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Bahadur, Aditya Vansh. "Policy climates and climate policies : analysing the politics of building resilience to climate change." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48873/.
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This thesis seeks to examine the politics of building resilience to climate change by analysing the manner in which policy contexts and initiatives to build climate change resilience interact. For analysis, the ‘policy context' is broken into its three constituent parts- actors, policy spaces and discourses. This permits the addition of new knowledge on how discourses attached to resilience are dissonant with those prevailing in ossified policy environments in developing countries; the influence of actor networks, epistemic communities, knowledge intermediaries and policy entrepreneurs in helping climate change resilience gain traction in policy environments; and the dynamic interaction of interest, agendas and power within decision-making spaces attached to resilience-building processes. This analysis takes place by employing a case-study of a major, international climate change resilience initiative unfolding in two Indian cities. Using data gathered through a variety of rigorous qualitative research methods employed over 14 months of empirical inquiry the thesis highlights issues of politics and power to argue that they are significant determinants of processes to deal with climate impacts. More specifically, it expands current understandings of engaging with climate impacts by exposing gaps in resilience thinking and argues against a technocratic approach to designing and executing resilience policies. In doing so it also demonstrates that resilience, with its emphasis on systems thinking, dealing with uncertainty and community engagement brings new challenges for policy makers. As the study is located in the urban context, it highlights the manner in which fragmented urban policy environments, dense patterns of settlement in cities, urban livelihood patterns and prevailing epistemic cultures can pose obstacles for a policy initiative aimed at building resilience to climate change. Finally, the research underlines the importance of coupling resilience with local narratives of dealing with shocks and stresses, argues for genuine iteration and shared learning during decision-making and highlights the need to celebrate multiple visions of resilience. Findings from this research can help inform a growing number of policy initiatives aimed at deploying resilience to help those battling the exigencies of a changing climate in some of the world's most vulnerable areas.
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Loptson, Claire A. "Modelling vegetation-climate interactions in past greenhouse climates." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.680126.
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The early Eocene to the Cretaceous (48-148 Ma) was a period in the Earth's history where the climate was much warmer than the present day, with no permanent ice sheets and atmospheric CO2 levels higher than the present day. Using the climate model HadCM3L coupled to a dynamic vegetation model, this thesis aims to analyse vegetation-climate interactions during these past greenhouse climates, and how the climate, vegetation and climate sensitivity of these time periods are influenced by changes in palaeogeography and CO2 . The results of these model simulations are also evaluated against climatologically-sensitive geological proxies. Past modelling studies for the early Eocene have struggled to model the shallow equator to pole temperature gradient that data suggests was present during this time. However, most models have neglected vegetation feedbacks and incorporating these may help to reduce the model-data discrepancy. In this thesis, vegetation climate interactions during the early Eocene are modelled and analysed, and the results compared to available proxy data. The model-data discrepancies for temperatures are also reduced when vegetation feedbacks were included (compared to simulations with static vegetation), although there are still differences, particularly at high latitudes. This suggests that the models are still missing important processes or the data is not being interpreted correctly. In addition, twelve consistent simulations are carried out , each representing a different stage of the Cretaceous. Each simulation has the same atmospheric CO2 level, allowing the effect of palaeogeography on climate, climate sensitivity and vegetation to be analysed. It was found that, in general, the temperature trends that occurred in the mid-Cretaceous simulations were consistent with data. However, the data record does not extend to the earliest Cretaceous, and in the late Cretaceous the results deviate from the data. The model results suggest that, in order for the model to be consistent with the data there must have been a decline in CO2 from the early to late Cretaceous, which is supported by the CO2 proxy record. More data from the early Cretaceous needs to be collected in order to carry out a more robust model-data comparison for this time period.
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Kuenzi, Maribeth. "AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF WORK CLIMATE." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2008. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2530.
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Management scholars have become increasingly interested in the role of organizational context. As part of this trend, research on work climates has thrived. This contemporary climate research differs from traditional approaches by concentrating on facet-specific climate types like service or innovation, rather than general, global conceptualizations of climate. Consequently, the climate literature has become fragmented and disorderly. I seek to remedy this in my dissertation. Specifically, I propose and test an integrated model of work climate that examines both molar and facet-specific climates. Chapter 1 is a review of the organizational work climate literature. This review seeks to review, reorganize, and reintegrate the climate literature. In addition, this review brought to light an issue that hinders the integration of the climate literatures: the literature does not contain a quality instrument for assessing the general characteristics of the molar work climate of an organization. In Chapter 2, I develop a theoretically-driven measure of work climate by drawing on the competing values framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). Preliminary results from three studies suggest that the proposed four-component model of molar work climate appears to be viable. The results indicate the instrument has internal reliability. Further, the results demonstrate discriminant, convergent, and criterion-related validity. In Chapter 3, I propose and test an integrated model of work climate by drawing on bandwidth-fidelity theory (Cronbach & Gleser, 1957). I predict that facet-specific climates will be more strongly related to specific outcomes and molar climates will be more strongly related to global outcomes. Further, I suggest weaker, indirect relationships between molar climate and specific outcomes and between facet-specific climates and global outcomes. The results indicate support for my predictions.Ph.D.
Department of Management
Business Administration
Business Administration PhD
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Nasrollahi, Farshad. "Climate and energy responsive housing in continental climates : the suitabiliti of passive houses fir Iran's dry and cold climate /." Berlin : Univ.-Verl. der TU, 2009. http://d-nb.info/998539066/04.
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Faull, Nicholas Eric. "Ensemble climate prediction with coupled climate models." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.442944.
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Harris, Philip P. "Modelling South American climate and climate change." Thesis, University of Reading, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.436614.
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Gbobaniyi, Emiola Olabode. "Transferability of regional climate models over different climatic domains." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4854.
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Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-144).
In the continuing quest to improve climate model predictions to meet the increasing demand for knowledge on the regional effects of global climate change, it is pertinent to increase our understanding of how the underlying processes of climate are represented in the models we use to make these predictions. Concerted efforts in model evaluations and intercomparison have provided numerous insights into various model biases which plague current state-of-the-art regional climate models (RCMs). Model evaluation and assessment is crucial to model development and understanding how physical processes are represented in models is necessary for improving model parameterizations. This thesis explored model transferability as a new approach for systematic process-based intercomparison of RCMs. It investigated an untested transferability hypothesis which states that “for non-monsoon regions experiencing weak synoptic scale forcing, the height of the cloud base is correlated with the daytime surface fluxes”. An initial transferability experiment was conducted over Cabauw, the Netherlands (51.97°N, 4.93°E) to assess the models’ skill in resolving the diurnal and seasonal cycles and to investigate the simulated connections between surface and hydrometeorological variables over a non-monsoon station. The ability of models to resolve these cycles correctly is a good metric of their predictive capabilities. The data used for the study comprises three-hourly surface observations for the period October 2002 – December 2004 from the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) measuring campaigns of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) and three-year simulations (2002 -2004) from five RCMs (CLM, GEMLAM, MRCC, RCA3 and RSM). In simulating seasonal and diurnal cycles of CBH and surface variables, the European models (CLM and RCA3) demonstrate a clear home advantage over the North American models (GEMLAM, MRCC and RSM). Principal component analysis revealed that the models couple the cloud base height with surface fluxes as in observations and that this coupling is not sensitive to changes in wind speed. This study found that summer daytime loadings gave the strongest couplings of variables. Three major processes were identified over Cabauw. First and most dominant is the surface energy process which couples sensible and latent heat with net radiation. The second process is thermodynamic, coupling temperature and surface moisture (specific humidity), and the third is a dynamic process which couples pressure and wind speed. A model intercomparison was then carried out across the six midlatitude domains to test the validity of the Cabauw findings. In observations, CBH is well coupled with the surface fluxes over Cabauw, Bondville, Lamont and BERMS, but coupled only with temperature over Lindenberg and Tongyu. All the models (except GEMLAM) simulated a good coupling with surface fluxes at all stations. In GEMLAM, there is no coupling between CBH and surface fluxes at any station. In less homogenous domains of the study, a very slight decrease in the strength of coupling is seen in most of the models, under strong large scale forcing. This would suggest that the coupling between cloud base height and surface fluxes in the models is possibly more influenced by radiative forcing than by synoptic controls. This second study confirmed the findings at Cabauw that the simulated cloud base is correlated with surface energy fluxes and the sign of the correlations in the models is as in observations. This finding is important for the modeling community as it establishes the fact that the models are actually simulating the direction of influence of surface fluxes and possibly, soil water variability, on cloud processes.
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Hirst, David. "Negotiating climates : the politics of climate change and the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 1979-1992." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2014. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/negotiating-climates-the-politics-of-climate-change-and-the-formation-of-the-intergovernmental-panel-on-climate-change-ipcc-19791992(ee23545e-3448-4a74-aa8a-36b5d622a81a).html.
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Climate change emerged as a topic of public and political concern in the 1980s alongside the discovery of the ‘Antarctic Ozone Hole.’ The issue was raised up the political agenda in the latter half of the 1980s by scientists and international administrators operating in a transnational setting –culminating in the eventual formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. Created to produce a comprehensive assessment of the science, impacts and possible response strategies to climate change, the Panel managed to bridge to the two worlds of science and politics as a hybrid science-policy organisation, meeting the divergent needs of a variety of groups, specifically in the US Government. This thesis will provide an analysis of the negotiations that resulted in the formation of the IPCC in 1988. In particular, I examine the power politics of knowledge production in the relationship between a transnational set of scientists engaged in assessments of climate change and national policymakers. I argue that the IPCC was established as a means of controlling who could speak for the climate, when and how, and as such the Panel legitimised and privileged certain voices at the expense of others. In addition to tracing and examining the history of international climate change assessments in the 1980s, I will scrutinise how the issue became a topic of international political concern. Focusing on the negotiations between the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United States of America in the formation of the IPCC, I will argue against the received view that the U.S. has consistently been in a battle with climate science and the IPCC. As I will show that the U.S. government was both integral to the decision to establish the IPCC and also one of its strongest backers. Following the formation of the Panel I examine the ad hoc decisions taken and processes adopted during the First Assessment (AR1) that contributed to the anchoring of the IPCC as the central authority on climate related knowledge. As such I show that in the absence of any formal procedural guidance there was considerable leeway for the scientists and Working Group Chairs to control and shape the content of the assessment. Finally, I analyse the ways in which U.S. and UK policymakers strategically engaged with the Panel. Significantly, I show that the ways in which the U.S. pushed all political debates to the heart of the scientific assessment imparted a linear approach to policymaking –assessment precedes and leads the policymaking –contributing to the increasing entanglement of the science and politics of climate change. Moreover, the narrow technical framing of the issue and the largely tokenistic attempts to involve participants from developing countries in the IPCC resulted in the UN resolutions (backed by developing countries) establishing the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee/United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (INC/UNFCC) contrary to the wishes of U.S. policymakers.
