Reducing hazard vulnerability: towards a common approach between disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation

Over the past few decades, four distinct and largely independent research and policy communities--disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, environmental management and poverty reduction--have been actively engaged in reducing socio-economic vulnerability to natural hazards. However, despite the significant efforts of these communities, the vulnerability of many individuals and communities to natural hazards continues to increase considerably. In particular, it is hydro-meteorological hazards that affect an increasing number of people and cause increasingly large economic losses. Arising from the realisation that these four communities have been largely working in isolation and enjoyed only limited success in reducing vulnerability, there is an emerging perceived need to strengthen significantly collaboration and to facilitate learning and information exchange between them. This article examines key communalities and differences between the climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction communities, and proposes three exercises that would help to structure a multi-community dialogue and learning process.     

Effects of climate and land use changes on groundwater resources in coastal aquifers

To estimate the freshwater loss in coastal aquifers due to salinisation, a numerical model based on the sharp interface assumption has been introduced. The developed methodology will be useful in areas where limited hydrological data are available. This model will elaborate on the changes in fresh groundwater loss with respect to climate change, land use pattern and hydrologic soil condition. The aridity index has been introduced to represent the variations in precipitation and temperature. The interesting finding is that the deforestation leads to increase groundwater recharge in arid areas, because deforestation leads to reduce evapotranspiration even though it favors runoff. The combined climate and land use scenarios show that when the aridity index is less than 60, the agricultural lands give higher groundwater recharge than other land use patterns for all hydrologic soil conditions. The calculated recharge was then used to estimate the freshwater-saltwater interface and percentage of freshwater loss due to salinity intrusion. We found that in arid areas, the fresh groundwater loss increases as the percentage of forest cover increases. The combined effects of deforestation and aridity index on fresh groundwater loss show that deforestation causes an increase in the recharge and existing fresh groundwater resource in areas having low precipitation and high temperature (arid climates).     

Holling's Figure-Eight Model: A Technical Reevaluation in Relation to Climate Change and Biodiversity

Holling proposed a four-phase conceptual model of ecosystem dynamics that includes exploitation, conservation, and destructive and renewal components to explain the failure of many natural resource management schemes. The model is drawn as a sideways figure-eight i.e. . There are two dimensions in this model, connectivity (abscissa) and the amount of capital stored in the system (ordinate). This conceptual model has been suggested as a guide to thinking about the impact of climate change on biodiversity, but the two dimensions are insufficient and the alignment of the figure-eight model is problematic when compared with actual data. Kay has adjusted the dimensions of the figure-eight model and renamed the abscissa as exergy stored and the ordinate as exergy consumed. We realign the original figure-eight model, labeling the abscissa as carbon stored and the ordinate as nutrients, such that the relative values of both axes are in qualitative agreement with data from four different studies. This new alignment is then shown to fit relatively well with Holling's original labels. This revision of the figure-eight model brings Holling's model into agreement with observations and provides insight into the linkages between biodiversity and climate change.     

基于神经网络综合建模的区域城市群发展脆弱性评价——以滇中城市群为例

城市脆弱性是评价城市发展韧性状况的有效测度。目前我国对于城市脆弱性的研究以运用统计学方法评价特殊城市为主,尚未形成对区域城市群具有普遍适用性的科学客观评价方法。以滇中城市群为例,从环境系统、经济系统、社会系统三个方面综合构建城市脆弱性评价体系,采用熵值法和BP神经网络综合建模方法,对2007—2016年10年间滇中城市群的城市脆弱性进行评价。结果表明：滇中城市群的城市脆弱性总体呈现下降趋势,但城市组团之间差异较大,呈现出发展中的不均衡性。评价结果对滇中城市群韧性发展规划具有重要指导意义,为区域城市群发展脆弱性研究提供一种科学评价方法。     

中国自然灾害灾后响应能力评价与地域差异

灾后恢复是减灾管理的重要环节。从灾害系统角度界定了恢复性的概念；构建了由地均粮食产量、单位面积上拥有的病床床位数、人均城乡居民储蓄存款余额、地均财政收入、人均财政收入、基本建设投资和综合通行能力等指标组成的评价指标体系；提出了灾后恢复能力指数模型；对全国县域单元进行了灾后恢复能力评价。结果表明：我国灾后恢复能力指数Z值呈现“东高西低”的地域差异；贫困县域Z值普遍偏低，西藏、新疆西部、西南云贵地区、北方农牧交错带应是当前进行恢复能力建设的重点区域；城市Z值普遍较高，其地域差异与城市经济水平相对应。研究结果可为自然灾害救助区划提供依据，为减灾县域管理决策提供支持。     

ENSO事件对陕西气候影响的统计分析

根据46a来陕西10个地市气象资料的统计分析,初步揭示了陕西气候变化与厄尔尼诺、拉尼娜等事件的相关关系,认为厄尔尼诺年少雨,拉尼娜年低温多雨。     

陕西未来50年区域旱涝气候预测研究

用陕西省近526a的旱涝等级资料,根据超低频气候振动理论和尺度对应原理,通过旱涝气候对天体物理、太阳活动等周期,特别是ENSO对天体物理显著敏感的周期响应关系的物理统计分析,选取周期概率显著的周期,进行外延叠加集成预测,给出了未来50a陕西省不同区域旱涝趋势的预测结果．     

我国交通运输气候灾害的初步研究

利用收集的资料,从我国实际国情出发,在分析我国气候特点、交通运输发展特点的基础上,综合研究了我国交通运输气候灾害的特点、类型、分布及其影响,为进一步开展气候异常对交通运输的影响研究打下了基础．     

On some aspects of ecological resilience and the conservation of species

The importance of the notion of resilience in determining the static and the intertemporal behaviour of jointly determined ecological-economic systems has long been recognized by ecologists. This notwithstanding, there are very few formal studies of such systems which explicitly analyse the ecological and the economic aspects of the problem. Consequently, this paper has two objectives. First, a new stationary probability-based method is proposed to characterize the notion of ecological resilience. Next, this characterization is used to study the problem of optimal species conservation.     

European winegrowers’ perceptions of climate change impact and options for adaptation

A questionnaire on the perception of climate change and the impact of climate change was distributed among winegrowers in France, Germany, and Italy. These countries are located in three macro-climatic regions that experienced different patterns of climatic change in the twentieth century—Atlantic, transition to Continental and Mediterranean. The majority of winegrowers perceived changing climatic conditions in the last few decades. The characterization of these changes is consistent with results obtained by the analysis of long-term trends in climatic records. The winegrowers noted impacts on harvestable quantities (mainly in Italy), must quality, and risks of pests and diseases. The majority of respondents (66%) indicated an impact on wine quality, which was perceived as quality improvement in 55% of the cases. Perceived impacts on pests and diseases were reported in 56% of the responses. A strong majority of this group (80%) also reported increasing threats. Perceived climatic change and its noticeable impacts has led to growing interest in adaptation options, combined with a need for more information, among winegrowers. Thus, the transfer of technical knowledge from scientific research to practice is necessary for adaptation. Plans for adaptation by a change of wine varieties were reported with substantially different results among the regions. A majority of German growers said they would consider changing varieties to adapt to warming temperatures, while only a minority of the Italian and French growers said they would consider such changes. However, readiness to adopt adaptation measures is correlated with the degree of changes already planned, independent of climatic change.