Sustainable Climate Change Adaptation Research Articles

The Traditional Knowledge Associated to Biodiversity in an Age of Climate Change

Climate change has largely influenced the biodiversity in the world, as the biodiversity hotspots areas are often also rich in cultural diversity, the local peoples have rich traditional knowledge associated to biodiversity, and these knowledge also provide alternative information about climate variability and climate change based on the experience and practices of biodiversity resource use. This review work examines the researches about traditional knowledge associated to biodiversity in monitoring and adapting to changing climatic conditions in different parts of the globe. We reviewed different reports from both International and Regional Organizations whereby we based our findings from the traditional knowledge and climate change, the traditional knowledge’s perception and lastly traditional knowledge’s adaption to climate change. In our findings we realized that traditional knowledge associated to biodiversity is not only effective toolbox, but also a process to adopt to the climate change at local level. Lastly this review also demonstrates how local people use their traditional knowledge about the climate to guide their biodiversity resource and its management. The disasters arising from negative impacts of climate change has brought many risks and threats to the indigenous peoples. This paper highlights the importance of integrating the scientific models in conjunction with traditional knowledge system of indigenous peoples. Integrating this traditional knowledge can add a significance value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are rich in local content. It was observed that the traditional knowledge and coping strategies can no longer be fully adapted to the intensity and frequency of the present climate change due to unlimited resources and also lack the enough support from both local and international communities’ responsible for the climate policies.

Using Government Resettlement Projects as a Sustainable Adaptation Strategy for Climate Change

Given that increasing migration has been addressed as a major consequence of climate change, a growing number of scholars suggest that the planned relocation of people or Government Resettlement Projects (GRPs) should be included in climate change adaptation. This paper reviews the status of climate change and environmentally induced migration in China, and then presents an empirical case study in Shangnan County in northwest China, where a specific GRP called the ‘Massive Southern Shaanxi Migration Program’ (MSSMP) has been initiated in response to climate change-related impacts. The results showed that the MSSMP helped local residents to adapt better climate change by reducing exposures to risk, enabling mobility, providing financial incentives, raising living standards, and improving emotional status. Furthermore, the MSSMP added additional benefits for migrants compared with traditional GRPs by respecting voluntary participation, preparing for future risks, and reducing social isolation via a short relocation distance. However, GRPs could also be seen as a maladaptation to climate change because they disproportionately increase the burden on the most vulnerable community members, such as those who are financially disadvantaged, new migrants, and people who are left behind. The paper further suggests that the GRPs should be designed by involving multiple adaptation strategies as supplements for GRPs, and broadening the political schemes to consider the special needs of vulnerable groups. This study contributes to an understanding of the roles of GRPs in sustainable climate change adaptation, thereby facilitating the design, organization, and implication of future similar programs.

Social Protection or Humanitarian Assistance: Contested Input Subsidies and Climate Adaptation in Malawi

The purpose of this article is to assess factors that contributed to the apparent success of the Farm Input Support Programme (FISP) in the period 2005–15, and discuss the lessons that can be learned from this experience in relation to climate change adaptation. Important factors were the ability to balance external and internal drivers that affected policy formulation, national ownership and prestige that influenced and motivated implementation capability, creation of conducive conditions for agricultural development and the demand-driven nature of the programme. However, the flooding in 2015 and the drought in 2016 revealed that Malawi is in dire need of more effective measures that can reduce long-term vulnerability and build resilience to future adverse impacts of climate change. Still, lessons learned from the social protection programme can prove useful in relation to multiple efforts towards achieving sustainable climate change adaptation that could reduce the need for future humanitarian assistance.

Sustainable Climate Change Adaptation in Indian Country

Abstract Much of the academic literature and policy discussions about sustainable development and climate change adaptation focus on poor and developing nations, yet many tribal communities inside the United States include marginalized peoples and developing nations who face structural barriers to effectively adapt to climate change. There is a need to critically examine diverse climate change risks for indigenous peoples in the United States and the many structural barriers that limit their ability to adapt to climate change. This paper uses a sustainable climate adaptation framework to outline the context and the relationships of power and authority, along with different ways of knowing and meaning, to illustrate the underpinnings of some tribes’ barriers to sustainable climate adaptation. The background of those structural barriers for tribes is traced, and then the case of water rights and management at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming is used to illustrate the interplay of policy, culture, climate, justice, and limits to adaptation. Included is a discussion about how the rulings of the Big Horn general stream adjudication have hindered tribal climate change adaptation by limiting the quantity of tribal reserved water rights, tying those rights to the sole purposes of agriculture, which undermines social and cultural connections to the land and water, and failing to recognizing tribal rights to groundwater. Future climate projections suggest increasing temperatures, and changes in the amount and timing of snowpack, along with receding glaciers, all of which impact water availability downstream. Therefore, building capacity to take control of land and water resources and preparing for climate change and drought at Wind River Reservation is of critical importance.

