The Adaptive Capacity Wheel: a method to assess the inherent characteristics of institutions to enable the adaptive capacity of society

Climate change potentially brings continuous and unpredictable changes in weather patterns. Consequently, it calls for institutions that promote the adaptive capacity of society and allow society to modify its institutions at a rate commensurate with the rate of environmental change. Institutions, traditionally conservative and reactive, will now have to support social actors to proactively respond through planned processes and deliberate steps, but also through cherishing and encouraging spontaneous and autonomous change, as well as allowing for institutional redesign. This paper addresses the question: How can the inherent characteristics of institutions to stimulate the capacity of society to adapt to climate change from local through to national level be assessed? On the basis of a literature review and several brainstorm sessions, this paper presents six dimensions: Variety, learning capacity, room for autonomous change, leadership, availability of resources and fair governance. These dimensions and their 22 criteria form the Adaptive Capacity Wheel. This wheel can help academics and social actors to assess if institutions stimulate the adaptive capacity of society to respond to climate change; and to focus on whether and how institutions need to be redesigned. This paper also briefly demonstrates the application of this Adaptive Capacity Wheel to different institutions.     

Bacteria on housefly eggs, Musca domestica, suppress fungal growth in chicken manure through nutrient depletion or antifungal metabolites

Female houseflies, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae), lay their eggs in ephemeral resources such as animal manure. Hatching larvae compete for essential nutrients with fungi that also colonize such resources. Both the well-known antagonistic relationship between bacteria and fungi and the consistent presence of the bacterium Klebsiella oxytoca on housefly eggs led us to hypothesize (1) that K. oxytoca, and possibly other bacteria on housefly eggs, help curtail the growth of fungal resource competitors and (2) that such fungi indeed adversely affect the development of housefly larvae. Bacteria washed from housefly eggs significantly reduced the growth of fungi in chicken manure. Nineteen bacterial strains and ten fungal strains were isolated from housefly eggs or chicken manure, respectively. Co-culturing each of all the possible bacterium–fungus pairs revealed that the bacteria as a group, but no single bacterium, significantly suppressed the growth of all fungal strains tested. The bacteria's adverse effect on fungi is due to resource nutrient depletion and/or the release of antifungal chemicals. Well-established fungi in resources significantly reduced the number of larval offspring that completed development to adult flies. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

An Examination of the Intra-SMSA Distribution of Carbon Monoxide Exposure

Although fixed-site monitoring data have been used to estimate the spatial pattern of human exposure, the intra-urban distribution of actual exposure has not been documented. This paper used the data collected during the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) field investigation of personal exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) to investigate the nature of the distribution of CO with respect to residential location In the Washington, D.C. SMSA. Dot-distribution maps and analysis of variance were used to document the spatial pattern of individual-level in-home CO concentrations. The results show sampled individuals living in the SMSA center are exposed to statistically significantly higher levels of CO than are those living in the suburbs. The most important Implications of this work are for exposure modeling. Further investigation is needed to determine whether incorporation of a geographic component will improve exposure prediction.     

Creating sustainable environmental health conditions by redefining municipal roles and responsibilities: experiences from Tunisia and Ecuador

The multiple and interlinked problems that plague most peri-urban communities can only be successfully addressed and resolved if roles and responsibilities of all actors in the urban setting are redistributed. This will require fundamental changes in the way municipalities work and define their accomplishments. Behaviour needs to change at all levels, beginning with public sector institutions responsible for communities. Without changes at the municipal level, requisite changes at the community level to remedy the root causes of environment-related illness, do not occur. Public sector institutions and communities, working as partners with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and, most importantly, with mutual trust, can together make real progress toward improving health and well-being in peri-urban settlements. This article discusses two recent projects sponsored by the Environmental Health Project of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID): an 18-month pilot project to improve peri-urban environmental health in two cities in Tunisia, and a project in Ecuador to support the Ministry of Health in combating cholera in affected provinces. The following examples, methodology, and results may be useful to officials and donor organizations in designing environmental health projects.     

Between adaptability and the urge to control: making long-term water policies in the Netherlands

Triggered by recent flood catastrophes and increasing concerns about climate change, scientists as well as policy-makers increasingly call for making long-term water policies to enable a transformation towards flood resilience. A key question is how to make these long-term policies adaptive so that they are able to deal with uncertainties and changing circumstances. The paper proposes three conditions for making long-term water policies adaptive, which are then used to evaluate a new Dutch water policy approach called ‘Adaptive Delta Management’. Analysing this national policy approach and its translation to the Rotterdam region reveals that Dutch policy-makers are torn between adaptability and the urge to control. Reflecting on this dilemma, the paper suggests a stronger focus on monitoring and learning to strengthen the adaptability of long-term water policies. Moreover, increasing the adaptive capacity of society also requires a stronger engagement with local stakeholders including citizens and businesses.     

A systematic investigation of carbamate stability constants by 1H NMR

A systematic, experimental investigation into carbamate stability constants using ¹H NMR spectroscopy reveals that both steric hindrance and the acid dissociation constant of the parent amine have a significant effect on the stability of the resulting carbamates. Increasing steric hindrance was found to decrease carbamate stability, while increasing pK of the parent amine was found to increase carbamate stability. The carbamate stability constants of monoethanolamine, propylamine, isobutylamine, 2-amino-1-propanol, aminomethylpropanol and methyldiethanolamine were determined as were the carbamate protonation constants of the first four of these amines.     

Estimating home energy decision parameters for a hybrid energy—economy policy model

Hybrid energy–economy models combine the advantages of a technologically explicit bottom–up model with the behavioral realism sought after by top–down models in order to help policymakers assess the likely technology-specific response and economy-wide impact of policies to induce technological change. We use a discrete choice survey to estimate key technology choice parameters for a hybrid model. Two choice experiments are conducted for household energy-related decisions about retrofitting home building structures and choosing a space heating and conditioning system. Based on a discrete choice survey of 625 householders, we estimate a discrete choice model and then demonstrate how its parameters translate into the behavioral parameters of a hybrid model. We then simulate household energy policies, including, individual subsidies and increased regulations.