Dissertations / Theses: 'Adaptation to climate change in construction'

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Desai, Apeksha. "Formulating an FM strategy for climate change mitigation and adaptation of commercial built assets." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2012. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/9818/.

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As per the UKCIP 09 climate change projections the United Kingdom is very likely to experience increased sea level rise, increased winter rainfall, heat waves and an increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Such inevitable impacts of climate change will require adaptation measures to be implemented for the management of existing commercial built assets if they are to continue to fulfil their primary function and support every organisation’s business operations. However, it is not clear as to how far adaptation solutions are effectively integrated into facilities or built-asset management planning? While seeking the answers to above questions, this thesis develops an approach for facilities and built-asset management, which will improve the resilience of existing commercial built assets to future physical climate-change impacts. The study undertakes a participatory study with a large commercial organisation and a questionnaire survey of UK facilities managers. The participatory study involved selective team of facilities management and operational (FM&O) professionals from a commercial organisation that managed around 3,400 built assets valued at £370 billion in 2003–05 in the United Kingdom. By working closely with the organisation, an approach to built-asset management was developed which integrated the existing UKCIP decision-making framework and UKCIP02 climate-change projections. In developing this approach, the strategic risk perception and managerial attitude to climate change were identified and included as important factors affecting the decision-making process. To test the wider applicability of the decision-making framework that was developed in the participatory study, a questionnaire survey of the wider facilities management community was undertaken. It was deduced from the survey results that the intent and process of decision making remains constant amongst FM professionals in commercial settings – for example: (a) The experience of a financial loss due to an existing climate-related extreme event is the initiation point for strategic stakeholders for considering future action regarding climate change; and (b) The operational adaptation measures are restricted to securing insurance deals and making renewed disaster-recovery and business-continuity plans. Additional outcomes from participatory and survey study covered logistic models describing the adaptation and mitigation approaches within a commercial setting. Taken as a whole, the findings from this study show that mitigation efforts which are supported by legislation and have well defined targets achieve a strategic importance within an organisation, while an absence of such targets and external drivers means that adaptation is viewed as an operational activity and, , as a short-term activity that has to compete for funds within annual budgets. To raise the profile of adaptation within commercial organisations requires a shift in the perception of climate change as risks amongst FM&O professionals and ability to better recognize climate change impacts on the business and built asset functions. This requires action to be initiated at both governmental and organisational level. However, such action needs to consider other constraints, such as the time span of the climate change projections. In particular, as FM&O professionals consider adaptation as an operational issue for which the planning period is normally short term (3–5 years), while the long-term projections associated with climate change are for 20–30 years as a minimum. In order to support decision making, this ‘temporal scale’ discrepancy needs to be addressed. The study has demonstrated that although decision-making frameworks and projections are useful tools to the adaptation of existing commercial built assets, they need to be synchronised with the short-term business planning and operational time line. The mitigation approach due to legislative and market-performance forces is quantified and gains a strategic importance, securing substantial financial support. In contrast to this, the adaptation agenda is taken into account only in the presence of an extreme event-related financial and functional loss. In this case, adaptation to climate change remains a reactive rather than a planned process and lacks legislative drivers. In the absence of legislative impetus and a standardised quantitative assessment method, it is difficult to derive short term or long-term targets according to which maintenance management interventions can be planned and strategic support can be achieved. In addition, the perception of built-asset managers about climate change risk is also found to be affecting the adaptation and mitigation agenda for built-asset maintenance and management.

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Nord, Niklas, and Reza Iranmanesh. "Klimatförändringar i byggbranschen : Är branschen redo för extremt väder?" Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för ekonomi, teknik och naturvetenskap, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-29686.

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It has over the last 20 years occurred a series of extreme weather events around the worldthat caused damage to people and buildings. Many published reports have studied thedeveloping countries and less studies has been conducted on the construction industry andthe economically powerful countries.Sweden has been spared from the most extreme events but still suffered some events whichcan be considered extreme for the country. Therefore, the aim of this report is to study howthe construction industry in Sweden works with risk management, as a preventive measureagainst extreme weather events. The intention has been to find out how aware the industryis of climate change.Studies of this kind have not been carried out previously in Sweden and therefore this studyuses a qualitative approach to conduct the study. Thorough studies on risks, riskmanagement and all its processes have been performed. The focus has been on the generalrisks and the risks associated with extreme weather conditions. This is to analyze how theconstruction industry works with risks of this kind. Interviews have been conducted withproject managers and production managers at a major Swedish construction company to becompared with the written theory.The study and 10 interviews have been conducted at Skanska Hus in Stockholm to get apicture of how different projects in the same region are working with risk managementlinked to extreme weather events as they have the same weather conditions.The study concluded that the studied company was very good at working with riskmanagement but they were less prepared for extreme weather than had been expected. Thisgave the impression that the industry as a whole are in need to be informed about what kindof impacts climate change has on production and the working environment for the future.The investigation showed that it still needs improvements and more knowledge in this areasince climate change is a fact.

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Fahrion, Marc-Steffen. "Sommerlicher Wärmeschutz im Zeichen des Klimawandels – Anpassungsplanung für Bürogebäude." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-193732.

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Seit Beginn der Industrialisierung ist ein starker Anstieg der anthropogenen Treibhausgaskonzentrationen in der Atmosphäre zu verzeichnen, der zu einer Veränderung des Klimas auf der Erde führt. Schon heute sind die Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt und zahlreiche Bereiche des täglichen Lebens zu beobachten. Diese werden sich mit fortschreitendem Klimawandel noch verstärken. Auch das Bauwesen muss sich auf die sich verändernden klimatischen Einwirkungen wie beispielsweise Sommerhitze, Überflutung, Starkregen, Hagel und Wind einstellen. Für keine der genannten klimatischen Einwirkungen ist das Änderungssignal in den Klimaprojektionen so eindeutig wie für die Sommerhitze. Aus diesem Grund wird der Handlungsbedarf beim sommerlichen Wärmeschutz als besonders hoch eingeschätzt. In den westlichen Industriestaaten halten sich Erwachsene während des Sommers circa 80 % der Zeit in Innenräumen auf. Deshalb ist das Innenraumklima von entscheidender Bedeutung für die Behaglichkeit, die geistige Leistungsfähigkeit und die Gesundheit des Menschen. Wie sich der Klimawandel auf die gebaute Umwelt in Deutschland auswirkt, ist weitestgehend unerforscht. Es ist zu klären, ob nur einzelne baukonstruktive Details, die heutigen Bemessungsregeln oder sogar grundsätzliche Entwurfsprinzipien für Gebäude überdacht werden müssen. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist, eine Untersuchungsmethodik zu entwickeln, mit der die Auswirkungen des bereits beobachteten und des zu erwartenden Klimawandels auf den sommerlichen Wärmeschutz bestehender Bürogebäude beurteilt werden können. Erst dadurch lässt sich ein etwaiger Handlungsbedarf objektiv feststellen und begründen. Ein weiteres wesentliches Ziel besteht darin, beispielhafte Anpassungsmaßnahmen in Abhängigkeit der jeweiligen Baukonstruktion zu entwickeln, mit denen auch in Zukunft die sommerliche Behaglichkeit in bestehenden Bürogebäuden sichergestellt werden kann. Von besonderem Interesse ist dabei die Frage, ob baukonstruktive Maßnahmen allein in Zukunft ausreichen können oder ob zusätzlich anlagentechnische Lösungen zur technischen Kühlung unumgänglich werden. Die entwickelten Anpassungsmaßnahmen sollen die Grundlage für Gebäudekonzepte und Fassadenkonstruktionen sein, welche auch bei fortschreitendem Klimawandel die Anforderungen an die Behaglichkeit und den sommerlichen Wärmeschutz erfüllen. Des Weiteren soll eine Methode zur Bewertung der Wirtschaftlichkeit von Klimaanpassungsmaßnahmen aufgezeigt werden. Um untersuchen zu können, inwieweit die Verletzbarkeit infolge zunehmender Sommerhitze und der entsprechende Anpassungsbedarf von der Baukonstruktion abhängen, wurden drei Bürogebäude unterschiedlicher Baualtersstufen ausgewählt und mittels dynamisch-thermischer Gebäudesimulation analysiert. Die dynamisch-thermische Gebäudesimulation ist aktuell die detaillierteste Methode zur Beurteilung des sommerlichen Wärmeschutzes. Nur mit ihr können komplexe Gebäudekonzepte oder automatisierte Systeme ausreichend genau nachgebildet werden. Zur Abbildung des bereits stattgefundenen und des projizierten Klimawandels wurden fünf Klimadatensätze verwendet, mit denen der Klimawandel von der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ende des 21. Jahrhunderts dargestellt werden kann. Die Schwachpunkte der drei untersuchten Gebäude wurden analysiert und darauf aufbauend detaillierte Anpassungsvorschläge ausgearbeitet und wiederum über Simulationen bewertet. Umfangreiche Detailzeichnungen zu den angepassten Gebäudekonzepten und Fassadenkonstruktionen sollen eine Umsetzung der Ergebnisse in die Praxis erleichtern. Es werden Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, den durch diese Maßnahmen erzielten Nutzen in Geldeinheiten zu bewerten. Dadurch können Klimaanpassungsmaßnahmen einer Wirtschaftlichkeitsbetrachtung über Investitionsrechenverfahren zugeführt werden
Since the beginning of industrialization, a large increase of anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere has been detected. This increase is the main cause for the observed climate change. The impacts of climate change on the environment and numerous aspects of human lives have been visible and will become more and more threatening with ongoing climate change. Civil engineering has to deal with changing climate-related hazards such as summer heat, flooding, torrential rain, hail and storm. For none of the mentioned climatic impacts on buildings, the climate change signal is as unambiguous and robust as for summer heat. Thus, actions to protect from summer overheating are highly required. During summer, adults in the Western industrialized states spend about 80 % of their time indoors. Therefore, indoor climate is of essential importance for comfort, mental performance and human health. The impacts of climate change on the built environment in Germany are rarely investigated. It has to be determined whether the building construction details, current design regulations or the design principles have to be revised. This thesis aims to develop a research methodology, which evaluates the impacts of the observed and expected climate change on the protection against summer overheating of existing office buildings. Only thus a possible need for action can be objectively determined and justified. Another major objective is the development of exemplary adaptation measures for various building construction types to ensure the comfort in existing office buildings during summer. Of particular interest is the question if it will be sufficient in the future to use only passive measures or if it will be unavoidable to install technical cooling capacities. The developed adaptation measures should be the basis for building concepts and façade constructions that are able to guarantee high comfort and an improved protection against summer overheating. Furthermore, a method to evaluate the economic efficiency of adaptation measures is demonstrated. To investigate the relationship between building construction and vulnerability, three buildings of different construction year categories have been analyzed using dynamic thermal building simulations. At present, the dynamic thermal building simulation is the most detailed method for evaluating the protection against summer overheating. This is the only method which is able to reproduce complex building concepts and automated systems in sufficient detail. In order to demonstrate the impacts of the observed and projected climate change on buildings between the middle of the 20th century and the end of the 21st century, five climate datasets have been applied. The weak points of the three investigated buildings have been analyzed. Based on this, detailed adaptation measures have been developed and evaluated by thermal building simulations. Comprehensive drawings, which show the adapted building concepts and façade details, will facilitate the application in practice. Different possibilities are demonstrated to express the achieved benefit from the adaptation measures in monetary units. Therefore, adaptation measures can be assessed by investment calculations

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Mashila, Thabang. "Spatial planning for climate change adaptation : developing a climate change local area adaptation plan for Khayelitsha." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13332.

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Includes bibliographical references.
Climate change is now widely seen as a major challenge of this time and the future of cities. However, the most vulnerable will be the urban poor particularly those located on the urban fringes in high risk areas with limited access to basic services and economic opportunities. In South Africa, although progress has been made to reduce socio-economic and environmental challenges created by apartheid legislations, inequalities still exist where the privileged live in safer and well located and serviced parts of the city while he poor are still located in settlements created by apartheid in urban fringes. Spatial Planning presents an opportunity to increase resilience to climate change in vulnerable areas of cities. Through integrating planning and climate adaptation actions, future spatial decisions will add to resilience to climate change and enhance wellbeing of people. The dissertation includes a case study that was conducted to learn about the status quo of the study area to effectively recommend relevant interventions that seek to create resilience to climate change in the area. A local area adaptation plan was then formulated including the framework for implementing proposed interventions in a 20 year timeframe.

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Hoang, Lan Ngoc. "Adaptation planning under climate change uncertainty." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5567/.