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Coulter, Liese. "Future climate narratives: knowledge informing climate change adaptation." Thesis, Griffith University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/380061.
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In the current era, recognized by some as the Anthropocene, consequences from climate
change are affecting ecosystems, societies and economies; making it vital to enact adaptation
measures to manage impacts that cannot be avoided. Significant resources and attention have
been invested to improve climate knowledge and its communication on a global level, which is
essential for adaptation. However, some facility with prospection, or future thinking is also
needed to plan for uncertain and future-oriented risks. Future thinking is a cognitive task initiated
by individuals who may be engaged in planning for their own family or community. Such
autonomous adaptation is not well studied but may have a profound effect on the future trajectory
of both climate and society. Therefore, this research focused on what future climate narratives are
being constructed and shared by those engaged in working with climate change knowledge; and
to share those more broadly.
In this research, interviews with Australian and Canadian professionals who worked with
climate change in research, policy, and practice were analysed to gauge in what way their climate
knowledge was linked to autonomous adaptation in personal circles. A novel Future Climate
Narrative (FCN) typology was developed as a structural guide for qualitative analysis, informed
by literature relating to future thinking, climate change adaptation and narrative communication.
Consequently, inductive thematic analysis identified four main climate change adaptation
narratives focused on: Distance, Vulnerability, Agency, and Change.
The research finds that even well-informed professionals who are willing to address
climate change in public, are reluctant to discuss the topic in personal and social circles; instead,
engaging in Distance Narratives that position climate issues as affecting future generations and
faraway lands. Participants made binary assessments when using Vulnerability and Agency
Narratives to depict threats as either negligible, due to high social capacity to adapt and so
requiring no additional personal agency; or as overwhelming, if that social net was insufficient
and therefore, personal agency would be insignificant in the face of global change. Neither
assessment motivated improving personal agency to adapt to climate change. In contrast, the few
participants who engage in Change Narratives express a sense of personal agency to enable
transformation as a response to expected disruptions and display a facility to mentally link with
the past to inform the future. However, the incompatibility of the Change and Distance Narratives
creates a barrier to sharing plans for autonomous adaptation in social circles.
To develop well informed and well-shared climate change adaptation narratives, old
understandings need to be updated with increased focus on future thinking to continually imagine
and re-imagine adaptive behaviours. Otherwise, possible benefits from current adaptive advantages may not be realized. Considering autonomous adaptation to climate change, the
convergent contexts of climate change, the imagined future and shared personal narratives chart a
small but growing field of academic inquiry, to which this research contributes.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Environment and Sc
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Fredrick, Emma G., and Stacey L. Williams. "Campus Climate." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/8065.
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Nasrollahi, Farshad [Verfasser]. "Climate and energy responsive housing in continental climates : the suitability of passive houses for Iran's dry and cold climate / Farshad Nasrollahi." Berlin : Univ.-Verl. der TU, 2009. http://d-nb.info/999692771/34.
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Lucas, Natalie Rose. "Preventing Climate Change: Game Theory in International Climate Politics." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/297705.
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Climate change is a focus of policy debate throughout the world, including international forums a such as United Nations. Despite the great attention given to climate change, little in the way of collective international policy has been forthcoming. This thesis provides a game theoretic analysis of the current lack of international policy. No effective policy is apt to emerge unless everyone comes together to make drastic reforms to policies that affect climate change across the world. This thesis goes into detail as to why, internationally, we are stuck in a suboptimal equilibrium (as in the "stag hunt" game) in climate change negotiations. It then offers several conclusions as to how the game can be solved in order for this problem to have resolutions.
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Opoku, Emmanuela A. "Gender in Climate Policy and Climate Finance in Ghana." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1538740/.
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This dissertation makes use of theoretical frameworks drawn from development theory, ecofeminism, climate science, environmental and distributive justice, and human rights to provide gender analysis of climate policy, including climate finance.The problem addressed is that climate impacts are exacerbating food insecurity that is women's responsibility in the global South. First, I use literature in climate science to detail the impacts of climate change on agriculture in Africa and show how this exacerbates women's poverty that is driven already by persistent socioeconomic inequalities and gender bias. I conclude that women as food producers are especially vulnerable to climate impacts on food security. Next, I assess international climate policy through gender analysis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) against other United Nations (UN) gender policies, followed by gender assessment of Ghanaian climate policy. I conclude that both international and Ghanaian policy fail adequately to address gender and women's needs, despite making advances on gender-inclusion and gender-sensitivity since the turn of the century. I then present a case study in climate finance by evaluating the capacity of an Adaptation Fund Project (AFP) in northeast Ghana to meet women farmers' needs. I gather data from Project implementers and intended beneficiaries, i.e. women in village communities, using interviews and focus group discussions. I conclude that the Project is not successful in engaging women and identify reasons for this failure, including slow distribution of funds to implementers, petty corruption, and community gender biases. In the final chapter, I summarize my findings and make recommendations for policy interventions better to meet women's climate adaptation needs in order to maintain food security and avert the humanitarian crises in hunger that are already well underway in Africa.
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Shimura, Tomoya. "Long Term Projection of Ocean Wave Climate and Its Climatic Factors." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/199255.
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Vuori, Vappu. "“1,5℃ to Stay Alive” - Climate Justice Discourse and Climate Change Denial Discourse in Climate Change Politics." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22691.
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Climate change as a global phenomenon threatens human rights and causes social injustices. This thesis examines the genealogies of climate justice discourse and climate change denial discourse in the context of international climate change politics. The aim is to understand the construction of and the correlation between the discourses and how the discourses relate to human rights. The thesis employs discourse analysis with a conception of climate justice and a neoclassical realist theory applied to climate change politics. Climate justice discourse is found to interact with chiefly moral and political terms, whereas the denial discourse interacts mainly with economic and scientific terms. Consequently, there is a lack of interaction between the discourses as they operate in different levels of communication and it has, to some extent, caused stalemate in climate change politics. Additionally, while climate justice discourse makes use of the human rights framework, the denial discourse undermines it.
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Kuismanen, K. (Kimmo). "Climate-conscious architecture—design and wind testing method for climates in change." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2009. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789514289125.
