Books on the topic 'Complex planning process'

The textbook reveals the main categories and concepts in the field of organization of production and entrepreneurship in the field of agro-industrial complex. Special attention is paid to the issues of primary production planning in agricultural organizations and their divisions using process maps. Each section of the manual contains the main theoretical provisions, practical tasks with methodological recommendations, control questions in order to better assimilate the educational material. Meets the requirements of the Federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is intended for studying the discipline "Organization of production and entrepreneurship in the agro-industrial complex" in the preparation of students of higher educational institutions studying in the direction 35.03.04 "agronomy". It can also be useful for students of other agricultural fields of training and specialties of higher educational institutions, as well as for economists, managers, other employees of agricultural organizations, teachers, etc.

This collective monograph continues a series of scientific studies and publications on the problems of strategic planning, which have been carried out for several years at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation with the involvement of specialists from other scientific and educational organizations. A series of research papers in 2017-2019 was devoted to the analysis of strategic development risks and the analysis of global strategic planning practice, the general methodology of strategic planning and forecasting (including in the context of ensuring Russia's economic security), the approach to the formation of life cycles of preparation and revision of strategic planning documents and their comparative analysis, the experience of coordinating budget, project and process types of management and financing, monitoring risks and threats, the use of new information tools in the strategic planning complex, including blockchain, and also naturally develops such aspects of previous research as analysis of world practice, coordination of budget, project and process types of management and financing, the use of information technologies. However, at the same time, a special task was set — to approach a comprehensive analysis of the strategic planning process as a whole, especially to study its documentary support as the core of the organization of this process and the implementation of its results in the practice of public administration, as well as to analyze the scientific support of strategic planning as an essential aspect of all strategic planning and strategic management activities in the entirety of its aspects (goal setting, forecast, design, programming, planning, control and audit). It is intended for specialists from the humanities, natural sciences and technical fields of knowledge focused on management and development problems, for undergraduates and postgraduates, as well as for a wide audience of management practitioners, including those related to strategic planning processes in the public sector.

Town planning entails the complex task of studying the habitat in its variegated aspects, with the objective of introducing functional transformations in response to the demands of the community. Since it is an experimental discipline, however, methods of approach and elaboration can be very different. This book represents the synthesis of the degree theses produced in the Department of Town and Territorial Planning of the University of Florence between 2000 and 2004, selected with a view to achieving a significant overview of the various issues and disciplinary areas. The volume thus addresses topical questions such as the protection of the historic identity, the rethinking of the modern city, obsolete areas and urban gaps, relational processes and spaces, sustainable development and planning, and the settlements of developing countries.

Based on the conceptual building blocks introduced in the previous chapter, this chapter further sketches theoretical approaches and models that can be employed to guide rural health and disaster preparedness education programmes, namely the MAP-IT approach, precede–proceed model, P-Process, Health Belief Model, Transtheoretical (Stages of Change) Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Social Cognitive Theory, and complex interventions. These theories and models are intended to conceptualize human thought and behaviour and systematically explain the reasons behind actions such that they can be utilized to set the objectives and content of health intervention projects. Health literacy will also be discussed, with relevant examples for illustrative purposes.

Planning law is one of the most fast moving legal areas, with major structural changes to the planning system occurring since 2014 . Despite these attempts at simplification, it remains one of the most complex fields for both students and practitioners to navigate. In this continually evolving arena the fourteenth edition of A Practical Approach to Planning Law is an authoritative and reliable resource for all those working in the area, providing a comprehensive and systematic account of the principles and practice of planning law. The text guides the reader through each stage of the planning process, from permission applications through to disputes and appeals in a clear and accessible style. Containing coverage of all recent cases as well as important legislative and policy developments since the publication of the previous edition, particularly those arising out of the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017, the Housing and Planning Act 2016, the Infrastructure Act 2015, and the Deregulation Act 2015, this new edition provides an invaluable introduction to the subject for professionals and students alike. The A Practical Approach series is the perfect partner for practice work. Each title provides a comprehensive overview of the subject together with clear, practical advice and tips on issues likely to arise in practice. The books are also an excellent resource for those new to the field, where the expert overview and clear layout promote clarity and ease of understanding.

