Storm impacts along European coastlines. Part 1: The joint effort of the MICORE and ConHaz Projects

The current paper discusses the topic of marine storm impact along European coastlines, presenting results from two FP7 Projects currently focusing on this topic, one working on the physical aspects of the problem (MICORE) and the other one on the socio-economic implications (ConHaz).The MICORE Project aims to provide on-line predictions of storm-related physical hazards (hydrodynamic as well as morphodynamic). The ConHaz Project addresses the socio-economic implications should these (or other) hazards actually materialize. Together these projects aim to deliver crucial information for emergency response efforts, while realizing the practical limitations for information processing and dissemination during crisis situations.The MICORE Project has developed and demonstrated on-line tools for reliable predictions of the morphological impact of marine storm events in support of civil protection mitigation strategies. The project specifically targeted the development of early warning and information systems to support short term emergency response in case of an extreme storm event. The current paper discusses in detail the outcome of an activity of databasing historical storm data. No clear changes in storminess were observed, except for some storm proxies (e.g. surges) and only at some locations (e.g. northern Adriatic, southern Baltic, etc.).The ConHaz Project undertook a desktop study of the methods normally used for evaluating the impact of marine storms and the associated coastal hazards considering direct costs, costs due to disruption of production processes, indirect costs, intangible costs, and costs of adaptation and mitigation measures. Several methods for cost estimation were reviewed. From the review it emerged that normally end-users only evaluate direct costs after the storms, while the cost of adaptation and mitigation measures is only done strategically in the context of Integrated Coastal Zone Management plans. As there is no standardized method for cost evaluations in this field, it is suggested that clear guidelines should be produced on the basis of simplicity for use by end-users. The integration between historical databases of the physical parameters of storms and detailed cost evaluation information would support the development of a knowledge background in end-users and justify the development of adaptation strategies.     

Water Planning and Hydro-Climatic Change in the Murray-Darling Basin,Australia

More than a third of humanity lives in regions with less than 1 million liters of fresh water per person per year. Population growth will increase water demand while climate change in arid and semi-arid areas may reduce water availability. The Murray-Darling Basin in Australia is a region where water reform and planning have been used to reduce consumptive extraction to better sustain river ecosystems under climate variability. Using actual data and previously published models that account for climate variability and climate change, the trade-off between water extractions and water essential to the long-term ecological function of river systems is analysed. The findings indicate that better water planning and a more complete understanding of the effects of irrigation on regional climate evapotranspiration could: (1) increase the overall benefits of consumptive and non-consumptive water use; (2) improve riparian environments under climate variability; and (3) be achieved with only small effects on the profits and gross value of food and fiber production.     

Can secondary organic aerosol formed in an atmospheric simulation chamber continuously age?

This work investigates the oxidative aging process of SOA derived from select aromatic (m-xylene) and biogenic (α-pinene) precursors within an environmental chamber. Simultaneous measurements of SOA hygroscopicity, volatility, particle density, and elemental chemical composition (C:O:H) reveal only slight particle aging for up to the first 16 h of formation. The chemical aging observed is consistent with SOA that is decreasing in volatility and increasing in O/C and hydrophilicity. Even after aging, the O/C (0.25 and 0.40 for α-pinene and m-xylene oxidation, respectively) was below the OOAI and OOAII ambient fractions measured by high-resolution aerosol mass spectra coupled with Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). The rate of increase in O/C does not appear to be sufficient to achieve OOAI or OOAII levels of oxygenation within regular chamber experiment duration. No chemical aging was observed for SOA during dark α-pinene ozonolysis with a hydroxyl radical scavenger present. This finding is consistent with observations by other groups that SOA from this system is comprised of first generation products.     

