Climate Proof Research Articles

Modelling the Banni social-ecological system using participatory system dynamics for building insights on invasive species management and stakeholder engagement

Invasive species are a significant driver of environmental change in social-ecological systems (SES) globally. Given that SES are inherently complex adaptive systems (CAS), they continuously reorganize themselves and adapt to change, including changes in ecological composition, as well as in associated lives and livelihoods. Decision-making on invasive species management in such systems can be contested and fraught with tradeoffs. The Banni Grasslands in Kutch, India, is one such system where the introduction of Prosopisjuliflora (P.juliflora), an invasive woody species, has over decades resulted in deeply coupled social-ecological change. Removal of P.juliflora for land restoration is as of date a contested policy choice. Through a participatory transdisciplinary process comprising workshops and consultations with the local community (Maldharis), civil society and researchers involved in long term research on Banni, a system dynamics simulation model was developed which synthesizes the SES dynamics as a set of feedback loops. The model was used to simulate ‘what-if’ scenarios of interest up to 2050, to study consequences of restoration and the impact of climate extremes, to generate insights which could be useful in aiding decision making. The runs show how vis-à-vis a Business-As-Usual Scenario, restoration could help Maldharis increase livestock populations and livestock income, although there would still be a limit to the growth, with livestock reaching a higher normal. The runs show how it would also mean a loss in the P.juliflora-dependent charcoal-based income and livelihoods, and the extent of the loss, raising the question of finding alternative livelihoods. In a climate extremes scenario, the system, being more resource-intensive owing to growing livestock population, and loss of the relatively climate proof P.julilfora-based income, counterintuitively shows higher sensitivity to climate change impacts resulting in more pronounced impact on income variation. In order to engage stakeholders via ‘live’ simulation and scenario building, a user-friendly app encoding the simulation model was developed and used to carry out a participatory scenario planning exercise with the community to allow for live appraisal of the scenarios and their implications for decision-making. The paper summarizes insights from the simulation runs and from taking the app back to the community.

Risk assessment of national railway infrastructure due to sea-level rise: an application of a methodological framework in Italian coastal railways

Nowadays, within the built environment, railway infrastructures play a key role to sustain national policies oriented toward promoting sustainable mobility. For this reason, national institutions and infrastructure managers need to increase their awareness in relation to the current and future climate risks on their representative systems. Among climate change impacts, preventing the effects of sea-level rise (SLR) on coastal railway infrastructures is a priority. The first step in the climate change adaptation policy cycle is the development of an ad hoc climate risk assessment. In this view, this research develops a vulnerability and a risk assessment metric to identify the hotspots within a national coastal railway due to the SLR impacts. The proposed methodology required different steps to quantify the SLR projections and the vulnerability characteristics of the assets, in terms of sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The investigated case study is the coastal railway infrastructure in Italy, thanks to an initial approach of co-design participative processes with the national Infrastructure Manager: Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI). The results of this application, although not included in the paper due to confidential reasons imposed by the infrastructure manager — led to a clear identification of the areas and the coastal railway sections which are exposed to high levels of risks and of the places which require priority actions for urgent adaptation in a view of climate proof infrastructures.

Climate change and seaports: hazards, impacts and policies and legislation for adaptation