Advance care planning is a complex process whereby an individual reflects on future care options at the end of life after reflecting on his or her values and goals for care. These values, goals, and preferences are then communicated to key stakeholders in the process (i.e., proxy and surrogate decision-makers, family members, and health care providers). It is unclear how well the completion of advance directives and a written outcome of advance care planning affect desired patient outcomes. In this chapter, a critical review is provided of a mortality follow-back survey that evaluates the association of advance directives with quality of end-of-life care from the perspective of bereaved family members. Study strengths and limitations are described, as are directions for future research.

Making music is one of the most demanding tasks for the human central nervous system. It involves the precise execution of very fast and, in many instances, extremely complex physical movements that must be coordinated with continuous auditory feedback. Practice is required to develop these skills and carry out these complex tasks. This article discusses the neurobiological foundations of planning, motor learning, and practice. The first section introduces essential general information for musical readers concerning the organization of cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar motor systems in the brain. The second section addresses the brain processes during acquisition of skilled movements in music making and demonstrates the dynamics of neuronal networks. The third section reports new findings on practice strategies and performance quality. The fourth section presents the causes of degradation of skilled movements in professional musicians. The article concludes with some comments concerning the significance of results of brain research in order to improve practice habits and performance in musicians.

This case study describes a cancer hospital’s experience with implementing symptom questionnaires into routine care delivery. Implementing symptom questionnaires (patient-reported outcome measures [PROs]) into cancer care delivery is a useful case study for implementation science because there is ample evidence for effectiveness in improving care but stalled implementation throughout most US health care systems. No “turnkey” PRO implementation strategies exist; thus, each clinic or health care system has to make many complex implementation decisions on its own. The Organizational Model of Innovation Implementation and the Theoretical Domains Framework are used to illustrate the implementation planning process and barriers and facilitators encountered.

This book focuses on the city of Delhi, one of the largest mega-cities in the world, and examines—from a historical perspective—the processes of hybridization between cultures within its local architecture and urban planning from 1912, when the British Town Planning Committee for New Delhi was formed, to 1962, when the first Master plan was implemented. The research originates directly from primary documents and examines how and to what extent the city plans, the neighbourhoods, the types of residential, public buildings and the architectural styles have changed over time. The analysis of architectural elements, the city and its intricacies, is in itself useful to understand how foreign models were adopted, how much resistance was encountered, and how much adaptation there was to local conditions. The book establishes and demonstrates that Delhi has played an active role in the complex process of hybridization in both the pre- and post-Independence periods, developing its own character as opposed to merely accepting what was brought from abroad. Both periods have been characterized by a resilient and continuing compromise between indigenous and foreign elements and thus the post-1947 period cannot be construed as more ‘indigenous’ than that which preceded it. Delhi can be considered to be a comprehensive model or case study of the intermingling and conflict of cultures; its initial transition period, when the actual mega-city was born, gives an important starting point to critically investigate the current phenomenon of globalization.

Chapter 3 discusses how successful delivery of external beam radiotherapy involves a number of complex processes beginning with the decision by the clinical oncologist to use radiotherapy as part of the patient’s cancer management, through the preparation and planning of the patient’s treatment, to the verification of the patient position and radiation dose delivered at the time of treatment.

Surgical Neuro-Oncology, part of the Neurosurgery by Example series, has the overarching goal of spanning the spectrum of clinical practice and complexity within adult surgical neuro-oncology using representative cases. The presentation and discussion reflects the logic, thought process, and technical details behind surgical candidacy, planning, surgical procedure (including bail-out options, and complication avoidance/management), aftercare, evidence and outcome, and lessons learned. Authors with expert knowledge and technical skills address a wide range of complex clinical cases, which are presented as they are encountered the neurosurgical clinic, hospital emergency department, and operating room. While addressing the overall diagnosis, treatment, and outcome, the authors provide insight into how they handle each case. The books transmits experience gained from leaders to colleagues and provides a great background for maintenance of certification preparation, with each chapter providing lists that highlights elements of accurate diagnosis, successful treatment, and effective complication management. Cases included cover the spectrum of clinical diversity and complexity within surgical neuro-oncology.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Disasters are complex environmental, social and cultural events and processes yet disaster management approaches tend to simplify responses and homogenise affected populations. Participatory research with more than 550 children across Europe, detailed in this book argues for a radical transformation in children’s roles in disasters. It shows how more child-centred working in civil protection and emergency planning, that recognises children’s capacities in building resilience, benefits at-risk communities as a whole.

