Climate Change Adaptation Projects Research Articles

Development of an evaluation indicator for highway climate change adaptation projects based on analytical hierarchy process in South Korea

AbstractOwing to climate change, abnormal climate phenomena occur frequently, damaging aging highway facilities. Therefore, it is necessary to develop adaptation projects for highway systems. Adaptation projects focus on mitigating the impact of climate change on highway facilities and enabling safe use. The present study aims to develop quantified evaluation indicators that are necessary for planning and selecting appropriate climate change adaptation projects. By analysing previous studies, the most important factors to be considered in the evaluation process of climate change adaptation projects were defined, and 20 preliminary evaluation indicators were divided into three layers. A feasibility study for each class was performed on the preliminary evaluation indicators by an expert panel; 16 evaluation indicators were selected through a feasibility study, and the weight of each indicator was calculated using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. The priority of the evaluation indicators was service improvement through adaptation projects (weight 8.76), cost reduction and job creation (weight 8.46), and climate change impact reduction and vulnerability reduction (weight 8.31). These quantified evaluation indicators can help organizations that manage highways respond to climate change and establish adaptation projects.

Making Rivers, Producing Futures: The Rise of an Eco-Modern River Imaginary in Dutch Climate Change Adaptation

In the field of climate change adaptation, the future matters. River futures influence the way adaptation projects are implemented in rivers. In this paper, we challenge the ways in which dominant paradigms and expert claims monopolise the truth concerning policies and designs of river futures, thereby sidelining and delegitimising alternative river futures. So far, limited work has been performed on the power of river futures in the context of climate change adaptation. We conceptualised the power of river futures through river imaginaries, i.e., collectively performed and publicly envisioned reproductions of riverine socionatures mobilised through truth claims of social life and order. Using the Border Meuse project as a case study, a climate change adaptation project in a stretch of the river Meuse in the south of the Netherlands, and a proclaimed success story of climate adaptation in Dutch water management, we elucidated how three river imaginaries (a modern river imaginary, a market-driven imaginary, and an eco-centric river imaginary) merged into an eco-modern river imaginary. Importantly, not only did the river futures merge, but their aligned truth regimes also merged. Thus, we argue that George Orwell’s famous quote, “who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past” can be extended to “who controls the future, controls how we see and act in the present, and how we rediscover the past”.

EDUCATION IN THE FIELD OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Every year, the problem of globalisation of environmental challenges is becoming more and more noticeable, with climate change taking priority place among them. The lack of a sufficient number of climate-related disciplines in Ukrainian educational institutions limits the number of environmental experts who will be able to effectively implement climate change adaptation measures and implement the world's best practices in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through decarbonisation of energy, implementation of energy-saving equipment and transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. It has been determined that in recent decades the number of scientific publications focused on the development of educational processes in the context of climate change has increased rapidly. It has been found that the main directions of implementing climate education in educational institutions are to provide quality school education to rethink the priorities of an environmentally friendly lifestyle and to form highly qualified specialists at universities who will be able to implement climate change adaptation projects in various sectors of the economy after obtaining a quality and holistic education at universities.

Objectives of the ESG bonds issues

Motivation: In the face of a growing interest in social, environmental, and sustainable economic development in recent years, attention should be paid to debt instruments with an ESG label. Proceeds from the issue of these instruments are intended for purposes related to the financing of projects contributing to meeting the ESG criteria.Aim: The aim of the article is to analyse the objectives of the ESG bond issues. The study is an attempt to answer the question which industries issue ESG bonds, contributing to the fulfilment of ESG criteria, and for what purposes the funds from the issue are allocated.Results: Database collected from the Refinitiv Eikon for the period between 2012 and 2021 allows also to conclude that there is weak positive relationship between sectors and ESG bond issuance objectives. Whereas there is strong positive relationship between ESG bond issue objectives such as Clean Transport, Energy Efficiency, Eligible Green Projects, Green Construction Buildings and Alternative Energy. On the other hand, an inverse weak relationship has been observed between issue’s targets such as Climate Change Adaptation and Renewable Energy Project as well as Climate Change Adaptation and Alternative Energy.