Seaports are critical for global trade and development but are at risk of climate change-driven damages, operational disruptions and delays with extensive related economic losses. The aim of the present contribution is to (a) provide an overview of the main impacts of climate variability and change (CV&C) on ports; (b) present recent research on trends and projections involving the main climatic factors/hazards affecting global ports; (c) provide an analytical overview of emerging international and regional policies and legislation relevant to port risk assessment and resilience-building under climate change; and (d) consider issues and areas for further action. As shown by projections under different climatic scenarios and timelines, many global ports will increasingly be exposed to significantly growing hazards under increasing CV&C, including extreme sea levels (ESLs), waves, and extreme heat events. Depending on scenario (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) by 2050, 55% to 59% of the 3630 global ports considered could face ESLs in excess of 2 m above the baseline mean sea levels (mean of the 1980–2014 period); by 2100, between 71% and 83% of ports could face ESLs of this magnitude. Ports in most tropical/sub-tropical settings will face the baseline (mean of the 1976 – 2005 period) 1-in-100 year extreme heat every 1 – 5 years, whereas with 3 oC global warming, most global ports (except some in higher latitudes) could experience the baseline 1-in-100 years extreme heat event every 1 – 2 years. A range of policy and legal instruments to support climate change adaptation, resilience-building and disaster risk reduction have been agreed internationally as well as at regional levels. At the EU level, relevant legal obligations and related normative technical guidance aimed at ensuring the climate proofing of new infrastructure are already in place as a matter of supra-national law for 27 EU Member States. These could significantly enhance levels of climate-resilience and preparedness for ports within the EU, as well as for EU funded port projects in other countries, and may serve as useful examples of good practices for other countries. However, further action is needed to advance and accelerate the implementation of effective adaptation measures for ports across regions.

Climate proofing of the urban environment between process and design: a holistic and participatory methodology

Defining procedural processes to support the involvement and empowerment of citizens, the main target of climate change, in order to integrate them into the holistic process of adaptation to extreme events is nowadays an extremely topical issue. Research is working towards the progressive standardisation of this process. The paper focuses on the outcomes of research on integrating the participatory approach into a methodology for climate proofing of the urban environment. The research results are include directions for increasing resilience through a cyclic step-by-step process for planning, prevention and management of the effects of disasters, centred on the involvement of different stakeholders, as well as the outcomes of the experimentation of such a process on three public housing (ERP) neighbourhoods in Rome.

Replicable Model for Climate Proofing and Reducing Vulnerabilities due to Climate Change in different Agro Climatic Zones of Maharashtra

Replicable Model for Climate Proofing and Reducing Vulnerabilities due to Climate Change in different Agro Climatic Zones of Maharashtra

Tropicalizing the Portable Radio: Electronics and the U.S. Military's Battle against Fungi in the Pacific War.

As the U.S. military became embroiled in "jungle warfare" across the Pacific during World War II, it was caught off guard by the rapid deterioration of materials and equipment in the tropics, where the air was hot, humid, and teeming with fungal spores. This article tells the story of how American scientists and engineers understood the "tropical deterioration" of portable radios and electronics and developed techniques to counteract it. Examining scientific efforts to prevent tropical decay reveals how exposure to tropical conditions during World War II shaped the development of portable electronics. Contributing to envirotech history and environmental media studies, this article uncovers the importance of climate proofing to the history of electronics miniaturization. Tropical deterioration, furthermore, provides a technology-focused lens for enriching our historical understanding of the tropics as an environmental imaginary.

Climate Proofing Cities by Navigating Nature-Based Solutions in a Multi-Scale, Social–Ecological Urban Planning Context: A Case Study of Flood Protection in the City of Gothenburg, Sweden

Due to unsustainable land management and climate change, floods have become more frequent and severe over the past few decades and the problem is exacerbated in urban environments. In the context of climate-proofing cities, the importance of nature-based solutions (NBSs), obtaining relevant outcomes in the form of ecosystem services, has been highlighted. Although the role of ecosystem services in building resilience against negative climate change effects is widely recognized and there is an identified need to better integrate ecosystem services into urban planning and design, this has proven difficult to operationalize. A critical limitation is that modeling is a time-consuming and costly exercise. The purpose is to roughly estimate the ecosystem service of water run-off mitigation through simplified, cost-effective, and user-friendly modelling at three nested biophysical scales, under four climate change scenarios. Using the Swedish city of Gothenburg as an example, we propose an approach for navigating NBS-oriented flooding adaptation strategies, by quantifying the ecosystem service of water run-off mitigation at three nested biophysical scales, under four climate change scenarios, hence, proposing an approach for how to navigate nature-based solutions in a multi-scale, social–ecological urban planning context against present and future flooding events. Our findings validate the effectiveness of employing an ecosystem service approach to better comprehend the significant climate change issue of flooding through user-friendly and cost-efficient modeling.