The use of psychoactive substances has various social and health consequences. These can be addressed from the field of health and social welfare through policies formulated by government agencies in accordance with their specific mandates. An explicit policy on health and psychoactive substance use allows the development of the necessary responses to protect and promote the right to health of the population as it relates to this complex problem. This manual is an instrumental tool based on policy analysis techniques and methods developed with the purpose of facilitating the application of public health principles to define responses to problems associated with psychoactive substance use. To this end, the manual contains examples and exercises that illustrate the various phases of the planning process and can be used in workshops and other training activities. It is intended for those responsible for formulating, implementing, and evaluating policies, plans, and programs aimed at reducing the consequences of psychoactive substance use on collective health, from government health agencies and other relevant sectors to civil society.

Governance involves the processes of managing the delivery of public goods. As problems increase in complexity, governments need capabilities that lie beyond the scope of their agencies. Collaborative governance processes involve nongovernmental stakeholders in the work of government using deliberative processes designed to find consensus on complex public issues. This creates a more comprehensive approach to planning, policy, and implementation than government could achieve on its own. The chapter examines various forms of collaborative governance such as transnational policy regimes (like the Kyoto Protocol), certification schemes (such as the Soya Roundtable), public–private partnerships, co-management of natural resources and mandated collaboration. Numerous examples reveal barriers, tensions, structural features, leadership roles, and frameworks for evaluating the success of collaborative governance arrangements.

Boom Cities: Architect-Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain is the first published history of the profound transformations of British city centres in the 1960s. It details the rise and fall of this complex and notorious subject, of which it has often been said that urban planners did more damage to Britain’s cities than even the Luftwaffe had managed. The result is the first account to reveal the origins and dissolution of the cross-party consensus on modernist urban planning, before the ideological smearing that has ever since characterized the high-rise towers, dizzying ring roads, and concrete precincts that were left behind. The rebuilding of British city centres during the 1960s drastically affected the built form of urban Britain, including places ranging from traditional cathedral cities through to the decaying towns of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the course of the book many cities are visited, but, more importantly, Boom Cities uncovers both the planning philosophy, and the political, cultural, and legislative background that created the conditions for these processes to occur across the country. It reveals the role of architect-planners in these transformations. The book also provides an unconventional account of the end of modernist approaches to the built environment, showing it from the perspective of planning and policy elites, rather than through the emergence of public opposition to planning.

Financial Management for Agribusiness presents a practical approach to financial decision making for all those involved in agribusiness, including farmers, horticulturists and supporting businesses, to manage invested funds, physical resources and labour. It covers all the stages leading to a completed business plan and provides straightforward worked examples for each step. The authors emphasise the need to collect and record the detailed financial and physical records necessary for sound decision making and detail all stages of financial planning, including record keeping, preparation of financial statements, financial analysis, budgeting, income tax, Goods and Services Tax and succession planning. The book clearly explains how past financial information of the business can be used to identify and assess alternative strategies that will aid management in making decisions that meet business and personal objectives. The complete financial management process is then summarised in a comprehensive business plan.

This chapter describes the four main sources of individual differences in arithmetic that have been identified through research with children and adults. Numerical quantitative knowledge invokes basic cognitive processes that are either numerically specific or are recruited to be used in quantitative tasks (e.g. subitizing, discrimination acuity for approximate quantities). Attentional skills, including executive attention and various aspects of working memory are important, especially for more complex procedures. Linguistic knowledge is used within arithmetic to learn number system rules and structures, specific number words, and in developing and executing counting processes. Strategic abilities, which may reflect general planning and awareness skills, are involved in selecting procedures and solving problems adaptively. Other important sources of individual differences include automaticity of knowledge related to practice, experiences outside school, and the specific language spoken. Suggestions are made for further research that would be helpful in establishing a full picture of individual differences in arithmetic.