Discount Rate Selection for Investments in Climate Change Adaptation and Flood Risk Reduction Projects

The selection of an appropriate discount rate is a critical yet often neglected aspect of valuing flood protection and climate adaptation projects. We examine current discounting practices in flood risk management and climate adaptation literature and compare these practices with a proposed fair market value (FMV) discounting approach, in which we discount project cash flows based on their levels of systematic market risk, consistent with practice in the private sector. Using publicly available data, we demonstrate minimal correlation between flood risk–related cash flows and overall market returns, suggesting flooding-related cash flows are most appropriately discounted near the risk-free rate. We consider the example of a proposed storm surge barrier in Boston Harbor and compare prevailing public-sector discounting approaches with this FMV approach. Our results suggest prevailing discounting approaches systematically undervalue flood risk reduction benefits and climate adaptation investments relative to the private-sector valuation implied via the FMV approach.

Design and implementation of a bioclimatic housing prototype for the Bolivian highlands

The Mechanical - Electromechanical Engineering research institute, made up of a multidisciplinary team, designs and implements a bioclimatic housing prototype for the Bolivian highlands, located near the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 meters above sea level. This project was developed and implemented with financing from the Swiss Cooperation for Bolivia, within the Climate Change Adaptation projects.
 The design process includes: the sociocultural study of the inhabitants of the region, where direct information is collected from the peasants on the conception of housing in their culture and ancestral construction characteristics of their houses. Subsequently, the climate of the region (temperatures, solar radiation, winds and relative humidity) is characterized with the help of a meteorological station, which provided historical records of 5 years. Those data were sufficient to be able to carry out a reliable characterization, with which the Typical Meteorological Year is determined.  Likewise, local construction materials that may be useful in the design are studied, analyzing their thermal and mechanical properties in the laboratory.
 Finally, with all the information described, an architectural design is carried out taking into account bioclimatic aspects, ways of harnessing solar energy, distribution of the room and a viable construction cost for the economic reality of the region. The developed architectural model is optimized in an energy simulation program (Siter Vs. 1.2), achieving energy savings of 65%. The software used is owned property of the research institute
 The house has been monitored with temperature sensors for about a year and six months, to date it shows good results, where the correct functioning of the elements and constructive forms is evidenced, reflecting a temperature inside the house of around 10 °C above room temperature 24 hours a day.

Discourses on gender in climate change adaptation projects of Bangladesh

Abstract The study examines why certain discourses on gender are more powerful than others in describing intentions for gender inclusion in development projects. A critical discourse analysis was carried out on texts of climate change adaptation projects implemented during 2009–2020 in rural Bangladesh. This article argues that gender is currently not considered enough in climate action and that gender discourses focus primarily on ‘women’s participation, more precisely, ‘women’s presence in poverty reduction and empowerment projects. The discourses reinscribe to the long-established economic priorities of development rather than exploring new dimensions to challenge social norms that define perpetual gender inequalities. This study suggests that greater attention is required to address the gender realities of non-binary categories, ethnic groups, non-poor social classes, and religious minorities to effectively plan and implement adaptation projects to support the diverse needs of vulnerable people.

Assessing the leapfrogging potential to water sensitive: the Dutch case of Zwolle

Abstract Urban floods can cause significant damage and are expected to become more common due to climate change. Previous research has identified that climate change adaptation in cities requires the development of blue-green infrastructure (BGI), and it is expected that cities can leapfrog to a water-sensitive state by implementing BGI. However, leapfrogging is context-dependent, and little is known about how governance factors affect leapfrogging, particularly in midsize cities. This paper addresses this knowledge gap, providing empirical insights into leapfrogging by assessing the governance factors that support or restrict BGI implementation in Zwolle (The Netherlands) towards reaching a water-sensitive state. For the analysis, we employ a governance assessment tool and three catalytic factors that promote leapfrogging. The results show that the governance context supports leapfrogging at a moderate to high level. This means that while the governmental levels and stakeholder networks collaborate to support climate change adaptation of the city, new legislation on BGI and citizens’ involvement in climate change adaptation projects could increase the leapfrog possibilities for Zwolle in achieving its goal of becoming climate-proof by 2050.

