Dissertations / Theses: 'Sustainable mitigation'

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Bechtol, Vanessa Lee. "Sustainable Flood Mitigation: Returning Rivers to Their Natural Course." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/190238.

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Community participation in flood planning has recently emerged as a successful approach to addressing and restricting the traditionally structural methods of flood control. Flooding, the most costly natural hazard worldwide, causes economic damages in spite of flood control efforts throughout the 20th century. To control flooding while allowing development, localities have traditionally used structural controls, such as levees and floodwalls, to physically separate floods from people. In light of the continued failure, high costs, and environmental degradation associated with structural flood controls, localities are now increasingly focusing on non-structural flood mitigation methods to reduce flood risks and losses. Furthermore, communities throughout the country are incorporating innovative flood projects that balance structural and non-structural flood mitigation in an attempt to better address environmental concerns. This approach involves returning previously damaged rivers and floodplains to their natural state. This evolution from structural approaches to environmentally conscious flood planning is illustrated through a case study of Napa, California’s model flood plan. Through an analysis of the flood plan and interviews with government representatives and project engineers, this case study illustrates how localities can design and implement flood plans to provide for environmentally sustainable flood mitigation. Building on a model of best management practices which incorporates the “living river” concept in the Napa River Flood Protection Project, this report suggests how other communities with severe river flooding can develop similar sustainable flood plans. Napa’s flood project represents a paradigm shift in which local residents were the driving force behind designing an environmentally sustainable and locally supported flood plan that would be carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The key lessons learned from Napa’s flood project are that community involvement and consensus building among stakeholders are crucial to developing and implementing an environmentally sustainable flood management project.

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Ralla, Avinash. "Sustainable Mitigation of Stormwater Runoff Through Fully Permeable Pavement." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10743499.

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Sustainability and cost-effectiveness in infrastructure development has recently undergone rapid growth. Fully permeable pavement is one such concept that is sustainable and being experimented with within the field of transportation. Fully permeable pavement is a contemporary design approach in which each layer is permeable and stores water, avoiding the adverse effects of stormwater on the pavement. In studies, an innovative design methodology was incorporated which was a result of mechanistic-empirical design approach given by University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC). Test sections of porous asphalt and pervious concrete pavement were constructed at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). These pavements provide sustainable way of stormwater infiltration and recharging the groundwater and as a best management practice. Test sections showed reliable performance in terms of pavement distresses after fourteen months of traffic and performed well in infiltrating the stormwater. The collected data from the strain gages and pressure cells reveal that the asphalt section has experienced more stress and strain with a comparison to the concrete section. The collected data will be used to analyze performance and calibrate the structural design procedure of the pavement.

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Kurata, Masahiro. "Strategies for rapid seismic hazard mitigation in sustainable infrastructure systems." Diss., Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31770.

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Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.
Committee Co-Chair: DesRoches, Reginald; Committee Co-Chair: Leon, Roberto T.; Committee Member: Craig, James I.; Committee Member: Goodno, Barry; Committee Member: White, Donald W. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

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De, Oliveira Silva Rafael. "Modelling sustainable intensification in Brazilian agriculture." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/28821.

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At the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change COP15 (2009) Brazil presented ambitious commitments or Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), to reduce greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs) mitigation by 2020. At COP21 (2015), the country presented new commitments and a framework to achieve further mitigation targets by 2030 as so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). Both NAMAs and INDCs focus on the land use change and agricultural sectors, but the INDCs include a commitment of zero illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. This research focuses on the contribution of the livestock sector to reducing GHGs through the adoption of sustainable intensification measures. A detailed linear programming model, called Economic Analysis of Greenhouse Gases for Livestock Emissions (EAGGLE), of beef production was developed to evaluate environmental trade-offs. The modelling encompasses pasture degradation and recovery processes, animal and deforestation emissions, soil organic carbon dynamics and upstream life-cycle inventory. The model was parameterized for the Brazilian Cerrado, Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes and further developed for farm-scale and regional-scale analysis. Different versions of the EAGGLE model was used to: (i) Evaluate the GHG mitigation potential and economic benefit of optimizing pasture management through the partitioning of initially uniform pasture area; (ii) to define abatement potential and cost-effectiveness of key mitigation measures applicable to the Brazilian Cerrado; (ii) to demonstrate the extent of cost-effective mitigation that can be delivered by the livestock sector as part of INDCs, and to show a result that underpins the national INDC target of zero deforestation; and (iv) to evaluate the consequences of reducing (or increasing) beef production on GHGs in the Cerrado. Counter-intuitively, a sensitivity analysis shows that reducing beef consumption could lead to higher GHG emissions, while increasing production could reduce total GHGs if livestock is decoupled from deforestation.