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Abstract The main objective of this research was to develop practical tools with which it is possible to improve the environment, micro-climate and energy economy of buildings and plans in different climate zones, and take the climate change into account. The parts of the study are: – State of art study into existing know-how about climate and planning. – Study of the effects of climate change on the built environment. – Development of simple micro-climate, nature and built environment analysis methods. – Defining the criteria of an acceptable micro-climatic environment. – Development of the wind test blower. – Presenting ways to interpret test results and draw conclusions. – Development of planning and design guidelines for different climate zones. An important part of the research is the development of the CASE wind test instrument, different wind simulation techniques, and the methods of observing the results. Bioclimatic planning and architectural design guidelines for different climate zones are produced. The analyse tools developed give a qualitative overall view, which can be deepened towards a quantitative analyse with wind testing measurements and roughness calculations. No mechanical rules are suggested, but complementary viewpoints and practices introduced to a normal planning process as well as improvement of consultative knowledge. The “method” is that there is no strict mechanical method, but a deeper understanding of bioclimatic matters. Climate-conscious planning with the developed CASE method, make it possible to design a better micro-climate for new or old built-up areas. Winds can be used in to ventilate exhaust fumes and other pollutants, which improves the quality of air and the healthiness of the urban environment. The analyses and scale-model tests make it possible to shield cold windy areas and to diminish the cooling effect of wind on facades. According to studies in Scandinavian countries this will bring energy savings of 5–15 per cent. The method can be used to: – Evaluation of the cooling effect of wind. Areas and facades exposed to wind. – Evaluation of the wind comfort at the pedestrian level. Windy areas, relative wind speeds. – Enhancing wind-forced ventilation. Positive and negative pressures at the inlets and outlets. – Analysis of the diffusion of pollutants. Ventilation of streets and areas. – Avoiding the damages caused by wind. Planning and designing wind protective solutions. – Characterisation of the wind loading of small and medium-size street architecture items. Designing wind resistant and protective items and plantings. – Analysing the drifting of snow. Placing of snow fencesTiivistelmä Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli kehittää käytännöllisiä suunnitteluvälineitä, joilla voidaan parantaa ympäristöä, mikroilmastoa sekä rakennusten ja kaavojen energiataloutta eri ilmastovyöhykkeissä, sekä varautua ilmaston muutokseen. Tutkimuksen osat ovat: – Selvitys tämän hetkisestä ilmastoon ja suunnitteluun liittyvästä osaamisesta. – Selvitys ilmaston muutoksen vaikutuksesta rakennetulle ympäristölle. – Yksinkertaisten mikroilmasto-, luonto- ja rakennetunympäristön analyysien kehittäminen. – Määritellä hyväksyttävän mikroilmaston kriteerit. – Kehittää pienoismallien tuulitestauslaite. – Kehittää metodit testitulosten analysoimiseksi ja johtopäätösten vetämiseksi. – Laatia kaavoitus- ja rakennussuunnitteluohjeet eri ilmastovyöhykkeille. Tärkeä osa tutkimusta oli CASE tuulitestauslaitteen, erilaisten tuulen simulointitekniikoiden ja testausten havainnointimenetelmien kehittäminen. Kehitettiin bioklimaattisen kaavoituksen ja arkkitehtisuunnittelun suunnitteluohjeet eri ilmastovyöhykkeisiin. Kehitetyt analyysimenetelmät antavat laadullisen yleiskuvan, jota voidaan syventää määrällisen analyysin suuntaan käyttämällä tuulitestausmittauksia ja karheuslaskelmia. Mitään mekaanisia metodeita ei ehdoteta, vaan halutaan lisätä tieto-taitoa sekä uusia näkökulmia ja työtapoja nykyisiin kaavoitus- ja konsultointikäytäntöihin. ”Metodi” on siinä, ettei ole mitään kaavamaista metodia, vaan bioklimaattisten tekijöiden syvempi ymmärtäminen. Kehitetyn CASE metodin mukaisella ilmastotietoisella suunnittelulla voidaan aikaansaada parempi mikroilmasto sekä uusilla että vanhoilla rakennetuilla alueilla. Tuulen avulla voidaan tuulettaa pakokaasut ja muut ilmansaasteet, ja näin parantaa rakennetun ympäristön ilmanlaatua ja terveellisyyttä. Analyysien ja pienoismallien tuulitestauksen avulla voidaan suojautua kylmiltä tuulilta ja vähentää tuulen julkisivuja jäähdyttävää vaikutusta. Skandinaavisten tutkimusten mukaan näin voidaan saavuttaa 5–25 prosentin energiansäästö. Metodia voidaan käyttää mm. seuraaviin tarkoituksiin: – Arvioida tuulen jäähdyttävää vaikutusta. Selvittää tuulelle alttiit alueet ja julkisivut. – Arvioida tuulen vaikutusta jalankulun mukavuuteen. Tuuliset alueet ja suhteelliset tuulennopeudet. – Tehostaa painovoimaista ilmanvaihtoa. Positiiviset ja negatiiviset paineet ilmastoinnin sisäänmeno- ja ulostuloaukoissa. – Analysoida saasteiden leviämistä. Katujen ja alueiden tuulettaminen. – Torjua tuulen aiheuttamia tuhoja. Kaavoittaa ja suunnitella tuulelta suojaavia ratkaisuita. – Luonnehtia pieniin ja keskikokoisiin ulkona oleviin rakenteisiin kohdistuvia tuulikuormia. Suunnitella tuulenkestäviä ja suojaavia rakennelmia ja istutuksia. – Analysoida lumen kinostumista. Lumiaitojen sijoittelu
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Lehmann, Philipp Nicolas. "Changing Climates: Deserts, Desiccation, and the Rise of Climate Engineering, 1870-1950." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:13070077.
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This dissertation examines the impact of the nineteenth-century discussions about climate change and desiccation on large engineering projects in desert regions between 1870 and 1950. It demonstrates that the debate over the variability of global climatic conditions was a product of both internal academic and transnational political developments, and that the perceived threat of advancing desert conditions found a popular and technocratic expression in climate engineering designs.
Against the background of new theories about the earth's geological history, the development of academic geography, the travels of Sahara explorers, and imperialism in North Africa, European geographers and geologists initiated an enduring discussion on the origin of desert environments and the question of large-scale climatic changes in the recent past and present. Using a wide array of evidence ranging from cave paintings found in the interior Sahara and classical travel accounts to modern meteorological data, scientists debated whether North Africa, the entire continent, or even the whole world were undergoing desiccation. While the lack of a widely-accepted causal mechanism behind large climatic changes meant that the academic debate remained unresolved by the beginning of the twentieth century, images of progressing desert conditions had already left the confines of academia, heightening public anxiety over the possibility of future climatic catastrophes on a global scale.
From the early stages of the nineteenth-century debate on climate change, fears of desiccation inspired scientists and engineers to come up with solutions to detrimental climatic shifts, whether these were viewed as man-made or natural. The resulting climate engineering projects were an expression of environmental pessimism paired with a powerful technological optimism. This was apparent in French and British schemes in the late nineteenth century that aimed to flood large parts of the Sahara and effect wide-ranging climatic changes; in the plan of a German architect to engineer a geographically and climatically transformed new Euro-African continent in the 1920s; and eventually in Nazi designs to Germanize and green the "desertified" areas of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.History
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Guido, Zack Scott. "Informing Climate Adaptation: Climate Impacts on Glacial Systems and the Role of Information Brokering in Climate Services." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/347309.
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Recent climate changes show that the historical record is not an appropriate analog for future climate conditions. This understanding calls into question management decisions that assume climate stationarity and consequently the demand for climate information has increased in order to help frame climate risk more accurately. However, deficits in knowledge about climate impacts and weak connections between existing information and resource managers are two barriers to effective incorporation of climate information in resource management, development, risk management, and other climate-sensitive decisions. In research presented here, I showcase results that address knowledge gaps in the impact of climate on glacial resources in Bolivia, South America. I present a mixing model analysis using isotopic and anion tracers to estimate that glacial meltwater contributed about 50% of the water to streams and reservoirs in La Paz region of Bolivia during the 2011 wet and 2012 dry seasons. To assess how future warming may impact water supplies, I develop a temperature-driven empirical model to estimated changes in a future glacial area. Surface temperature changes were extracted from a multi-model ensemble of global climate models produced for the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report and for two greenhouse gas emission scenarios. In both scenarios, declines in glacial area are substantial. For many small glaciers, temperatures at the toe of each glacier rise above the glacier's maximum elevation by 2050 suggesting that water resources will be substantially impacted with continued warming. While these results address a knowledge gap, the extent to which they inform resource management is unknown because the research was conducted without an explicit connection to resource management. Information produced in this fashion is generally acknowledged as being less immediately useful for decision-making because of access and comprehension barriers. These challenges may be mollified, however, with information management strategies. Therefore, I present results from an experiment to see if translating and contextualizing existing climate-related information - information produced similarly to the glacier results highlighted above - help facilitate its use. During a drought afflicted period in Arizona and New Mexico, a monthly synthesis of climate impacts information was disseminated to more than 1400 people. Survey responses from 117 people who consulted the information indicated that the majority of them made at least one drought-related decision and the information in the synthesis at least moderately influenced the majority of those decisions. In addition, more than 90% of the survey respondents indicated that the synthesis improved their understanding of climate and drought; it also helped the majority of them better prepare for drought. The results demonstrate that routine interpretation and synthesis of existing climate information can help enhance access to and understanding of climate information.
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Kozey, James M. "Managing global climate change, addressing climate change in Canadian organizations." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape4/PQDD_0017/MQ48239.pdf.
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Cannon, Alex Jason. "Multivariate statistical models for seasonal climate prediction and climate downscaling." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2892.
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This dissertation develops multivariate statistical models for seasonal forecasting and downscaling of climate variables. In the case of seasonal climate forecasting, where record lengths are typically short and signal-to-noise ratios are low, particularly at long lead-times, forecast models must be robust against noise. To this end, two models are developed. Robust nonlinear canonical correlation analysis, which introduces robust cost functions to an existing model architecture, is outlined in Chapter 2. Nonlinear principal predictor analysis, the nonlinear extension of principal predictor analysis, a linear model of intermediate complexity between multivariate regression and canonical correlation analysis, is developed in Chapter 3. In the case of climate downscaling, the goal is to predict values of weather elements observed at local or regional scales from the synoptic-scale atmospheric circulation, usually for the purpose of generating climate scenarios from Global Climate Models. In this context, models must not only be accurate in terms of traditional model verification statistics, but they must also be able to replicate statistical properties of the historical observations. When downscaling series observed at multiple sites, correctly specifying relationships between sites is of key concern. Three models are developed for multi-site downscaling. Chapter 4 introduces nonlinear analog predictor analysis, a hybrid model that couples a neural network to an analog model. The neural network maps the original predictors to a lower-dimensional space such that predictions from the analog model are improved. Multivariate ridge regression with negative values of the ridge parameters is introduced in Chapter 5 as a means of performing expanded downscaling, which is a linear model that constrains the covariance matrix of model predictions to match that of observations. The expanded Bernoulli-gamma density network, a nonlinear probabilistic extension of expanded downscaling, is introduced in Chapter 6 for multi-site precipitation downscaling. The single-site model is extended by allowing multiple predictands and by adopting the expanded downscaling covariance constraint.
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Chin-Yee, Simon. "Defining climate policy in Africa : Kenya's climate change policy processes." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2018. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/defining-climate-policy-in-africa-kenyaas-climate-change-policy-processes(3b7440d0-7f08-4e87-b47d-ea4ad0a56d50).html.
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This thesis seeks to investigate what shapes climate change policies in Kenya. Using Peter Haas' concept of usable knowledge, it argues the need to move beyond conventional perspectives on knowledge and power and provides a framework for understanding what knowledge and mechanisms are usable for policy makers. I argue that Kenyan climate policy is shaped by the interaction of knowledge and power across three crucial levels of influence - global, regional and national. As climate change forces us to rethink how we combine economic policies with environmental realities in Africa, each level encompasses distinct policy narratives where critical actors have an impact on national climate change policy. First, I argue that the standards, norms and regulations established by the global climate regime are directly reflected in national climate strategies of African countries, not only in terms of diplomatic moves to adhere to commitments made, but also in respect to benefiting from international mechanisms put in place to aid developing countries. Second, I examine the One Voice, One Africa narrative. This looks at the rise of the African Group of Negotiators within the global climate regime and their ability to influence Kenyan policy. Third, Kenya's climate change policy is shaped by the interaction of economic, political, and environmental constructs in national policy-making. The principle goal of this thesis is to open African environmental scholars and climate change policy analysts to a rigorous and flexible questioning of how climate policy processes operate in the African context.