Organic micropollutants’ distribution within sludge organic matter fractions explains their dynamic during sewage sludge anaerobic digestion followed by composting

The simultaneous fate of organic matter and 4 endocrine disruptors (3 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (fluoranthene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, and benzo(a)pyrene) and nonylphenols (NP)) was studied during the anaerobic digestion followed by composting of sludge at lab-scale. Sludge organic matter was characterized, thanks to chemical fractionation and 3D fluorescence deciphering its accessibility and biodegradability. Total chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was 41% and 56% during anaerobic digestion and composting, respectively. 3D fluorescence highlighted the quality changes of organic matter. During continuous anaerobic digestion, organic micropollutants’ removal was 22?±?14%, 6?±?5%, 18?±?9%, and 0% for fluoranthene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, and nonylphenols, respectively. Discontinuous composting allowed to go further on the organic micropollutants’ removal as 34?±?8%, 31?±?20%, 38?±?10%, and 52?±?6% of fluoranthene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, and nonylphenols were dissipated, respectively. Moreover, the accessibility of PAH and NP expressed by their presence in the various sludge organic matter fractions and its evolution during both treatments was linked to both the quality evolution of the organic matter and the physicochemical properties of the PAH and NP; the presence in most accessible fractions explained the amount of PAH and NP dissipated.

     

Climate Change and the Adaptability of Agriculture: A Review

ABSTRACT

The assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture has emerged as a recognizable field of research over the past 15 years or so. In a relatively short period, this area of work has undergone a number of important conceptual and methodological developments. Among many questions that have been debated are the adaptability of agriculture to climate change and the importance of land management adjustments in reducing the adverse effects of climate change. In turn, this latter focus has spawned a discussion regarding the nature of adaptation and the ability of agriculture to respond to sudden and rapid climatic changes. In this paper we present an overview of this debate.

It is argued that the first generation of climate change impact studies generally ignored the possibility that agriculturalists may adjust their farming practices in order to cope with climate change or to take advantage of new production opportunities. This conceptual oversight has been largely eliminated over the past five years or so. However, questions remain surrounding the likelihood that various adaptive strategies will actually be deployed in particular places. In this paper, we stress the importance of studying adaptation in the context of decision-making at the individual farm level and beyond.     

Substitution between biofuels and fossil fuels: Is there a green paradox?

We show that (i) subsidies for renewable energy policies with the intention of encouraging substitution away from fossil fuels may accentuate climate change damages by hastening fossil fuel extraction, and that (ii) the opposite result holds under some specified conditions. We focus on the case of subsidies for renewable resources produced under increasing marginal costs, and assume that both the renewable resources and the fossil fuels are currently in use. Such subsidies have a direct effect and an indirect effect working in opposite directions. The direct effect is the reduction in demand for fossil fuels at any given price. The indirect effect is the reduction in the current equilibrium price for fossil fuels, which tends to increase the amount of fossil fuels demanded. Whether the sum of the two effects will actually result in an earlier or later date of exhaustion of the stock of fossil fuels depends on the curvature of the demand curve for energy and of the supply curve for the renewable substitute.     

Secondary organic aerosol formation from cyclohexene ozonolysis in the presence of water vapor and dissolved salts

A series of 90 experiments were conducted in the UC Riverside/CE-CERT environmental chamber to evaluate the impact of water vapor and dissolved salts on secondary organic aerosol formation for cyclohexene ozonolysis. Water vapor (low – 30 ± 2% RH, medium – 46 ± 2% RH, high – 63 ± 2% RH) was found to directly participate in the atmospheric chemistry altering the composition of the condensing species, thus increasing total organic aerosol formation by ～22% as compared to the system under dry (<0.1% RH) conditions. Hygroscopicity measurements also indicate that the organic aerosol composition is altered in the presence of gaseous water. These results are consistent with water vapor reacting with the crigee intermediate in the gas phase resulting in increased aldehyde formation. The addition of dissolved salts ((NH₄)₂SO₄, NH₄HSO₄, CaCl₂, NaCl) had minimal effect; only the (NH₄)₂SO₄ and NaCl were found to significantly impact the system with ～10% increase in total organic aerosol formation. These results indicate that the organics may be partitioning to an outer organic shell as opposed to into the aqueous salt. Hygroscopicity measurements indicate that the addition of salts does not alter the aerosol composition for the dry or water vapor system.