Suburbanization and drought: A mixed methods vulnerability assessment in rainy Massachusetts

This paper presents evidence that water restrictions in suburbanizing eastern Massachusetts towns are becoming more common, controlling for climate. We then assess the relationship between these suburban droughts and residential development. Focusing on the suburbs of Boston, seven towns independent of the Boston water supply system were selected to represent differing levels of sprawl-style growth. Water restrictions are becoming more frequent in all of the towns studied, and models demonstrate that restrictions are increasing in duration, independent of climate. Interviews suggest that residential development is playing a central role in this increasing sensitivity to suburban drought, though other factors are also important. Long-term planning and integration of land-use planning and water management emerged as two key paths for attenuating the impacts of development.     

火山灾害及其监测预防

本文阐明火山灾害是一种重大自然灾害,给人民生命财产造成严重损失。文中指出当前火山活动进入新的活跃期,提出我国火山灾害的潜在危险。我国许多休眠火山区,正在成为新的经济开发区和旅游疗养、开发地热和建材资源的新兴城镇,人口迅速增加,经济蓬勃发展。但还没有采取有效的火山监测研究和防灾措施。作者建议,应把火山监测研究纳入政府防灾日程,制定规划,拨出专款,把防御火山灾害同国土开发,经济建设结合起来。     

Public perception of drought and climate change in southeast England

Droughts occur as a natural feature of many climates. Several southern areas of the UK experienced water stress during 2004–2006 because of low water availability and high water demand. Climate change scenarios suggest that drought frequency could increase here in the future. This will increase the competition for water across all sectors. Understanding people's perceptions of drought and climate change is likely to be an important factor for sustainable water management by pointing to barriers to behavioural change. A mixed methodology study using questionnaires and focus groups was conducted in the Anglian and southern regions of the UK to explore public perceptions of drought and climate change. Respondents attributed the 2004–2006 regional drought to lower than average rainfall. Water-intensive lifestyles, a growth in population, increasing housing developments, leaking pipes and the privatization of water companies were also implicated. The majority of respondents claimed to change their behaviour to conserve water during 2006. Regarding the future, and under a number of different scenarios, people were more inclined to accept restrictions than agree to pay more to ensure the supply of water. They were concerned about climate change and recognized that more frequent water shortages may be one of the impacts, but this concern did not necessarily translate into action. Barriers to engagement with climate change and water-efficient behaviour included a lack of accessible information, a lack of knowledge regarding the integration of environmental spheres, a lack of resources, and a perceived lack of institutional engagement. The barriers identified appear to pose a major challenge to successful adaptation to climate change.     

Climate hazards: Lessons from recent events in the United States

Three recent cases of climate extremes are studied to identify human impacts and response strategies and to identify common characteristics that may help illuminate the nature of climate hazards. The 1980 heat wave in the central United States, 1981 cold wave in Boston, Massachusetts, and recent flooding and lake level rise in northern Utah, illustrate several important aspects of climate hazards that separate them from the more traditional set of catastrophic events (e.g. tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes) usually dealt with by hazards research and management. Among those characteristics are an emphasis on health impacts rather than physical damage, accumulative effects rather than short shocks, a tendency for impacts to accrue to certain socio-economic classes, and relatively slow onset. The management and research implications of these hazard characteristics are explored.     

The humanitarian response costs of climate change

This research attempts to improve understanding of how climate change may affect international humanitarian spending, using existing international databases that track disaster occurrence and humanitarian costs. A range of potential impact scenarios is developed employing four distinct methodological approaches. The findings indicate that climate change will have a significant impact on humanitarian costs and the increase could range from a 32 per cent increase (taking into account only changes in frequency of disasters) to upwards of a 1,600 per cent increase when other criteria, such as intensity, are also taken into account. The paper further highlights that extreme weather events do not occur in isolation and the increasing interconnectedness of world economic and political systems has made disasters more complex and destructive. It makes a number of recommendations, including the need for more rigorous and systematic collection of disaster-related data and more constructive interaction between the humanitarian and climate change communities on future research, planning and action.     

Community-based disaster preparedness and climate adaptation: local capacity-building in the Philippines

Community-based disaster preparedness (CBDP) approaches are increasingly important elements of vulnerability reduction and disaster management strategies. They are associated with a policy trend that values the knowledge and capacities of local people and builds on local resources, including social capital. CBDP may be instrumental not only in formulating local coping and adaptation strategies, but also in situating them within wider development planning and debates. In theory, local people can be mobilised to resist unsustainable (vulnerability increasing) forms of development or livelihood practices and to raise local concerns more effectively with political representatives. This paper focuses on the potential of CBDP initiatives to alleviate vulnerability in the context of climate change, and their limitations. It presents evidence from the Philippines that, in the limited forms in which they are currently employed, CBDP initiatives have the potential both to empower and disempower, and warns against treating CBDP as a panacea to disaster management problems.     