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This project explores the uncertainty factors in drought planning for a water resource zone in Sussex. Nine planning options from the 2009 Sussex Water Resource Management Plan were assessed using four climate products: the 2009 UK Climate Projections Change Factors, the Spatial Coherent Projections, the 11 runs of the HadRM3 regional climate model and their subsequent downscaling by the Future Flows Project. The varying drought statistics from these four climate products reflect post-processing uncertainty - the uncertainty stemming from the process of converting original climate model outputs into products of different formats, variables and temporal/spatial scales. Overall, the study has integrated a cascade analysis of climate uncertainty, climate post-processing uncertainty, hydrological uncertainty, water resource model uncertainty and demand uncertainty on water resource planning. The study combines Robust Optimisation, Decision-Scaling and Robust Decision Making into Robust Decision Analysis, a decision making framework for dynamic adaptation pathways in response to different levels of uncertainty and risk averseness. Post-processing uncertainty is the dominate uncertainty until 2030s; 2050s is then dominated by demand and socio-economic uncertainty. The most severe droughts within the Spatial Coherent Projections and the 2009 UK Climate Projection products are variations of the 1975-1976 and the 1988-1989 droughts, two of the worst historic droughts currently used as the design events for drought planning in Sussex. The system appears to be robust to variations of these past droughts. Yet, under different sequences of droughts from the HadRM3 and Future Flows products, the system demonstrated frequent supply failures in the 2050s, unless water demand is maintained at the 2007 level or lower. While operational costs in the 2030s are generally within the region of 4 to 5 million GBP per year, those in the 2050s Market Forces jumped to the region of 5 to 15 million GBP per year and with supply deficit from 0 to 1100 Ml/year. When demand grows by 35% from the 2007 baseline level, universal metering becomes a key option. Despite climate post-processing uncertainty, the main hotspots of water deficits remains similar across the climate products and are driven by network bottlenecks and the continually high dependence of the system on water sources a round the Hardham area. The study also indicates that inter-regional transfers might not be as reliable as assumed.

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Hemingway, Jessica. "U.S. Local Government Adaptation to Climate Change:." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2018. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-232723.

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The desire for local governments to adapt to climate change seems logically relevant as weather extremes inhibit the ability of local governments to protect public health and safety and to ensure delivery of public services. By conducting planned adaptation to climate change local governments enable themselves to minimize risk and increase adaptive capacity to deal with climate change impacts. In the midst of a federal government, minus the Obama administration, that has tended to downplay the importance of climate change, action by local level governments - cities in particular - in the U.S. have been at the forefront of action on climate change. Little attention has been given to local government adaptation in rural areas by both researchers and policy makers alike. Rural areas are at risk to changes in climate because they tend to be reliant on climate sensitive industries, comprised of vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and very young and to possess few resources to conduct land-use and other planning. This dissertation expands upon previous research by examining the decision to conduct planned adaptation by both urban and rural local government adaptation to climate change (RQ1) and by identifying the influences on the decision of local governments in both urban and rural areas to conduct planned adaptation to climate change (RQ2). New York State was selected as an appropriate case study to answer research questions because of the drastic contrast between urban and rural areas of the state. On the one hand, it has been one of the most progressive states in terms of climate change policy including its largest local government New York City; on the other hand, it is comprised of many rural local governments suffering from population and economic decline. An online survey was distributed to all New York State local governments in November/December 2011 and supplemented by informant discussions conducted before and after the survey. While a considerable amount of time has passed since the survey was conducted, it took place during what appears to be a particular timeframe in political history where the U.S. president supported action on climate change. Results of this study show strong differences in resource availability and the likelihood of urban vs. rural elected officials to conduct planned adaptation. One hundred and forty-two responses were received from large and small cities, towns, villages and counties. A traditional deductive research design was deployed to answer research questions. To examine the influences on the decision of local elected officials to conduct planned adaptation hypotheses were developed based on previous empirical studies and Mohr’s 1969 hypothesis that “Innovation is related to the motivation to innovate, inversely related to the strength of obstacles to innovation, and directly related to the availability of resources for overcoming such obstacles” (Mohr, 1969, p. 111). Two dependent variables were measured (1) planned adaptation or conscious decisions to adapt to climate change and an alternate dependent variable (2) formal and informal discussion of climate change within the local government. Independent variables measured related to local elected official motivation to conduct planned adaptation in the form of climate weather related concerns in New York State (i.e. extreme weather, water quality, and ecological changes), resource availability within the local government (i.e. budget, staff, climate change expertise) and the existence of obstacles toward planned adaptation external to local governments (i.e. public support, federal and state informational and financial support). The results of the survey showed that a small minority of local governments in New York State had decided to conduct planned adaptation to climate change. Over half of the sample was identified as conducting some form of spontaneous or reactive adaptation which consisted mostly of actions to minimize flood risk (i.e. update storm-water infrastructure, manage flood plains, promote open space). However, no local government surveyed had been identified as having successfully implemented an adaptation plan. Informal discussions were found to be occurring among half of the sample surveyed with a small number of local governments discussing climate change formally. According to informant discussions, the low level of planned adaptation among New York State local governments can be explained by a number of factors including a non-requirement to conduct planned adaptation, varying policy, resource and incentive conditions throughout the state, a lack of urgency to adapt to climate change and, finally, the absence of a support system to conduct planned adaptation. Results of hypothesis testing indicate that local governments are more likely to conduct planned adaptation to climate change where: A) climate change concerns are water related, B) budget, staff and climate change expertise are available and C) public support to address climate change impacts as well as state and federal informational support are available. Financial support from state and federal governments did not appear to influence the decision to conduct planned adaptation. Rural local governments were found less likely than urban local governments to be discussing climate change and to be conducting planned adaptation which is likely to be related to organizational size and the availability of resources to conduct planned adaptation measures. This dissertation contributes to understanding how local governments are adapting to climate change in New York State, what influences the decision of elected officials to conduct planned adaptation to climate change and how experiences may differ from municipality type — especially related to urban vs. rural local governments.

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Slagle, John T. "Climate change in Myanmar: impacts and adaptation." Thesis, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/44672.

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Myanmar is a Least Developed Nation, according to the UN, and therefore is highly vulnerable to the negative effects of a changing climate. To assess the relationship between Myanmar and climate change, this thesis analyzes projected impacts on the nation and its people, the current state of adaptation, and how Myanmar’s government has prepared. Projected impacts are viewed through the lens of the most recent IPCC reports and climate models, and discussed in relation to vulnerable areas in Burmese society and governance. This thesis concludes that Myanmar’s environment, people and society are at a significant risk; higher temperatures, altered precipitation rates, and higher sea levels will lead to reduced agriculture output, the spread of disease, and loss of habitable land. Though recent governmental action has laid the framework for suitable adaptation measures, slow progress in past decades has left Myanmar highly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. Myanmar’s next election is scheduled for 2015, and the emerging leaders have the opportunity to make significant progress in climate change adaptation. Cooperation between Myanmar’s new leaders and the international community could accelerate the nation’s adaptation efforts and result in significant progress on climate change preparedness projects.

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Dessai, Suraje Xembu Rauto. "Robust adaptation decisions amid climate change uncertainties." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.426254.

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Dapilah, Frederick. "Climate change adaptation in the Global South." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/21309.

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Die Folgen des Klimawandels, sowie damit einhergehende Verluste und Schäden nehmen weltweit zu. Der damit verbundene globale Anstieg von Treibhausgasemissionen, zunehmende Verstädterung sowie ausufernder Konsum machen die Suche nach Anpassungsstrategien zur Vermeidung schädlicher Auswirkungen gegenwärtig wie zukünftig zu einer erheblichen Herausforderung. Diese erfordert ein tiefgehendes Verständnis der Komplexität vom Klimawandelfolgen für landwirtschaftsbasierte Existenzgrundlagen. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu einem solchen Verständnis beizutragen. Die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit fragt daher danach, wie etwaige Umstellungsprozesse die Anpassungsfähigkeit sowie Resilienz der Bewohner_innen von Bagri, einem kleinen Dorf im Norden Ghanas, erweitern. Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertationsschrift basieren auf empirischen Erhebungen, die zwischen Februar und Juli 2017 in Lawra District in Nordghana unter Heranziehung qualitativer Fallstudieninstrumente durchgeführt wurden. Zum Einsatz kamen semi-strukturierte Interviews, Fokusgruppendiskussionen, Umfragen sowie ethnographische teilnehmende Beobachtungen. Die so gewonnenen Daten wurden kodiert und mit SPSS (Version 20) kreuztabellarisch sowie anhand verschiedener Variablen ausgewertet. Außerdem wurden Häufigkeiten interpretiert und die Ergebnisse schließlich in Tabellen, Graphen und Prozentsätzen verarbeitet. Des Weiteren wurden inhaltlichen Analysen der qualitativen Daten vorgenommen, die es erlaubten, Muster und Themen aus den Interviews und Diskussionen weiter zu verfolgen. Die Resultate zeigen, dass die Bewohner_innen in der untersuchten Gemeinde über die letzten drei Jahrzehnte eine Reihe klimatischer Veränderungen mit negativen Folgen für die Landwirtschaft erfahren haben. Um sich beispielsweise an die klimawandelbedingte kürzere Dauer der Regenzeit sowie niedrige Niederschlagsmengen anzupassen, greifen Kleinbauern auf schrittweise Anpassungsstrategien wie verbessertes Saatgut und weitere unterstützende Maßnahmen zurück. Paradoxerweise, untergraben Klimawandelextreme derlei Strategien auf mehreren Ebenen und reduzieren Erträge um ein Vielfaches ihres Potenzials, was wiederum finanzieller Verschuldung Vorschub leistet. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie zeigen daher, dass die Überwindung nicht-klimatischer Barrieren landwirtschaftlicher Anpassungsstrategien eine notwendige wenn auch nicht ausreichende Bedingung für eine erfolgreiche Umstellung darstellt. Immer neu aufkommende Schwierigkeiten machen Anpassung zu einem langfristigen Prozess. Eine zweite Erkenntnis dieser Arbeit ist, dass die sich wandelnden klimatischen Verhältnisse zu einer Diversifizierung der Lebensgrundlagen weg von landwirtschaftlicher Produktion hin zu Aktivitäten jenseits der Höfe in Bagri geführt haben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Prozess der Diversifizierung abhängig ist von der Einbindung der Haushalte in Gruppenaktivitäten sowie in formelle und informelle Netzwerke. Zusammenfassend gilt, dass Haushalte, die engmaschig in soziale Netze eingebettet sind eine höhere Resilienz gegenüber wahrgenommenen klimatischen Veränderungen aufweisen. Dies liegt darin begründet, dass sie zumeist über einen besseren Zugang zu kritischen – materiellen wie immateriellen – Ressourcen verfügen, welche Diversifizierung maßgeblich ermöglichen. Zudem deuten die Befunde an, wie Gruppenaktivitäten und soziale Netzwerke Marginalisierung und widersprüchlichen Ressourcenumgang befeuern können, die zugleich die Gefahr bergen, soziale und ökologische Resilienz im Dorf zu verringern. Darüber hinaus zeigt diese Arbeit die Mechanismen kollaborativer Anpassungssteuerung auf, indem sie den Fragen nachgeht, warum und wie diese Steuerungsformen Anpassungsfähigkeit befördern. Die Ergebnisse verweisen auf die Beziehungsdynamiken zwischen den relevanten Akteuren sowie Nutzen und Misserfolge und die Herausforderungen nachhaltiger kollaborativer Anpassungsstrategien in Nordghana. Ergänzend, stellt diese Studie heraus, wie machtvolle Akteure Agenden setzen, Problematisierungen generieren sowie Regeln und Anreize schaffen, die im Widerspruch zu den normativen Grundsätzen der kollaborativen Anpassungstheorie stehen können. Ausgehend von der Fallstudie in Nordghana stellt diese Arbeit auch Überlegungen dazu an, wie kollaborative Anpassungssteuerung erfolgreichen Umgang mit klimawandelbedingten Veränderungen weltweit befördern kann. Zusammenfassend, leistet diese Arbeit einen Beitrag zur Schließung theoretischer wie empirischer Wissenslücken im wachsenden Bereich der Forschung zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel. Sie illustriert darüber hinaus den unschätzbaren Wert qualitativer Fallstudien und zeigt auf, wie diese einen Beitrag leisten können zu oftmals abstrakten und schwer fassbaren Themen in der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion und damit ein Fundament für informierte politische Entscheidungen sowohl auf lokaler als auch globaler Ebene legen.
Climate change impacts, related losses and damages are increasing globally. When these consequences are coupled with increasing global greenhouse gas emission, urban expansion and unsustainable consumption, the pursuit of adaptation to avoid adverse outcomes is a present necessity and a significant future challenge. The overarching aim of this doctoral dissertation is to gain a better understanding of the complexity of climate change impacts on agricultural livelihoods and how adaptation processes enhance adaptive capacity and resilience in Bagri, a small village in northern Ghana. The results presented in this doctoral thesis are based on empirical data obtained between February and July, 2017 in the Lawra District of northern Ghana using qualitative case study research methods: semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, survey and ethnographic participant observation. Data from the survey were coded and inputted into Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 20 and cross tabulation and analysis of different variables and interpretation of frequencies were done and processed into tables, graphs and percentages. Content analyses of qualitative data were done which allowed patterns and themes in interviews and discussions to be derived and interpreted. The findings show that, people in the studied community have experienced a range of climatic changes with negative impacts on agriculture in the last three decades. In order to adapt to the short duration of the rainy season and low rainfall amounts associated with climate change, smallholder farmers use incremental adaptation strategies such as improved crop varieties and other support strategies. Paradoxically, however, climate change extremes (CCEs) undermined these strategies in several instances, causing crop yields to fall short of their actual potential leading to financial indebtedness. The results therefore, showcase that surmounting non-climatic barriers to the uptake of agricultural adaptation strategies is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieving successful outcomes, as new barriers in the adaptation process beyond uptake are constantly emerging with CCEs being one example. Secondly, the findings show that climatic changes have necessitated livelihood diversification away from crop production and into off-farm and non-farm activities in Bagri. The results highlight how the process of diversification is dependent on household participation in various group activities and formal and informal social networks. Generally, households in dense social networks were found to be more resilient to perceived climate changes because they had access to the critical resources (material and non-material) essential for diversification. Importantly, the findings shed light on how group activities and social networks can create marginalization and conflicting resource use with the potential of undermining social and ecological resilience in the village. Moreover, this dissertation explores the mechanics of collaborative adaptation governance (CAG) addressing questions of why and how this mode of governance facilitates adaptive capacity. The findings illuminate stakeholder relational dynamics, benefits and failures, and the sustainability challenge of collaborative adaptation governance (CAG) in northern Ghana. More importantly, this study unveils how powerful actors set the agenda, frame problems, and implement rules and incentives contrary to the normative tenets of collaborative governance theory. Ultimately, the results highlights the failures, successes and sustainability challenges of CAG in northern Ghana, while also providing insight into the extent to which CAG approaches can facilitate adaptation to climate change globally. In conclusion, this doctoral dissertation responds to both theoretical and emperical knowledge gaps in the burgeoning climate change adaptation research, and illustrates how invaluable, qualitative case studies can contribute to illuminate some of the elusive themes in the literature and provide evidence for policy making at both local and global levels.