Spatial risk assessment for climate proofing of economic activities: The case of Belluno Province (North-East Italy)

Recent advancements in spatial risk assessment methodologies, particularly those incorporating GIS and economic evaluations, have significantly enhanced our ability to assess and manage risks associated with natural disasters. Entrepreneurs, investors, and public administrations need information about climate change risks for effective planning and decision making. To move from generic global or national projections about climate change scenarios, towards more actionable information on climate risks for socioeconomic agents, the three dimensions of risk (Hazard, Exposure and Vulnerability) must be quantified and mapped with the involvement of stakeholders. In this study, spatial indicators, tailored to the social and ecological systems of interest and co-designed with the key stakeholders are aggregated into sectoral risk indexes quantified in economic terms. Climate risk indexes were calculated and mapped for the four key economic sectors of the study area of the Belluno Province (Italian Alps): summer tourism, winter sports and events, eyewear industry, and electricity supply. Stakeholders were involved during the assessment to share knowledge, data and needs and to provide expert judgments on intermediate and final results. Outputs include a series of maps and statistical summaries, highlighting future trends of climate related risks, their spatial variability within the area and the estimated levels of uncertainty. Estimates on expected changes of future damages with constant Exposure and Vulnerability, provided socioeconomic agents with simple and clear messages about how their activities could suffer or benefit from climate change in the future.

Limited effects of crop foliar Si fertilization on a marginal soil under a future climate scenario

Growing crops on marginal lands is a promising solution to alleviate the increasing pressure on agricultural land in Europe. Such crops will however be at the same time exposed to increased drought and pathogen prevalence, on already challenging soil conditions. Some sustainable practices, such as Silicon (Si) foliar fertilization, have been proposed to alleviate these two stress factors, but have not been tested under controlled, future climate conditions. We hypothesized that Si foliar fertilization would be beneficial for crops under future climate, and would have cascading beneficial effects on ecosystem processes, as many of them are directly dependent on plant health. We tested this hypothesis by exposing spring barley growing on marginal soil macrocosms (three with, three without Si treatment) to 2070 climate projections in an ecotron facility. Using the high-capacity monitoring of the ecotron, we estimated C, water, and N budgets of every macrocosm. Additionally, we measured crop yield, the biomass of each plant organ, and characterized bacterial communities using metabarcoding. Despite being exposed to water stress conditions, plants did not produce more biomass with the foliar Si fertilization, whatever the organ considered. Evapotranspiration (ET) was unaffected, as well as water quality and bacterial communities. However, in the 10-day period following two of the three Si applications, we measured a significant increase in C sequestration, when climate conditions where significantly drier, while ET remained the same. We interpreted these results as a less significant effect of Si treatment than expected as compared with literature, which could be explained by the high CO2 levels under future climate, that reduces need for stomata opening, and therefore sensitivity to drought. We conclude that making marginal soils climate proof using foliar Si treatments may not be a sufficient strategy, at least in this type of nutrient-poor, dry, sandy soil.

The Coast-RiskBySea model for climate proof decision-making support

Climate scenarios require the implementation of climate proof actions. The effectiveness of such projects directly depends on the knowledge of local contexts and on the built environment’s characteristics in relation to climate risk conditions. Innovative methods of knowledge can be implemented through the use of enabling technologies. Based on these considerations, the paper proposes the Coast-RiskBySea model as support for climate proof decision-making in relation to coastal flood risk, with the aim of developing new synergies between environmental design and enabling technologies. The proposed model was tested on an application case in the city of Naples by simulating a climate proof measure to assess the effectiveness of this solution in terms of damage reduction, and to define the potential and criticality of the approach.

