Planning for cooler cities: a plan quality evaluation for Urban Heat Island consideration

ABSTRACT

City strategic plans and enabling policies provide a framework for and inform future development across multiple scales. An exemplar city strategic plan will be one based on evidence, enabled by complementary policy outcomes, and built on the knowledge of the existing landscape. This study evaluated the plan quality of eighteen metropolitan strategic plans for city members in the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. A protocol was developed containing thirty-two indicators to assess plans capacity to act as a strategic planning tool to develop, analyse and implement strategies for the Urban Heat Island (UHI) and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The evaluation indicated that strategies addressing the UHI are rarely included in metropolitan plans. Strategic plans showed a lack of evidence-base to inform the potential actions. Urban warming is often linked to extreme weather events anticipated under climate change, not the UHI as a systemic and increasing phenomenon. We recommend that the pathway to addressing UHI mitigation and adaptation may lie in its nexus to aspects of climate change that concurrently can serve to support liveable and resilient cities.     

POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF CHANGED CLIMATES ON HEAVY RAINFALL FREQUENCIES IN TIlE MIDWEST1

ABSTRACT: An important question posed by potential future shifts in climate relates to possible shifts in heavy rainfall events (intensity and/or frequency) used to design hydraulic structures. Heavy rain events were defined as those producing amounts having average recurrence intervals of two years or longer for a specific storm period at a given location. Estimates of such heavy rainfall shifts in the humid continental climate of the midwest were derived by using spatial and temporal analogs. Comparisons in areas of relatively warm, wet conditions were made with those having measurably cooler, drier average conditions. The spatial-temporal analogs provided comparative differences in precipitation and temperature similar to the magnitude of changes obtained from GCM estimates. Spatial analogs/analyses indicated 10 to 15 percent increases in the frequency distribution of rain events having recurrence intervals of 5 to 50 years. Two periods of notably drier and warmer conditions during the past 90 years revealed 5 to 15 percent decreases in the number of 2- to 10-year heavy rain events. The suppression percentages showed a strong tendency to increase with increasing recurrence interval from 2 to 10 years.     

Exploratory analysis of the safety climate and safety behavior relationship

Problem: Safety climate refers to the degree to which employees believe true priority is given to organizational safety performance, and its measurement is thought to provide an “early warning” of potential safety system failure(s). However, researchers have struggled over the last 25 years to find empirical evidence to demonstrate actual links between safety climate and safety performance.Method: A safety climate measure was distributed to manufacturing employees at the beginning of a behavioral safety initiative and redistributed one year later.Results: Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that perceptions of the importance of safety training were predictive of actual levels of safety behavior. The results also demonstrate that the magnitude of change in perceptual safety climate scores will not necessarily match actual changes (r=0.56, n.s.) in employee's safety behavior.Discussion: This study obtained empirical links between safety climate scores and actual safety behavior. Confirming and contradicting findings within the extant safety climate literature, the results strongly suggest that the hypothesized climate-behavior-accident path is not as clear cut as commonly assumed.Summary: A statistical link between safety climate perceptions and safety behavior will be obtained when sufficient behavioral data is collected.Impact on Industry: The study further supports the use of safety climate measures as useful diagnostic tools in ascertaining employee's perceptions of the way that safety is being operationalized.     

Effect of Grazing and Climatic Changes on Alpine Vegetation of Tungnath,Garhwal Himalaya,India

Effect of grazing and changing climate on vegetation composition of alpine pasture at Tungnath, Garhwal Himalaya was observed. Growth form pattern and phytosociological attributes were analyzed during 1988 under grazed (exposed to extensive grazing) and ungrazed (protected from grazing) conditions. These observations were repeated during 1998. It was observed that number of early growing species and long vegetative growth cycle species had increased at both sites in 1998 in comparison to 1988. Further, some species, viz., Poa alpina, Polygonum spp., Ranunculus hirtellus, Anemone spp., are predominantly found near the timberline-subalpine region. These species are less palatable and were present at both sites with higher dominance (TBC) and niche width in 1998 indicating wide distribution of the species along an altitudinal gradient. These observations indicated the migration of these species towards upper slopes of alpine. Species diversity was also higher after ten years. However, it is clear that climatic changes alone are not responsible for these vegetational shifts. In fact, human-induced changes are the main reason for habitat destruction and changes in vegetation composition of the alpine region of Garhwal Himalaya. Before final conclusions can be made, long-term studies on vegetation composition and changes are needed, especially in Himalayan region.     

