Safety and Efficiency Enhancement in LNG Terminals

Liquefaction of natural gas helps in transporting it over long distances by sea vessels. It is then regasified and transported through pipelines to the consumer. Due to large energy density of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and associated flammability issues, the LNG terminal involves high risk. Consequently, safety is an important factor in the operation of LNG terminals. Although a substantial amount of time money and effort has been put in this area, there is always some possibility of improving the process so that less risk is involved. Rapid advancement in process simulation software like Aspen Plus and Aspen HYSYS, has led to the convenience of experimenting the various control methodologies on the computer offline from the actual plant operation, before they are implemented in real time. In this chapter, main hazards associated with LNG terminal operation will be highlighted. Further, recent advancements in research for safety enhancement and efficiency enhancement in the liquefaction and regasification processes will also be included.

Learning and Climate Change Adaptation

Youth play an ever-increasing role as counter-cyclical agents that can be mobilized for developing and implementing adaptation responses to build resilience in communities under stress from climate change. Organizations with a coupled research and educational focus are well situated to partner with formal and informal educational institutions to create valuable opportunities for simultaneous learning and practice for youth and their communities in building resilience to climate change. In this chapter, the author argues that climate-knowledgeable and empowered youth are positioned to show new, resilient behavior as critical environmental and social thresholds are approached. Using human health as a gauge for sustainable action, the study by NGO SeaTrust Institute that is analyzed in this chapter shows potentially effective learning approaches, programs and systems for engaging youth as transformational agents to catalyze community leadership for climate change adaptation in an age of escalating environmental and social instability.

Incremental Learning and Gradual Changes

The environmental consequences of climate change in agriculture have been degrading farmers' livelihood and welfare because of their inability to cope with the unusual risks and livelihood crises due to climate change. However, state policies addressing farmers' needs to develop their coping mechanism towards the unusual consequences of climate change have not been defined appropriately. To continue relying on their conventional ways of farming would not effectively help them to survive in the midst of unusual weather conditions. A long-term educational commitment to improve farmers' agrometeorological learning is urgent. The authors present their inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborative works in providing climate services to farmers through Science Field Shops. Improving farmers' anticipation capability has been carried out through various means of learning. The authors describe the incremental learning process and the gradual changes the farmers in Indramayu Regency have gone through since 2010.

The Place of Concerns for Posterity in the Global Education for Sustainable Development Agenda

Education is a powerful tool to alter unsustainable values and mindsets. But in order for it to be used most efficiently it is crucial to have a clear understanding of what values should be advanced, changed, or developed. This chapter aims to clarify some conceptual difficulties with the value of future generations in education for sustainable development. Future generations are embedded in the definition of sustainable development and can be reasonably expected to be at the heart of education for sustainable development. This chapter explores this assumption and analyzes how future-oriented concerns are formulated and advanced in the global educational agenda put forward during the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) led by UNESCO. This analysis compares conceptual foundations of ESD against key developments in climate and environmental ethics on the treatment of posterity. This chapter can contribute to the disciplines of environmental education, philosophy of education, and to climate ethics.

Climate Change and Adaptation through the Lens of Capability Approach

Climate Change impacts would disproportionately have larger impacts on the developing countries. Both government and development agencies have initiated various adaptation strategies in the developing countries to enhance the adaptation of the local communities. Various policies and programmes have been designed keeping in mind the impact of climate change. This study was conducted in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India, to see the benefits of such policies and programmes. Focus group discussion with community members were held in the study area. Based on the fieldwork it was seen that most of the intervention made in the study area focused on income, resources, and assets. It has failed to benefits the people due to variation in the capability among various section of the society. Various projects related to health, education, housing, and livelihood, have been implemented in the study region. However, due to lack of conversion factors in the form of gender inequality, discriminatory practices, transparency among others have come as a hindrance in the successful implementation of the projects. Hence, such project-based approach to enhance community's adaptation to climate risk, in the end fails to show benefits as it fails to expand community's capabilities and real freedom, due to the project's pre-defined aims. It is important to understand community's as agent of change rather than merely beneficiaries of adaptation projects. This study therefore recommends that to enhance community's adaptation to climate change, the interventions should be such that it enlarges the range of people's choices so that when climate disaster strikes them they will have a set of opportunities.