Climate change and vulnerabilities of children in rural Zimbabwe: The case of ward 14 of Bikita District, Zimbabwe

The paper interrogates the impact of climate change towards the vulnerabilities of children in rural Zimbabwe. The paper utilised qualitative case study research design so as to generate the empirical evidence for this paper and the Ubuntu or Hunhu philosophy was used as a theory for analysing and, interpreting the lives of these vulnerable children. Research findings suggest that the impact of climate change has been unprecedented on the lives of children in rural Zimbabwe. Some of the impact included; hunger and food insecurity, decrease in school attendance, early or forced marriages, sexual exploitation, gold panning, child labour and abuse, child prostitution, drug use and abuse, the spread of climate change related diseases among others. The paper concludes by lobbying and advocating the Government of Zimbabwe and other key stakeholders to invest more resources on climate proof and adaptation strategies particularly in rural areas.
 How to reference using ASWNet style:
 Chikoko W. and Chihiya P. (2023). Climate change and vulnerabilities of children in rural Zimbabwe: The case of ward 14 of Bikita District, Zimbabwe. African Journal of Social Work, 13(2), 78-86. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ajsw.v13i2.4
 Visit journal website: https://ajsw.africasocialwork.net

Building Energy Simulations Based on Weather Forecast Meteorological Model: The Case of an Institutional Building in Greece

The vision of decarbonization creates the need to design and construct even more energy-efficient buildings. This current target is even more compelling and challenging. The main issue when designing energy-efficient buildings is to identify present and future building energy requirements. A trending method for solving this problem is dynamic building energy simulation. One of the main inputs during energy simulation is weather data. However, the real problem lies in the fact that standard weather data are good at defining the present situation, and they help in designing buildings that behave efficiently under current climate conditions. To achieve the goal of constructing climate proof buildings, the Weather Research and Forecast meteorological model (WRF) was used to predict future climate scenarios. At first, data from previous years (2006–2010) were used to represent the current climate. The model was used to generate future climate data. Thus, results were produced for 5 year periods 2046–2050 and 2096–2100. These data were used for the energy simulation of an office building in Thessaloniki, Greece. The simulation results showed a reduction in heating loads by approximately 20% in the long term and a simultaneous impressive increase in cooling loads by 60%, highlighting the inadequacy of the existing building shell, as well as the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system design.

Blue-Green Infrastructure: An Opportunity for New Natural Heritage in Zwolle


 
 
 Living with water is an essential part of the cultural heritage of the city of Zwolle, NL. The historic development of the city within its water systems has been recognized as an inspiration for climate adaptation. In July 2019, the city of Zwolle presented its Adaptation Strategy. Building on its water heritage, a cohesive blue-green network (city scale) in the city can develop and expand, with room for urban sponges (neighborhood scale) that will combat heat stress. This will create a new natural heritage that is recognized and supported by the community. In this plan, various components are interconnected and will strengthen the blue-green network as the physical basis of an adaptation strategy to make Zwolle and its surroundings climate proof and adaptive. Zwolle’s blue-green transformation aims at achieving SDG 11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities” and has the potential to fulfill targets regarding climate action (SDG13), the protection of water quality (SDG 6) and the restoration of biodiversity (SDG 14 and 15).
 
 

Towards ‘Climate Proof’ Infrastructure Projects

We construct our Infrastructure Projects (IP) with certain design life, during which we expect that they will be effective; however, in certain cases they are inadequate and fail. Since this failure can be partly attributed to the impacts of Climate Change (CC), we are urged to develop ‘climate proof’ IP. In this work, we pose the following research question “what IP do we need that can be ‘climate proof’?”. To answer this question, we performed a literature survey and firstly identify the main CC impacts of our IP that we present with a flow chart. Secondly, we describe critically with examples that our ‘climate proof’ IP need to be resilient, green, smart, innovative, and with low carbon footprint. Thirdly, we discuss the important role of social equity in the prioritization of our ‘climate proof’ IP, the significance of private funding, mainly via public-private partnerships, and the necessity of well informed and properly educated engineers and other scientists, who are expected to materialize our ‘climate proof’ IP.