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Kalungu, Jokastah Wanzuu. "Gender and climate change adaptation in Kenya." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2014. http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/612167/.

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Climate change and variability is a major threat to sustainable development across the globe. Paradoxically, smallholder farmers to a great extend contribute to the spread and also hold the key to effective management of climate change and variability. Despite their centrality in climate change and variability, not much is known about smallholder farmers and climate change adaptation. As a contribution towards addressing this need, the present study analysed the role played by gender in climate change adaptation among smallholder farmers in semi-arid and sub-humid agro-ecological zones in Kenya. The study was conducted in two agro-ecological zones (analogue sites) – one in the semi-arid region, and the other in the sub-humid region, each comprising a pair of cooler and warmer sites. Data for the study were collected at different intervals between June 2011 and June 2013, using multiple approaches including household interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and personal observations. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed a high level of awareness on climate change and variability among smallholder farmers. The results also reveal that both male and female farmers perceive climate change and variability as a serious threat to their crop and livestock production. There were also demonstrable impacts of climate change and variability on smallholder agricultural practices, a number of which differed across the analogue sites. The adjustments in the agricultural practices were significantly different (p≤0.001) between the regions (analogue sites) for methods of land preparation, planting practices, crop management, weed control and pest and disease control. In the semi-arid region, farmers in the warmer areas significantly differed (p≤ 0.001) with those in cooler areas in the timing of land preparation, increased use of manure and fertiliser, crop management and increased use of pesticides. In the sub-humid region smallholder farmers in warmer sites significantly (p ≤ 0.001) differed with their counterparts in cooler sites in use of manure and fertiliser use and crop management. There were comparatively low levels of adoption of appropriate technologies among women than men. Generally, female farmers preferred low cost measures when dealing with the impacts of climate change and variability such as planting tree crops, use of manure and mixed farming as well as use of soil and water conservation measures. Pest and disease control measures, use of improved crop varieties and crop diversification were the common adaptation measures used by the male farmers. Adaptation measures are likely to be insufficient in some cases, particularly for the smallholder farmers in semi-arid region given the high food insecurity. Smallholder farmers are central to climate change and variability management. The farmers in warmer sites offer an important knowledge base that can be of invaluable help to those in the cooler sites in both agro-ecological zones. This therefore means that the success of effective adaptation to climate change variability lies in building on the existing knowledge base and incorporating gender considerations in a participatory research process. The study provides data that can be considered for action agenda by the county governments.

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Shi, Linda Ph D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "A new climate for regionalism : metropolitan experiments in climate change adaptation." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111370.

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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-175).
Climate change threatens the function and even existence of coastal cities, requiring them to adapt by preparing for near-term risks and reorienting long-term development. Most policy and academic interest in the governance of climate adaptation has focused on global, national, and local scales. Their efforts increasingly revealed the need to plan for adaptation at the scale of metropolitan regions. This dissertation is the first academic comparative analysis of U.S. regional adaptation initiatives. Drawing on multi-method qualitative research of five coastal regions, I ask: are collaboratives to coordinate adaptation at the regional scale a new form of regionalism? What roles do state policies on climate change and regional governance play? I argue that adaptation collaboratives are an ecological variant of new regionalism that recenters the role of public agencies in advancing adaptation efforts. Adaptation champions have helped overcome limited local adaptation, even where states are antagonistic to climate action, by sharing knowledge, providing technical assistance, and fostering political support. However, most have yet to tackle the limitations of local adaptation. Instead, they have deployed narratives of climate change as predictable and manageable, and of regional adaptation as localized and ecological in ways that mask the need for more transformative developmental and governance paradigms. Only places with regional agencies or county governments that have land use authority, fiscal leverage, or state mandated targets have advanced region-wide zoning and long-term developmental changes. This indicates that state policies towards regional planning institutions are more influential in shaping regional adaptation than those focused on adaptation. Scholarship has shifted away from debates around forms of regional government, but these findings highlight the need to strengthen regional government in order to overcome difficulties in coordinating, implementing, and enforcing multi-sector and multi-jurisdictional responses to climate change. I conclude by calling for a renewed ecological regionalism that articulates a vision of regions functioning as an ecological whole, rather than as the sum of individual parts. I offer recommendations for how collaboratives and other advocates could build awareness and open dialogue about regional interdependence, conflicts, responsibility, and accountability. These processes become pathways to envisioning local preferences for regional governance, build buy-in and coalitions, and advocate for state enabling legislation.
by Linda Shi.
Ph. D.

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Kalantari, Zahra. "Adaptation of road drainage structures to climate change." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Miljöbedömning och -förvaltning, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-90888.

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Climate change is expected to lead to more frequent extreme precipitation events, floods and changes in frost/thawing cycles. The frequency of road closures and other incidents such as flooding, landslides and roads being washed away will probably increase. Stronger demands will be placed on the function of road drainage systems. The overall aim of this thesis was to produce scientifically well-founded suggestions on adaptation of road drainage systems to climate change involving more frequent floods. The work began by examining current practice for road drainage systems in Sweden and gathering experience from professionals working with various problems concerning surface and subsurface drainage systems. Various hydrological models were then used to calculate the runoff from a catchment adjacent to a road and estimate changes in peak discharge and total runoff resulting from simulated land use measures. According to these survey and hydrological modelling studies, adaptation of road drainage systems to climate change can be grouped into two categories: i) institutional adaptation; and ii) technical adaptation. The main approaches in institutional adaptation are to: i) raise the awareness of expected climate change and its impact on drainage systems in transport administration and relevant stakeholders; ii) include adaptation measures in the existing funding programme of the transport administration; and iii) develop an evaluation tool and action plans concerning existing road drainage systems. Technical adaptation will involve ensuring that road constructions are adapted to more frequent extreme precipitation events and responsive to changes in activities and land use in areas adjacent to roads. Changes in climate variables will have effects on watershed hydrological responses and consequently influence the amount of runoff reaching roads. There is a great need for tools such as hydrological models to assess impacts on discharge dynamics, including peak flows. Improved communication between road managers and local actors in the forestry and agriculture sectors can be a means to reduce the impacts of, e.g., clear-cutting or badly managed farmland ditches.
QC 20111214

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Andre, Kreie. "The adaptation of supply chains to climate change." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/2700.

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Today, more and more organisations recognise that climate change is happening and have already begun to suffer from the impacts of this change. However, the predominant response to this challenge has been one of mitigation, not necessarily to protect companies and supply chains from the impacts of climate change, but rather to reduce the impact of business and logistics on the environment. In order to prepare organisations and their supply networks for the projected impacts, the concept of adaptation to climate change has recently attracted increasing attention amongst scientists and practitioners. As most research has been conducted in the public sector, this thesis aims to determine how supply networks in the private sector can adapt to climate change and its related risk factors. The field research is designed as a single large case study and investigates a global coffee supply network. As the coffee industry is very sensitive to climate change it has already taken actions to make the supply network more resilient and can therefore offer valuable insights into the concept of adaptation to climate change. Multiple interviews were conducted and the information received was analysed using two developed a priori models concluded from literature. This research contributes to the literature in supply chain risk management by adding supply chain climate risk (SCCR) as a new sub category of external supply chain risk and extends the literature in ‘learning’ by proposing a process model of network learning as a solution to enable supply networks to adapt to climate change. This thesis also offers a number of mechanisms to provide decision makers with practical recommendations that should be implemented throughout the coffee supply network. Therefore, for the first time, this research addresses the contemporary problem of climate change by taking a supply network perspective and proposing a network learning process that enables an adaptation to the identified and location-specific climate risk. Besides its contribution to theory, this thesis is also highly relevant for practitioners as it offers clear managerial guidance of how the researched coffee supply network can become more resilient to climate change.

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Fenton, Adrian Francis. "Microfinance and climate change adaptation : insights from Bangladesh." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/17707/.

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Climate change is one of the biggest environmental problems facing humanity, particularly for developing countries which are highly vulnerable to environmental and climate hazards. If citizens of these countries are to adapt there must be sufficient incentives, knowledge, resources, skills, and an absence of market failures and barriers that discourage adaptation. Growing interest exists in how microfinance can facilitate adaptation. However, much of the existing literature remains conjectural, positively biased, and insufficiently uses adaptation concepts. Additional studies of microfinance-adaptation linkages adopting an adaptation lens are needed to address knowledge gaps. The aim of this thesis has been to contribute to microfinance-adaptation literature by examining conceptual arguments and exploring empirical data. To achieve this, a pragmatic philosophy, mixed-methods approach, and an abductive strategy were adopted. The research location was Noapara Village, Bangladesh, providing a representative case-study of the local area. The unit of analysis was the household, facilitating understanding of relationships between microfinance, livelihoods, autonomous adaptation, and environmental and climate hazards. Methods included a household survey, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. The fieldwork was iterative and sequenced to facilitate subsequent research and triangulation. Analytical categorisation was undertaken iteratively, building on initial descriptive coding and drawing on literature themes to interpret the material. The first thesis objective was to explore features and patterns of autonomous household livelihood adaptation to better understand responses to environmental and climate hazards. Most households were found to have implemented reactive measures reducing livelihood risk. Two forms of transformational adaptation linked to socioeconomic status emerged: low-cost involuntary measures which reduce income, and high-cost voluntary measures taking advantage of emerging opportunities. The second objective was to explore the influence microfinance had on household efforts to reduce vulnerability to environmental and climate hazards. Households used credit to cope and adapt but credit limits prevented many households from adopting transformative opportunities. Often credit usage sacrificed longer term prospects for livelihood improvement for short-term security and at times led to over-indebtedness. The third objective was to explore how local-level microfinance institution representatives have responded to environmental and climate hazards and their ability to foster adaptation. Branch managers have done little in response to the problems posed by flooding, and are unable to screen clients or effectively manage aggregated risk. Reducing vulnerability by encouraging adaptation among clients holds promise but climate proofing products and partnering with other institutions is required. The thesis demonstrates that the existing literature relies on an overly simplistic view of potential microfinance-adaptation linkages, arguably due to insufficient consideration of adaptation concepts. However, the microfinance-adaptation literature is in its early stages. This thesis has contributed by providing a more nuanced study, producing different types of data, employing different data collection and interpretation approaches, and exploring both positive and negative linkages. This thesis arguably represents the first in-depth empirical study using an adaptation lens. Several important research findings were uncovered which show both signs of promise and concern. Future research can build upon this thesis, deepening understanding of how and under what conditions microfinance can reduce vulnerability. In summary, this thesis found that microfinance currently does not provide the necessary ingredients households require to transformationally adapt. Considering that future projections estimate non-marginal change to be ever more necessary, adaptation planners cannot rely upon the microfinance system to facilitate sufficient adaptation levels. The microfinance system can arguably benefit as much from adaptation planning as adaptation planning can benefit from microfinance. However, microfinance offers a potential conduit to support vulnerable communities. Microfinance programmes need climate proofing, so that investment patterns incentivised are ‘climate-compatible’. Additionally, microfinance institutions need to partner with other development actors to ensure households receive the holistic support required to adapt and thus reduce institutional vulnerability.

