The adoption of a Climate Disaster Resilience Index in Chennai,India

Results derived from the Climate Disaster Resilience Index (CDRI)—consisting of five dimensions (economic, institutional, natural, physical, and social), 25 parameters, and 125 variables—reflect the abilities of people and institutions to respond to potential climate‐related disasters in Chennai, India. The findings of this assessment, applied in the 10 administrative zones of the city, reveal that communities living in the northern and older parts of Chennai have lower overall resilience as compared to the flourishing areas (vis‐à‐vis economic growth and population) along the urban fringes. The higher resilience of communities along the urban fringes suggests that urbanisation may not necessarily lead to a deterioration of basic urban services, such as electricity, housing, and water. This indication is confirmed by a strong statistical correlation between physical resilience and population growth in Chennai. The identification of the resilience of different urban areas of Chennai has the potential to support future planning decisions on the city's scheduled expansion.     

区域性气候变化对长江中下游流域植被覆盖的影响

利用2000─2010年MODIS EVI(增强型植被指数)数据和气候资料,对长江中下游流域区域性气候变化对植被覆盖的影响进行了综合研究. 结果显示:①2000—2010年间长江中下游流域植被覆盖度呈上升趋势,EVI年均值从0.302增至0.318,增幅达5.57%,增长主要出现在春季. 各植被类型中,常绿阔叶林、落叶阔叶林、混交林和人工农田植被覆盖度增加最为显著. ②研究区整体植被覆盖较好,但地域差异较大, EVI高值区分布在东南部南岭、武夷山、九岭山一带;中部江河湖泊区、长江两岸大型城市周边区域植被覆盖较差. ③气温是植被覆盖变化的主要影响因子,尤其春季表现最为显著;由于常年降水充沛,研究区降水量对植被覆盖影响程度不及气温;日照时数仅在夏季对当月植被覆盖有一定影响;相对湿度对植被覆盖影响较低,但在秋季对植被覆盖影响时间较长,可持续3个月. ④气候变化对自然植被覆盖的影响主要表现在湖南省和湖北省西部;对湖南省中部和安徽省中北部地区人工农田植被的影响较显著. ⑤空间相关性研究表明,长江中下游流域植被覆盖度增加除与自然条件改善有关外,国家近年来实施的各项生态工程也起到了积极的作用.      

近53年山东省霾季节性特征的年代际变异

为了进一步认识山东省霾日长期变化特征,从而为政府决策和空气质量预报提供科学依据,基于山东省80 个气象站53 年（1961-2013）的观测资料分析,利用多项式及线性回归拟合、定义表示随季节和年际变化程度的变量如季节变化率、年际变化率等多种统计方法分析了近53 年来山东省霾日季节性的年际、年代际长期变化及空间分布规律,结果表明,山东上个世纪明显的冬季霾高发的典型季节性特征演变为本世纪模糊的季节差异,即霾多发时段随年际增长逐渐由冬季蔓延至秋季,夏季和春季.全省平均霾日的季节变率从60 年代的84.0%,70-80 年代的72.4%~73.6%,到90 年代跌至56.4%,而在本世纪的13 年低达42.3%,体现了山东霾日变化季节性的年代际特征,即近53 年季节差异在不断减小,霾趋于常年化发生的大气污染事件.霾日季节性的空间分布及年际变化特征还表明：近53 年山东霾日呈持续上升趋势,1990 年之前呈显著的增长趋势,1990 年之后上升缓慢,但维持霾高发的水平.霾日高发区域主要集中在济南地区,济宁-泰安-莱芜一带,枣庄-临沂一带,青岛地区和聊城西部地区,其中,高中心依次为济南的80.9 d·a^-1,临沂的78.2 d·a^-1 和青岛的69.0 d·a^-1.山东中东部的霾日年增长率整体高于西部地区,鲁中、鲁南及半岛南部地区是霾日年际增长高值区.山东省霾日年际变化趋势以夏季增长率最高,大部分地区的年际增长率都在4.5%·a^-1 以上,其次是秋季、春季霾日年际变化趋势,冬季霾日年际变化趋势普遍增长率最低,且大部分地区的变化率值为1.5%·a^-1 以上,近53 年来山东大部分地区出现了霾日模糊季节性变异.     

长江中下游洪水灾害成因及洪水特征模拟分析

长江中下游地区洪水灾害的发生是自然地理条件及人类活动共同作用的结果。流域水系构造和地理特征决定了其洪水多发性,气候变化和土地利用/地表覆盖变化导致该地区水循环过程发生较大改变,而大量水库、堤防的建设以及城市化的发展使得洪水过程发生显著变化,因此在各种因素的综合作用下,长江中下游地区近年来洪水灾害频繁发生。综述了气候变化对长江中下游降水的影响,探讨了长江中下游水系特征与洪水灾害的关系,分析了人类活动对洪水灾害的影响规律,在此基础上,开展了气候和下垫面特征变化条件下的暴雨洪水模拟研究,以长江下游太湖东苕溪流域的南苕溪为研究区,进行了流域降雨径流过程的动态模拟验证和特征分析,并取得了较满意的成果,从而为长江中下游地区防洪减灾研究打下了基础。     

Climate change,risk management and the end of Nomadic pastoralism

Mobility has been argued to be the single factor explaining why some pastoralists do relatively well during extreme climatic events, while others do not, because mobility works by taking advantage of the spatial and temporal structure of resource failure by moving away from scarcity towards abundance. In spite of this, a common governmental management strategy is to resettle pastoral populations and thereby significantly reduce mobility. By revealing the underlying logic of mobility for Tibetan pastoralists, this paper questions official policy that aims at privatizing communally owned rangelands since it reduces pastoral flexibility and access to key resources. This is especially pertinent in the face of climate change. While little is known as to the specifics of how climate change will affect nomadic pastoralists, environmental variability is likely to increase. Consequently, policies resulting in decreased mobility may exacerbate the negative effects of climate change because of a positive feedback between climate and negative density dependence.     