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Harris, Amanda M. "Designing With Climate: Using Parking Lots to Mitigate Urban Climate." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35785.
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Urban areas are known to have different climatic conditions than their rural counterparts including higher temperatures, greater wind speeds, and increased precipitation otherwise known as urban heat islands, urban wind, and urban precipitation. These phenomena are all caused by the design and form of the city. Large amounts of impervious surface area, obtrusive buildings, and a lack of vegetation in the urban landscape all contribute to these problems. Landscape architects have the potential to mitigate urban heat islands, urban wind, and urban precipitation by understanding what causes these phenomena and knowing a few key principles by which to mitigate them.
Parking lots can cover up to half of the land area in cities and offer a great opportunity to correct urban climate problems. This thesis looks at current United States parking lot ordinances to determine if and how well principles of designing with climate have been incorporated. Guidelines are then given to help in the construction of a parking lot ordinance that aims to ameliorate the city's mesoclimate. A design is then created that shows how these parking lot guidelines could be incorporated into a functional, aesthetically pleasing parking lot.
Master of Landscape Architecture
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Sanchirico, Emily. "A Strong Institutional Climate: Regional Trade Networks and Climate Action." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13410.
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Climate change has been described as a malign, wicked, and super wicked problem. I focus on key characteristics that make international collective action challenging: asymmetry, fear of free riding, scientific uncertainty, and inherent interdependencies. I argue that an institution designed to tackle such a complex problem requires a key set of features: leadership, linkage, quality information, differentiated obligations, monitoring/enforcement, transparency, and flexibility. I assess the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol to determine what aspects are missing. I then ask why the European Union (EU), with incentives to the contrary, set broad unilateral goals. I argue that the framework of political and economic integration made deep cooperation possible. Lastly, I consider whether this experience is specific to the EU and ask whether regional trade networks have a role in the global arsenal of climate change solutions.
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Dunn, Katherine Margaret. "Prototyping Models of Climate Change: New Approaches to Modelling Climate Change Data. 3D printed models of Climate Change research created in collaboration with Climate Scientists." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/17623.
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Prototyping Models of Climate Change: New Approaches to Modelling Climate Change Data, identifies a gap in existing knowledge on the topic of 3D Printed, three dimensional creative visualisations of data on the impact of climate change. Communication, visualisation and dissemination of scientific research data to the general-public is a priority of science organisations. Creative visualisation projects that encourage meaningful cross-disciplinary collaboration are urgently needed, from a communication standpoint and, to act as models for agile responsive means of addressing climate change. Three-dimensional creative visualisations can give audiences alternate and more direct means of understanding information by engaging visual and haptic experience. This project contributes new knowledge in the field by way of an innovative framework and praxis for the communication and dissemination of climate change information across the disciplines of contemporary art, design and science. The focus is on projects that can effectively and affectively, communicate climate science research between the disciplines and the general-public. The research generates artefacts using 3D printing techniques. A contribution to new knowledge is the development of systems and materials for 3D printing that embody principles of sustainable fabrication. The artefacts or visualisations produced as part of the research project are made from sustainable materials that have been rigorously developed and tested. Through a series of collaborations with climate scientists, the research investigates methodologies and techniques for modelling and fabricating three-dimensional artefacts that represent climate change data. The collaborations and the research outputs are evaluated using boundary object theory. Expanding on existing boundary object categories, the research introduces new categories with parameters specifically designed to evaluate creative practice- science collaborations and their outputs.
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Turner, John. "Antarctic climate variability." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.396624.
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Xiao, Qian. "Climate resilient city." Thesis, KTH, Arkitektur, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-254675.
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Swaffield, Joanne Clare. "Climate champions and discourses of climate change : an analysis of the communication of climate change in large corporations." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/1690.
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This thesis focuses on the communication of climate change in large corporations. Over the last 40 years, concern about climate change has increased and climateprotecting behaviour is now widely advocated by many actors, including businesses. This thesis adopts a discursive approach to climate change and aims to understand how a particular group of people, namely ‘climate champions’ in large corporations, talk and think about climate change in their daily lives. The theoretical part of the thesis begins from the assumption that neoliberalism is the dominant discourse at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It considers the relationship between neoliberalism and the natural world and examines how climate change has been discursively constructed in this neoliberal context. The main focus of the thesis is the different ways of actually dealing with climate change based on the distinction between climate change as a small ‘glitch’ in the neoliberal system and climate change as a fundamental problem. The main part of the theoretical framework identifies seven climate discourses that are rooted in this distinction. The discourses either conform to the principles of neoliberalism (reformist discourses) or reject neoliberal ideas (revolutionary discourses). Empirically, the project attempts to analyse the everyday communication of climate change by using these seven discourses. Specifically, it focuses on the role of designated ‘climate champions’ (individuals given responsibility for promoting climate protecting behaviour) in large corporations. The thesis uses interviews with 44 participants to identify which discourses the champions drew upon when they talked about climate change. It focuses on the dominance of particular discourses and how dominant ideas are reinforced or challenged on a daily basis. The thesis concludes that, although reformist discourses were indeed very influential, the champions drew upon many different discourses when they promoted climate protecting behaviour and discussed climate change. They both reinforced and resisted reformist discourses depending on the audience and the context in which they were talking.
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Aleryd, Sarah, and Garpenholt Lydia Frassine. "From Climate Change to Conflict : An analysis of the climate-conflict nexus in communications on climate change response." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Jönköping University, HLK, Globala studier, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-49218.
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This study explores the portrayal of the climate-conflict nexus in global and national communications on climate change response. It utilizes a qualitative inductive approach and the IPCC AR5 (2014) was chosen to represent global communication documents, while two Afghan communications, the Initial as well as Second National Communication, on climate change and response were used to represent the national level. Through a content analysis, several themes were discerned through which the climate-conflict nexus is portrayed. It can be concluded that there are several differences between the global versus Afghan communication documents, as well as between the Initial National Communication (2012) and the Second National Communication (2017). The Second National Communication overall attempts to mirror the communication used by the IPCC by using the same themes but in a more indirect way. The analysis finds that the climate-conflict nexus is often portrayed through indirect communication and that this leads to a lack of conflict-sensitivity in the Afghan national documents, concluding by making suggestions on how to improve conflict-sensitivity in these documents.
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de, Verdier Vincent, and Stella Tengsand. "Should we worry about the climate? An exploration of climate coping, experientialavoidance and climate friendly behaviour among adolescents." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för juridik, psykologi och socialt arbete, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-92701.
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Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing the world, connected to rising oceanlevels, droughts, and other natural disasters. The aim of this study was to explore if and howclimate worry, climate coping and experiential avoidance are connected to climate friendlybehaviour among Swedish adolescents in their third year of upper-secondary school (N=470).A questionnaire was used to measure the factors of interest, which were analysed withcorrelation and mediation analysis. Four main results were found. The first was that climatefriendly behaviour related to climate worry and climate coping in a similar way to howpro-environmental behaviour has done in previous studies. The second finding was thatproblem focused climate coping mediated the relationship between meaning focused climatecoping and climate friendly behaviour. The third result was that distancing was positivelyrelated to experiential avoidance and climate worry in contrast to de-emphasizing which wasonly related negatively to climate friendly behaviour. Lastly the results showed thatexperiential avoidance was related to distancing but not to any other variables. Our findingscontribute to a greater understanding of the field in that they support and extend previousfindings as well as highlight new angles for future research.
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Cardoso, José Helder Leitão. "Desenvolvimento e validação de um modelo de diagnóstico de clima organizacional : o caso Lusoponte." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/10391.
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Mestrado em Gestão de Recursos HumanosO presente trabalho tem como objetivo desenvolver e validar um modelo de diagnóstico de clima organizacional para a Lusoponte. Pela revisão da literatura científica existente sobre o tema do clima organizacional, com particular foco nos instrumentos de diagnóstico, são identificadas as dimensões mais constantemente referidas e as que maior aplicabilidade têm na organização em estudo. Com base no modelo desenvolvido, procura-se apreender a relação entre as dimensões assinaladas e a satisfação dos colaboradores. É submetido um questionário aos colaboradores da organização, que revela, após análise, que o clima organizacional da Lusoponte é globalmente positivo, embora moderado, sendo apontados os pontos fortes e os que carecem de melhoria.
This study aims to develop and validate an organizational climate diagnostic model to Lusoponte. Upon the review of the scientific literature on the subject of organizational climate, with particular focus on diagnostic tools, the most constantly referred dimensions are identified, and those that have greater applicability in the organization under study. Based on the developed model, we seek to grasp the relationship between the indicated dimensions and employee satisfaction. A questionnaire is submitted to the organization's employees, and, after analysis, it reveals the organizational climate of Lusoponte as overall positive, although moderately. Both strengths and points of improvement are presented.
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Filahi, Hajar. "Regionalized climate projections of consumption in Europe and mainland France." Electronic Thesis or Diss., Institut polytechnique de Paris, 2024. http://www.theses.fr/2024IPPAX014.