Whether you are a university professor, researcher at a think tank, graduate student, or analyst at a private firm, chances are that at some point you have presented your work in front of an audience. Most of us approach this task by converting a written document into slides, but the result is often a text-heavy presentation saddled with bullet points, stock images, and graphs too complex for an audience to decipher—much less understand. Presenting is fundamentally different from writing, and with only a little more time, a little more effort, and a little more planning, you can communicate your work with force and clarity. Designed for presenters of scholarly or data-intensive content, Better Presentations details essential strategies for developing clear, sophisticated, and visually captivating presentations. Following three core principles—visualize, unify, and focus—Better Presentations describes how to visualize data effectively, find and use images appropriately, choose sensible fonts and colors, edit text for powerful delivery, and restructure a written argument for maximum engagement and persuasion. With a range of clear examples for what to do (and what not to do), the practical package offered in Better Presentations shares the best techniques to display work and the best tactics for winning over audiences. It pushes presenters past the frustration and intimidation of the process to more effective, memorable, and persuasive presentations.

The concept of advocacy literally means to speak for someone. Rooted in law, the term has been increasingly used in medical and patient-related contexts in the past years. This book focuses on advocacy activities in the field of neurology. Neurology deals with heterogeneous and diverse populations of patients, who suffer from disability, chronic, and often progressive diseases. The complex characteristics of neurological diseases yield exceptional challenges to plan for and implement advocacy activities on all levels. All stakeholders are challenged to provide the support patients need; advocacy facilitates this process and bundles efforts to reach the objective of the advocacy task. Building on the premise that advocacy goes beyond merely theoretical claims, this book collects and organizes advocacy approaches in practice. Thereby, we draw on different dimensions of ‘advocacy in neurological practice’ and discuss implications for management, healthcare, planning, and policymaking. We place special emphasis on what advocacy means for several different diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), brain tumours, MS, epilepsy among others. Contributions include best practices, lessons learnt, and tools to be used. The main goal of this book is to raise awareness for advocacy in neurology and empower readers to plan for and implement appropriate activities. In advocacy, anyone can be both an advocate and an advocatee. This book offers a seminal contribution for anyone who is pursuing or intending to pursue advocacy in neurology and related fields.

Research in palliative care is essential for maintaining standards and advancing knowledge and improving practice. It is challenging, sometimes daunting, often frustrating, but always exciting and rewarding when a study is successfully completed, whether the outcome is positive or negative. This chapter discusses a wide range of topics that will help those who are new to research to get started, to proceed and complete it, and contribute to improving outcomes for patients with advanced disease. Topics include, among others, collaborative and translational research, research governance, controlled clinical trials, evidence-based palliative care, and trial planning (including methodology, randomization, statistical considerations, protocol, access to patients, finance, administration, monitoring, and publication).

Peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding have generated considerable interest in the areas of education, research, and politics. This can be attributed in part to the growing recognition that there are limits to violence and that proactive violence prevention is more cost-effective than reactive conflict prevention. Peacebuilding became part of the official discourse when the United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali introduced the concept of post-conflict peacebuilding in the Agenda for Peace. The agenda specified four areas of action relating to preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. Two important documents have helped bring peacebuilding to the mainstream: the 2000 Brahimi Report, a response to the failures of complex UN peacekeeping in the 1990s, and In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights, which led to the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission. Conflict prevention and peacebuilding have also been mainstreamed in the European Union and in most of the foreign offices of the member states. A central focus of studies on peacebuilding is the interrelationships between peacemaking, political change, development, peacekeeping, and reconciliation. Despite the progress made in terms of research, there are a number of gaps and challenges that still need to be addressed. Many analysts, for example, leave the end state vague and implicit and make no systematic differentiation between different types of peace. With respect to context, two salient issues require more attention: the qualities of a peacebuilder and the role of integrative power. The widest research gap is found in the planning of the peacebuilding process.