Improving Hydro-Climatic Projections with Bias-Correction in Sahelian Niger Basin, West Africa

Climate simulations in West Africa have been attributed with large uncertainties. Global climate projections are not consistent with changes in observations at the regional or local level of the Niger basin, making management of hydrological projects in the basin uncertain. This study evaluates the potential of using the quantile mapping bias correction to improve the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) outputs for use in hydrological impact studies. Rainfall and temperature projections from 8 CMIP5 Global Climate Models (GCM) were bias corrected using the quantile mapping approach. Impacts of climate change was evaluated with bias corrected rainfall, temperature and potential evapotranspiration (PET). The IHACRES hydrological model was adapted to the Niger basin and used to simulate impacts of climate change on discharge under present and future conditions. Bias correction with quantile mapping significantly improved the accuracy of rainfall and temperature simulations compared to observations. The mean of six efficiency coefficients used for monthly rainfall comparisons of 8 GCMs to the observed ranged from 0.69 to 0.91 and 0.84 to 0.96 before and after bias correction, respectively. The range of the standard deviations of the efficiency coefficients among the 8 GCMs rainfall data were significantly reduced from 0.05–0.14 (before bias correction) to 0.01–0.03 (after bias correction). Increasing annual rainfall, temperature, PET and river discharge were projected for most of the GCMs used in this study under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. These results will help improving projections and contribute to the development of sustainable climate change adaptation strategies.

Communication, Collaboration and Advocacy: A Study of Participatory Action Research to Address Climate Change in the Pacific

The science of climate change is a complex issue that presents challenges for regions, nations, local governments, and communities. This article describes a participatory action research project designed to develop new knowledge of how community members react to climate change and communication’s role in strengthening local resilience. The project has grown organically from an initial study, undertaken by one researcher to examine communication of climate change at the local level, into an intersectoral, interagency study. Partners in the study are connected by one vision: to facilitate grassroots, upward planning of sustainable climate change adaptation led by local end-users, and to amplify the Pacific Island Countries perspective of climate change to the world. The study’s theoretical framework draws upon literature from international development, communication, social science, and public policy. A qualitative case study examines whether the use of a reflexive, communicative approach can facilitate cross-sector interaction between climate scientists, policy makers, and local end-users to plan, implement and evaluate sustainable approaches to climate change. The case provides an example of applying participatory action research (PAR) as a way to communicate complex climate science by using specific context and evidence-based local experiences. The study demonstrates how the use of participatory action research has fostered the creation of horizontal and vertical multisector networks that have improved communication of climate science, and collaboration amongst all partners-including local end-users-and strengthened local advocacy in climate-related policy and planning decisions for the Pacific. This study demonstrates the potential of PAR as a method for reducing disconnect between science-policy-local interaction, and to build local and global intersectoral collaboration. Evidence-based research shows the linkages between theory and practice for organizations tasked with building community resilience. This innovative synthesis can aid in building PAR-led climate change adaptation across prevention, preparation and adaptation activities for potential climate elated hazards. Findings from this study are relevant to communities building resilience.

(En)visioning place‐based adaptation to sea‐level rise

Sustainable climate change adaptation requires an understanding of people's place attachments, so that potential impacts and trade‐offs are illuminated when making adaptation decisions. Methods are needed that elucidate these important, but often intangible, place attachments at risk. A study was undertaken to explore place attachment, and how these person–place bonds might be impacted by flooding and sea‐level rise. It engaged with a small town in coastal Australia that is already highly vulnerable to flooding, and which has been subject to numerous policy directives intended to reduce climate change‐induced flood risk. The town therefore acts as an analogue for climate change adaptation in other semi‐rural coastal communities. Photo‐elicitation was found to be highly effective at elucidating multifarious dimensions of residents' place attachment. The attachments that were likely to be affected by flooding (and adapting to flood risk) were encapsulated in: the personal and communal identities associated with the tourism and fishing industries, the sense of belonging from living and re‐living family connections to local places, and the sense of community and enjoyment derived from diverse recreational activities. The photo‐elicitation process provided different outcomes to conventional interviews, focus groups and questionnaires. Participants sought to both vision (by elucidating their current experiences) and re‐envision (in advocating for different futures) their everyday experiences of adapting to flooding through their photographs and accompanying narratives. A video introduction to this paper is available at: https://vimeo.com/83484905.