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L'impact du changement climatique sur la demande d'électricité joue un rôle essentiel dans la mise en place de politiques d'adaptation et d'atténuation du changement climatique. Surtout dans le cadre de l'ambition européenne d'atteindre la neutralité carbone, les informations sur les impacts du changement climatique sur la demande d'électricité sont indispensables pour le développement de stratégies axées à la fois sur l'adaptation et l'atténuation, ainsi que pour le dimensionnement du futur parc électrique.Cette thèse s'inscrit dans ce contexte et a pour objectif d'étudier l'impact du changement climatique sur la demande d'énergie en Europe de manière générale, et les impacts au niveau de la France métropolitaine et de ses régions plus particulièrement.La première étape de l'étude consiste à sélectionner un sous-ensemble de données climatiques représentatif des évolutions futures, optimal et robuste. Ainsi, nous avons développé une approche pour sélectionner un sous-ensemble de dix modèles CMIP6 afin d'évaluer l'impact du changement climatique sur la demande d'énergie en Europe. Le processus de sélection développé combine deux critères appliqués à la température. Le premier consiste à choisir un sous-ensemble de modèles qui représente l'ensemble de la gamme des changements de température possibles par rapport au climat historique. Le deuxième considère les performances des simulations historiques CMIP6 sur l'Europe. La méthodologie de sélection garantit la diversité des évolutions futures possibles parmi les modèles les plus performants.La deuxième étape de l'étude s'intéresse à l'impact du changement climatique sur la fragmentation temporelle des besoins de chauffage et de climatisation, et ses implications sur le système énergétique en Europe sous quatre scénarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 et SSP5-8.5), en considérant les simulations CMIP6 régionalisées et corrigées sur une grille de résolution horizontale de 25×25 km sur l'Europe. En utilisant les degrés jours de chauffage (HDD) et de refroidissement (CDD) comme proxies, nous montrons une forte diminution des HDD sur l'Europe et une augmentation des CDD. En plus, l'étude met en évidence des périodes de chauffage plus courtes mais plus fréquentes dans le futur, résultant en une fragmentation de la demande d'énergie pour le chauffage. Les besoins de refroidissement en été devraient être plus fréquents et durer plus longtemps. La fragmentation des besoins énergétiques thermosensibles pour le chauffage, devrait avoir un impact opérationnel et économique sur l'équilibrage du système énergétique.Dans la dernière partie de la thèse, nous nous sommes concentrés sur le cas de la France pour analyser l'impact du changement climatique sur la consommation d'électricité et ses extrêmes au niveau national et régional. À cette fin, nous avons calibré un modèle additif généralisé pour produire des projections futures de la consommation d'électricité en France à usage constant. Les résultats montrent une diminution de la consommation d'électricité en hiver dans toutes les régions françaises et une augmentation de la consommation en été. Dans les régions du sud, la consommation d'électricité en été devrait augmenter significativement en comparaison aux autres régions.L'analyse des extrêmes de consommation montre que les vagues de froid sont toujours susceptibles de se produire en France, bien que moins fréquemment. Aujourd'hui, l’appel de puissance supplémentaire dû à une demande de chauffage extrême est supérieur de 25% la demande électrique moyenne en hiver. Dans le futur, en combinant l’évolution des tendances de la demande électrique moyenne et extrême, l’appel de puissance électrique supplémentaire pour répondre à une demande électrique excédentaire pendant les vagues de froid pourrait dépasser 35 % de la demande moyenne de puissance en hiver d’ici la fin du siècle pour le scénarios SSP3-7.0, ce qui entraîne une plus grande vulnérabilité du système d'alimentation électriqueThe potential impacts of climate change on electricity demand are essential for the formulation of effective adaptation and mitigation policies. Specifically, electricity consumption holds a key role in adapting to climate change in the context of the European ambition to achieve carbon neutrality and mitigation strategies. Consequently, information on the impacts of climate change on electricity demand is essential for the development of strategies focused on both adaptation and mitigation as much for the sizing of the future electric fleet.In this regard, the main objective of this thesis is to provide more reliable information about the potential impacts of climate change on energy demand in Europe in general, and the impacts on metropolitan France and its regions in particular. The first step of the study consists of selecting a robust and representative subset of climate data. An approach for the selection of a subset of ten climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) is proposed to assess the impact of climate change on the energy demand in Europe. The developed process of selection combines two main criteria applied to the daily mean, maximum, and minimum air temperature from all CMIP6 climate models. The first criterion consists of choosing a subset of models that represents the whole range of possible temperature changes in the future compared to the historical climate. The second one considers the skills of the CMIP6 historical simulations over Europe with respect to ERA5 climatology. The methodology of selection allows the maximization of the diversity of climate projections among the best-performing models.The second part of the study investigates the impact of climate change on the temporal fragmentation of heating and cooling needs and its implication on the energy power system in Europe under four anthropogenic scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5), using downscaled and bias-adjusted simulations at 25×25km horizontal resolution over Europe. Using heating degree days (HDD) and cooling degree days (CDD) as proxies, we show a large decrease in HDD over Europe and an increase in CDD. This result is consistent with already published literature. However, the study goes one step further by showing a fragmentation of the periods of heating needs during winter in the future which can potentially lead to a fragmentation of heating energy demand. The cooling needs in summer are expected to be more frequent and last longer in the future. The fragmentation of temperature-sensitive energy needs for heating and to a lesser extent for cooling are expected to have an operational and economical impact on the balancing of the energy system.The last part of the thesis focuses on the case of France to analyze the impact of climate change on electricity consumption and its extremes at the national level and then at the regional level. For this purpose, we calibrated a generalized additive model to produce future projections of electricity consumption in France at constant usage. The results show a decrease in electricity consumption in winter in all French regions and an increase in electricity consumption in summer. In the southern regions of France, summer electricity consumption is expected to increase significantly compared to the other regions. The analysis of extreme consumption shows that extreme cold is still likely to occur in France, albeit less frequently. Today, the additional power supply to meet extreme heating demand is 25% higher than the average winter electricity demand. In the future, combining changing trends in average and extreme power demand, additional power supply to meet excess power demand during cold spells could exceed 35% of the average winter power demand at the end of the century for SSP3-7.0 scenarios, which increased the vulnerability of the power supply system
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Jönsson, Josefin, and Camilla Eklöf. "Combating climate change : A case study of Statoil′s climate strategy." Thesis, Mälardalen University, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-1015.
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Level: Master thesis in Business administration with concentration towards Ecological economics
Title: Combating climate change – a case study of Statoil’s climate strategy
Problem: The world is facing an environmental situation where we no longer can ignore problems like climate change, losses of species and an overall environmental degradation. Many actors have to take their responsibility and do as much as they can for a sustainable development. One crucial actor is the business world. Often, they both have the knowledge and financial power to make a difference. Higher environmental regulations and pressure from stakeholders, such as the Swedish government or the EU, forces companies to consider the environment while doing business. This requires a strategy.
Purpose: The purpose with the essay is to identify and study Statoil’s climate strategy. We also want to identify the most important internal and external factors that are affecting the strategy.
Method: The thesis is based on a qualitative method made up by two parts, interviews and literature studies. We made one informant interview and two respondent interviews with two environmental executives from Statoil AB.
Results: Statoil has a mainly pro-active strategy and are very ambiguous in the climate question, although their strategy is highly affected by the surrounding. Developing new technologies, cooperation and profiling are the main parts of their strategy. They are affected by the dominating discourse ecological modernization, as well as by the organizational field. They are in turn affecting the field by their offensive strategy. The customers and the legal framework are the most important external factors of impact. Whereas the corporate group StatoilHydro and financial resources are the most important internal factors.
Keywords: Climate strategy, environmental strategy, responsible company, greening, ecological modernization
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Lau, Hoppa. "Impacts of climate variability and climate change on prairie wheat yield." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ58810.pdf.
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Nordin, Ida. "Multiple tipping points in the climate system : Implications for climate policy." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Nationalekonomi, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-92603.
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Kirk-Davidoff, Daniel Bernard 1968. "The implications of potential vorticity homogenization for climate and climate sensitivity." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17447.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-132).
by Daniel Bernard Kirk-Davidoff.
Ph.D.
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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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Tomlinson, Luke Lindsay. "Justice, governance and climate change : designing fair and effective climate institutions." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2d9f47d1-77da-4406-8514-5c40da041879.
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Multilateral efforts are yet to produce meaningful action on climate change. Part of the problem with these approaches is a perceived lack of fairness among state actors. Whilst academic discussion has traditionally focused on the issue of distributive fairness, very little has been said about procedural fairness in this respect. To this end, this thesis analyses principles of procedural justice in order to develop practical policy measures for institutional design. It does so in four steps. First, it argues that procedural justice is important for reaching a mutually acceptable agreement when there is reasonable disagreement about the substantive ends that collective action should achieve. Second, it develops several principles of procedural justice that should govern the decision-making processes of climate institutions. This includes principles that govern who should participate in decisions, how these decisions should take place, and how transparent they should be. Third, it considers the relative value that procedural justice should be given against other important ends. In doing so, it proposes that procedural justice is a fundamental feature of fair and effective climate institutions. Finally, it considers what this means for climate institutions in practice by determining a set of pragmatic policy prescriptions that can guide the design of climate governance institutions.
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Davies-Barnard, T. "Climate and crop interactions : the biogeophysical effects on climate and vegetation." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.685042.
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The interactions between changing agricultural land and climate are multi faceted and only partially understood. This thesis looks at interactions between crops and climate from assumptions about parameterisations that underpin crop changes in models; the unintended consequences of policies which affect land cover; and the impacts of deliberate crop changes (e.g. biogeoengineering). Focusing on the biogeophysical effects (from albedo, evapotranspiration etc.) these effects are compared to the biogeochemical effects (from greenhouse gases). There are considerable local and global biogeophysical effects to climate from land-use change, which do not necessarily scale linearly with the amount of landuse change itself. Changing the parameterisation of contributory factors to biogeophysical changes can affect the climate at least as much as deliberate alterations. Similarly, climate forced land cover change effects can be larger than land use forced changes. Increases in crop yield from deliberately altered albedo are small, but the changes to climate via albedo from different assumptions of yield are significant at a global and regional scale. This work emphasises the importance of including biogeophysical interactions in assessments of crop and land cover change in policy decisions, but also that the effects of land use change should not be overestimated, as the net effects are often smaller than the parameter uncertainty.
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Walker, Benjamin James Andrew. "When can non-climate frames generate public support for climate policy?" Thesis, University of Exeter, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/16085.