This is the first complete guide to the collection, processing and storage of wild collected seed. While the main focus is on Australian seeds, the procedures and protocols described within the book are of international standard and apply to users throughout the world. The book provides a basic understanding to seed biology, evolution and morphology, and includes chapters on all aspects of harvesting, processing and storage of seeds. This will enable users to collect, process and store seed more efficiently, thus reducing loss of seed viability during the storage process with potentially huge savings in time, effort and expense in the rehabilitation and restoration industries. With a strong emphasis on the species-rich Western Australian region, Australian Seeds features photographs of more than 1200 species showing clearly their size and shape. Comprehensive seed germination data enables users to know how long to allow for germination times and whether some form of pre-germination treatment is required and what this should be. This is of major importance to horticulturists and agriculturists planning crop and weed control programmes. It will also be a valuable resource to anyone interested in Australian flora.

Dementia is caused by a variety of disorders that result in a progressive loss of both cognitive and functional abilities. Despite the heterogeneity of disorders, there is a common set of problems that patients and families face living with this syndrome. Symptoms such as pain, eating difficulties, depression, and agitation are all common. As the disease progresses to the advanced stages, the different disorders share a common functional trajectory that includes persistently severe disability with complete dependence on others for basic activities of daily living. Care for individuals with dementia should involve a number of important palliative interventions. Advance care planning should occur early on in the disease process as it is anticipated that an individual will lose capacity to make medical and financial decisions at some point in their illness; specialized programmes for end-of-life care, such as hospice, should be considered for all patients with advanced dementia.

The use of mathematics in medicine is not as widespread as it might be. While professional engineers are instructed in a wide variety of mathematical techniques during their training in preparation for their daily practice, tradition and the demands of other subjects mean that doctors give little attention to numerical matters in their education. A smattering of statistical concepts is typically the main mathematical field that we apply to medicine. The concept of the mathematical model is important and indeed familiar; personal finance, route planning, home decorating, and domestic projects all require the application of the basic mathematical tools we acquire at school. This utility is why we learn them. The insight that can be gained by applying mathematics to physiological and other problems within medical practice is, however, underexploited. The undoubted complexity of human biology and pathology perhaps leads us to give up too soon. There are useful and practical lessons that can be learned from the use of elementary mathematics in medicine. Anaesthetic training in particular lends itself to such learning with its emphasis on physics and clinical measurement. Much can be achieved with simple linear functions and hyperbolas. Further exploration into exponential and sinusoidal functions, although a little more challenging, is well within our scope and enables us to cope with many time-dependent and oscillatory phenomena that are important in clinical anaesthetic practice. Some fundamental physiological relationships are explained in this chapter using elementary mathematical functions. Building further on the foundation of simple models to cope with more complexity enables us to see the process, examine the predictions, and, most importantly, assess the plausibility of these models in practice. Understanding the structure of the model enables intelligent interpretation of its output. Some may be inspired to investigate some of the mathematical concepts and their applications further. The rewards can be intellectually, aesthetically, and practically fruitful. The subtle, revelatory, and quite beautiful connection between exponential and trigonometric functions through the concept of complex numbers is one example. That this connection has widespread practical importance too is most pleasing.

While attention controls the internal, mental focus of attention, motor control directs the bodily control focus. Our nervous system is structured in a cascade of interactive control loops, where the primary self-stabilizing control loops can be found directly in the body’s morphology and the muscles themselves. The hierarchical structure enables flexible and selective motor control and the invocation of motor primitives and motor complexes. The learning of motor primitives and complexes again adheres to certain computational systematicities. Redundant behavioral alternatives are encoded in an abstract manner, enabling fast habitual decision making and slower, more elaborated planning processes for realizing context-dependent behavior adaptations. On a higher level, behavior can be segmented into events, during which a particular behavior unfolds, and event boundaries, which characterize the beginning or the end of a behavior. Combinations of events and event boundaries yield event schemata. Hierarchical combinations of event schemata on shorter and longer time scales yield event taxonomies. When developing event boundary detectors, our mind begins to develop environmental conceptualizations. Evidence is available that suggests that such event-oriented conceptualizations are inherently semantic and closely related to linguistic, generative models. Thus, by optimizing behavioral versatility and developing progressively more abstract codes of environmental interactions and manipulations, cognitive encodings develop, which are supporting symbol grounding and grammatical language development.