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Lidsell, Karolina. "Women and climate change adaptation : A qualitative research of a gender perspective on climate change adaptation for national authorities in Sweden." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK, Globala studier, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-34899.

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The purpose of this thesis was to investigate if, and how, national authorities integrate a gender perspective into climate change adaptation in Sweden. The study was completed by using qualitative text analysis and content analysis of documents and reports, of two chosen national authorities currently active in the Swedish society. Particularly Yvonne Hirdmans gender system were used as a theoretical framework. The result of the study reveals that national authorities mention gender as an important aspect to climate change, and an important factor of vulnerability in any outcome of a climate disaster. It is also revealed that a gender perspective on climate change adaptation could enlighten the differences between how men and women are affected by climate change, as well as providing solutions to prevent women’s vulnerability in future extreme weather events. A conclusion of the study is that the authorities analysed do integrate a gender perspective in their climate change adaptation work. However, the overall lack of material of a gender perspective on climate change makes it clear that a gender perspective is not fully integrated among national authorities currently active in Sweden.
Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om, samt hur, nationella myndigheter integrerar ett genusperspektiv i klimatanpassning i Sverige. Studien utfördes genom att använda kvalitativ text analys och innehållsanalys av dokument och rapporter från två utvalda nationella myndigheter aktiva i det svenska samhället. I studien användes genusteori och särskilt Yvonne Hirdmans teori Genussystemet. Resultatet av studien visar att nationella myndigheter nämner kön som en viktig aspekt i klimatförändringarna, men även att kön är en avgörande faktor i resultatet av en klimatkatastrof. Studien förtydligar även att ett genusperspektiv i klimatanpassning kan bevisa hur män och kvinnor påverkas olika av klimatförändringarna, samt bidra med lösningar för att undvika kvinnors utsatthet i ett förändrat klimat. En slutsats av studien är att de valda myndigheterna har integrerat ett genusperspektiv i sitt klimatanpassningsarbete. Övergripande brist på information och material kring ett genusperspektiv i klimatanpassning tydliggör dock att ett genusperspektiv inte är helt integrerat i klimatanpassningsarbetet för myndigheter aktiva i Sverige.

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Christoffersson, Moa. "Climate Change Adaptation as Disaster Risk Reduction : A global study of the relationship between exposure to natural hazards and climate change adaptation." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-431519.

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In this thesis, I conduct a global event-data study investigating the relationship between exposure to natural hazards and climate change adaptation. Exposure to natural hazards has previously been linked to actions aimed at reducing risks related to future natural hazards. With climate change, and predicted increase in hazard frequency and intensity, a feasible approach to risk mitigation is climate change adaptation, which can thus be considered a disaster risk reduction strategy. I investigate the effects of disaster frequency and severity on the amount of climate change adaptation actions taken on a subnational level of government, using disaster data from the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT) and data on adaptation actions from CDP. Disaster severity is operationalised in three separate ways to distinguish between different kinds of disaster impacts: in terms of (1) economic damage, (2) how many are affected, and (3) fatalities. I hypothesise that all independent variables are positively related to climate change adaptation, and test the hypotheses using OLS regression. The result depicts a positive correlation between the number of disasters experienced and adaptation actions. I do not see a positive relationship between climate change adaptation actions and the two impact variables total affected and total fatalities. The relationship between economic damages and adaptation actions indicates that economic damages could have different impacts depending on the level of economic development in a country. This study contributes to the integration of the two research fields climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction by studying climate change adaptation as a form of disaster risk reduction, and deepening the knowledge of what can drive adaptation. Finally, this study contributes by showing that the level of economic development could be an important aspect of the exposure-adaptation relationship.

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André, Karin. "Climate change adaptation processes : Regional and sectoral stakeholder perspectives." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Tema vatten i natur och samhälle, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-90500.

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This thesis analyses how societal adaptation processes in public and private sectors at the regional to local level in Sweden are enacted. The thesis pays particular attention to critical factors that constrain or enable adaptation by focussing on: who are the stakeholders, how do different stakeholders perceive their capacity to adapt, and the role of stakeholder interaction in facilitating adaptation processes A combination of two analytical perspectives is used where one is based on key concepts within adaptation literature, and the other draws on boundary crossing and transdisciplinary knowledge production (stakeholders, adaptive capacity, and science-based stakeholder dialogues). The study is conducted within the scope of two overall case studies of local adaptation processes within an urban region, and a land-use based sector, the private forestry sector. The cases are setting the scene for the collection of empirical material which is achieved through qualitative methods, primarily focus groups discussions with local and regional, public and private stakeholders with an interest in, and responsibility for adaptation. The focus groups meetings are organized as a series of meetings to which different participatory techniques are applied. The study also builds on a comprehensive stakeholder mapping. First, the results suggest a systematic method for identifying stakeholders in adaptation research, policy, and planning applicable in both sectors and regions that combines top-down knowledge with experience and knowledge based on bottom-up processes. Second, the analysis of perceived adaptive capacities reveal several facilitating and constraining factors that relates both to the characteristics of climate risks, experience of climate variability and extreme weather events, and responsibility- and decision-making structures. Third, the analysis of the interaction between local experts and scientists show that there is potential for the boundary spanning function of science-based stakeholder dialogues in facilitating adaptation through stimulating questions and sharing different knowledge bases and experiences among the participants. However further attention needs to be taken to the institutional environment and the role of so called anchoring devices that help local experts to contextualise, discus and thus anchor scientific knowledge in their own decision-making context. In conclusion, there are both commonalities between adaptation processes in the two case studies and some marked differences, e.g., regarding the concept of adaptation, what type of adaptation actions that are identified, the perceived opportunities for adaptation and degree of complexity.
Denna avhandling analyserar hur klimatanpassningsprocesser inom privata och offentliga sektorer på regional till lokal nivå i Sverige initieras, utvecklas och genomförs. Avhandlingen ägnar särskild uppmärksamhet åt identifiering av vilka intressenter (”stakeholders”) som är involverade i att underlätta och genomföra anpassning, uppfattningar om anpassningsförmåga samt vilken roll interaktion mellan olika intressenter kan ha för att underlätta anpassning. En kombination av två analytiska perspektiv används som bygger på tidigare forskning om klimatanpassningsprocesser samt transdisciplinär kunskapsproduktion. Studien genomförs inom ramen för två övergripande fallstudier av anpassningsprocesser i en urban region samt den privata skogssektorn. Fallstudierna utgör grunden för insamlingen av det empiriska materialet som bygger på kvalitativa metoder. Den främsta metoden är fokusgruppsdiskussioner med lokala och regionala, privata och offentliga aktörer med intresse av, eller ansvar för klimatanpassning. Fokusgrupperna organiseras som en serie möten där olika deltagandetekniker tillämpas. Studien bygger också på en omfattande intressentkartläggning. I avhandlingen utvecklas och ges förslag på en stegvis metod för att identifiera intressenter för anpassningsprocesser som kan användas inom forskning och praktik. Studien analyserar också hur olika intressentgrupper upplever förmågan att hantera klimatförändringar. Ett antal möjliggörande och begränsande faktorer identifieras så som karaktären på de upplevda klimatriskerna, erfarenhet av klimatvariationer och extrema väderhändelser, samt ansvar- och beslutsstrukturer. Slutligen, analyseras om och i så fall hur interaktionen mellan lokala experter och forskare som deltar i intressantdialoger (”science-based stakeholder dialogues”) kan underlätta anpassning. Resultaten visar att det finns potential genom att deltagarna ges möjlighet att ställa frågor tillvarandra och dela med sig av sina olika kunskapsbaser och erfarenheter, samt utforska olika anpassningsalternativ. Däremot behövs vidare studier för att undersöka betydelsen av det institutionella sammanhanget samt hur olika verktyg (”anchoring devices”) kan bidra när det gäller att förankra och omsätta kunskap om klimatförändringar i olika beslutskontexter. Avslutningsvis visar denna studie på att det finns både likheter och skillnader i hur anpassningsprocesser kommer till uttryck bland de olika aktörsgrupperna inom fallstudierna, t.ex. när det gäller hur begreppet anpassning används, vilken typ av anpassning som identifieras, upplevda möjligheter för anpassning samt graden av komplexitet.

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Cooper, Sarah Jane. "Rural transformations : livelihood adaptation to climate change in Uganda." Thesis, University of Reading, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.590142.

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Adaptation to climate change is difficult because of uncertainties about the future climate and its impacts, the multitude of contexts affected and the dynamic nature of future impacts. Adaptive governance and social learning may provide institutions with the flexibility to tackle this challenge. This study aimed to explore how these processes assist smallholder farmers in Uganda. A mixed methods approach was used. Farmers' perception of the climate, livelihood adaptation and social learning was explored using semi-structured interviews (n=160), and social networks of learning was investigated using an actor-network analysis (n=62). Processes of livelihood resilience were documented with guided interviews and focus group discussions. Farmers perceived a change in the local climate. There were differing perceptions of change in seasonality, but conclusive perceptions of decreasing trends in rainfall and increased variability in intra-seasonal rainfall. No perceptions were supported by meteorological data, except for the rising trend in temperature. Farmers implemented many livelihood coping and anticipatory responses to perceived climate risk, including livestock maintenance, food storage, and planting drought-resistant varieties. Adaptive capacity and perception of farmers differed with their access to assets, entitlements and endowments. Wealthier farmers had more effective responses than marginalised farmers, and perceived drought as higher risk, whereas marginalised farmers perceived extreme rainfall as riskier. Agricultural extension stimulated social learning and contributed to livelihood innovation increasing food security and income. Informal knowledge exchange at other learning platforms, e.g. church, supported marginal farmers and learning was assisted by strong, local leadership and shadow networks at local scales. Reflexivity and multi-stakeholder collaboration were evident in governing institutions. Limited self-organisation and vertical communication among farmers demonstrated few opportunities for shifts in governance and learning was challenged by inequity and elite capture. Livelihood resilience would be improved by further farmer inclusivity, the mainstreaming of adaptation into policy and improved collaboration amongst stakeholders.

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CHEN, CHEN. "Mitigation, Adaptation and Climate Change: Policy Balance under Uncertainty." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/1062.

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Mingliang, Lu. "Coastal Community Climate Change Adaptation Framework Development and Implementation." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/30425.

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As the impacts of climate change become more severe, coastal communities are required to prepare plans for adaptation to the invasive environmental changes. A well-prepared adaptation plan can effectively reduce the overall risks of coastal communities. However, a plan is not the final solution for the climate change on coastal communities. How to take the plan into action and implement it in the local communities and find the opportunities for the enhanced preparedness and development of coastal communities is the primary consideration of this thesis research. Many organizations are engaged in developing adaptation tools and guidebooks. For completing their adaptation plans, communities need to develop clear, operational, action plans, and discover the opportunities to enhance the sustainability of coastal communities. To make coastal communities more sustainable in the face of the changing climate, the public’s attention and community participation is critical. The purpose of this study is to develop an adaptation framework and action plan process system for coastal communities and at the same time, provide the general public with an enhanced opportunity to contribute their understanding about what is being done for their costal community around them and how to react when an event happens. The research is applied to the coastal communities of Richmond County, Cape Breton, Canada as a case study. The result of the work develops an adaptation “Action Plan” website for Richmond County. The website features the development, application, and simulation of a mobile communication “Action plan” application designed and implemented with the action website along to provide coastal community with communication options that exploit the local community network and enhance the community’s capacity for climate change adaptation. The emergency response community mobile app and the accompanying website are models for other communities especially those that from the coastal communities in Canada and the Caribbean as part of the C-Change ICURA project to which this research is affiliated.