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This PhD uses a series of large experimental studies to examine if, and when, framing climate policy in terms of its non-climate benefits can lead to greater levels of public support, compared to the use of climate change frames. The findings within this thesis provide a number of key original contributions to knowledge. First, it is demonstrated that framing climate policy around its non-climate benefits can significantly enhance levels of public policy support. For example, Chapter 3 found that participants exposed to public health prioritising framing conditions of policies to reduce car use had significantly higher levels of support compared to participants that were exposed to climate change prioritising frames. Chapter 3 also tested whether climate change sceptics are likely to have higher levels of support for climate policies when non-climate frames are used (as opposed to climate change frames) but its results were inconclusive. It is unfounded to assume that non-climate frames will always lead to greater support for climate policy compared to the use of climate change frames. Indeed, a second key original contribution of the research in this thesis is the identification of factors that can determine the ability of non-climate frames to generate public support for climate policy. As one example, Chapter 4 demonstrates that frame relevance is one key factor that can define the relative ‘effectiveness’ of non-climate and climate change frames. Chapter 5 did not find evidence that non-climate frames can increase support for climate policy by shaping participant’s perceptions of personal benefit that they believe they will get from a policy. Instead some non-climate frames will likely offer the opportunity to increase support for climate policy in ways that are more subtle, such as by influencing public perceptions of distributive justice, as shown in Chapter 6. Overall, this thesis demonstrates both the opportunities, but also threats, associated with the use of non-climate frames when communicating climate policy. Based on these findings, there is now a clear need for researchers to progress beyond looking at whether non-climate frames can be effective in stimulating support for decarbonisation action, to instead take a deeper look at when and why these frames will be effective.
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Chandler, Kevin Vachudová Milada Anna. "The climate change stalemate ideological tensions in international climate change negotiations /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,2759.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.Title from electronic title page (viewed Mar. 10, 2010). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of a Master of Arts in the Department of Political Science." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.
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Hamilton, Scott. "Governing through the climate : climate change, the anthropocene, and global governmentality." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2017. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3543/.
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The concept of anthropogenic climate change is now understood in the discipline of International Relations (IR) as an urgent environmental problem enveloping the globe. It underlies recent claims that humanity’s impact on the Earth’s natural systems is so consequential that a new geologic epoch has begun: The Anthropocene, or the ‘human age’. Yet, IR’s increasing engagement and use of these scientific concepts raises significant questions the discipline has yet to address. For instance, if global climate change appeared in international politics only as recently as the late-1980s, what spurred this sudden emergence? If the Anthropocene appeared only after 2000, then how does this new concept affect the way we now think about global politics, the Earth, and even ourselves? This thesis answers these questions by arguing that the concepts of global climate change and the Anthropocene are neither immutable nor universal scientific truths or natural objects. Rather, they emerged when technological advances in nuclear physics and models tracing bomb radiocarbon intersected with the ways states govern their territories and subjects. The global nature or ‘climatic globality’ of these concepts, therefore, is a manner of conducting and steering human conduct and action by establishing the boundaries of subjectivity when they are thought. This is what Michel Foucault called governmentality. It is demonstrated in this thesis through a genealogical tracing of climate change in IR, focusing on how nuclear sciences, computational modelling technologies, and regimes of international governance, overlapped to form the climatic globality IR now takes for granted. Combining genealogy with the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, a new form of global governmentality becomes evident. Through a technological and metaphysical subjectivism with the carbon atom as its substrate, the human self now asserts itself from atomic to global scales, as the maker, master, and steward, of the Earth.
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Slechten, Aurelie. "Policies for climate change." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209493.
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In my thesis, I address two important issues: (i) the creation of a price signal through the use of carbon markets (or cap-and-trade schemes) and (ii) the necessity to reach a global agreement on greenhouse gas emission reduction policies. It consists of three separate papers. Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis emphasize theoretically and empirically the fact that achieving international cooperation on climate change is very difficult. Chapter 3 suggests that the global nature of the climate change problem and the design of climate agreements (i.e. the means available to reduce CO2 emissions) may explain this failure. Chapter 2 shows theoretically that asymmetric information between countries may exacerbate the free-rider problem. These two chapters also provide some possible solutions to the lack of international cooperation. To address the issue of information asymmetry, chapter 2 proposes the creation of institutions in charge of gathering and certifying countries' private information before environmental negotiations. If achieving international cooperation is still not possible, chapter 3 suggests that regional cooperation may supplement global treaties. Chapter 1 presents an example of such a regional agreement to reduce CO2 emissions. The EU emissions trading system is a cornerstone of the European Union's policy to combat climate change. However, as it is highlighted in chapter 1, the design of such regional carbon markets really matters for their success in reducing carbon emissions. This chapter shows the interactions between intertemporal permit trading and the incentives of firms to undertake long-term investments in abatement technologies.Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
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Tidwell, Amy C. "Assessing the impacts of climate change on river basin management a new method with application to the Nile river/." Diss., Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/19830.
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Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007.Committee Chair: Georgakakos, Aris; Committee Member: Fu, Rong; Committee Member: Peters-Lidard, Christa; Committee Member: Roberts, Phil; Committee Member: Sturm, Terry; Committee Member: Webster, Don.
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Lledó, Ponsatí Llorenç. "Climate variability predictions for the wind energy industry: a climate services perspective." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/670882.
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In order to mitigate the climate change effects, the world is undergoing an energy transition from polluting sources towards renewable energies. This transition is turning the electricity system more dependent on atmospheric conditions and more prone to suffer the effects of climate variability. The atmospheric circulation is changing in certain aspects due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but it also varies from year to year due to natural variability processes occurring in the Earth system at timescales of weeks, months and years.
The atmosphere interacts with other components of the Earth System such as the ocean, the cryosphere or the continental surface, that evolve more slowly than the atmosphere and drive the low-frequency variability. The natural climate oscillations that occur at those timescales impact wind speed and wind power generation. Therefore a better knowledge of how the wind resource varies at sub-seasonal, seasonal and decadal time scales is key to understand the risks that the electricity system is facing.
Anticipating this variability would also be helpful to many stakeholders in the energy sector to take precautionary actions. Forecasts at sub-seasonal, seasonal and decadal timescales are starting to be possible recently thanks to advances in climate modelling capabilities. Because climate variability is partly driven by coupled physical processes occurring in the Earth, numerical models that represent the interaction between different components of the Earth system can be employed to produce forecasts at these scales. The science of climate prediction deals with the challenge of producing predictions beyond meteorological timescales (i.e. weeks, months and years ahead) although not reaching the centennial timescales, which are studied with scenario-based climate projections. Climate predictions employ the current state of the atmosphere, the ocean, the cryosphere, and the land surface to produce numerical integrations of each component and the forcings and interactions between them to model the evolution of the Earth system as a whole.
However, the usage of climate predictions in the wind power sector (or more generally in any specific decision-making context) poses a series of difficulties due to many complex aspects of this type of predictions. The efforts devoted in many initiatives to bring the needs of the users to the center of the discussion have given rise to the field of climate services. In order to assist decision-making, it is not only desirable to have the best predictions available but also to tailor them to the specific needs of each user. To achieve this goal, a dialogue with stakeholders needs to be established, and a trans- disciplinary approach needs to be set up to take advantage of the developments in many research fields regarding knowledge transfer and communication.
The work presented in this dissertation advances the knowledge required to produce and successfully apply climate predictions to decision-making in the wind power sector and deals with the three aforementioned challenges: a) understanding the impact of climate oscillations at sub-seasonal and seasonal timescales on wind resource; b) developing methods to produce forecasts of wind speed and wind power generation at this scales; and c) facilitating the uptake of those predictions by means of a climate-services-based approach.Per tal de mitigar els efectes del canvi climàtic, tots els països del món estan duent a terme una transició energètica de fonts contaminants cap a energies renovables. Aquesta transició està incrementant la sensibilitat del sistema elèctric a les condicions atmosfèriques i fent-lo més vulnerable als efectes de la variabilitat climàtica. A escales de setmanes, mesos i anys, l'atmosfera interacciona amb altres components del sistema Terra com l'oceà, la criosfera o la superfície continental, que evolucionen més lentament que l'atmosfera, condicionant-ne la seva variabilitat a baixa freqüència. Al seu torn, les oscil·lacions que tenen lloc a aquestes escales temporals impacten el vent i la generació d'energia eòlica. Per tant, un millor coneixement de com varia el recurs eòlic a escales sub-estacionals, estacionals i decadals permetrà anticipar els riscs a què el sistema elèctric està sotmès. En segon lloc, anticipar aquesta variabilitat climàtica seria de gran utilitat a diversos actors del sistema energètic. L'ús de models climàtics que representen les interaccions entre les diferents components del sistema Terra permet abordar el repte de produir pronòstics més enllà de l'escala meteorològica (és a dir, a setmanes, mesos i anys vista). Malgrat tot, l'ús de les prediccions climàtiques en el sector de l'energia eòlica presenta una sèrie de dificultats degut a les complexitats d'aquest tipus de previsions. Per tal d'assistir la presa de decisions, no només és necessari disposar de les millors prediccions possibles sinó que cal també ajustar-les a les necessitats específiques de cada ús. Aquest objectiu només es pot assolir amb un diàleg constant i transdisciplinari entre els científics i les parts interessades que integri els avenços en diferents àmbits respecte la transferència de coneixement i la comunicació. Aquesta tesi avança el coneixement necessari per tal de produir i aplicar prediccions climàtiques a la presa de decisions per part de la indústria eòlica, abordant tres reptes: a) avaluar l'impacte d'oscil·lacions climàtiques sub-estacionals i estacional en el recurs eòlic; b) desenvolupar mètodes per produir prediccions de vent o de generació eòlica a aquestes escales; i c) facilitar l'adopció d'aquestes previsions mitjançant una aproximació basada en els serveis climàtics.
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Brookes, Andrew. "Arguing about the climate : towards communicative justice in international climate change politics /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/7081.
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Högström, Martin. "Wind Climate Estimates - Validation of Modelled Wind Climate and Normal Year Correction." Thesis, Uppsala University, Air and Water Science, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-8023.