Do dynamic regional models add value to the global model projections of Indian monsoon?

Dynamic Regional Climate Models (RCMs) work at fine resolution for a limited region and hence they are presumed to simulate regional climate better than General Circulation Models (GCMs). Simulations by RCMs are used for impacts assessment, often without any evaluation. There is a growing debate on the added value made by the regional models to the projections of GCMs specifically for the regions like, United States and Europe. Evaluation of RCMs for Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) has been overlooked in literature, though there are few disjoint studies on Indian monsoon extremes and biases. Here we present a comprehensive study on the evaluations of RCMs for the ISMR with all its important characteristics such as northward and eastward propagation, onset, seasonal rainfall patterns, intra-seasonal oscillations, spatial variability and patterns of extremes. We evaluate nine regional simulations from Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment and compare them with their host Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-5 GCM projections. We do not find any consistent improvement in the RCM simulations with respect to their host GCMs for any of the characteristics of Indian monsoon except the spatial variation. We also find that the simulations of the ISMR characteristics by a good number of RCMs, are worse than those of their host GCMs. No consistent added value is observed in the RCM simulations of changes in ISMR characteristics over recent periods, compared to past; though there are few exceptions. These results highlight the need for proper evaluation before utilizing regional models for impacts assessment and subsequent policy making for sustainable climate change adaptation.

Mainstreaming ethnoclimatology for climate change assessment and adaptation in mountain ecosystems

Native communities inhabiting the Himalayan environment are mostly susceptible to environmental and other drivers of transformations but these communities have been living in the highly variable climatic environment for centuries and thus, possess an vast amount of localised traditional knowledge that has helped these communities to survive and thrive in such extreme ecosystem. But ongoing discourses on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change impacts these ethnic knowledge systems has not been given much of an importance. Hence, this study has tried to explore the different ethnoclimatological practices followed by local communities in Himachal Pradesh, India. Changing social and economic scenarios and inadequate governmental interventions are slowly leading to the disappearance of the traditional knowledge. However, local ethnoscientific knowledge has a tremendous potential to meet the challenges of climate change impacts. Hence, there is a need to integrate traditional knowledge with the scientific understandings to develop sustainable local or regional climate change assessment, mitigation and adaptation strategies that are best suited for the local ecosystem and involve local communities' participation.

Climate Change Adaptation in Urban India An Approach for Inclusive Formulation of Local Adaptation Strategies

<div> <p>In Kota, the third largest city of Rajasthan, poverty levels are high in many areas and there is a great need to assess the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of different societal groups and sectors to the impacts of climatic variability and change, and to formulate sustainable planning strategies. The city is a large rapidly growing centre (but not a megacity), facing a varied and challenging water situation and anticipated harmful effects of climate change. The methodological approach involves participatory workshops with key stakeholders in urban administration to identify vulnerabilities, and discuss concrete strategies for increasing the adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable areas and sectors. The paper focuses on water resource planning (storm, potable, and wastewater), since it is already a challenging societal issue and one which will become even more critical in the future with climate change. We aim to contribute to improved urban water management for sustainable climate change adaptation in developing countries through an improved methodology of vulnerability assessments, capacity building and social learning, and a deeper empirical understanding of an urban context in Central India.</p> </div> <p> </p>

Differentiating capacities as a means to sustainable climate change adaptation

There are two forms of capacity to adapt to global change: those associated with fundamental human development goals (generic capacity), and those necessary for managing and reducing specific climatic threats (specific). We argue that these two domains of capacity must be addressed explicitly, simultaneously and iteratively if climate change adaptation and sustainable development goals are to be attained. We propose a simple heuristic to understand the four main ways these two capacities interact, leading to more or less desirable outcomes. Drawing from three case studies of agricultural adaptation to climatic risk (Phoenix, AZ; Northeast Brazil; Chiapas, Mexico) we argue that the institutional context of adaptation can implicitly or explicitly undermine one form of capacity with repercussions for the development of the other. A better and more strategic balance of generic and specific capacities is needed if the promised synergies between sustainable development and adaptation are to be achieved.