江苏地区地下水位固体潮加卸载响应比的时空演变特征及预测意义

根据加卸载响应比理论,通过对1991～1996年江苏省部分井孔观测资料固体潮加卸载响应比的计算发现,在中强地震前一年左右的时间震中区附近的井孔出现了响应比高值异常。通过空间图像扫描可以看出:在苍山地震前一年左右,徐州、宿迁地区出现了加卸载响应比的高值集中区;在南黄海地震前一年左右,在镇江、苏州地区出现了高值集中区,之后高值集中区有自西向东迁移即有向震中区迁移的迹象。     

Sustainable Development in Small Island Developing States

This paper explores the status of sustainable development in small island developing states (SIDS), through the presentation of a case study on the Maldives, which is a typical small island developing state in the Central Indian Ocean. At the outset, a brief history of sustainable development as related to SIDS on the international agenda is outlined, starting from Rio to Barbados to Johannesburg. SIDS are expected to face many challenges and constraints in pursuing sustainable development due to their ecological fragility and economic vulnerability. It is the position of this paper that issues related to environmental vulnerability are of the greatest concern. A healthy environment is the basis of all life-support systems, including that of human well-being and socio-economic development. Priority environmental problems are: climate change and sea-level rise, threats to biodiversity, threats to freshwater resources, degradation of coastal environments, pollution, energy and tourism. Among these, climate change and its associated impacts are expected to pose the greatest threat to the environment and therefore to sustainable development. For small islands dependent on fragile marine ecosystems, in particular on coral reefs, for their livelihoods and living space, adverse effects of climate change such as increased frequency of extreme weather events and sea-level rise will exacerbate the challenges they already face. It is concluded that the paper path from Rio to Barbados to Johannesburg has made significant progress. However, much remains to be done at the practical level, particularly by the developed countries in terms of new and additional efforts at financial and technical assistance, to make sustainable development a reality for SIDS.     

Environmental Impacts of the Akosombo Dam and Effects of Climate Change on the Lake Levels

The Akosombo dam was constructed on the Volta river primarily for the generation of hydropower. The resultant Volta lake which was formed between 1962 and 1966 in Ghana will probably long be one of the greatest man-made lakes. It produces 912MW of electricity at its maximum operating capacity. The Akosombo hydroelectric project (HEP) was meant among others to open up Ghana to rapid industrialization and hence modern development. Other positive impacts of the HEP include fishing, farming, transportation and tourism. However, there are equally negative impacts, some of which the project did not envisage and these are felt on the physical, biological and human subsystems within the immediate project environments and places much more distant from them. Recently, there have been declines in the lake levels resulting most probably from inadequate rainfall and/or runoff from the river catchments that feed the lake, and also from the observed rising temperatures. Comparisons of the runoff from two most important tributaries of the Volta (White Volta and Oti) for two time periods of 1951–1970 and 1971–1990 showed reductions in mean streamflows of 23.1% on the White Volta and 32.5% on the Oti. Similarly, a plot of the mean annual temperatures for the upper Volta basin indicated a 1^C rise in temperature from 1945–1993.     

团花锦蛇、绿锦蛇和三索锦蛇的核型及Ag-NORs

报道了锦蛇属团花锦蛇（Ｅ．ｄａｖｉｄｉ）、绿锦蛇（Ｅ．ｐｒｖｓｉｎａ）和三索锦蛇（Ｅ．ｒａｄｉａｔａ）３个种的核型和Ａｇ－ＮＯＲｓ,团花锦蛇的型２ｎ＝３６（８Ｖ＋６ｓＶ＋２Ｉ＋２０Ｍ）,绿锦蛇的核型２ｎ＝３６（７Ｖ＋７ｓＶ＋２Ｉ＋２０ｍ）,三索锦蛇的核型２ｎ＝４０（６Ｖ＋３ｓＶ＋２ｓＩ＋５Ｉ＋２４ｍ）;①团花锦蛇和绿锦蛇的染色体数目和结构与此属大多数咱的相似,;②此种为雄性,未见染色体异型。③Ａｇ     

秦皇岛市50年气候变化与可持续发展战略研究

秦皇岛市50年来气候变暖变干，年平均气温提高2．3℃，≥10℃年积温增加11．4％，无霜期延长22天，但年平均降水量却减少12．6％。这对农业和工业的影响弊大于利，对旅游业的影响则有利有弊。为此应趋利避害，加强水资源的开源节流，发展节水经济和循环经济，发展休闲度假旅游，延长旺季。     

渚滑川河口拦门沙演变特性

河口拦门沙的存在可导致径流流出不畅，并能引起一系列的河口生态及环境问题。特别是弯曲型河口，在波浪流、河川径流及弯道副流的共同作用下，拦门沙的形成及演变将更为复杂。通过对日本渚滑川河口多次实地调查资料的分析，揭示了渚滑川河口拦门沙的演变特性。结果表明：渚滑川河口修筑防波堤后，在东北方向的海洋入射波作用下，拦门沙由河口右岸发育并向左岸逐渐延伸扩展，其河水流动也相应由右岸偏向左岸一侧；不论河口有无拦门沙，3次洪水在右岸的最大冲深均稳定在-6m高程，且河床横剖面的形状基本不变，即汛期时该河口河床形状已达平衡状态。