黄土高原山区城镇边坡地质灾害风险分级系统--以吉县吉昌镇为例

随着山区城镇建设规模的扩张,城镇边坡风险评价与分级成为亟需开展的一项研究工作,同时,对于山区城镇土地利用规划、地质灾害防治决策等具有重要现实指导意义。该文以吉县吉昌镇为例,在前人研究的基础上,开展黄土高原城镇边坡地质灾害风险分级系统研究,通过完善、优化城镇边坡危险性评价指标,采用数理统计学方法重新厘定城镇边坡危险性与危害性的评分分级标准,进而依据建立的城镇边坡地质灾害风险分级矩阵表确定边坡的风险级别,探索建立黄土高原山区城镇边坡地质灾害风险分级系统,为山区城镇土地利用规划、建设以及地质灾害风险防控提供技术支撑。     

Influencing resilience: the role of policy entrepreneurs in mainstreaming climate adaptation

One way to make development pathways more resilient in the face of a changing climate has been through mainstreaming adaptation into government policies, planning and sectoral decision‐making. To date, many of the transferable lessons have taken the form of technical approaches such as risk assessments and toolkits. This article instead draws on evidence from South Asia to emphasise some of the more tacit and informal approaches used to influence adaptation policy. Despite their apparent significance in policy processes, such tactics are often neither planned for nor well reported in resilience‐building projects and programme documents. Using evidence to populate a typology of influencing strategies, this article looks particularly at the role of policy entrepreneurs who navigate the political complexity of both formal and informal governance systems to promote successful adaptation mainstreaming. It concludes with recommendations for adaptation and resilience programming that can more effectively harness the breadth of influencing strategies.     

气候变化背景下城市综合防灾规划自适应研究

探讨了城市总体规划层面如何进行气候适应性考量,提出在气候变化背景下自适应的城市综合防灾规划策略应全面渗透到城市总体规划的关键规划要素,尤其是土地使用规划和各专业系统规划中,而不应仅仅提出一些传统、孤立的应对措施。气候变化会导致潜在不适宜开发建设的用地范围大幅增加,加强论证气候变化对用地适宜性的影响,适度扩大禁建区和限建区的范围,是有效预防各类气象灾害及次生灾害的前提。各专业系统规划技术规范需加紧修订,突破传统思维,不能完全孤立地考虑单一的规划目标,进行气候适应性调整,并要积极预防不适应气候变化的已建人工构筑物成为事故灾害源。     

Local adaptation for livelihood resilience in Albay,Philippines

Local adaptation to climate change is essential for vulnerable coastal communities faced with increasing threats to livelihood and safety. This paper seeks to understand the micro-level enabling conditions for climate change adaptation through a livelihood lens in a study of six coastal villages in Bacacay in the province of Albay, Philippines. Albay is a high-risk province due to hydro-meteorological and geophysical hazards. The analysis of livelihood resilience utilizing the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach shows that a soft adaptation strategy focusing on enhancing human and social capital needs to be undertaken to increase adaptive capacity and build resilience in the study area. Moreover, the micro-level variations in the villages suggest that the understanding of local conditions is indispensable in planning and formulation of appropriate adaptation strategies and actions at local level.     

泥石流早期识别与监测预警研究进展探讨

近年来,受极端地震和极端天气的影响,泥石流灾害日益加剧,山区城镇泥石流风险问题逐渐引起大众的关注。泥石流的早期识别和监测预警作为防灾减灾的有效途径之一,已在山区城镇及重大工程建设区发挥重要的减灾作用。分析总结泥石流早期识别与监测预警技术方法和理论的目的在于掌握其发展现状与问题,进一步为山区城镇泥石流灾害防灾减灾提供有效应急对策。同时指出改进当前存在问题可为后期发展提供参考依据。本文通过文献综述法在阅读大量文献基础上,从技术与设备、预警理论与模型和监测预警体系3个方面对泥石流早期识别和监测预警研究进行回顾与评述,并针对其不足提出了加强深度学习在泥石流早期识别中运用,注重构建地面因素与天上因素耦合的泥石流预警模型,完善泥石流灾害应急系统的初步看法。     

Climate,urbanisation and vulnerability to vector-borne disease in subtropical coastal Australia: Sustainable policy for a changing environment

This paper examines the current health policy response to the management of vector-borne disease (VBD), specifically Ross River (RR) virus, in subtropical coastal Australia. It demonstrates the multi-dimensional nature of the VBD problem and considers the value of more sustainable policy responses. The paper provides an integrated exploration of the incidence of RR virus in the context of socio-biophysical interactions and change, climate variability, and possible enhanced threat due to climate change. The study focuses on two subtropical coastal case study regions in Australia. Collectively, the existing and emerging socio-biophysical interactions in these regionsraise questions as to the future risks and management of RR virus, while climate change adds a significant further dimension. The paper demonstrates the need for the incorporation of environmental planning elements, particularly attention to strategic assessment and planning, into the traditional suite of health policy responses given the multi-dimensional nature of the problem and evident socio-biophysical environmental change.     