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Long time average wind conditions at potential wind turbine sites are of great importance when deciding if an investment will be economically safe. Wind climate estimates such as these are traditionally done with in situ measurements for a number of months. During recent years, a wind climate database has been developed at the Department of Earth Sciences, Meteorology at Uppsala University. The database is based on model runs with the higher order closure mesoscale MIUU-model in combination with long term statistics of the geostrophic wind, and is now used as a complement to in situ measurements, hence speeding up the process of turbine siting. With this background, a study has been made investigating how well actual power productions during the years 2004-2006 from 21 Swedish wind turbines correlate with theoretically derived power productions for the corresponding sites.
When comparing theoretically derived power productions based on long term statistics with measurements from a shorter time period, correction is necessary to be able to make relevant comparisons. This normal year correction is a main focus, and a number of different wind energy indices which are used for this purpose are evaluated. Two publicly available (Swedish and Danish Wind Index) and one derived theoretically from physical relationships and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data (Geostrophic Wind Index). Initial testing suggests in some cases very different results when correcting with the three indices and further investigation is necessary. An evaluation of the Geostrophic Wind Index is made with the use of in situ measurements.
When correcting measurement periods limited in time to a long term average, a larger statistical dispersion is expected with shorter measurement periods, decreasing with longer periods. In order to investigate this assumption, a wind speed measurement dataset of 7 years were corrected with the Geostrophic Wind Index, simulating a number of hypothetical measurement periods of various lengths. When normal year correcting a measurement period of specific length, the statistical dispersion decreases significantly during the first 10 months. A reduction to about half the initial statistical dispersion can be seen after just 5 months of measurements.
Results show that the theoretical normal year corrected power productions in general are around 15-20% lower than expected. A probable explanation for the larger part of this bias is serious problems with the reported time-not-in-operation for wind turbines in official power production statistics. This makes it impossible to compare actual power production with theoretically derived without more detailed information. The theoretically derived Geostrophic Wind Index correlates well to measurements, however a theoretically expected cubed relationship of wind speed seem to account for the total energy of the wind. Such an amount of energy can not be absorbed by the wind turbines when wind speed conditions are a lot higher than normal.
Vindklimatet vid tänkbara platser för uppförande av vindkraftverk är avgörande när det beslutas huruvida det är en lämplig placering eller ej. Bedömning av vindklimatet görs vanligtvis genom vindmätningar på plats under ett antal månader. Under de senaste åren har en vindkarteringsdatabas utvecklats vid Institutionen för Geovetenskaper, Meteorologi vid Uppsala universitet. Databasen baseras på modellkörningar av en högre ordningens mesoskale-modell, MIUU-modellen, i kombination med klimatologisk statistik för den geostrofiska vinden. Denna används numera som komplement till vindmätningar på plats, vilket snabbar upp bedömningen av lämpliga platser. Mot denna bakgrund har en studie genomförts som undersöker hur bra faktisk energiproduktion under åren 2004-2006 från 21 vindkraftverk stämmer överens med teoretiskt härledd förväntad energiproduktion för motsvarande platser. Om teoretiskt härledd energiproduktion baserad på långtidsstatistik ska jämföras med mätningar från en kortare tidsperiod måste korrektion ske för att kunna göra relevanta jämförelser. Denna normalårskorrektion genomförs med hjälp av olika vindenergiindex. En utvärdering av de som finns allmänt tillgängliga (Svenskt vindindex och Danskt vindindex) och ett som härletts teoretiskt från fysikaliska samband och NCEP/NCAR återanalysdata (Geostrofiskt vindindex) görs. Inledande tester antyder att man får varierande resultat med de tre indexen och en djupare utvärdering genomförs, framförallt av det Geostrofiska vindindexet där vindmätningar används för att söka verifiera dess giltighet.
När kortare tidsbegränsade mätperioder korrigeras till ett långtidsmedelvärde förväntas en större statistisk spridning vid kortare mätperioder, minskande med ökande mätlängd. För att undersöka detta antagande används 7 års vindmätningar som korrigeras med det Geostrofiska vindindexet. I detta simuleras ett antal hypotetiskt tänkta mätperioder av olika längd. När en mätperiod av specifik längd normalårskorrigeras minskar den statistiska spridningen kraftigt under de första 10 månaderna. En halvering av den inledande statistiska spridningen kan ses efter endast 5 månaders mätningar.
Resultaten visar att teoretiskt härledd normalårskorrigerad energiproduktion generellt är ungefär 15-20% lägre än väntat. En trolig förklaring till merparten av denna skillnad är allvarliga problem med rapporterad hindertid för vindkraftverk i den officiella statistiken. Något som gör det omöjligt att jämföra faktisk energiproduktion med teoretiskt härledd utan mer detaljerad information. Det teoretiskt härledda Geostrofiska vindindexet stämmer väl överens med vindmätningar. Ett teoretiskt förväntat förhållande där energi är proportionellt mot kuben av vindhastigheten visar sig rimligen ta hänsyn till den totala energin i vinden. En sådan energimängd kan inte tas till vara av vindkraftverk när vindhastighetsförhållandena är avsevärt högre än de normala.
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Wiréhn, Lotten. "Climate vulnerability assessment methodology : Agriculture under climate change in the Nordic region." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Tema Miljöförändring, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-143226.
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Food security and climate change mitigation are crucial missions for the agricultural sector and for global work on sustainable development. Concurrently, agricultural production is directly dependent on climatic conditions, making climate change adaptation strategies essential for the agricultural sector. There is consequently a need for researchers, planners, and practitioners to better understand how, why, and to what extent agriculture is vulnerable to climate change. Such analyses involve challenges in relation to the complex social– ecological character of the agricultural system and to the multiple conceptualizations and approaches used in analysing vulnerability. The aim of this thesis is to identify how vulnerability assessments can be used to represent climate-related vulnerability in Nordic agriculture, in order to advance the methodological development of indicator-based and geographic visualization methods. The following research questions are addressed: (i) How can agricultural vulnerability to climate change and variability in the Nordic countries be characterized? (ii) How do selections, definitions, and emphases of indicators influence how vulnerability is assessed? (iii) How do estimates of vulnerability vary depending on the methods used in assessments? (iv) How can geographic visualization be applied in integrated vulnerability assessments? This thesis analyses and applies various vulnerability assessment approaches in the context of Nordic agriculture. This thesis demonstrates that various methods for composing vulnerability indices result in significantly different outcomes, despite using the same set of indicators. A conceptual framework for geographic visualization approaches to vulnerability assessments was developed for the purpose of creating transparent and interactive assessments regarding the indicating variables, methods and assumptions applied, i.e., opening up the ‘black box’ of composite indices. This framework served as the foundation for developing the AgroExplore geographic visualization tool. The tool enables the user to interactively select, categorize, and weight indicators as well as to explore the data and the spatial patterns of the indicators and indices. AgroExplore was used in focus group settings with experts in the Swedish agricultural sector. The visualization-supported dialogue results confirm the difficulty of selecting and constructing indicators, including different perceptions of what indicators actually indicate, the assumption of linear relationships between the indicators and vulnerability, and, consequently, that the direction of the relationship is predefined for each indicator. This thesis further points at the inherent complexity of agricultural challenges and opportunities in the context of climate change as such. It is specifically emphasized that agricultural adaptation policies and measures involve trade-offs between various environmental and socio–economic objectives, and that their implementation could furthermore entail unintended consequences, i.e., potential maladaptive outcomes. Nevertheless, it proved difficult to validate indicators due to, e.g. matters of scale and data availability. While heavy precipitation and other extreme weather events are perceived as the most relevant drivers of climate vulnerability by the agricultural experts participating in this study, statistical analyses of historical data identified few significant relationships between crop yield losses and heavy precipitation. In conclusion, this thesis contributes to the method development of composite indices and indicator-based vulnerability assessment. A key conclusion is that assessments are method dependent and that indicator selection is related to aspects such as the system’s spatial scale and location as well as to indicator thresholds and defined relationships with vulnerability, recognizing the contextual dependency of agricultural vulnerability. Consequently, given the practicality of indicator-based methods, I stress with this thesis that future vulnerability studies must take into account and be transparent about the principles and limitations of indicator-based assessment methods in order to ensure their usefulness, validity, and relevance for guiding adaptation strategies.För jordbrukssektorn och global hållbar utveckling i stort är matsäkerhet och mitigering av klimatförändringar viktiga angelägenheter. Samtidigt är jordbruksproduktionen ofta direkt beroende av klimatförhållanden, vilket gör klimatanpassningsstrategier mycket centrala för sektorn. Forskare, planerare och aktörer behöver förstå hur, varför och i vilken omfattning jordbruket är sårbart inför klimatförändringar. Sådana analyser inbegriper även de utmaningar som skapas genom jordbrukets komplexa socio-ekologiska karaktär, och de många utgångspunkter och tillvägagångssätt som används för att bedöma sårbarhet. Syftet med denna avhandling är att identifiera hur sårbarhetsbedömningar kan representera klimatrelaterad sårbarhet i nordiskt jordbruk, och i och med detta har avhandlingen som avsikt att utveckla metodologin för indikatorbaserade- och geografiska visualiseringsmetoder. Följande forskningsfrågor avhandlas: (i) Hur kan det nordiska jordbrukets sårbarhet inför klimatvariation och förändringar karaktäriseras? (ii) Hur påverkar urval, definitioner och betoningar av indikatorer bedömningar av sårbarhet? (iii) Hur varierar uppskattningar med bedömningsmetod? (iv) Hur kan geografisk visualisering användas i integrerade såbarhetsbedömningar? För att svara på dessa frågor analyseras och tillämpas olika tillvägagångssätt att bedöma sårbarhet inom nordiskt jordbruk. Avhandlingen visar att olika metoder för sårbarhetskompositindex resulterar i signifikanta skillnader mellan index, trots att samma indikatorer och data används. Ett konceptuellt ramverk för sårberhetsbedömningar där geografisk visualisering används, har utvecklats för att möjliggöra transparens avseende till exempel. vilka variabler, metoder och antaganden som används i kompositindex. Detta ramverk har följaktligen legat till grund för att utveckla ett geografiskt visualiseringsverktyg – AgroExplore. Verktyget möjliggör interaktivitet där användaren kan välja, kategorisera och vikta indikatorer, och dessutom utforska data och spatiala mönster av indikatorer och kompositindex. AgroExplore användes i denna avhandling för att stödja fokusgruppdialoger med experter inom den svenska jordbrukssektorn. Resultaten från dessa workshops bekräftar svårigheten med att välja och skapa indikatorer. Dessa svårigheter innefattar olika uppfattningar om vad indikatorer representerar, antagandet om linjära samband mellan indikatorerna och sårbarhet, och följaktligen att sambandens riktning är fördefinierade för respektive indikator. Utöver de konceptuella och metodologiska utmaningarna med sårbarhetsbedömningar visar avhandlingen på komplexa svårigheter och möjligheter för jordbruket vid klimatförändringar. Särskilt framhålls att klimatanpassningspolitik och åtgärder inom jordbruket medför konflikter och avvägningar mellan olika miljö- och socio-ekonomiska mål. Implementering av sådana anpassningsåtgärder kan vidare innebära oönskade konsekvenser, så kallad missanpassning. Trots ökad kunskap gällande nordiska jordbrukets sårbarhet inför klimatförändringar har det visats sig vara svårt att statistiskt validera indikatorer på grund av, exempelvis, skalproblematik och datatillgänglighet. Samtidigt som experterna ansåg att kraftig nederbörd och andra extrema väderhändelser är de mest relevanta drivkrafterna till klimatsårbarhet visar den statistiska analysen av historiska data på få signifikanta samband mellan förlorad skördeavkastning och kraftig nederbörd. Denna avhandling bidrar till metodutveckling av kompositindex och indikatorbaserade metoder för sårbarhetsbedömningar. En viktig slutsats är att bedömningar är metodberoende och att valet av indikatorer är relaterat till aspekter såsom systemets utbredning och den spatiala skalan av bedömningen. Även indikatorernas tröskelvärden och hur deras relation till sårbarhet är definierade anses vara viktiga faktorer som påverkar hur indikatorer representerar sårbarhet, vilket visar på sårbarhetsbedömningars kontextuella beroende. I och med de rådande bristerna hos indikatorbaserade metoder, som bland annat har identifierats i denna avhandling, vill jag framhålla vikten av att sårbarhetsbedömningar bör vara transparanta gällande den tillämpade metodens principer, antaganden och begräsningar. Detta för att säkerställa användbarhet, giltighet och relevans, om metoden och bedömningen ska ligga till grund för anpassningsstrategier hos såväl politiker, planerare och lantbrukare.