What happens after climate change adaptation projects end: A community-based approach to ex-post assessment of adaptation projects

Over the last decade, hundreds of climate change adaptation projects have been funded and implemented. Despite the importance of these first-generation adaptation projects for establishing funders and implementors’ “best practices,” very little is known about how early adaptation projects have endured, to what ends, and for whom. In this article, I propose a community-based methodology for ex-post assessment of climate change adaptation projects. This methodology contributes to recognitional justice by asking the individuals and collectives tasked with sustaining adaptation initiatives to define adaptation success and what criteria for success should be assessed. I apply this subjective assessment approach in 10 communities across Ecuador that participated in an internationally funded adaptation project that concluded in 2015. My analysis draws together participatory mapping, walking interviews with local leaders, participant observation, and surveys with former project participants. The results highlight that even adaptation projects that were deemed highly successful at their closure have uncertain futures. I find that the sustainability mechanisms that were envisioned by project implementors have not functioned, and communities are shouldering the burden of reviving failing adaptation interventions. These findings highlight that the current model of episodic funding for climate change adaptation projects and evaluation processes needs to be revisited to acknowledge the long-term challenges faced by communities. This analysis also calls attention to the importance of ex-post assessment for adaptation projects and the potential of subjective assessment approaches for building more ontological and epistemological pluralism in understandings of successful climate change adaptation.

Taxonomy and Ex Ante Metric of Climate Change Adaptation Projects Recorded in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as Updated for Conference of the Parties-26 (COP-26)

The authors have proposed a method of reiterating the statistical analysis of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the UNFCCC Parties, which were updated at Conference of the Parties-26. The present analysis confirms the taxonomy developed in 2020, based on 2475 adaptive solutions recorded in 2022 NDCs, and discusses the differences observed. An ex ante adaptation metric is proposed, which allows monitoring of adaptive solutions over time and comparisons between projects in time and space. The fitness coefficient evaluates the ex ante relevance of these adaptive projects in relation to the climate challenges of each country. The authors have proposed a program of continuous improvement instead of a definitive calculation. The authors have developed an algorithm to automate the text analysis and minimize the subjectivity of the analysis. The objective is to assign a level of vulnerability to each project for each hazard in the country. The correspondence analysis was used to derive the most representative dimensions of project category dispersion and vulnerability intensities from a contingency table for each hazard. This coefficient can be made available to experts, project developers, and funders for ex ante evaluation and selection of candidate projects for funding before more in-depth analyses are carried out.

Perceptions of co-design, co-development and co-delivery (Co-3D) as part of the co-production process – Insights for climate services

Co-design, co-development, and co-delivery (Co-3D for short) are activities within the co-production research pathway that are increasingly being used in climate change science and adaptation projects. However, the research community is still coming to understand how best to incorporate Co-3D in practice, as each project has a specific context around stakeholder relationships, governance arrangements, and capacity to actively participate. This paper outlines five case studies from Australia as examples of different projects engaging with Co-3D in different ways in order to explore how Co-3D is being used and might be improved. Crucially, we include the perceptions and experiences of researchers, funders and end users, as well as our own critical reflections. Each of the projects self-describes as using ‘co-production’, but the extent and format varies widely with different combinations of co-design, co-development and/or co-delivery used in each. Our findings show that without clear understanding of Co-3D within the co-production process, aspects of Co-3D may not be properly considered in planning or implementation. Co-3D activities are not completely distinct, rather they form a continuum of engagement and integration across phases of project work. Thus, the specific definitions and delineations between these terms may not be required for them to be applied. However, practical and explicit negotiation of what ‘co-production’ means in different project contexts is needed so that all parties understand their roles and responsibilities. Further, more evaluations of outcomes and stakeholder experiences are required. We provide seven principles of Co-3D that should be considered when embarking on co-production projects.