再生污水绿地灌溉生态效应研究进展

水资源短缺已成为制约我国经济及环境发展的重大问题,然而大量的绿地仍然在采用井水或自来水进行灌溉,造成了巨大的浪费,同时也加重了城市的用水危机。开辟城市第二水资源——再生水来灌溉绿地是解决这一矛盾的新途径。但由于再生污水水质的特殊性,使得其在作为一种宝贵肥源的同时,也产生了许多负面的效应。为此,提出了今后需要加强研究的几个问题:(1)加强干旱半干旱地区再生(污)水绿地灌溉可行性的理论和实践研究;(2)筛选出特定区域适合于一定水质标准之下的灌溉的植物种;(3)深入研究不同地区气候、土壤、植物之间的关系,进一步探讨适合于该区域的合理的灌溉技术体系和灌溉方式,并建立合理的评价体系。     

DEBRIS FLOW IN WEST DEVELOPMENT

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The feasibility of concentrated rural settlement in a context of post‐disaster reconstruction: a study of China

There is growing appreciation of the use of concentrated rural settlement as an effective means of implementing infrastructure projects and helping to achieve sustainable development in rural areas. This occurs in China through the exchange of rural residential land for urban construction. However, this policy has not been effective under normal circumstances (called development‐driven conditions) as frequently farmers are reluctant to accept such an exchange. By contrast, in a time of disaster, such as after the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, rural victims have accepted this policy of rural residential land exchange. Employing game theory, this paper identifies the reasons for the different outcomes and it contends that the implementation of concentrated rural settlement practice under disaster‐induced conditions is more effective than its introduction under development‐driven conditions. The results of the analysis indicate that, in China, concentrated rural settlement is feasible in a context of post‐disaster reconstruction.     

Disaster risk,social vulnerability,and economic development

This paper examines the extent to which economic development decreases a country's risk of experiencing climate‐related disasters as well as the societal impacts of those events. The paper proceeds from the underlying assumption that disasters are not inherently natural, but arise from the intersection of naturally‐occurring hazards within fragile environments. It uses data from the International Disaster Database (EM‐DAT), 1 representing country‐year‐level observations over the period 1980–2007. The study finds that low‐income countries are significantly more at risk of climate‐related disasters, even after controlling for exposure to climate hazards and other factors that may confound disaster reporting. Following the occurrence of a disaster, higher income generally diminishes a country's social vulnerability to such happenings, resulting in lower levels of mortality and morbidity. This implies that continued economic development may be a powerful tool for lessening social vulnerability to climate change.     

基于数值模拟的泥石流危险性分区方法

由于泥石流运动方程研究和计算机技术的迅速发展使得基于数值模拟的泥石流危险性分区方法已成为泥石流危险性分区的主要方法.该方法也是这一领域最为有效的定量方法,并被大量应用于泥石流灾害评估、土地利用规划和灾害制图中.在分析泥石流运动数值模拟方法和根据模拟结果进行分区研究现状的基础上,指出了该方法在数值模型的建立、分区指标的确定以及指标分级中存在的问题,并针对这些问题提出了解决方法.     

煤矿区地质环境灾害现状、发展趋势及对策研究…

随着煤炭资源的开发，占用土地，“三废”污染、地面变形与沉降、矿井突水等地质环境灾害问题日益突出，致使地质环境质量下降，影响着社会经济持续健康发展。本文用环境地质学的观点，论述了我国煤矿区地质环境灾害现状与发展趋势，并提出了防治地质环境灾害的对策与建议。     

Integrated Countermeasures for Urban Industrial Disaster Reduction

1Introduction of urban industrial disastersAt the Ministers' Forum on Disaster Reduction and Economic Development in China held on1March2 0 0 0 ,Deputy Director-General YANG Fu of the State Commission of Economy and Tradeemphasized by saying:" Security is importantnotonly to individual life,butalso to social stabilityand economic development. Among the 1 1 8catastrophic accidents in China in 1 999,each ofwhich caused the death of more than ten people,over70 % were connected with urban…     

Displacement in urban areas: new challenges, new partnerships

Rapid urbanisation is a key characteristic of the modern world, interacting with and reinforcing other global mega trends, including armed conflict, climate change, crime, environmental degradation, financial and economic instability, food shortages, underemployment, volatile commodity prices, and weak governance. Displaced people also are affected by and engaged in the process of urbanisation. Increasingly, refugees, returnees, and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are to be found not in camps or among host communities in rural areas, but in the towns and cities of developing and middle-income countries. The arrival and long-term settlement of displaced populations in urban areas needs to be better anticipated, understood, and planned for, with a particular emphasis on the establishment of new partnerships. Humanitarian actors can no longer liaise only with national governments; they must also develop urgently closer working relationships with mayors and municipal authorities, service providers, urban police forces, and, most importantly, the representatives of both displaced and resident communities. This requires linking up with those development actors that have established such partnerships already.