Modern scholars are fond of likening the task of attempting to reconstruct the medieval past to trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with very few pieces. This study has focused on the more colourful pieces of medieval history. Some of the pieces fit together neatly, through the processes of copying that were central to both the development of text and medieval book production. New histories were composed with reference to and often from existing ones, and comparison of surviving volumes sometimes permits us to track the circulation of a work over time. Other pieces of the puzzle are less obviously connected, but can nevertheless be situated within a larger picture of book production and circulation in the Middle Ages. The manuscripts considered here are united both in the themes of their contents and in the complex processes involved in their manufacture, from the production of parchment to the composition of text, and from the planning of pages to the execution of their contents. Although medieval histories could be the work of individuals, who acquired parchment, composed and wrote text, and added any decoration, history books were usually created through the collaboration of authors, scribes, and artists. The decisions made about the investment of resources of time, skills, and materials in these manuscripts seem also to be linked to real or potential patrons, and thus manuscripts were planned with consideration of the experience of the intended owner. The surviving volumes vary significantly in size (both of the folios and the amount of content), and in their appearance. Some manuscripts were made for a local readership, within a monastic community. Others were probably created for historians whose primary interest was in the text, but the most extensively decorated volumes, whether narrative histories, chronicles, or cartularies, can often be linked to a desire to impress powerful patrons. At the same time, new texts were less likely to be copied in manuscripts that required a significant investment of resources, though higher-quality copies might be made once their value was recognized....

Weak rocks encountered in open pit mines cover a wide variety of materials, with properties ranging between soil and rock. As such, they can provide a significant challenge for the slope designer. For these materials, the mass strength can be the primary control in the design of the pit slopes, although structures can also play an important role. Because of the typically weak nature of the materials, groundwater and surface water can also have a controlling influence on stability. Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks is a companion to Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design, which was published in 2009 and dealt primarily with strong rocks. Both books were commissioned under the Large Open Pit (LOP) project, which is sponsored by major mining companies. These books provide summaries of the current state of practice for the design, implementation and assessment of slopes in open pits, with a view to meeting the requirements of safety, as well as the recovery of anticipated ore reserves. This book, which follows the general cycle of the slope design process for open pits, contains 12 chapters. These chapters were compiled and written by industry experts and contain a large number of case histories. The initial chapters address field data collection, the critical aspects of determining the strength of weak rocks, the role of groundwater in weak rock slope stability and slope design considerations, which can differ somewhat from those applied to strong rock. The subsequent chapters address the principal weak rock types that are encountered in open pit mines, including cemented colluvial sediments, weak sedimentary mudstone rocks, soft coals and chalk, weak limestone, saprolite, soft iron ores and other leached rocks, and hydrothermally altered rocks. A final chapter deals with design implementation aspects, including mine planning, monitoring, surface water control and closure of weak rock slopes. As with the other books in this series, Guidelines for Open Pit Slope Design in Weak Rocks provides guidance to practitioners involved in the design and implementation of open pit slopes, particularly geotechnical engineers, mining engineers, geologists and other personnel working at operating mines.

