Governing Quasi-Public Network Services for adaptation to climate change

Adaptation takes place in both private and public sectors, or as an interrelation between the two, and often under the realm of public regulation. Thispaper uses the Swedish and the Norwegian electricity grid sector, as providers of a vital public good under strict public regulation, to analyse reforms' effects on adaptive capacity in this area. The paper shows that transformational changes in both sectors during the 1990s shifted both the formal organisational structure (rules and regulations), as well as the organisational culture, in the direction of economic efficiency. These two dimensions individually reduced adaptive capacity to climate change, although differently in the two countries. However, the formal structure and organisational culture also yielded substantial influence on each other. This leads to the conclusion that when designing public regulations and implementing reforms, organisational culture must be considered in the design. Also the paper contests previous findings in the literature by showing that under given conditions there exist some substitution between the two dimensions in influencing adaptive capacity, implying that both dimensions should be included when analysing adaptation since analysing them in isolation is likely to lead to wrong conclusions.     

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation at the local level

National authorities in many countries aim at having climate change adaptation mainstreamed into existing policy domains in order to achieve coherence and synergies, and to avoid mal-adaptation. Because of local variations in climate change impacts, the lion's share of climate adaptation work will have to take place at the local level. This means also that the mainstreaming process needs to occur locally. This article examines the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into existing sectors in five Norwegian municipalities. Applying theories of mainstreaming and policy integration we find that policy development is slower, but perhaps more robust in the municipalities that have chosen a horizontal, cross-sectoral approach to mainstreaming than in the municipalities that have chosen a vertical sector approach to mainstreaming.     

Building resilience to climate change – the role of cooperation in alpine tourism networks

While there is ample – though partially contradictory – evidence regarding the effects climate change will have on various regions of the world, there is only very limited work dedicated to the analysis of different governance structures, and how these structures are likely to influence the resilience of alpine tourism systems in the face of climate change. We present an analytical framework based on network theory, and apply this to the Swiss case study destination of Engelberg, in order to deduct a number of insights for the future assessment of resilience based on the cooperation of local actors. The main aim of the paper is to come up with comparable resilience metrics based on social network analysis in order to assess the structural strengths and weaknesses of a geographically delimited tourism system in the face of climate change. Together with the action potential of the individual actors these structural properties influence the adaptive capacity of both individual actors, and the tourism system as a whole. In line with comparable studies, we identify structural strengths and weaknesses around the core-periphery distribution (centrality), subgroups (modularity) and information flows (path length). We find that the Engelberg network follows an almost ideal-typical scale-free structure and the overall cooperation rate (density) is comparable to other tourism networks. The main weaknesses of the network with regard to climate change resilience are the lacking integration of public sector actors and the relatively high number of actors in the periphery of the network.     

Adapting to changing climate risk by local government in New Zealand: institutional practice barriers and enablers

Adaptation to climate change has been reviewed in several developed nations, but in none where consideration of the effects of climate change is required by statute and devolved to local government. We examine the role of institutional arrangements, the players operating under them, the barriers and enablers for adaptation decision-making in the developed nation of New Zealand. We examine how the roles and responsibilities between national, regional and local governments influence the ability of local government to deliver long-term flexible responses to changing climate risk. We found that the disciplinary practices of law, engineering and planning, within legal frameworks, result in the use of static mechanisms which create inflexible responses to changing risk. Several enablers are identified that could create greater integration between the different scales of government, including better use of national policy instruments, shared professional experience, standardised information collection and risk assessment methods that address uncertainties. The framing of climate risk as dynamic and changing that differentiates activities over their lifetime, development of mechanisms to fund transitions towards transformational change, are identified as necessary conditions for delivering flexible responses over time.     

“In common nature”: an ethnography of climate adaptation in the Lesotho Highlands

In Lesotho, climate change adaptation funding is being managed and distributed by the same mechanisms which have traditionally operationalised humanitarian aid and international development assistance in the country. Lessons from the HIV/AIDS disaster, along with insights into the value of participatory approaches foregrounding the expertise of indigenous communities, must be heeded in order to ensure that those most affected by climate change have a say in how adaptation is carried out. This paper proposes that indigenous people have developed and actively maintained resilience strategies, encoded in social practices and farming techniques, designed out of long experience with climatic variability. Through case studies, indigenous resilience strategies are explored, with emphasis on the anarchistic, improvisational nature of traditional ecological knowledge. Future directions for policy-makers and practitioners dealing with climate change adaptation are suggested, namely the need to foreground indigenous knowledge and the experiences of frontlines experts in key policy arenas.     