Towards a sustainable future: a holistic inquiry of waste management behaviors of Singapore households

ABSTRACT

In 2018, Singapore produced a 7.7 million tonnes of waste, which is a significant amount of waste for a small nation-state. In line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) targets 11.6 and 12.5 of the 2030 Agenda, which addresses cities’ waste generation and management impacts, we ask the question of why Singapore households are not more proactively engaged in waste minimization, despite the presence of local waste minimization public campaigns. This study is the first known study to comparatively apply and test three major theories – social psychological, social-structural, and sociocultural theories, to explain household waste management behavior in Singapore. A national survey followed by regression analysis of 303 households was conducted. In our findings, we firstly describe current trends in household waste management behaviors. Secondly, we compared each applied theory’s ability to predict households’: (1) reuse and (2) recycling of a variety of household items; and (3) recycling frequency. We obtained partial evidence supporting the role of future-orientedness and environmental identity on householders’ variety reuse and recycling. Social-structural (age cohort x income, education) and situational variables (the convenience thesis), also predicted various waste minimization behaviors. Finally, householders’ knowledge of what is recyclable affected all forms of waste minimization behaviors. In view of the study’s findings, we propose a need for targeted planning and policy interventions for different segments of the Singapore population, and different short- and longer-term measures to initiate and achieve sustained household waste minimization.     

Benefits and challenges of streamlined life-cycle assessment for SMEs – findings from case studies on climate change impacts

ABSTRACT

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a substantial role in the economy and job creation, but they are a remarkable source of environmental impacts. SMEs often lack skills and resources to compile environmental impact assessments; Streamlined Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) can provide efficient tools for this. An application of streamlined LCA relying heavily on database data, LCA clinic, was developed and tested on 23 SMEs in Finland. The climate change impacts were mainly caused by the production of raw materials, electricity and heating, whereas packaging and transportation were not influential. A significant amount of emissions were indirect, i.e. caused by production of raw materials. Thus, decreasing emissions from raw material production or selecting raw materials with a smaller environmental load could be a more efficient way to decrease emissions than reducing direct emissions such as those from electricity use. Lack of data in the LCA-databases was considered a challenge. An access to regionally customised datasets is important for the implementation of LCA clinics. Company feedback indicated that LCA clinics were useful in climate-friendly product design and increased environmental awareness, but did not lead to immediate actions to reduce emissions because of inadequate investment capabilities. Company managers had limited possibilities to use the results in marketing as comparative assessments would require a full LCA. Many company managers were willing to pay a fee sufficient to cover the costs of an LCA clinic, but some considered that the costs should be covered by external funding sources.     

中国实现碳达峰的政策建议——基于碳定价机制模型的多情景模拟分析

碳定价机制是利用市场机制推动碳减排、减缓气候变化方案的核心内容,包括碳排放权交易和碳税等措施。尽管新冠肺炎疫情打乱了经济发展节奏,但是中国主动提高国家自主贡献力度,积极推进战略提升与政策强化。本研究构建并运用"碳定价机制模型"模拟涵盖不同主体范围及政策组合下的碳排放权交易市场运行情况,分析评估碳减排效果及经济影响,为丰富完善我国实现碳达峰的政策工具提供技术支持。     

Matching the Multiple Scales of Conservation with the Multiple Scales of Climate Change

Abstract:  To anticipate the rapidly changing world resulting from global climate change, the projections of climate models must be incorporated into conservation. This requires that the scales of conservation be aligned with the scales of climate-change projections. We considered how conservation has incorporated spatial scale into protecting biodiversity, how the projections of climate-change models vary with scale, and how the two do or do not align. Conservation planners use information about past and current ecological conditions at multiple scales to identify conservation targets and threats and guide conservation actions. Projections of climate change are also made at multiple scales, from global and regional circulation models to projections downscaled to local scales. These downscaled projections carry with them the uncertainties associated with the broad-scale models from which they are derived; thus, their high resolution may be more apparent than real. Conservation at regional or global scales is about establishing priorities and influencing policy. At these scales, the coarseness and uncertainties of global and regional climate models may be less important than what they reveal about possible futures. At the ecoregional scale, the uncertainties associated with downscaling climate models become more critical because the distributions of conservation targets on which plans are founded may shift under future climates. At a local scale, variations in topography and land cover influence local climate, often overriding the projections of broad-scale climate models and increasing uncertainty. Despite the uncertainties, ecologists and conservationists must work with climate-change modelers to focus on the most likely projections. The future will be different from the past and full of surprises; judicious use of model projections at appropriate scales may help us prepare.     

Designing Climate-Smart Conservation: Guidance and Case Studies

Abstract:  To be successful, conservation practitioners and resource managers must fully integrate the effects of climate change into all planning projects. Some conservation practitioners are beginning to develop, test, and implement new approaches that are designed to deal with climate change. We devised four basic tenets that are essential in climate-change adaptation for conservation: protect adequate and appropriate space, reduce nonclimate stresses, use adaptive management to implement and test climate-change adaptation strategies, and work to reduce the rate and extent of climate change to reduce overall risk. To illustrate how this approach applies in the real world, we explored case studies of coral reefs in the Florida Keys; mangrove forests in Fiji, Tanzania, and Cameroon; sea-level rise and sea turtles in the Caribbean; tigers in the Sundarbans of India; and national planning in Madagascar. Through implementation of these tenets conservation efforts in each of these regions can be made more robust in the face of climate change. Although these approaches require reconsidering some traditional approaches to conservation, this new paradigm is technologically, economically, and intellectually feasible.