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Matthews, Lee. "How environmentally sustainable are Sustainable Supply Chain Management strategies? : a critical evaluation of the theory and practice of Sustainable Supply Chain Management." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/how-environmentally-sustainable-are-sustainable-supply-chain-management-strategies-a-critical-evaluation-of-the-theory-and-practice-of-sustainable-supply-chain-management(448f91c2-82f5-4cd5-8192-1ea6c35da81b).html.

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This thesis is a critical evaluation of the theory and practice of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). It seeks to understand why SSCM theory has so little to say about environmental sustainability and to explore how SSCM practice is contributing towards the transition towards sustainable development. I conjecture that SSCM scholars have not engaged sufficiently with the broader sustainability literature and other constructions of sustainability, which has led to a lack of theory development within SSCM. The sustainability paradigms framework that forms the core of the thesis was developed in order to broaden the discussion around sustainability within SSCM. Specifically, it embraces the contested nature of the concept of sustainability and uses multiple sustainability paradigms to construct future directions for theory development. In order to put the concept of environmental sustainability at the centre of SSCM theory, the concept of ‘environmental effectiveness’ was developed which seeks to differentiate between environmentally sustainable strategies and those that merely seek to achieve reductions in unsustainability. In order to evaluate the practice of SSCM, a case study was conducted. The concept of ‘environmental effectiveness’ is operationalized through the use of non-perceptual measures related to carbon emissions and evaluates the extent to which SSCM practices contribute towards climate stabilization, a key sustainability objective. It is found that those SSCM practices that have been shown to improve ‘environmental performance’ within the extant SSCM literature did not deliver ‘environmentally effective performance’ within the case study. This raises the possibility that the literature has mistaken reductions in unsustainability for sustainability proper and that we may need to go back to basics. The findings are discussed with reference to the sustainability paradigms framework and multiple opportunities for theory development within SSCM are explored.

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Jakariya, Md. "Arsenic in tubewell water of Bangladesh and approaches for sustainable mitigation." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm, : Byggvetenskap, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-4372.

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Jakariya, Md. "Arsenic in tubewell water of Bangladesh and aproaches for sustainable mitigation /." Stockholm : KTH, 2007. http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_kth_diva-4372-2__fulltext.pdf.

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Lamb, William. "Identifying and learning from sustainable development pathways." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/identifying-and-learning-from-sustainable-development-pathways(9d7f1022-7302-47a8-bbe0-667652b5d6c9).html.

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With the Paris Agreement calling for climate change to be held "well below" 2oC, and the release of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the international community has reaffirmed its commitment to enabling human progress within the constraints of the biosphere. In major assessments, a common approach is to examine climate and development trade-offs under a framework of economic costs, rather than human well-being, despite the latter being a potentially more accurate way to portray real development outcomes. This thesis elaborates on these links between well-being, carbon emissions and climate change mitigation; it identifies the implications of this new framework, and examines whether it is possible to achieve both low-emissions and high well-being within the limitations of society, economy and the climate. A fundamental issue is whether minimum thresholds of energy consumption necessary for satisfying human needs can be extended to all without exceeding the 2oC goal and further endangering well-being. This is found to be a key trade-off that requires either a deep commitment to emissions reductions in Northern countries, or the avoidance of carbon-intensive infrastructures in the South. Nonetheless, there are already examples of countries that have attained high levels of well-being in multiple dimensions of human need at little cumulative emissions cost, and according to current growth trends will continue to do so with a minimal impact on the shared carbon space. These nations are also diverse in terms of their underlying drivers of carbon emissions (and thus challenges in mitigation), and may provide a rich source of climate-development policy for emerging countries in the global South. However, it is understood that systematic political-economic constraints are preventing a convergence of well-being outcomes and emissions impact across the development hierarchy, highlighting the social and political (rather than technical) issues that must be addressed in order to safely transition society towards a low-carbon future.

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Bledsoe, April, Danika Mosher, Mitchell Ogden, Monica Ayala, Timothy Andrew Joyner, and Ingrid Luffman. "Ecological Niche Modeling and Sustainable Agroforestry: Climate Change Mitigation for Guatemalan Coffee." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/asrf/2019/schedule/70.

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Coffea arabica is a species with far-reaching impacts on the global economy. Nevertheless, climate-related challenges threaten the coffee industry at its source: its growing regions. The coffee industry is a significant economic driver in Guatemala, but farmers are increasingly reporting losses in crop yield and arable land due to climate-related challenges. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) can be employed to make predictions about the current and future suitability of regions for a species by identifying significant biotic or abiotic indicators. An ENM was used to project suitable land into the future using climate change projection models known as representative concentration pathways (RCPs), for the coffee plant and a number of other species. Due to the potential of shade trees to lessen heat stress on coffee plants, common shade trees for the region were modeled. Additionally, a fungus species responsible for detrimental coffee leaf rust was modeled. Results of these models indicated potential for substantial climate-related habitat losses for the coffee plant in the coming decades. Examination of model predictions allow for greater understanding of the climate-related variables affecting the ecology of the coffee plant, and the potential risks to the industry, in a changing climate. Additionally, ENM models for coffee rust and shade trees can help Guatemalan farmers make informed decisions about farm management.