An Evaluation of Constraints in Climate Change Indigenous Coping and Adaptation Strategies for Sustainable Agro-Pastoral Based Livelihoods in Baringo County, Kenya

The frequency and intensity of climate change events have overwhelmed the coping and adaptation capacity of communities resident in the arid and semi-lands of Kenya. This is evidenced by the continued over reliance on external food aid. The objective of this study was to assess constraints in climate change indigenous coping and adaptation strategies for sustainable agro-pastoral based livelihoods in Baringo County, Kenya. The study postulated that incorporation of indigenous knowledge can add value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. A social survey research design was adopt for this study. The target population was all the households in the study area. A completely randomized cluster sampling approach was used for data collection. Data collection instruments included questionnaires; focus group discussions; key informant interviews; personal observation and secondary data review. The data collected was analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics; Pearson's Chi-square; and Correlation analysis. We therefore conclude that neither the indigenous knowledge nor the exogenous knowledge is yet fully utilized in the development process as each has inherent constraints that limit their adoption; and that conventional approaches have been perceived as more advanced and therefore have overlooked the potential in local experiences and practices. We recommend that indigenous knowledge needs to be captured, documented, preserved and transferred as well. To upscale any adaptation initiatives, there is need to improve indigenous knowledge information exchange between local communities; Community based Organizations; Non- Governmental Organizations; planners and academia. The use of the Integrated Knowledge Intervention Model (IKIM) conceptualized by the author is also recommended.

Climate change, relational vulnerability and human security: rethinking sustainable adaptation in agrarian environments

With reference to agrarian environments in southern India, this article argues that insights from political ecology provide an important way to move forward on debates on human security and climate change adaptation. While current human security perspectives helpfully situate the pursuit of climate change adaption within questions of social justice, they have been less forthcoming in providing suitable analytical tools to conceptualize the relationship between power, inequality and vulnerability. To address this gap, insights from political ecology are used to specify the relational dynamics of vulnerability, i.e. the ways in which marginalized peoples are adversely incorporated into political, social and economic relationships that produce their vulnerability while simultaneously creating relative security for others. This perspective is elaborated with examples from Andhra Pradesh, India, where differential control over key productive assets including land, water, labour and credit is key to the hierarchical displacement of security/insecurity across the agrarian population. By foregrounding the relational dynamics of vulnerability, this article provides analytical tools that offer a fuller account of the possibilities and limits to public policy aimed at sustainable climate change adaptation.

UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launches Centre for Water for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Adaptation

UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launches Centre for Water for Sustainable Development and Climate Change Adaptation

Kiribati: an environmental ‘perfect storm’

Recent environmental discourses and headlines on small island developing states (SIDS) have heralded the grave and impending threats of global warming and associated sea-level rise. These are undoubtedly significant challenges for SIDS, including atoll nations such as Kiribati. Nevertheless, securing small island state futures also requires a renewed commitment to addressing the obvious and immediate threats of urbanisation, pollution and sanitation. Looking at pressures of development on freshwater, this article argues that the future survival of small island states and their societies also greatly depends on managing the impacts of development. Approaches which can concurrently strengthen the resilience of communities and their ecosystems will result in mutual benefits for both sustainable development and climate change adaptation.

The value of indigenous knowledge in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in the African Sahel

Past global efforts at dealing with the problem of global warming concentrated on mitigation, with the aim of reducing and possibly stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. With the slow progress in achieving this, adaptation was viewed as a viable option to reduce the vulnerability to the anticipated negative impacts of global warming. It is increasingly realized that mitigation and adaptation should not be pursued independent of each other but as complements. This has resulted in the recent calls for the integration of adaptation into mitigation strategies. However, integrating mitigation and adaptation into climate change concerns is not a completely new idea in the African Sahel. The region is characterized by severe and frequent droughts with records dating back into centuries. The local populations in this region, through their indigenous knowledge systems, have developed and implemented extensive mitigation and adaptation strategies that have enabled them reduce their vulnerability to past climate variability and change, which exceed those predicted by models of future climate change. However, this knowledge is rarely taken into consideration in the design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategies. This paper highlights some indigenous mitigation and adaptation strategies that have been practiced in the Sahel, and the benefits of integrating indigenous knowledge into formal climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can add value to the development of sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are rich in local content, and planned in conjunction with local people.