The importance of vocational training in horticulture

Horticulture is one the fastest growing sub-sectors in Kenya and contributes significantly to the agriculture sector, mainly through export but increasingly supplying the domestic market. The Enhancing Partnerships for Industry-led Vocational Training and education for water smart & climate proof horticulture (ePivot) project aims to improve professional education and vocational training at of Polytechnics and Technical and Vocational Colleges (TVCs) in the horticulture value chains through strong collaboration with the private sector.
 
 The horticulture sector is expected to contribute towards the envisioned poverty reduction, and overall food security, as such contributing to SDG 2 while the need for water and climate smart technologies is high. The sector is generally a labour-intensive industry with high demand of skilled workers, trained supervisors and professional managers. Over six million Kenyans are directly and indirectly employed in horticulture, women constitute 75% of the labour force in the horticulture industry. The increase in horticulture is fuelled by rapid population growth and urbanization, an increasing middle class that is health conscious and consumes more fruits and vegetables but demands the produce to be of good quality and safe to consume. Horticulture offers opportunities for economic growth and employment both in production but increasingly so in value addition. This calls for a specified and educated pool of labour is high.
 
 The current TVCs and associated education institutions have a very general focus and there is lack of specialized workforce in horticulture. The ePivot project aims to close those gaps, strengthening the capacity of the TVCs through a strong collaboration between the education institutes and the private sector, strengthening linkages among the various actors to enable practical learning and innovation in the horticulture sector and making it water and climate smart. The consortium consisting out of 6 TVCs working together with Meru University of Science and Technology and supported by industry partners as well as 4 universities in the Netherlands, focuses on making the horticulture curriculum more competence based. Initial results are encouraging, both tutors and students are appreciating the practical approach to skills development.

The benefits of nature-based systems in a changing and uncertain world

Multifunctional nature-based solutions (NBS) can help urban areas become more climate proof and adaptable and provide a range of societal goals. Alongside chronic impacts from climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated the disruption that unexpected and acute shocks can bring to society. Measures such as NBS can help reduce the vulnerability of urban areas and increase resilience. Traditional infrastructure planning relies on strong business cases to demonstrate the economic value of a scheme. Numerous approaches assign economic value to the benefits from using NBS. However, this value is more than what can be accounted for by traditional finance methods, as there are many different perspectives on ‘value’. Decision making processes for selection of NBS measures require stronger integration of these value perspectives. This paper considers these perspectives in the business models that are being used in the decision processes regarding use and selection of NBS. Examples are drawn from case studies in the EU Begin project and also from the Living with Water partnership in the UK, which illustrate how value perspectives can be included in business cases for NBS, also signposting the need to account for potential future changes using scenario planning.

A Planning Framework for Urban Resilience toward Climate Adaptation and Mitigation: Potentials and Limits of “Eco-Districts”

In order to contribute to the debate on climate-proof urban regeneration, the study illustrated in this paper pays attention to the references for eco-districts as possible integrated frameworks that include urbanism and ecology toward urban resilience linked to environmental, social and governance “commitments”. To this end, the research activity has given answer to a need for a contextualization of the urban phenomena and the state of the art on sustainable development and climate proof urban resilience, pointing out the French context as an emblematic scope of study through a literature review of European best practices of eco-district. In consistency with this research framework, the study has developed a case study analysis, focusing on the description and evaluation of four best practices of French EcoQuartiers. The methodology adopted has selected with an inductive method the mitigation and adaptation strategies developed in the implementation of the French emblematic eco-quartiers, combining the official sources of the projects with on-site visits and surveys in order to define an experimental proposal of a grid of methodological-operational references relating to eco-districts. Furthermore, the discussion points out the potentials and limits of the proposed framework, related on the one hand to the quality, innovation, integration, and dissemination of the design solutions, and on the other hand to the economic and social costs of the EcoQuartiers that find a synthesis in the concept of “greentrification”. Finally, the conclusion highlights the interest of the contribution of the French context in climate proof planning and points out research interest in the other national contexts toward a European framework for eco-districts.