Resisting, leveraging, and reworking climate change adaptation projects from below: placing adaptation in Ecuador’s agrarian struggle

ABSTRACT As climate change escalates, donors, international organizations, and state actors are implementing adaptation projects. Embedded within these adaptation projects are imaginaries of rural resilience. These imaginaries, however, are contested by individuals and collectives targeted by such initiatives. In this article, we draw on Foucault’s notion of counter conducts to understand how beneficiaries in Ecuador resist, leverage, and/or rework adaptation interventions and towards what end. We identified five counter conducts: (1) negotiating for control, (2) setting the terms for participation, (3) opting out, (4) subverting the discursive frame, and (5) leveraging longevity. We argue that these counter conducts are generative, enacting multi-scalar counter-hegemonic politics of agrarian transformation.

Livelihood and climate vulnerability of coastal communities to natural disaster in south-western Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Bangladesh is one of the countries that is most likely to be affected by natural disasters and climate change. However, much less is known about the integrated livelihood and climate vulnerabilities of coastal communities to natural disasters in southwestern Bangladesh. Therefore, this paper proposes a holistic approach to measuring livelihood vulnerability in the southwestern coast of Bangladesh based on primary data from 300 respondents through face-to-face interviews, focus group discussion (FGD), and key informant interviews (KII), and secondary data on rainfall and temperature for the years 2010–2017. This study developed the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI), the climate vulnerability index (CVI), and the LVI-IPCC to estimate climate vulnerability by incorporating 36 indicators of 9 major components under three dimensions. The pragmatic results show that the three coastal unions have different LVI, CVI, and LVI-IPCC values. Still, the households of the Gabura union showed more vulnerability than the rest of the two, with the highest LVI, CVI, and LVI-IPCC values due to their inadequate access to fresh water, limited physical resources, fewest livelihood strategies, the least variety of crops, and worst health conditions. This logical approach may be applied in data-scarce regions to assess vulnerability and evaluate potential policy efficiency for baseline comparison. The study demonstrates that the requirement for focused interventions and context-specific sustainable policies and development approaches should be implemented to lessen the vulnerability of coastal dwellers. These findings have implications for developing and implementing household resilience and climate change adaptation projects by the government, donor organizations, and other pertinent groups in three susceptible unions.

A Blueprint for the Estimation of Seagrass Carbon Stock Using Remote Sensing-Enabled Proxies

Seagrass ecosystems sequester carbon at disproportionately high rates compared to terrestrial ecosystems and represent a powerful potential contributor to climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. However, at a local scale, rich heterogeneity in seagrass ecosystems may lead to variability in carbon sequestration. Differences in carbon sequestration rates, both within and between seagrass meadows, are related to a wide range of interrelated biophysical and environmental variables that are difficult to measure holistically using traditional field surveys. Improved methods for producing robust, spatially explicit estimates of seagrass carbon storage across large areas would be highly valuable, but must capture complex biophysical heterogeneity and variability to be accurate and useful. Here, we review the current and emerging literature on biophysical processes which shape carbon storage in seagrass beds, alongside studies that map seagrass characteristics using satellite remote sensing data, to create a blueprint for the development of remote sensing-enabled proxies for seagrass carbon stock and sequestration. Applications of satellite remote sensing included measuring seagrass meadow extent, estimating above-ground biomass, mapping species composition, quantifying patchiness and patch connectivity, determining broader landscape environmental contexts, and characterising seagrass life cycles. All of these characteristics may contribute to variability in seagrass carbon storage. As such, remote sensing methods are uniquely placed to enable proxy-based estimates of seagrass carbon stock by capturing their biophysical characteristics, in addition to the spatiotemporal heterogeneity and variability of these characteristics. Though the outlined approach is complex, it is suitable for accurately and efficiently producing a full picture of seagrass carbon stock. This review has drawn links between the processes of seagrass carbon sequestration and the capabilities of remote sensing to detect and characterise these processes. These links will facilitate the development of remote sensing-enabled proxies and support spatially explicit estimates of carbon stock, ensuring climate change mitigation and adaptation projects involving seagrass are accounted for with increased accuracy and reliability.