Diurnal and spatial variations of soil NOx fluxes in the northern steppe of China

NO_x emissions from biogenic sources in soils play a significant role in the gaseous loss of soil nitrogen and consequent changes in tropospheric chemistry. In order to investigate the characteristics of NO_x fluxes and factors influencing these fluxes in degraded sandy grasslands in northern China, diurnal and spatial variations of NO_x fluxes were measured in situ. A dynamic flux chamber method was used at eight sites with various vegetation coverages and soil types in the northern steppe of China in the summer season of 2010. Fluxes of NO_x from soils with plant covers were generally higher than those in the corresponding bare vegetation-free soils, indicating that the canopy plays an important role in the exchange of NO_x between soil and air. The fluxes of NO_x increased in the daytime, and decreased during the nighttime, with peak emissions occurring between 12:00 and 14:00. The results of multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the diurnal variation of NO_x fluxes was positively correlated with soil temperature (P < 0.05) and negatively with soil moisture content (P < 0.05). Based on measurement over a season, the overall variation in NO_x flux was lower than that of soil nitrogen contents, suggesting that the gaseous loss of N fromthe grasslands of northern China was not a significant contributor to the high C/N in the northern steppe of China. The concentration of NO_x emitted from soils in the region did not exceed the 1-hr National Ambient Air Quality Standard (0.25 mg/m³).     

基于改进灰色关联分析法在居民环境消费结构中的研究

依据平顶山市2005年-2012年的统计年鉴,平顶山市居民环境人均消费性数据,选取食品、衣着、居住、家庭设备用品及服务、医疗保健、交通和通信、教育文化娱乐服务、杂项商品及服务八大类,将改进的灰色关联度分析方法和综合评价模型相结合,建立灰色关联度分析模型,对平顶山市居民环境结构关系进行分析.结果表明:教育文化娱乐环境服务的关联性最高,食品、交通通信、居住医疗保健、衣着、家庭设备用品及服务、杂项商品和服务环境位居其后.     

上海市降水过程中汞的浓度变化研究

为了研究降水过程中汞浓度变化规律,采集了上海市区2009年7月6日一次连续降水过程中的分时段12个雨水样品,利用冷原子荧光测汞仪测定了总汞、溶解态汞和颗粒态汞浓度.分析结果显示,降水过程各时段雨水样品的总汞浓度变化范围为0.26～0.53 μg·L-1之间,其中溶解态汞占总汞的比例为67.9％～96.8％;总汞浓度和颗粒态汞浓度的总体变化规律较一致,降水事件的前30分钟内浓度较高,之后逐渐降低,最终趋于稳定;溶解态汞浓度从降水事件开始由高到低逐渐变化,最终也趋于稳定.通过清除比计算云下冲刷过程对雨水中总汞浓度的贡献,发现云下冲刷的贡献大于40.9％.     

西南地区近14a植被覆盖变化及其与气候因子的关系

基于1999~2012年NDVI数据,结合气温和降水资料,运用GIS和RS技术,分析了西南地区近14a植被覆盖的时空变化特征及与气温、降水的关系。结果表明:(1)该区植被生长良好,各植被类型NDVI均呈显著增加趋势。空间整体表现为改善状态,改善面积远大于退化面积,严重退化区仅占1.18%。退化区分布于横断山地北部、四川盆地东部以及云贵高原中部。(2)植被覆盖变化将以良性发展为主,但强持续性的退化区和弱持续性的改善区应值得关注;强持续性的退化区主要分布在横断山地中北部、云贵高原中西部、若尔盖高原中部、四川盆地与若尔盖高原相交区域;草原强持续性的退化面积最大,针阔混交林强持续性的改善面积最大。(3)NDVI与温度存在明显的正相关关系,而与降水及干旱指数变化的关系不太明显,温度是影响该区植被变化的主要自然因素。     

基于变更平衡表的土地利用演化信息提取与预测方法研究——以苏州市为例

变更平衡表为国土资源管理部门历年实地调查、汇总所得,精度高,目前的研究中对其深入的应用较少,基于变更平衡表的应用方法研究可为区域土地利用演变信息提取与预测提供帮助。推导了由连续年份的年度变更平衡表求多年周期的平衡表的方法,提出了基于土地利用综合动态度分析土地利用有序程度的思路,探讨了利用连续年份的变更平衡表预测任意年份土地利用结构的方法,并基于传统方法进行了改进,提出了利用矩阵开方法求预测概率矩阵。应用苏州市一定时期的连续年份的年度变更平衡表对上述方法进行了验证,结果表明:提出的信息提取方法有效,预测结果可信;在分析期内(1998~2008年),苏州市耕地大量减少的去向是各类建设用地增加的来源,区域土地利用有序程度较高;预测显示至2020年土地利用结构变化仍将维持农用地、耕地不断减少和建设用地总量不断增加的趋势,但转化的速率将有所放缓;对变更平衡表的深入应用有一定的借鉴意义。