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Higbee, Melissa (Melissa Aura). "Climate change adaptation in the U.S. electric utility sector." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/81632.

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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2013.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-101).
The electric utility sector has been a focus of policy efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but even if these efforts are successful, the sector will need to adapt to the impacts of climate change. These are likely to include increased heat waves, drought, extreme precipitation events, and sea level rise. Electric utilities play a key role in providing electricity services in cities that will be facing all of these difficulties. Cities depend on electricity service for public health, safety and economic development. This thesis examines how electric utilities in the United States are approaching climate change adaptation and the factors enabling and constraining these efforts. The thesis draws on an analysis of electric utility responses to surveys distributed by the Carbon Disclosure Project as well as case studies of Consolidated Edison, Entergy, and Pacific Gas & Electric. The case study utilities are incorporating climate change projections into their risk management and capital planning activities. Integrating climate change projections into risk management efforts helps utilities use replacement opportunities to build greater resilience into infrastructure systems and ensure that adaptation strategies take competing demands on resources into account. Both approaches to adaptation are generally recommended by adaptation experts. However, existing internal decisionmaking may not be well suited for incorporating the uncertainties of climate change impacts. The case study utilities could be using Scenario Planning to develop strategies likely to be effective given a range of possible futures, but they are not. I argue that state utility regulatory commissions should consider taking a more active role in providing guidance and oversight to utilities regarding climate change adaptation. They should consider (1) requiring utilities to submit climate change vulnerability assessments and detailed adaptation plans; (2) incorporating climate change risk and adaptation considerations into existing electricity plans; and (3) convening joint climate change planning efforts with utilities, municipal governments, and a range of other stakeholders. Cities and states that would like to see electric utilities put more emphasis on climate change adaptation should consider sharing climate change projections and forecasts of potential climate change impacts. Provision of such information has been effective in encouraging adaptation planning in the case studies. The actual adaptation strategies that utilities have adopted depend largely on the risks they face and the regulatory and policy environment in which they find themselves.
by Melissa Higbee.
M.C.P.

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Matus, Kramer Arnoldo. "Climate change adaptation and tourism in the Mexican Caribbean." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:548c18c7-e3da-4c12-8389-608b8f18909c.

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The Mexican Caribbean tourism sector is highly exposed to hurricane activity, yet coastal tourism is also a major driver influencing regional biophysical and social vulnerability to climate risks. Drawing on a political ecology approach and a vulnerability assessment, this study asks how experiences with extreme hurricane events in the Mexican Caribbean shape climate change adaptation in the regional tourism sector. This study uses multiple methods, scales and field sites to (a) examine how biophysical vulnerability to extreme hurricanes affects the tourism sector, (b) explain the changing conditions of social vulnerability linked to hurricane damage in the tourism sector and (c) assess the present and future opportunities and obstacles for adaptation planning. The main findings show that the region is experiencing a phase of unprecedented high intensity hurricanes. It is uncertain, however, whether changes in hurricane activity exceed natural multi-decadal variability. Tourism is one major driver of land use changes which have resulted in some of the world’s fastest increase in coastal urban sprawl. Most tourism infrastructure is located in areas with the greatest exposure to hurricanes. Hurricane Wilma which hit the region in 2005 is the most expensive natural disaster in the history of the Mexican insurance industry. Hotels have showed a high ability to recover operations after hurricanes. There is a high penetration of insurance ownership in hotels and there is substantial mobilization of public and private financial and human resources during hurricane disasters. Hotel responses to hurricanes, however, tend to be reactive and autonomous. One important consequence of hurricanes is that hoteliers in the interest to reduce operational costs, fire those workers with the weakest labour rights. Thus, hotel workers suffer from ‘double exposure’, a situation where hotel workers are confronted with the consequences of climate change while simultaneously suffering the consequences of globalization and neoliberal policies which have reduced the power of unions and weakened access to social security. The Mexican government has created a national climate change strategy and its operational programme which has led to the consolidation of an adaptation organizational structures at the national and state levels. I conclude, however, that adaptation planning may not result in the necessary actions on the ground since local actors are not well integrated yet into such efforts. This study shows the importance of regional adaptation research that takes into account perspectives from both the physical and social sciences. This study highlights the importance of interactions between local actors, the larger socioeconomic and political economy context to inform adaptation planning and policy.

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Dowiatt, Matthew. "Urban Adaptation Planning in Response to Climate Change Risk." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1598284306542077.

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Мельник, Леонід Григорович, Леонид Григорьевич Мельник, Leonid Hryhorovych Melnyk, and D. Uchelor. "Challenges of agricultural adaptation to climate change in Nigeria." Thesis, Сумський державний університет, 2013. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/31649.

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Climate change is one of the most serious environmental threats facing mankind worldwide. It affects agriculture in several ways, including its direct impact on food production. Climate change, which is attributable to the natural climate cycle and human activities, has adversely affected agricultural productivity in Africa When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/31649

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Cheng, Cheng. "Adaptation of buildings for climate change : A literature review." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för byggnadsteknik, energisystem och miljövetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-36143.

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In September 2020, Northeast China suffered three unprecedented typhoons in half a month, and there was freezing rain in early November, all of which led to the large-scale urban power failure. The occurrence of these phenomena makes people directly see climate change and its impact on the living environment of human beings. Many studies have shown that the cause of climate change is the increase of artificial greenhouse gas emissions since industrialization. In addition to the increase of extreme weather disasters, the most direct manifestations of climate change are the rising temperature, droughts, and rising sea levels. The building sector accounts for 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 36% of energy consumption. To ensure the long-term integrity and normal operation of buildings, we need to understand the impact of climate on buildings, and how to deal with it. This paper reviews the literature on climate change and building energy by searching search engines and literature databases. For extreme weather, most literature talks about the impact of power failure, the main strategy is to improve reliability, resilience, sustainability, and robustness, it can help reduce losses and recover as soon as possible. On the other hand, the methods of adaptation to and mitigation of non-disaster weather are reviewed from the perspective of sustainability. This paper mainly reviews the methods of passive technology and strategy for exemplary buildings, building envelope, passive ventilation, lighting/shading, solar energy, bioenergy, dehumidification, passive cooling, and design strategy. According to the local climate, the geographical characteristics of the building, to develop comprehensive passive technology and strategy, can meet or close to meet their energy saving, emission reduction, comfort needs. This paper can provide a technical and strategic reference for the building sector to deal with climate change.

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Serrat, Capdevila Aleix. "Climate Change Impacts in Hydrology: Quantification and Societal Adaptation." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194702.

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The research presented here attempts to bridge science and policy through the quantification of climate change impacts and the analysis of a science-fed participatory process to face a sustainability challenge in the San Pedro Basin (Arizona). Paper 1 presents an assessment of a collaborative development process of a decision support system model between academia and a multi-stakeholder consortium created to solve water sustainability problems in a local watershed. This study analyzes how science-fed multi-stakeholder participatory processes lead to sustainability learning promoting resilience and adaptation. Paper 2 presents an approach to link an ensemble of global climate model outputs with a hydrological model to quantify climate change impacts in the hydrology of a basin, providing a range of uncertainty in the results. Precipitation projections for the current century from different climate models and IPCC scenarios are used to obtain recharge estimates as inputs to a groundwater model. Quantifying changes in the basin's water budget due to changes in recharge, evapotranspiration (ET) rates are assumed to depend only on groundwater levels. Picking on such assumption, Paper 3 explores the effects of a changing climate on ET. Using experimental eddy covariance data from three riparian sites, it analyzes seasonal controls on ET. An approach to quantify evapotranspiration rates and growing season length under warmer climates is proposed. Results indicate that although atmospheric demand will be greater, increasing pan and reference crop evaporation, ET rates at the studied field sites will remain unchanged due to stomatal regulation. However, the length of the growing season will increase, mainly with an earlier leaf-out and at a lesser level by a delayed growing season end. These findings - implying decreased aquifer recharge, increased riparian water use and a lesser water balance - are very relevant for water management in semi-arid regions. Paper 4, in which I am second author, explores the theory relating changes in area-average and pan evaporation. Using the same experimental data as Paper 3, it corroborates a previous theoretical relationship and discusses the validity of Bouchet's hypothesis.

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Huda, Fakir Azmal. "Economic assessment of farm level climate change adaptation options." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/17277.

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Biophysikalische Veränderungen der Produktionsbedingungen zwingen Landwirte zur Anpassung ihrer klimasensiblen Produktionsprozesse. Eine ökonomische Bewertung dieser strategischen Alternativen ist angesichts der Unsicherheiten durch den Klimawandel von hoher Bedeutung. Mit nur wenigen empirischen Studien befindet sich die Forschung in diesem Bereich jedoch noch im Anfangsstadium. Die vorliegende Studie zielt auf die Entwicklung eines integrierten ökonomischen Rahmens für die Bewertung von Anpassungsoptionen ab. Die theoretische und ökonometrische Analyse wird dabei anhand (1) einer prozessorientierten Analyse von Produktionsverfahren und Anpassungsoptionen auf Basis der Theorie der Betriebslehre sowie (2) eines hedonischen (Ricardianischen) Ansatzes, basierend auf der Theorie zu Landrenten und Veränderungen des Nettobetriebseinkommens, in Abhängigkeit von klimatischen Variablen durchgeführt. Die Analyse von Input-Output-Verhältnissen der Reisproduktion basiert auf einer umfassenden Befragung von 300 „klimaangepassten“ Landwirten über acht Jahre in Bangladesch. Es werden insgesamt 14 Anpassungsoptionen für zwei Anbauperioden von Reis identifiziert. Eine Kombination der Methoden ermöglicht dabei drei Vorteile: (1) Eine geringere Ressourcennutzung in Kombination mit einer moderaten produktiven Leistung und einem hohen Nettoeinkommen, (2) eine Verringerung von Treibhausgasemissionen sowie (3) einen klimaangepassten Betrieb. Es wird gezeigt, dass sich Temperaturänderungen in beiden Perioden negativ auf das Betriebseinkommen auswirken. Niederschlagsänderungen sind in allen Modellen signifikant und positiv zu bewerten. Die Studie zeigt eindeutig, dass eine sukzessive Anpassung das Betriebsergebnis signifikant erhöhen und zu einer Steigerung des Betriebseinkommens beitragen kann. Durch die Modellierung der Auswirkungen verschiedener Szenarien des Klimawandels auf das Nettobetriebseinkommen werden die nachteiligen Effekte auf zukünftige Betriebseinkommen aufgezeigt.
The bio-physical change in the production environment has directed farmers towards strategic alternatives for farming practices. The economic assessment of these adaptation options is of great importance in facing the uncertainty of climate change. However, the economic assessment of farm-level adaptation options remains in its infancy with few empirical studies. The study framework analyzes economic implications of alternative farming activities relating to climate change in several dimensions. The theoretical and empirical economic approach of the study can be characterized in two distinct ways: (1) the process-based approach following farm management theory by production performance analysis and the appraisal of adaptation and (2) the hedonic (Ricardian) approach based on land rent theory and the change in net farm income in relation to climatic variables. The analysis of input-output relations of rice farming was done based on an intensive survey of 300 adapted farmers in Bangladesh over 8 years at different climate thresholds. The study assesses different adaptation options for two rice growing seasons, namely Boro and Amon. These options are (1) low resource use, moderate productive performance and high farm net income, (2) minimum GHG production and (3) farms coping with changing climatic conditions. The study reveals that marginal impacts of temperature on farm net income are negative for all seasons. The marginal impacts of rainfall were found to be positive and significant for all models in the study. It is also evident from the analysis that successive adaptation significantly increases farm productivity and contributes to the revival of farm revenue up to a threshold level. Finally, based on estimated climate variability models of farm net income, the study presents a model that simulates according to future climate change scenarios. It indicates adverse effects of climate change on future farm income.

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Rasheed, Ashiq Mohamed. "Adaptation of water sensitive urban design to climate change." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/122960/1/Ashiq%20Mohamed_Rasheed_Thesis.pdf.

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This research developed mathematical models to generate reliable future rainfall data in small spatial and temporal scales, and used them to estimate future floods and water quality scenarios. Outcomes of the study suggested a substantial increase in the occurrences and the extent of future floods and the amount of pollutant that they carry. Outcomes will be highly valued in future-proofing urban flood mitigation measures and water sensitive urban design infrastructure.