Adaptive governance is defined by a focus on decentralized decision-making structures and procedurally rational policy, supported by intensive natural and social science. Decentralized decision-making structures allow a large, complex problem like global climate change to be factored into many smaller problems, each more tractable for policy and scientific purposes. Many smaller problems can be addressed separately and concurrently by smaller communities. Procedurally rational policy in each community is an adaptation to profound uncertainties, inherent in complex systems and cognitive constraints, that limit predictability. Hence planning to meet projected targets and timetables is secondary to continuing appraisal of incremental steps toward long-term goals: What has and hasn’t worked compared to a historical baseline, and why? Each step in such trial-and-error processes depends on politics to balance, if not integrate, the interests of multiple participants to advance their common interest—the point of governance in a free society. Intensive science recognizes that each community is unique because the interests, interactions, and environmental responses of its participants are multiple and coevolve. Hence, inquiry focuses on case studies of particular contexts considered comprehensively and in some detail.Varieties of adaptive governance emerged in response to the limitations of scientific management, the dominant pattern of governance in the 20th century. In scientific management, central authorities sought technically rational policies supported by predictive science to rise above politics and thereby realize policy goals more efficiently from the top down. This approach was manifest in the framing of climate change as an “irreducibly global” problem in the years around 1990. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established to assess science for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The parties negotiated the Kyoto Protocol that attempted to prescribe legally binding targets and timetables for national reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. But progress under the protocol fell far short of realizing the ultimate objective in Article 1 of the UNFCCC, “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system.” As concentrations continued to increase, the COP recognized the limitations of this approach in Copenhagen in 2009 and authorized nationally determined contributions to greenhouse gas reductions in the Paris Agreement in 2015.Adaptive governance is a promising but underutilized approach to advancing common interests in response to climate impacts. The interests affected by climate, and their relative priorities, differ from one community to the next, but typically they include protecting life and limb, property and prosperity, other human artifacts, and ecosystem services, while minimizing costs. Adaptive governance is promising because some communities have made significant progress in reducing their losses and vulnerability to climate impacts in the course of advancing their common interests. In doing so, they provide field-tested models for similar communities to consider. Policies that have worked anywhere in a network tend to be diffused for possible adaptation elsewhere in that network. Policies that have worked consistently intensify and justify collective action from the bottom up to reallocate supporting resources from the top down. Researchers can help realize the potential of adaptive governance on larger scales by recognizing it as a complementary approach in climate policy—not a substitute for scientific management, the historical baseline.