Enabling Knowledge through Structured Disaster Damage & Loss Data Management System

Effective and efficient management of post-disaster damage and loss data is a key component of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation policies to fulfil the requirements of the Sendai Framework, Sustainable Development Goals, and more recently, the European Climate Law. However, the reality of organized and structured damage and loss data collection is still in its infancy. In the era of rapid technological improvements, with overwhelming volumes and channels of data, we still record a lack of basic figures of disaster losses at the scale, granularity and level of detail needed for most applications. First, a theoretical overview of data science applied to disaster risk management and the description of collection procedures and use of damage data for buildings in the case of earthquakes for Italy and Greece are provided. Second, the Information System (IS) which is intended to enhance damage and loss data collection and management proposed by the LODE (Loss Data Enhancement for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation) project is illustrated. The IS is described in detail, starting from the stakeholder consultation to elicit the requirements, to the system’s architecture, design and implementation. The IS provides a comprehensive tool to input and query multisectoral post-disaster damage and loss data at relevant spatial and temporal scales. The part of the IS devoted to building damage is described in depth showing how obstacles and difficulties highlighted in the collection and use of data in the Greek and the Italian case have been approached and solved. Finally, further developments of the IS and its background philosophy are discussed, including the need for institutionalized damage data collection, engineering of the developed software and re-engineering of current damage and loss data practices.

Climate change adaptation, gender, and mainstreaming: the role of gender in Fiji's relocation initiative

ABSTRACT Climate change has elucidated already existing gender inequalities associated with unequal access to resources, decision-making processes, and higher exposure to environmental shocks and stressors. Growing acknowledgment of the gender-differentiated implications of climate change in recent years has placed gender equality as a focal point in international discourses on climate change adaptation. The policy perspective of gender equality is universalized, but how it transcribes in local climate change adaptation projects remains elusive. Using the relocation of Vunidogoloa, Fiji, this article explores the tension and compatibility between the way gender equality is discussed and how it is implemented in climate change adaptation projects.

Preservation or Diversification? Ideas and Practices Connected with Sustainability in Vanuatu

The aim of this article is to explore anthropology’s potential to contribute to reflections on the definition of sustainability. It draws on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in the South Pacific island state of Vanuatu, using as its main methods semi-structured interviews, participant observation and freelisting. This article presents decisions and acts of the inhabitants of the rural village of Siviri regarding both the cultivation of food crops and fishing. It relates findings to a recent anthropological working definition of ‘sustainability’ that emphasises facilitating the necessary conditions for change by building and supporting diversity to address the unpredictability of the future. This definition is opposed to other current definitions that stress the preservation of existing norms. The research results presented here show that, with their decidedly future-oriented ideas and practices, the villagers of Siviri engaged with climate change adaptation projects and workshops regarding conservation and subsequently created new cultivation methods and established a marine conservation area. Additionally, they reduced their engagement in cultivation and diversified their livelihood practices. Referring to theoretical approaches connected with the ‘ontological turn’ in anthropology, it is argued that asking ontological questions reveals fundamental differences between the inhabitants of the village of Siviri and international and national governments and organisations in terms of their conceptualisations connected with sustainability. The article concludes that anthropology can make important contributions to discussions about sustainability that have the potential to improve the dialogue between different stakeholders by showing the alterity of conceptualisations. This may lead to new, localised and contextualised definitions of sustainability.

Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Interventions and Indicators in Nepal: Implications for Sustainable Adaptation

We reviewed 76 climate change adaptation projects that were operational between 2010 and 2020. The review was followed by office and field visits for verification. The office visit helped crosscheck the findings, and the field observations carried out between December 2020 and April 2021 asked 24 key informants and collected supplementary information appraisal and indicator development. Of the CCA projects studied, the most (n = 48, 32%) were community-based initiatives, while the least (n = 12, 8%) were ecosystem-based interventions. The main environment-centered projects were Ecosystem-based Adaptations and Ecosystems Protecting Infrastructure and Communities (EPIC) while Enhanced Action of Inclusive CSOs for Participation in Climate Resilient Economic Growth (UTHAN), Initiative for CCA (ICCA), Support to Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalayas (HIMALICA), etc., adaptation projects were community-based. Capacity building and awareness-raising were the major thrust of the CbA projects, while the abatement of climate vulnerabilities and risks through nature-based solutions were priorities of EbA. Payment for Ecosystem services is a nature-based solution that can play a role in enhancing adaptation to climate change at a local scale by adopting community-based and culturally appropriate methods and enhancing and incentivizing adaptation measures and capacities. A set of 11 criteria and 40 indicators comprised the institutional and behavioral responses and the use of technologies, and the design of climate-resilient plans and climate-smart practices were proposed as appraisal measures to evaluate the success of CCA interventions. The importance of criteria and indicators lies in the fact that such a comprehensive assessment would lead to effective and efficient adaptation projects, which could help benefit beyond the borders. It also furthers ongoing adaptation interventions and is set to be an integral part of associated studies and monitoring and review of new adaptation interventions.

Strengthening Gender Responsiveness of the Green Climate Fund Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Programme in Namibia

Scholars of gender and climate change argue that gender-blind climate change actions could exacerbate existing inequalities and undermine sustained climate change adaptation actions. For this reason, since 2017, the Green Climate Fund placed gender among its key programming prerequisites, making it the first multilateral climate fund to do so worldwide. However, to date, no lessons to inform planned gender-responsive ecosystem-based interventions in Namibia have been drawn from community-based natural resource management. Thus, this paper aims to share key lessons regarding the way in which gender assessment is useful in enhancing equity in an ecosystem-based adaptation programme for the Green Climate Fund. To this end, we conducted in-depth interviews and group discussions in the 14 rural regions of Namibia with 151 participants from 107 community-based natural resource management organisations (73.5:26.5; male:female ratio). The results identified gender imbalances in leadership and decision-making due to intersecting historic inequalities, ethnicity and geography, as well as other socio-cultural factors in local community-based natural resource management institutions. We also identified income disparities and unequal opportunities to diversify livelihoods, gendered differentiated impacts of climate change and meaningful participation in public forums. Overall, the assessment indicates that considering gender analysis at the initiation of a community-based climate change adaptation project is crucial for achieving resilience to climate change, closing the gender gap, building capacity to increase equity and empowering women in resource-dependent environments in Namibia and Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.

Aligning integrated ecosystem assessment with adaptation planning in support of ecosystem-based management

Abstract Supporting resilience is a common goal of natural resource management, but managing under changing conditions that requires adaptation is a modern challenge. A state-of-the-art framework for implementing an integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA), the NOAA IEA approach, is used as an example to demonstrate whether and how assessment in ecosystem-based management (EBM), as often implemented in fisheries, can be expected to facilitate planned adaptation. Using comparisons with another assessment framework developed for implementing a climate change adaptation project, the United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility Adaptation Policy Framework (UNDP-GEF APF), this paper expands and operationalizes the concepts of managing for resilience versus change in EBM as presented by West et al.(2009). It first introduces a variety of terms from climate change adaptation literature to help institutionalize “planned adaptation” as a useful concept within fisheries, then presents an expanded map of adaptive management processes in EBM. Finally, it proposes steps for enhancing processes supporting planned adaptation in individual applications of EBM in fisheries. Steps include (i) recognizing interest and funding for adaptation planning as prerequisites, (ii) evaluating what information or actors are lacking to implement better planning, and (iii) determining what institutional processes within an adaptive management cycle need augmentation.