The Dynamics of Food Insecurity in Ethiopia

This paper assesses the dynamics of food insecurity in Ethiopia and tests policy options and scenarios that could alleviate the problem in the future. The study assess food security based on the pillars; food availability, access to food and stability. A System Dynamics model is designed which integrate population, market and food production sectors and is used to analyze past and future developments. Model results show that both the food supplies and the purchasing power of the population were insufficient for ensuring the required daily calorie intake of the population. Land degradation contributed considerably to the poor average productivity of the land. Policy analyses show that policy options such as land rehabilitation and capacity building for skilled use of agricultural land, and inputs need to be combined carefully to account for their different implementation times. Scenarios on average rainfall and food expenditure show that the food production and the purchasing power of the population are considerably influenced by erratic rainfall and economic growth respectively.

Climate Change Effects on Human Health with a Particular Focus on Vector-Borne Diseases and Malaria in Africa

Malaria is currently affecting more people in the world than any other disease. On average, two members of each household suffered from malaria fever monthly, with females and children being most vulnerable to malaria attacks. This chapter assessed communities' perception about malaria epidemic, weather variable and climate change in metropolitan Kano. Information was extracted related to communities' perception about malaria epidemic and climate change. Socio demographic characteristics of respondents in the study areas were extracted and analyzed. 75% of the participants were males, while 25% were females, malaria disease affected 79.66% and 59.66% respondent perceived that heavy rainfall, floods and high temperature are better conditions to the breeding and spread of malaria vectors. Hospital records revealed that Month of March and April (2677 and 2464, respectively) has highest number of malaria cases recorded between December 2010 to June 2011. Further research is recommended for in-depth information from health officials related to raising awareness.

Waterborne Diseases and Climate Change

Waterborne diseases are caused by a multitude of pathogens and associated with a significant burden in both developed and developing countries. While the assessment of the adverse impacts of climate change on human heath from infectious diseases has mainly focused on vector-borne diseases, waterborne diseases prevalence and transmission patterns are also likely to be impacted by environmental change. This chapter will outline relevant waterborne pathogens, summarise the impact of climate change on disease transmission and explore climate change adaptation options in order to reduce the increased burden of waterborne diseases.

Land Deals and Sustainable Income

This chapter examines the extent to which land deals affect the sustainable income of households in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. Particular interest is paid to the interplay between land deals and other covariates like education, age, and other incomes aside land deals. A survey consisting of about 500 Ota indigenes is analyzed using logistic regression, which is complemented by other descriptive statistics. The results reveal that land deals have not sufficiently and positively affected the income of the individuals. On sustainability of income, land deals act in direct opposition with the other covariates. This implies that when land deals significantly affect sustainable income the other variables act otherwise. The implication from this is that land deals are not a sustainable source of income for indigenes in the study area. This is particularly because its inclusion in the model has an adverse effect on the other covariates.

Assessing Urban Residents' Willingness to Pay for Preserving the Biodiversity of Swamp Forest

Measuring the biodiversity value in monetary could be useful information for policy-makers to estimate welfare losses caused by biodiversity reductions and perform cost-benefit analysis of biodiversity conservation projects. This study applied the approach of contingent valuation to analyze the Mekong Delta urban households' preferences and their willingness to pay for the program of biodiversity conservation in U Minh Thuong National Park, one of the largest peat swamp forests in Vietnam. The study estimated that the mean WTP of urban residents in the Mekong Delta was about VND16,510 ($0.78) per household per month for all respondents and around VND31,520 ($1.49) after excluding the protest zero and scenario rejecting respondents. Aggregately, they agreed to contribute about $10.97 million annually for the project of biodiversity conservation.