the need to better understand potential drivers and barriers to strengthen adaptive capacity. This is especially true in the context of a disaster, where a disruption in the natural and built environment hinders livelihood strategies and exposes the underlying dynamics that perpetuate vulnerability to natural hazards. As such, the interconnections of structural and individual attributes must be considered when evaluating adaptive capacity. This paper uses a convergent mixed-methods approach to assess Puerto Rican farmers' actual and intended adoption of adaptation practices, in light of the obstacles they faced toward recovery after 2017's category four Hurricane Maria, to contribute to better understanding adaptive capacity. This study uses data from 405 farmers across Puerto Rico (87% response rate), surveyed 8 months after Maria by agricultural agents of the Extension Service of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Quantitative data was assessed through negative binomial regressions (actual adoption) and generalized linear models (intended adoption), while qualitative data (reported obstacles) were analyzed through thematic analysis. This study found that almost half of farmers adopted an adaptation practice after Maria, and that in many cases, broader structures, such as systems of governance, farmers' social networks, and infrastructure, affect adaptive capacity more than individual perceptions of capacity. Future adaptation strategies and interventions, especially in the context of disaster, should consider the extent to which structural factors hinder individuals' ability to prepare for, respond, and recover from the impacts of these shocks. Our results show that there might be opportunity to enact new systems in light of catastrophic events, but this does not solely depend on individual actions. The mixed-methods approach used can inform future studies in better assessing adaptive capacity from a standpoint that incorporates individual and structural components.

Wetland Utilization and Adaptation Practice of a Coastal Megacity: A Case Study of Chongming Island, Shanghai, China

Coastal urban areas are faced with risks induced by global warming and sea level rise, which puts pressure on regional sustainable development. In particular, land use adjustment is closely related to climate change for a coastal megacity. Coastal wetlands on the edge of the megacity represent a vulnerable ecosystem and a key area in terms of the resilient adaptation strategy. However, the interrelationship between the development of these wetlands and the megacity’s adaptation practice has not been sufficiently analyzed. From a historical perspective, based on document synthesis and field investigation, we attempt in this study to reveal long-term land use stages and driving factors in association with urban marginal wetlands, with a special reference to eastern Chongming Island, Shanghai. On such a basis, the future adaptation strategy of the megacity is evaluated. The analytical results show that this island has witnessed three periods of time for wetland utilization: traditional land use for salt production, fishery and agriculture before 1950, industrialization with rapid reclamation during 1950–2001, and the land use pattern orientated toward wetland ecosystem protection after 2002. The driving forces include sediment budget on the coast, wetland morphodynamic processes, sea level rise, population growth, and resource management policy changes. Transformation occurred between the wetland utilization stages in response to the changes of these forces. Furthermore, facing future climate change, there are different options of adaptation, e.g., retreatment and adherence. It may not be suitable for coastal cities with a large population to take the first option. It will be suitable for coastal communities to adhere to the location, if solutions to the problems of flooding risk, coastal erosion, and the maintenance of coastal facilities can be found. For eastern Chongming wetlands, as a key experimental area for ecosystem-oriented development in Shanghai, the transformation from the reclamation-oriented utilization toward the protection of wetland ecosystems represents the first step toward the latter option. We suggest that the next steps would be to maintain the ecological niche of the wetlands, to create new approaches to coastal engineering with contributions from the ecosystem, and to provide better ecosystem services.

In vitro methane production from silages based on Cenchrus purpureus mixed with Tithonia diversifolia in different proportions

Climate change (CC) affects food production, mainly those based on livestock systems. Producers must identify adaptation strategies to ensure the production, during periods of drought, and lack of forage. Besides contributing to CC, high emissions of ruminal methane (CH4) are energy loss potentially usable for livestock production. The objective was to estimate in vitro ruminal gas production (RGP) and determine the CH4 emissions from silages. Treatments were made with forage of Cenchrus purpureus mixed with Tithonia diversifolia T1= C.purpureus at 100%; T2= C.purpureus/ T.diversifolia in 33/67 percent ratio; T3= C.purpureus/ T.diversifolia 67/33; and T4= T.diversifolia at 100%. Samples of silages were analyzed, and they were inoculated with strains of Lactobacillus paracasei (T735); then they were fermented in vacuum-sealed bags for 67 days. RGP and CH4 were measured at 2, 4, 8, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, and 48 hours. Additionally, modeling of CH4 production kinetics was conducted, using different equations. The results indicate that the highest cumulative CH4 production was for T1. This kinetics was represented using the Gompertz model. In conclusion, the inclusion of T.diversifolia to C.purpureus silages contributes to the decrease of methane at the ruminal level, which constitutes an adaptation practice at climate change.

Resetting Taxonomies

Chapter 6 demonstrates how and why adaptation resists theorization at its second stage: the development of taxonomies. While taxonomization has been challenged as a theoretical enterprise generally, adaptation offers more particular resistance to it. As a process that crosses taxonomical borders of all kinds, adaptation is itself anti-taxonomical. Even so, examining how some scholars have sought to taxonomize adaptation and others have resisted adaptation taxonomies informs adaptation’s relationship to theorization. As with definitions, taxonomies have subjected adaptation to other disciplines and their taxonomies. While discussions of adaptation taxonomies have been largely focused on taxonomies from translation studies and narratology, adaptation has been subjected to a host of others, studied and organized by adapters, genres, nations, historical periods, media forms and technologies, and by the taxonomies of identity politics, which are rarely addressed as taxonomical systems. Moreover, disciplines are themselves taxonomies: certain disciplines (most notably philosophy, history, linguistics/rhetoric) have been accorded theorizing power in the humanities, while others have not. By contrast, adaptation inhabits all disciplines and cannot be satisfactorily theorized without input from them all. Joining scholars who have for centuries questioned the ability of rational and empirical epistemologies to theorize the arts, Chapter 6 argues for creative-critical adaptation practice as a way to generate dialogues between the theorizing and “non-theorizing” disciplines. As with definition, retheorizing adaptation theorization at the level of taxonomization is not a matter of deciding which taxonomies developed to study other things we should apply to adaptation but of taxonomizing adaptation as adaptation and of setting these in dialogue with the taxonomies we already have in adaptation studies.