TOWARDS THE NEW LIFE Theology and Importance of Christian Initiation for the Life of Faith The book is in equal parts a presentation and an invitation. The subject matter of both is the mystagogical initiation leading to the personal encounter with God and eventually to the union within the Church in Christ, which happens initially and particualry in the sacramental liturgy. Mystagogy was the essential experience of life in the early Church and now is being so intensely discussed and postulated by the ecclesial Magisterium and through the teaching of the recent popes and synods. Within the ten chapters of this book the reader proceeds through the aspects strictly associated with Christian initiation, noticeable in catechumenate and suggestive for further Christian life. It is not surprising then, that the study begins with answering the question about the sense of dealing with catechumenate at all. The response developed in the first chapter covers four key points: the contemporary state of our faith, the need for dialogue in evangelization, the importance of liturgy in the renewal of faith and the obvious requirement of follo- wing the Church’s Magisterium, quite explicit in the subject undertaken within this book. The introductory chapter is meant to evoke interest in catechumenate as such and encourage comprehension of its essence, in order to keep it in mind while planning contemporary evangelization. For doing this with success and avoiding pastoral archeology, we need a competent insight into the main message and goal of Christian initiation. Catechumenate is the first and most venerable model of formation and growth in faith and therefore worth knowing. The second chapter tries to cope with the reasons and ways of the present return to the sources of catechumenate with respect to Christian initiation understood to be the building of the relationship with God. The example of catechumenate helps us to discover, how to learn wisely from the history. This would definitely mean to keep the structure and liturgy of catechumenate as a vehicle of God’s message, which must be interpreted and adapted always anew and with careful and intelligent consideration of the historical flavour on particular stages within the history of salvation and cultural conditions of the recipients. For that reason we refer to the Biblical resources and to the historical examples of catechumenate including its flourishing and declining periods, after which we are slowly approaching the present reinterpretation of the catechumenal process enhanced by the official teaching of the Church. As the result of the latter, particularly owing to the Vatican Council II, we are now dealing with the renewed liturgy of baptism displayed in two liturgical books: The Rite of Baptism for Children and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). This version for adults is the subjectmatter of the whole chapter, in which a reader can find theological analyses of the particular rites as well as numerous indications for improving one’s life with Christ in the Church. You can find interesting associations among the rites of initiation themselves and astounding coherence between those rites and the sacraments of the Eucharist, penance and other sacraments, which simply means the ordinary life of faith. Deep and convincing theology of the process of initiation proves the inspiring spiritual power of the initial and constitutive sacraments of baptism and confirmation, which may seem attractive not only for catechumens but also for the faithful baptized in their infancy, and even more, since they might have not yet had a chance to see what a plausible treasure they have been conveying in their baptismal personality. How much challenge for further and constant realization in life may offer these introductory events of Christian initiation, yet not sufficiently appreciated by those who have already been baptized and confirmed! We all should submit to permanent re-evangelization according to this primary pattern, which always remains essential and fundamental. Very typical and very post-conciliar approach to Christian formation appears in the communal dimension, which guards and guarantees the ecclesial profile of initiation and prepares a person to be a living member of the Church. The sixth chapter of the book is dealing with ecclesial issues in liturgy. They refer to comprehending the word of God, especially in the context of liturgy, which brings about a peculiar theological sense to it and giving a special character to proclaiming the Gospel, which the Pope Francis calls “liturgical proclamation”. The ecclesial premises influence the responsibility for the fact of accompanying the candidates, who aim at becoming Christ’s disciples. As the Church is teaching also in the theological and pastoral introduction to the RCIA, this is the duty of all Christians, which means: priests, religious and the lay, because the Church is one organism in whose womb the new members are conceived and raised. As this fact is strongly claimed by the Church the method of initiation arises to great importance. The seventh chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the catechumenal method stemming from Christ’s pedagogy and His mystery of Incarnation introducing a very important issue of implementing the Divine into the human. The chapter concerning this method opens a more practical part of the book. The crucial message of it is to make mystagogy a natural and obvious method which is the way of building bonds with Christ in the community of the people who already have these bonds and who are eager to tighten them and are aware of the beauty and necessity of closeness with Christ. Christian initiation is the process of entering the Kingdom of God and meeting Christ up to the union with Him – not so much learning dogmas and moral requirements. This is a special time when candidates-catechumens-elected mature in love and in their attitude to Christ and people, which results in prayer and new way of life. As in the past catechumenate nowadays inspires the faithful in their imagination of love and mercy as well as reminds us about various important details of the paschal way of life, which constitute our baptismal vocation, but may be forgotten and now with the help of catechumenate can be recognized anew, while accompanying adults on their catechumenal way. The book is meant for those who are already involved in catechumenal process and are responsible for the rites and formation as well as for those who are interested in what the Church is offering to all who consciously decide to know and follow Christ. You can learn from this book, what is the nature and specificity of the method suggested by the Rite itself for guiding people to God the Saviour and to the community of His people. The aim of the study is to present the universal way of evangelization, which was suggested and revealed by God in His pedagogy, particularly through Jesus Christ and smoothly adopted by the early Church. This way, which can be called a method, is so complete, substantial and clear that it deserves rediscovery, description and promotion, which has already started in the Church’s teaching by making direct references to such categories as: initiation, catechumenate, liturgical formation, the rereading the Mystery of Christ, the living participation in the Mystery and faith nourished by the Mystery. The most engaging point with Christian initiation is the fact, that this seems to be the most effective way of reviving the parish, taking place on the solid and safe ground of liturgy with the most convincing and objective fact that is our baptism and our new identity born in baptismal regenerating bath. On the grounds of our personal relationship with God and our Christian vocation we can become active apostles of Christ. Evangelization begins with ourselves and in our hearts. Thinking about the Church’s mission, we should have in mind our personal mission within the Church and we should refer to it’s roots – first to our immersion into Christ’s death and resurrection and to the anointment with the Holy Spirit. In this Spirit we have all been sent to follow Christ wherever He goes, not necessarily where we would like to direct our steps, but He would. Let us cling to Him and follow Him! Together with the constantly transforming and growing Church! Towards the new life!