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Pariartha, I. Putu Gustave Suryantara. "Optimisation of climate change adaptation for urban stormwater management." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2019. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/127643/1/I%20Putu%20Gustave%20Suryantara_Pariartha_Thesis.pdf.

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This project was a step forward in developing new knowledge relating to the optimisation of the flood mitigation measures adaptation against climate change and urbanisation impacts by considering their uncertainty. The generic outcomes of this study are expected to contribute to the optimisation of design of flood mitigation measures into the future based on costs and the capability to reduce the flood damage.

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Taylor, Anna. "Urban climate adaptation as a process of organisational decision making." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27554.

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In a world that is increasingly urbanised, cities are recognised as critical sites for tackling problems of climate change, both by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing the impacts of changing climate conditions. Unlike climate change mitigation, adaptation does not have one clear, commonly agreed collective goal. Governing and making decisions on climate adaptation in cities entails contestation over knowledge, values and preferences. Currently, the two dominant conceptualisations of adaptation are as cycles or pathways. Do these models adequately theorise what can be empirically observed in cities as to how climate adaptation is undertaken? Most research on urban climate adaptation emanates from the Global North, where political, scientific, economic and administrative systems are well established and well resourced. There is a dearth of empirical research from cities of the Global South contributing to the development of urban climate adaptation theory. This thesis contributes to addressing this gap in two ways. Firstly, by drawing on both conceptual and methodological resources from the field of organisational studies, notably the streams and rounds models of decision making, organisational ethnography and processual case research. Secondly, by conducting empirical case study research on three processes of city scale climate adaptation in Cape Town, South Africa, a growing city facing many development challenges where the local government began addressing climate adaptation over ten years ago. The three adaptation processes studied are: the preparation and adoption of city-wide sectoral climate adaptation plans; the creation of a City Development Strategy with climate resilience as a core goal; and the inclusion of climate change projections into stormwater masterplans. Data were gathered through interviews, participant observation, focus groups and document review, through embedded research within a formal knowledge co-production partnership between the University of Cape Town and the City of Cape Town government. Processual analysis and applied thematic analysis were used to test models of adaptation and decision making against data from the three case studies. The findings suggest that both the cycles and pathways models of climate adaptation inadequately represent the contested and contingent nature of decision making that prevail within the governance systems of cities such as Cape Town. Based on ethnographic knowledge of how Cape Town's local government undertakes climate adaptation, it is argued that the rounds model of decision making provides conceptual tools to better understand and represent how the process of climate adaptation in cities is undertaken; tools that can be used to enhance the pathways model. The study concludes that progress in adapting cities to a changing climate is currently constrained by both the problems and potential solutions or interventions being too technical for most politicians to deal with and prioritize and too political for most technical and administrative officials to design and implement. It calls for urban climate adaptation to be understood as distributed across a multitude of actors pursuing concurrent, discontinuous processes, and thereby focus needs to be on fostering collaboration and coordination, rather than fixating on single actors, policies, plans or projects.

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Ayers, Jessica. "Understanding the adaptation paradox : can global climate change adaptation policy be locally inclusive?" Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2010. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/393/.

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The governance of climate change adaptation presents a paradox: Climate change is a global risk, yet vulnerability is locally experienced. In order to address this paradox, debates in environmental governance need to find ways of integrating local perceptions of risk with global risk assessments. But how can local inclusiveness be achieved in the context of global environmental risks, and what kinds of institutions are needed? Accordingly, this thesis looks at three inter-related concepts from the social sciences that address the challenge of inclusive policy making, but are as yet under-examined in the context of climate change adaptation: (i) Participation, drawing from development studies; (ii) Expertise, drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS); and (iii) Deliberation, drawing from political science. It is argued that these concepts have not been sufficiently advanced to take account of the challenges raised by the ‘adaptation paradox.’ The hypothesis of this thesis is that this paradox gives rise to a globalised discourse on adaptation that restricts discussion of risk to ‘global’ and technical expertise, and is not open to localised vulnerability-based knowledge about how risks are experienced. This hypothesis is tested by asking: i) What is the evidence that conflicting definitions of climate risk inhibit inclusive adaptation policy making? And ii) Under what circumstances is local inclusiveness achieved under global climate change policy frameworks? This study collects and analyses a new set of data on the main avenue for the inclusion of vulnerable groups in adaptation policy making: National Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs). Through a detailed empirical case study analysis of the NAPA process in Bangladesh and Nepal, this study examines the evidence that NAPAs achieved inclusiveness, and the circumstances of more inclusive decisionmaking. This data suggests Nepal took a more inclusive approach to NAPA preparation than Bangladesh; and that this was a result of the choices around how to ‘do inclusiveness’ that were in turn influenced by the historical and political contexts within which these decisions were made. Based on these findings, the thesis argues that current approaches to ‘local inclusiveness’ in global adaptation policy need to pay more attention to the deliberative component of participatory policy making, in terms of how deliberative institutions can shape participatory spaces, and how history and politics have in turn shaped how deliberation takes place in each location.

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Kim, Kyungwoo. "Effects of Disasters on Local Climate Actions: Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Actions." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2017. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1062866/.

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This dissertation investigates the effects of natural disasters and political institutions on municipalities' climate change policies. Although most theoretical frameworks on policy adoption highlight the roles of extreme events as exogenous factors influencing policy change, most studies tend to focus on the effects of extreme events on policy change at the national level. Additionally, the existing theoretical frameworks explaining local policy adoption and public service provision do not pay attention to the roles of extreme events in local governments' policy choices. To fill those gaps, this dissertation explores the roles of natural disasters and political institutions on municipal governments' climate change policies. It does this by applying the theory of focusing events to local climate mitigation and adaptation actions. Based on the policy change framework, the political market model, and the institutional collective action frameworks, this dissertation develops and tests hypotheses to examine the effects of natural disasters and political institutions on municipalities' climate mitigation and adaptation policies. The dissertation uses 2010 National League of Cities (NLC) sustainability surveys and the 2010 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) sustainability survey to test the hypotheses. Analytical results show that floods and droughts influence local climate change policies and suggest that local governments can take advantage of extreme events when initiating a policy change. The results also suggest that political institutions can shape the effects of natural disasters on municipalities' climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

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Moniruzzaman, Shaikh. "Climate change adaptation and recovery from climate hazards : microeconometric evidence from rural Bangladesh." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2017. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3682/.

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This thesis addresses two important issues of environmental and resource economics: how agricultural households adapt to climate change (CC) and how the households recover from climate hazards. Chapter 1 attempts to enunciate the perspective of the overall research and the rationale for researching on Bangladesh. It summarizes the global evidences of CC and disaster, their impacts, vulnerabilities in agriculture sector, significance of adaptation and poverty impact of disaster. Chapter 2 examines whether crop choice is affected by CC and the extent to which households switch their crops in response to the CC scenarios. It finds that crop choice is climate-sensitive and a shift in crop choices will take place in Bangladesh in response to CC scenarios. This research also finds that crop choice will be more sensitive to change in temperature than change in rainfall. Chapter 3 examines the effect of CC on crop diversification and the households’ response to CC scenarios. It finds that crop diversity is climate sensitive and this diversity in different locations varies with climatic conditions. Effects of rainfall scenarios on crop diversity are much lower compared to the effects of temperature. Chapter 4 investigates the impact of cyclone on consumption and income dynamics in a quasi-experimental setting and finds that low income people are more sensitive of their asset loss to income generation compared to the high income people, and disaster causes income loss, but, people show their resilience in accelerating higher income growth compared to the non-affected areas. Chapter 5 examines poverty group dynamics in the post-shock period and the existence of a poverty trap in the cyclone affected coastal region of Bangladesh. It finds that asset loss or asset holding impacts the dynamism of the poverty groups and poverty traps exists at low levels of income in the disaster affected areas compared to the unaffected areas.

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Fustec, Klervi. "Processus multi-échelles, enjeux environnementaux et construction étatique : le cas de l'autorité palestinienne, des politiques de gestion de l'eau et du changement climatique." Thesis, Montpellier 3, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014MON30068/document.

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Cette thèse analyse les relations de pouvoir qui se jouent autour des enjeux environnementaux (gestion de l'eau et changement climatique) dans le processus de construction étatique de l'Autorité palestinienne, entité gouvernementale sous régime d'aide et marquée par l'occupation israélienne. Elle mobilise la sociologie de l'action publique, la political ecology et les science and technology studies afin d'étudier les processus multi-échelles de co-construction de l'ordre social et de l'environnement à travers les savoirs, la définition des problèmes et les politiques adoptées pour y répondre. Cette recherche analyse les liens entre l'aide internationale, le développement, l'environnement et la volonté de consolidation du pouvoir de l'Autorité palestinienne. Elle se penche sur la circulation et l'hybridation des savoirs et des solutions d'action publique. En dehors de l'action des décideurs nationaux et internationaux, d'autres acteurs (ONG, organisations humanitaires) interviennent et mobilisent d'autres représentations des problèmes environnementaux et des solutions à apporter en interactions avec leurs représentations du territoire et du conflit. Cette thèse se fonde sur une série d'entretiens et de discussions informelles, la littérature grise sur le sujet et de nombreuses observations participantes
This thesis analyses the power relations involved in environmental issues (water management and climate change) and the process of state building of the Palestinian Authority, an entity dependent on international aid and under israeli occupation. This thesis mobilises sociology of public action, political ecology and science and technology studies in order to examine the multi-level processes of co-construction of social order and environment through knowledges, problems definition and public policies adopted to tackle them. This research analyses the interactions between international aid, development and environment and the objective of empowerment of the Palestinian Authority. It focuses on the circulation and hybridisation of knowledge and public policy solutions. Beyond national and international decision makers, other actors such as NGOs or humanitarian organisations participate and mobilise other representations of environmental problems and solutions in relation with their representations of the territory and the conflict. This thesis is based on a series of interviews, informal discussions, grey literature dealing with the subject and observational work

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Huy, Luong Quang. "Climate change adaptation : Engaging local society in the research process." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.522275.

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Oh, Yu Kyung. "Climate change adaptation in London through resilient ecosystem services management." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2018. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/climate-change-adaptation-in-london-through-resilient-ecosystem-services-management(c1b8b3aa-04d5-4151-83da-9971ed59f95f).html.

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As urban populations continue to grow around the world, cities and their residents become increasingly vulnerable to climate change risks. Detrimental impacts on natural ecosystems have been observed in the built environment, as well as poorer quality of life. As urban areas are characterised by complex adaptive systems, the concept of ecosystem services represents an important tool for the management of urban socio-environmental quality and can be applied to climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. This thesis investigates London’s potential resilience to climate changes through ecosystem services management. In particular, the socioecological capacity of the All London Green Grid for contributing to climate change resilience via patterns of green spaces, and carbon storage and sequestration through urban street trees, will be the central focus in the research. This capacity was assessed firstly by conducting an evaluation of the landscape metrics of Greater London’s green spaces to determine the extent and quality of green infrastructure, and how this varies according to relevant socioeconomic variables. This was achieved using GIS and the spatial analysis programme FRAGSTATS. This broad-scale evaluation was then supported by greater in-depth field measurements, focusing specifically on street trees, within selected eleven Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), which are an important vehicle for the local management of the ALGG and thereby climate resilience. This local-scale assessment also incorporated greater evaluation of ecosystem service provision by vegetation, and in particular street trees and their capacity for carbon storage and sequestration. Finally, governance of green spaces within BIDs and broader understanding of resilience and climate change was assessed with qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews of different agents and agencies involved in the ALGG network. This included investigation of decision-makers’ perspectives on vulnerabilities and the prospects for further developing London green spaces, to determine the feasibility of different management options.

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Patel, Toral. "Funding for adaptation to climate change : the case of Surat." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90100.

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Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-84).
The need for cities to adapt to climate change is widely acknowledged, yet the question of adaptation finance remains uncertain. Unable to access global climate funds, cities must seek out alternative sources to support their adaptations to climate change. This is particularly challenging for local governments in India, where incomplete fiscal decentralization has resulted in severe developmental deficits and resource constraints. Using Surat, Gujarat, as a case study, this research examines how cities in India might fund climate adaptation despite limited fiscal and administrative autonomy. It furthermore explores how the urban finance system might affect the implementation of climate adaptation strategies at the city level. Evidence comes interviews with key officials, municipal budget data, and public planning documents. The case study suggests that cities can effectively marshal funds from international, national and state sources to invest in climate adaptation. Some of these funding sources explicitly support adaptation, whereas others are linked to broader urban development or disaster risk reduction objectives. The research findings indicate that relying on external sources has required trade-offs between policy agendas, resulting in a fluid understanding of "climate adaptation" on the ground. While the urban finance system appears to have encouraged experimentation in Surat, it may constrain the effectiveness of climate adaptation at the city level. Dependence on intergovernmental transfers and grant aid limits the ability of cities in India to set and maintain local priorities, thereby narrowing the scope for effective and sustainable climate adaptation outcomes. Limited fiscal autonomy has hindered access to alternative sources to finance, such as public-private partnerships and municipal bonds. It has also contributed to a project-based approach that may compromise a longer-range and more comprehensive vision for adapting to climate change. In this setting, experimentation and innovation in financing climate adaptation at the city level will be crucial to moving forward. Keywords: urban climate adaptation, municipal finance, multilevel climate governance, India.
by Toral Patel.
M.C.P.