This is deliverable of the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research (NORD-STAR), funded by the Nordic Top-level Research Initiative Sub-programme ‘Effects Studies and Adaptation to Climate Change’.
The work has also been supported by the Swedish Research Council FORMAS under Grant No. 2013-1557 ‘Identifying thresholds for maladaptation in Nordic agriculture’
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Zhou, Jian. "Integrating geospatial web 2.0 and global climate model for communicating climate change." Thesis, McGill University, 2013. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=114508.
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This study investigates the use of Geospatial Web 2.0 and Global Climate Models for climate change communication. The aim of this research has been to integrate the data, models, and tools of climate science with Geoweb to advance climate change communication. Several Geoweb applications have been developed to demonstrate the solutions for this integration and to fulfil two research objectives: (1) develop a method to employ Geoweb technologies for communicating climate change, (2) improve the accessibility of Global Climate Model by providing tools to engage people in the practice of climate science as well as the fundamental procedures involved in global climate modeling. My research method is to extend Geoweb functionality to existing climate science tools, with the goal of easing the interface and increasing the interactivity of those tools to elaborate the scientific process of climate modeling. Geoweb has the power to manipulate climate change datasets from diverse sources for creating interactive climate change visualization. This power can be further enhanced if we integrate Geoweb with scientific climate data analysis and visualization systems. Nonetheless, Geoweb technologies that provide 2D visualization are more stable, faster, and popularly used than the 3D visualization. It is more robust to use Geoweb for climate model output. Instead, employing Geoweb for other aspects of global climate model requires close cooperation between climate modeling scientists and Geoweb technology experts due to its complexity. It is crucial to balance an easy-to-use user interface and the complexity of information transferred. Following this study, it is hoped that much more efforts from global climate modeling groups and Geoweb science researchers can be drawn together to facilitate climate change communication.Cette étude porte sur l'utilisation de Géospatiales Web 2.0 et Modèle Climatique Global pour le communication du changement climatique. Le but de cette recherche a été d'intégrer les données, les modèles et les outils de la science du climat avec Geoweb pour faire progresser la communication du changement climatique. Plusieurs applications de GeoWeb ont été développés pour démontrer les solutions de cette intégration et de remplir deux objectifs de recherche: (1) développer une méthode d' utiliser les technologies GeoWeb pour communiquer du changement climatique, (2) améliorer l'accessibilité de Modèle Climatique Global en fournissant des outils pour engager personnes dans la pratique de la science du climat, ainsi que les procédures fondamentales liées à la modélisation du climat mondial. Ma méthode de recherche est d'étendre les fonctionnalités de Geoweb à des outils existants des sciences du climat, dans le but d'alléger l'interface et en augmentant l'interactivité de ces outils pour élaborer le processus scientifique de la modélisation du climat. Geoweb a le pouvoir de manipuler des ensembles de données du changement climatique provenant de diverses sources pour créer une visualisation interactive du changement climatique. Ce pouvoir peut être encore améliorée si l'on intègre Geoweb avec analyse scientifique des données climatiques et des systèmes de visualisation. Néanmoins, les technologies GeoWeb qui fournissent une visualisation 2D sont plus stables, plus rapide et couramment utilisée que la visualisation 3D. Il est plus robuste à utiliser Geoweb pour la sortie des modèles climatiques. Au lieu de cela, en utilisant Geoweb pour d'autres aspects du modèle climatique global nécessite des coopérations étroites entre les scientifiques de modélisation du climat et des experts en technologie de GeoWeb en raison de sa complexité. Il est essentiel d'équilibrer un outil facile à utiliser l'interface utilisateur et la complexité des informations transférées. Suite à cette étude, il est à espérer que beaucoup plus d'efforts de groupes mondiaux de modélisation du climat et des chercheurs en sciences GeoWeb peuvent être réunis pour faciliter la communication pour le changement climatique.
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Eniola, Olubunmi. "Dynamics of tropical African climate and marine sedimentation during major climate transitions." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/1266.
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This thesis presents the late Miocene/early Pliocene climate transition (7-5 Ma) as recorded in marine sediments from Ocean Drilling Programme (ODP) Site 959 in the equatorial Atlantic off tropical West Africa, and a reconstruction of changing Holocene environments of the Eastern Tropical Atlantic (CHEETA) based on surface and core sediments from a transect along the Portuguese and NW African margin. The late Miocene to early Pliocene climate transition had irreversible consequences for atmospheric and ocean circulation leading to global cooling, northern hemisphere glaciations and modern climate conditions. In this study, continental climate, vegetation change and surface ocean dynamics at millennial time scale resolution is investigated from UK37’ alkenone derived SST, leaf wax lipids and organic carbon records (TOC). Despite low TOC (<1%) which was highly variable at cm-scale (~2.5-5 kyr) resolution, ubiquitous evidence from alkenones (C37:2 and C37:3) and leaf wax lipids indicate that the primary climate signal was preserved. The UK37’ based SST estimates (24.8-29°C) showed pronounced warm and cool cycles in the magnitude of 4°C. Elevated leaf wax lipids n–alkanes (C27, C29, and C31) correspond with cool SSTs and indicate a coupled relationship between upwelling and atmospheric ocean circulation patterns which intensified around 5.6 Ma arguing for wind driven deposition from terrestrial sources related to the position and strength of the ITCZ. The high amplitude cyclic patterns in the ODP Site 959 records were investigated by time frequency analyses. The common 41 kyr in all records supports a response to high latitude climate forcing. The 75 kyr variations and lead/lag observed in the leaf waxes and SST records during the late Miocene to early Pliocene are probably related to continental ice volume variations. The study on surface sediments from the Portuguese and NW African margins, confirm the presence of two soil-specific biomarkers, branched GDGTs (expressed as the BIT index) and bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs), in this region of almost exclusive aeolian export. TOC exceeding 2% and δ13Corg gradients from -22.5‰ off Portugal to -19‰ off W Africa identify areas of upwelling off Cape Blanc and the transition from C3 to C4 vegetation habitats in Northern Africa, respectively. Despite low signals of the molecular records, slightly stronger response of soil-marker BHPs in the sediments is attributed to preferential erosion of the upper, (oxic) part of the soil column in central African source areas, the proposed source for soil BHPs. An alternative explanation is that in situ production of the branched GDGTs may be responsible for the low BIT index. As yet there is no evidence of the soil BHPs, adenosylhopane produced in situ in marine systems and aeolian transport of GDGTs is yet to been proven. More studies on dust samples from continental margins needs to be carried out to validate this transport mechanism of branched GDGTs and BHPs. A compilation of first bulk geochemical and molecular results from a selection of cores from the Portuguese and NW African margin within an integrated chronological framework document the variations in marine sedimentation and constrain regional variations in continental climate and terrigenous supply since the last glacial period. TOC accumulation records document millennial scale variability in response to the African Humid Period. Carbon isotope trends pronounced during the last glacial maximum support organic matter input from C4 type vegetation during colder glacial periods. Preliminary molecular isotopic records of n-alkanes identify gaps in this study that will need further investigation to assess and confirm vegetation sources and continental climatic conditions over Northwest Africa.
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Kita, Stern Mwakalimi. "Adapting or maladapting? : climate change, climate variability, disasters and resettlement in Malawi." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2017. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/72668/.
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