Cooling the City? A Scientometric Study on Urban Green and Blue Infrastructure and Climate Change-Induced Public Health Effects

Climate change causes global effects on multiple levels. The anthropogenic input of greenhouse gases increases the atmospheric mean temperature. It furthermore leads to a higher probability of extreme weather events (e.g., heat waves, floods) and thus strongly impacts the habitats of humans, animals, and plants. Against this background, research and innovation activities are increasingly focusing on potential health-related aspects and feasible adaptation and mitigation strategies. Progressing urbanization and demographic change paired with the climate change-induced heat island effect exposes humans living in urban habitats to increasing health risks. By employing scientometric methods, this scoping study provides a systematic bird’s eye view on the epistemic landscapes of climate change, its health-related effects, and possible technological and nature-based interventions and strategies in order to make urban areas climate proof. Based on a literature corpus consisting of 2614 research articles collected in SCOPUS, we applied network-based analysis and visualization techniques to map the different scientific communities, discourses and their interrelations. From a public health perspective, the results demonstrate the range of either direct or indirect health effects of climate change. Furthermore, the results indicate that a public health-related scientific discourse is converging with an urban planning and building science driven discourse oriented towards urban blue and green infrastructure. We conclude that this development might mirror the socio-political demand to tackle emerging climate change-induced challenges by transgressing disciplinary boundaries.

Stuck in experimentation: exploring practical experiences and challenges of using floating housing to climate-proof waterfront urban development in Sweden

With climate change already underway, cities are looking for ways to deal with its effects. To balance urban waterfront development and climate adaptation, floating housing is presented as a promising solution—however it has not been studied sufficiently. This paper explores floating housing as urban climate experimentation, targeting vision/motivation, practice and upscaling in a national context where support mechanisms and traditions are absent. Interviews with innovation entrepreneurs and municipal planners involved with planning and building floating districts show that, with one exception, the Swedish initiatives are at odds with the theoretical assumptions behind urban climate experimentation. Initiatives are neither challenge-led in terms of climate risk nor inclusive and community-based. Rather, the small-scale private entrepreneurs are pioneers in offering unique living on water as one-off innovations. While allowing experimentation, municipal planners are less convinced by the effectiveness and appropriateness of upscaling. Floating housing may contribute to local identity building and place marketing, but are riddled with implementation challenges regarding shoreline protection, privatization/accessibility, limited market interest and urban development fit. While the floating houses themselves withstand flooding, thus safeguarding individual house owners, they do not protect the land-based city with its vulnerable waterfront development patterns. Results thus suggest the limitation of floating houses in shifting development pathways and strengthening urban climate proofing.

Exercising No Harm Rule: Claims for Damage and Loss Due Climate Change Effects

The act of utilising all the resources owned by a state, including natural resources, is the right of every state. However, its use is prohibited if it causes harm to other states. This is then referred to as the principle of no harm rule in international law. Therefore, each state is responsible not for causing damage to other States' environments or areas outside the limits of its jurisdiction. This article will analyse the development of the no harm rules and its application model for claiming state responsibility. As normative research, it used secondary data as the main data, and the primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials were analysed qualitatively. In discussion, this principle has long existed as customary international law to mitigate transboundary pollution. In the case of the environment in general, many studies have applied this principle. However, due to the uniqueness of the climate change issue, evidence and proof of the impacts caused cannot be used as the basis for a lawsuit like ordinary environmental cases. Based on the discussion and simulation conducted, it is concluded that the no harm rules principle can be applied to climate change issues. However, this principle is not satisfactory and has limitations in its application.