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Deryng, Delphine. "Climate change and global crop yield : impacts, uncertainties and adaptation." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/50712/.

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As global mean temperature continues to rise steadily, agricultural systems are projected to face unprecedented challenges to cope with climate change. However, understanding of climate change impacts on global crop yield, and of farmers' adaptive capacity, remains incomplete as previous global assessments: (1) inadequately evaluated the role of extreme weather events; (2) focused on a small subset of the full range of climate change predictions; (3) overlooked uncertainties related to the choice of crop modelling approach and; (4) simpli�ed the representation of farming adaptation strategies. This research aimed to assess climate change impacts on global crop yield that accounts for the knowledge gaps listed above, based on the further development and application of the global crop model PEGASUS. Four main research topics are presented. First, I investigated the roles of extreme heat stress at anthesis on crop yield and uncertainties related to the use of seventy-two climate change scenarios. I showed large disparities in impacts across regions as extreme temperatures adversely a�ects major areas of crop production and lower income countries, the latter appear likely to face larger reduction in crop yields. Second, I coordinated the �rst global gridded crop model intercomparison study, comparing simulations of crop yield and water use under climate change. I found modelled global average crop water productivity increases by up to 17�20.3% when including carbon fertilisation e�ects, but decreases to {28�13.9% when excluding them; and identi�ed fundamental uncertainties and gaps in our understanding of crop response to elevated carbon dioxide. Third, to link climate impacts with adaptation, I introduced the recently developed concept of representative agricultural pathways and examined their potential use in models to explore farming adaptation options within biophysical and socio-economic constraints. Finally, I explored tradeo�s between increasing nitrogen fertiliser use to close the global maize yield gap and the resulting nitrous oxide emissions. I found global maize production increases by 62% based on current harvested area using intensive rates of nitrogen fertiliser. This raises the share of nitrous oxide emissions associated with maize production from 20 to 32% of global cereal related emissions. Finally, these results demonstrated that in some regions increasing nitrogen fertiliser application, without addressing other limiting factors such as soil nutrient imbalance and water scarcity, could raise nitrous oxide emissions without enhancing crop yield.

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Mulwa, Chalmers Kyalo. "Climate change adaptation and sustainable agricultural intensification in developing countries." Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Commerce, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32847.

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The recent threat of climate change has exacerbated the inherent risks in smallholder farming such as soil degradation, resulting in an unprecedented decline in agricultural yields in developing countries. This has threatened the livelihoods of large segments of populations that are heavily dependent on agriculture for survival in these regions. This dissertation focuses on identifying barriers and enablers of effective management of these risks, with an aim of coming up with potential policy interventions that can reduce vulnerability to the mentioned risks. To achieve this, the dissertation utilizes various methods and approaches as well as diverse datasets in two countries in sub Saharan Africa i.e. Namibia and Kenya. Diversification into non-farm activities is seen by many as a risk management strategy in rural areas where highly variable low farm incomes are transformed into stable high non-farm incomes, thus improving the welfare of the rural populations. While this theory of change is uncontested, the importance that the agricultural sector plays as a source of livelihood for rural populations, as well as food provisioning for urban populations, cannot be downplayed. This is more so given the limited non-farm opportunities in developing countries and the exponential population growth in these countries. The two factors combined impede on the envisioned transformation of rural production sectors and also create a sub-population of food insecure urban poor due to rural-urban migration. To mitigate these problems, rural agricultural development is still paramount and strategies that enhance resilience to risks in the sector are still vital. Chapter 2 of this dissertation focuses on this issue and addresses how farm diversification can be leveraged for improved food security in the rural areas, which has potential spill-over effects to other segments of the population. Focusing on northern Namibia, the study evaluates how different levels of diversification in both crop and livestock farming affect household food security outcomes i.e. per capita food expenditure and dietary diversity score. The study employs relatively new econometric methods in these type of studies to evaluate the joint determinants to both crop and livestock diversification, as well as their singular and joint effect on mentioned food security outcomes. The results show that high levels of diversification in either enterprise leads to high food security outcomes. Combined with climate change adaptation strategies that create resilience of agricultural production to climatic shocks, the use of sustainable agricultural intensification practices can further enhance productivity in the sector. Inputs like inorganic fertilizer, organic manure and improved seeds can further build on resilient systems to improve yields. Chapter 3 of this dissertation addresses this issue by looking at whether changes in the larger agri-food systems can be used to incentivize take up of such practices at the farm level. The study evaluates how the emergence of large traders in smallholder grain markets can drive the uptake of inorganic and organic fertilizer and improved seeds. The study thus expands the intervention space available to policy makers who have in the past resorted to potentially distortionary direct policies in the input markets e.g. through subsidy provision, as well as in the output markets e.g. through regulation of prices. To achieve this, the study uses a large panel dataset from Kenya spanning over a decade to evaluate how engagements between farmers and these market actors can be leveraged to drive adoption of these sustainable intensification inputs. Results show that engagements between large grain traders and farmers enhance use of inorganic fertilizer. There is no evidence that these engagements lead to enhanced use of improved seeds or manure. However, past use of improved seeds and manure are shown to affect their subsequent use, implying path dependency in the use of these sustainable inputs hence low dis-adoption rates. Traditional technology adoption studies show that access to information is a critical success factor for the uptake of new technology. Proxy variables for information access, for example proximity to extension services or frequency of extension contact, have consistently been shown to be positively correlated with technology adoption. In the context of climate change, access to weather information can be a critical factor to adoption of adaptation technology. Chapter 4 of this dissertation deals with this issue and assesses whether provision of weather information to farmers can enhance adoption of improved farming technologies that are resilient to climatic shocks. The study focuses on northern Namibia where access to such information, as the study shows, is very limited. A framed experiment approach is utilised to evaluate how climate change-induced uncertainty affects farmers' decision making in a farming season, based on their elicited behavioural attitudes towards risk and uncertainty. Further, the study tests whether providing weather information that reduces this uncertainty leads to adoption of technologies that are welfare improving. Lastly, the demand for weather information is assessed by eliciting the willingness to pay for information under various levels of weather uncertainty. Results indicate that high levels of uncertainty dampen uptake of welfare improving technologies, regardless of individual attitudes towards uncertainty. Availing of weather information leads to welfare improving technology choice, given the prevailing levels of weather uncertainty. There is also a high demand for weather information which is shown to increase with increase in the level of weather uncertainty. The chapters in the dissertation therefore identify key policy variables that can be used to manage vulnerability to risks emanating from climate change and unsustainable production in smallholder farming. Access to comprehensive climate information encompassing weather information and climate change-specific management information on both crop and livestock farming is shown to be a key factor in the uptake of adaptation strategies like use of resilient inputs and farm diversification. Interventions along the value chain like teaming up with large market actors in a private-public engagement is shown to be a potential pathway towards enhancing uptake of sustainable intensification inputs. Other policy variables like credit provision, high education and access to off-farm incomes are also key in explaining uptake of risk management strategies by smallholder farmers in Namibia and Kenya.

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Komey, Audrey N. K. "Institutional Adaptation to Climate Change and Flooding in Accra, Ghana." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1438820921.

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Rafael, Sandra Isabel Moreira. "Urban air quality and climate change: vulnerability, resilience and adaptation." Doctoral thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/23029.

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Doutoramento em Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente
As cidades, áreas que albergam cerca de 70% da população europeia, enfrentam hoje um conjunto de desafios associados a alterações do metabolismo urbano, que num contexto de alteração climática (AC), afectam o microclima urbano e a qualidade do ar (QA). Compreender a interação entre as AC, qualidade do ar e fluxos urbanos de calor (FUC) é um tópico de investigação emergente, reconhecido como área de interesse para a definição e implementação de políticas locais. O principal objetivo do presente trabalho é promover uma avaliação integrada das interações entre medidas de resiliência urbana e as AC, e respectiva influência no microclima urbano, QA e FUC, tendo como caso de estudo a cidade do Porto (Portugal). Pretende-se ainda impulsionar o desempenho dos modelos numéricos para que estes representem realisticamente os fenómenos físicos que ocorrem nas áreas urbanas. Para atingir este objetivo, o sistema de modelos WRF-SUEWS foi aplicado para a área de estudo para avaliar a influência de diferentes níveis de área urbanizada nas trocas de calor entre a superficie e a atmosfera. O modelo foi validado mediante a comparação dos seus resultados com dados medidos obtidos em campanhas de monitorização de fluxos. A influência das variáveis meteorológicas nos FUC, e a forma como estas, por sua vez, são influenciadas pela superfície urbana foi também avaliada. Para tal, o sistema WRF-SUEWS foi aplicado para 1-ano representativo de um período de clima presente (1986-2005) e de clima futuro de médio prazo (2046-2065). O cenário climático futuro foi projetado tendo por base o cenário RCP8.5. Esta análise permitiu quantificar e mapear os efeitos das AC nos FUC na cidade do Porto. Face à necessidade corrente de aumentar a resiliência urbana a futuros eventos meteorológicos extremos (e.g. ondas de calor), o sistema WRF-SUEWS foi ainda aplicado (com uma resolução espacial de 200 m) para avaliar a influência de medidas de resiliência nos FUC. Conhecendo a importância da morfologia urbana para as características do seu próprio clima, um conjunto de parameterizações urbanas (LSM, SUEWS e UCM) foram analisados para área de estudo, por forma a obter uma representação realista das características urbanas no modelo WRF e, consequentemente, obter um melhor desempenho na modelação da QA à escala local. Os resultados revelaram que o modelo UCM é a parameterização urbana que melhor representa os fluxos turbulentos de calor, a temperatura e velocidade do vento à superfície. Como resultado, o modelo CFD VADIS, inicializado pelo modelo WRF-UCM, foi aplicado com uma elevada resolução espacial (3 m) a um bairro típico da cidade do Porto. As simulações realizadas permitiram caracterizar o estado atual da QA na área de estudo, bem como avaliar a influência de diferentes medidas de resiliência nos padrões de velocidade do vento e na concentração de poluentes atmosféricos (PM10, NOX, CO e CO2). Este trabalho constitui uma ferramenta científica inovadora no que diz respeito ao conhecimento dos processos físicos que ocorrem à escala urbana, proporcionando uma visão integradora entre AC, QA e FUC. Estes resultados são relevantes para o apoio à decisão política do que respeita à implementação de estratégias que permitam aumentar a resiliência urbana, nas suas diversas vertentes, a um clima em mudança
Cities, home of about 70% of the European population, are facing important challenges related to changes in urban structure and its metabolism, and to pressures induced by climate change (CC) effects, which are affecting urban microclimate and air quality. The better understanding of the interactions between CC, air quality and urban surface energy balance (USEB) is an emerging priority for research and policy. The main objective of the current study is to provide an integrated assessment of the interaction between resilience measures and CC effects, and its influence on the urban microclimate and air quality as well as on the USEB, having as case study the city of Porto (Portugal). The ultimate goal is to improve the accuracy of numerical modelling to better represent the physical processes occurring in urban areas. For this purpose, the relevant parameters to both USEB and air quality were analysed. The WRF-SUEWS modelling setup was applied to the study area to assess the influence of different levels of urbanization on the surface-atmosphere exchanges. To validate the modelling setup, the results were compared with measurements carried out on field campaigns. The way of how the meteorological variables affect the USEB and how, in turn, these variables are themselves affected by urban surface was also assessed. The modelling setup was applied for 1-year period statistically representative of a present (1986-2005) and medium-term future (2046-2065) climate. The climate projection was produced under the RCP8.5 scenario. This analysis gives insights of how the urban-surface exchanges will be affected by CC, allowing the mapping of the FUC over the study area. As result of the need of increase cities resilience to future extreme weather events (e.g. heat waves), the WRF-SUEWS model (with a spatial resolution of 200 m), was applied to Porto city to evaluate the influence of a set of resilience measures on the USEB. Knowing the importance of urban surfaces to its own microclimate, a set of urban parameterization schemes (LSM, SUEWS and UCM) were analysed for the study area, to achieve a more accurate representation of urban features in the WRF model and, in consequence, to improve the capability of air quality modelling at urban/local scale. The results point out that the UCM is the urban parameterization that provides a more realistic representation of the turbulent energy fluxes and the near-surface air temperatures and wind speed. As result, a CFD modelling (VADIS), forced by WRF-UCM, was used to provide a set of numerical simulations with a high spatial resolution (3 m) over a typical neighbourhood in the Porto city. These simulations allow the characterization of the current air quality status over the study area, as well as the assessment of the influence of different resilience measures in the wind flow and air pollutants dispersion (PM10, NOX, CO and CO2). Overall, this research work is a step forward in understanding the physics of urban environments, providing also a linkage between CC, air quality and USEB. These findings are highly advantageous to support policy makers and stakeholders helping them to choose the best strategies to mitigate extreme weather events and air pollution episodes and so increase cities resilience to a future climate.

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Araujo, Brandon. "Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change: How Risk Influences Decision-Making." UNF Digital Commons, 2017. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/744.

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Climate change is currently threatening the livelihoods of farmers in developing countries. Psychological models have been developed to identify factors associated with adapting to climate change; however, little work has investigated the role of farmers’ risk attitudes in these models. We assessed perceptions of adaptation cost and adaptation intentions for five drought- specific adaptive behaviors among 550 farmers from 12 villages in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, as well as their attitudes toward risk. Results suggest that perceived adaptation cost and risk attitude are negatively associated with adaptation intentions. The conditional effect of adaptation cost on adaptation intention as a function of risk attitude was also investigated. Results showed that only farmers with risk averse attitudes were impacted by their perceptions of adaptation costs. These findings have implications for those interested in increasing adaptive practices of farmers in developing countries who face increasingly scarce water supplies.

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Knapp, Corrine Noel. "Engaging local perspectives for improved conservation and climate change adaptation." Thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3607055.

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Climate change is a global process that will impact local places in heterogeneous and unpredictable manners. This dissertation considers whose knowledge and observations could contribute to conservation and climate adaptation planning, how perceptions influence social-ecological feedbacks, and how science could be more relevant to decision-makers and local residents. In Chapter 2, I report on interviews (n=36) conducted with ranchers and recreation-based business owners in Colorado to understand their self-perceptions of resilience and vulnerability. I find that ranchers perceive more exposure and sensitivity to climate change and they also demonstrate more adaptive capacity than recreation businesses. In Chapter 3, I convey results from interviews (n=83) completed with various long-term residents of the region surrounding Denali National Park and Preserve. I find that people who have more direct and ongoing experience with natural resources (subsistence users, bus drivers, business owners) have a greater number and more diverse observations of change than Park employees or scientists. In Chapter 4, I describe results from interviews (n=26) with community-defined Gunnison Sage-grouse experts. I find that formal and observational experts had very different explanations of the decline of Gunnison Sage-grouse and disagreed about potential conservation strategies. In Chapter 5, I describe multi-method surveys (41) conducted with ranchers in the Gunnison Basin to understand their perceptions of the potential listing of the Gunnison Sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act, and their planned responses. I find that ranchers tend to have negative perceptions of the listing and that they plan to take actions, including sales of land and water and decreased participation in conservation efforts, which may result in harm to the Gunnison Sage-grouse. In Chapter 6, I review stakeholder-generated climate change needs assessments (63) to assess the suggestions made to make science more relevant to decision-making. Their suggestions include: interdisciplinary approaches, place-based focus, increased data-sharing and collaboration, and user-driven research. This dissertation demonstrates the importance of understanding perceptions for effective conservation and adaptation, identifies the existence of proactive adaptation strategies, highlights the value of local knowledge in specific situations, and reveals how failure to engage local people may lead to inequitable outcomes.

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Saritas, Alan. "Perceptions of barriers to climate change adaptation by Uppsala farmers." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-398615.

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Current emissions are likely to produce substantial impacts for the agricultural sector and the salience for adapting to these changes in the agricultural sector is increasing. While Nordic agriculture is faced with both opportunities and challenges from climate change, a still developing political and institutional structure in combination with an extreme drought during the summer of 2018 is exacerbating existing long-term trends of financial pressure in the sector, particularly for meat and dairy farmers. Previous research has highlighted that there is a relative lack of studies attempting to understand the decision-making process of climate change adaptation and there is a currently a growing field of research focusing on the barriers to adaptation faced by farmers. This study primarily used Grothmann and Patt’s MCCAPP model in order to determine what factors influenced farmers decision-making when deciding to adapt to climate change. The results of this study found that the predominant barrier to adaptation among farmers were uncertainty regarding future climatic impacts, which resulted in a lower confidence in adaptation strategy efficacy to produce financial stability and returns. Climate mitigation was also identified as a potential trade-off when pursuing adaptation strategies. To a lesser degree, farmers also attested to farm-level differences, such as the availability of water resources as impacting the strategies that they were able to pursue. Opportunities to facilitate adaptation through institutional support was identified, as farmers both require better information regarding adaptation strategies and subsequent trade-offs and synergies it might create in relation to farmers priority issues such as financial viability and climate mitigation. More effective means of financial assistance to counteract the effects of extreme climatic conditions was also identified. Lastly, social capital was an important facilitator of adaptation implementation, but one that is threatened due to the continuingly deteriorating socio-economic conditions that farmers experience in their sector.

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Rahman, Mokhlesur M. "Community perceptions and adaptation to climate change in coastal Bangladesh." Thesis, Curtin University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/672.

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This research examines local understandings and perceptions of climate change in two coastal villages in Southwest Bangladesh. Based on a combination of survey data and ethnographic field research, it shows how the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the two villages have been affected by various development interventions in the past, more recent changes in local weather patterns and their adaptation to these changes.These adaptive responses are shown to fall within a resilience framework.

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Jahan, Momtaz. "A Systematic Evaluation of Climate Services and Decision Support Tools for Climate Change Adaptation." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/102124.

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Climate services, often refers as decision support tools, are developed to provide information with a view to aid in decision making and policy planning for adaptation due to climate variability and change. This study investigated different publicly available climate services and decision support tools based on previously proposed evaluation framework. This evaluation framework originally consists of four design elements which are divided into nine evaluation metrics for this study. These evaluation metrics are: identification of decision making context, discussion of the role of climate information in decision making, discussion of non-climatic factors, uncertainty of the data presented, accessibility of information, discussion on the development process, sustainability/ ongoing process, discussion of funding sources, and evaluation of the tool through survey, modeling or contingent valuation method. Tools were then given "High", "Medium", and "Low" score for each of the criterion. A total of 19 tools were evaluation for this study. Tools performed relatively well in "characteristics, tailoring, and communication of the climate information" and "governance, process, and structure of the climate service" whereas they got average scores in "problem identification and the decision-making context" and "value of the service provided". Additionally, four case study evaluation of tools showed detail evaluation of how the tools performed against each of the criterion. The results of this study showed the relative strengths and weakness of the evaluated tools which can be used to improve existing climate services to aid in adaptation decision needs for climate change. This will also help in better decision making and policy planning for different sectors impacted by the changing climate.
Master of Science
Climate services, often refers as decision support tools, are developed to provide information with a view to aid in decision making and policy planning for adaptation due to the adverse impacts caused by climate variability and change. This study investigated a total of 19 publicly available climate services and decision support tools based on previously proposed evaluation framework. This evaluation framework originally consists of four design elements which further classified into nine evaluation metrics and each of tools were given "High", "Medium", and "Low" score against these criteria. These metrics are: identification of decision making context, discussion of the role of climate information in decision making, discussion of non-climatic factors, uncertainty of the data presented, accessibility of information, discussion on the development process, sustainability/ ongoing process, discussion of funding sources, and evaluation of the tool through survey, modeling or contingent valuation method. Evaluated tools performed better than average in terms of uncertainty of the data presented, accessibility of information, discussion on the development process, sustainability/ ongoing process, discussion of funding sources, and feedback/ evaluation criteria whereas they performed below average in problem identification and decision making context, discussion of the role of climate information in decision making, and discussion of non-climatic factors. Four case study evaluation were also presented in this study for better understanding of how the evaluation process works for the tools. The results of this study provide an insight about the relative strengths and weakness of the evaluated tools and these can be used to improve existing climate services tools. This will also help in better decision making and policy planning for different sectors that are being impacted by the changing climate.

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Mellmann, Niels. "Ecosystem-based adaptation – In Theory and Practice : A case study of projects supported by the International Climate Initiative." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-260729.

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Ecosystem-based adaptation as a concept of adapting to the adverse effects of climate change has become a popular approach that enjoys a good reputation. However, the evidence base for it is rather thin. This thesis sets out to explore the challenges and limitations linked to projects that engage in the concept, in order to estimate the potential threat that may lie in the ignorance of them. Timescales of projects related to the concept shall be the second major focus of this thesis as it has not been sufficiently examined yet by the literature. Empirical material has been gathered and analyzed in the form of interviews with people who have been and are currently working in projects related to ecosystem-based adaptation. The results allow recommendations for the implementation of future projects, as lessons learned were identified.

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Leib, Joerg. "How adaptation changes the climate game : climate change regimes in a non-cooperative, asymmetric world." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/14648.

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The history of the UNFCCC climate negotiations over the past 20 years has shown how difficult it is to reach an international climate agreement that is both legally binding and environmentally effective enough to ensure that humankind can avoid the worst consequences projected from climate change. Some experts even see the world drifting towards a 4°C mean temperature rise. It is therefore necessary to start exploring what future, non-cooperative climate change regimes might be expected to look like. One immediate consequence is that adaptation to climate change has become increasingly relevant; on a humanitarian, political, economic and the scientific level. The economic incentive structure of adaptation is different and, actually, more favourable than that of mitigation, with respect to both their inter- and intratemporal externalities. The ability to adapt makes a higher level of climate change tolerable. Furthermore, my research shows that adaptation empowers the poor to develop and to enforce a more equitable use of the atmospheric carbon sink; it may potentially also lead to an overall reduction of carbon emissions. Ultimately, it turns out that even in a non-cooperative, asymmetric world, there are prospects for clean technology transfer and adaptation funding. Drawing on the AK growth model with climate change developed by Buckle (2009a,b), the aim of this work is (i) to create a tractable, transparent economic growth model that includes climate damages and emissions abatement, (ii) to develop an adequate analytical representation of adaptation, and (iii) to analyze with the help of game-theoretic methods how the option to undertake adaptation affects the strategic nature of climate negotiations and, in particular, the outcome under a non-cooperative climate change regime.

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Pondorfer, Andreas [Verfasser]. "Essays on Climate Change and Adaptation in Developing Countries / Andreas Pondorfer." Kiel : Universitätsbibliothek Kiel, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1099952174/34.

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Meng, Sisi. "Economic Aspects of Climate Change Adaptation and Natural Hazard Risk Mitigation." FIU Digital Commons, 2016. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2630.

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According to Munich Re (2013), economic losses related to natural disasters have increased from an average of $50 billion in the 1980s to $200 billion over the last decade. The cost of natural disasters is accumulating rapidly and some claim that climate change is responsible. Others believe that human behaviors like population growth or land use should be blamed for these rising costs. The process of climate change has already taken place, and it is expected to continue to impact the future. As a result, people are more vulnerable today. Therefore, understanding the economic aspects of climate change and natural hazard risks should be considered as a major issue and addressed in greater detail. This dissertation aimed to explore household preferences of climate change adaptation and the economic impacts of natural hazards at both micro- and macro- levels. The dissertation consisted of three related empirical studies based on the two main changes that will occur with climate change predicted by scientific climate models: stronger hurricanes and rising sea levels. The first chapter examined the impact of a recent hurricane on household activities. The objective was to find out whether a more intensified hurricane caused greater damages, and whether such damages had a long-lasting impact on household recovery. If the impact of natural hazards is worse than before, people should avoid putting themselves in harm's way. However, evidence indicates that the population in coastal cities is still growing fast, as people tend to reside near the beaches and attractive landscapes. Concerns are thus prompted by the possible lack of perceptions for future risks caused by natural hazards. Therefore, the second chapter focused on household perceptions and preferences for adapting to sea level rise in Florida. Lastly, although a disaster strikes rich or poor nations indifferently, some small island nations are among the most vulnerable. In the third chapter, the macroeconomic implications of natural hazards in Central America and the Caribbean were investigated. A careful examination of the economic factors that can lead to smaller losses and higher abilities to cope with disasters is crucial in such countries.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Adaptation to climate change in construction'

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