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Bledsoe, April, Danika Mosher, Mitchell Ogden, Monica Ayala, T. Andrew Joyner Joyner, and Ingrid Luffman. "Ecological Niche Modeling and Sustainable Agroforestry: Climate Change Mitigation for Guatemalan Coffee." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2019. https://dc.etsu.edu/asrf/2019/schedule/64.

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Coffea arabica is a species with far-reaching impacts on the global economy. Nevertheless, climate-related challenges threaten the coffee industry at its source: its growing regions. The coffee industry is a significant economic driver in Guatemala, but farmers are increasingly reporting losses in crop yield and arable land due to climate-related challenges. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) can be employed to make predictions about the current and future suitability of regions for a species by identifying significant biotic or abiotic indicators. An ENM was used to project suitable land into the future using climate change projection models known as representative concentration pathways (RCPs), for the coffee plant and a number of other species. Due to the potential of shade trees to lessen heat stress on coffee plants, common shade trees for the region were modeled. Additionally, a fungus species responsible for detrimental coffee leaf rust was modeled. Results of these models indicated potential for substantial climate-related habitat losses for the coffee plant in the coming decades. Examination of model predictions allow for greater understanding of the climate-related variables affecting the ecology of the coffee plant, and the potential risks to the industry, in a changing climate. Additionally, ENM models for coffee rust and shade trees can help Guatemalan farmers make informed decisions about farm management.

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Vanyaza, Sidwell Luvo. "Assessment of the potential contribution of biogas to mitigation of climate change in south africa." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9074.

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Includes bibliographical references.
South Africa has its fair share in the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with recorded 2010 emissions per capita of 10tons/year. This is caused by the energy supply of the country which relies heavily on fossil fuels to drive its energy intensive economy. If this continues under “business as usual”, consequences like water and food shortage may be exacerbated. The waste sector has a share of 3 in national GHG emissions. These are caused by methane from biogas produced through anaerobic digestion of organic waste. The objective of this study was to assess the potential contribution that can be achieved in reducing the national GHG emissions by converting waste emissions into useful energy or capturing and destroying them. Three waste resources were investigated because of their abundance in the country: municipal solid waste, municipal wastewater and livestock manure. The national picture of municipal waste was extrapolated from the waste data available in 7 metros in the country (City of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, EThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay, and Buffalo City municipalities). Projected GDP and population growths were used as indicators for extrapolating the national data. The total national organic waste derived from these waste categories was used to estimate their emission share in national GHG emissions and biogas generation in terms of methane production from each waste type. This was forecasted from 2010 to 2025. The methane gas production was optimised by assuming different waste combinations like: municipal solid waste and wastewater, wastewater and livestock manure, and remaining wastewater. In addition, the possible amount of electricity or heat produced from this biogas was estimated. This useful energy was used to evaluate the emission reduction potential (ERP) in the national GHG emissions of the country under “growth without constraints”. All these computations were performed by using MS Excel software. It was found that the total organic waste predicted during this period varied from 12 to 17Mton, with the waste emissions share being about 2 of the national GHG emission. Methane generated from this waste was about 644-1075Mm3 while the total optimal methane generated from these waste combinations was estimated to be 1770- 2650Mm3. In addition, 673-1123GWh of electricity and 1255-2150GWh of heat could be produced (without optimization) from methane over the same period of the forecast. For optimal methane production, the possible useful energy was estimated to be 1362-2037GWh of electricity and 2894- 4362GWh of heat. The ERP of methane capture and conversion to useful energy was about 2.1- 2.5. It is concluded that a) capturing and utilisation of methane gas from waste contributes to the reduction of the GHG emissions, b) optimisation of biogas production from waste increase methane yield and therefore useful energy, and c) the best contribution of biogas in climate change mitigation in South Africa would come from the optimal production of methane from waste.

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Poudyal, Dikshya. "Carbon footprint and architecture firms: a case study approach for mitigation." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/18235.

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Master of Science
Department of Architecture
R. Todd Gabbard
Almost forty percent of the global energy use and one-third of the global greenhouse gas emission comes from the building industry. Thus, this sector has the largest potential for delivering long term substantial greenhouse gas reduction. (UNEP, 2009)This dissertation starts with the energy auditing of an architectural firm to calculate the amount of energy used. It then expands into addressing the issue on a greater perspective. The whole agenda of the thesis was to develop a strategy to include the building industry in global carbon market. This thesis was performed in collaboration with nationally recognized, medium-sized mid-western architecture firm. A yearlong internship was completed under this firm, and collaborative research was carried out. To reduce the carbon dioxide emission, it is crucial to be able to measure it. This thesis aims at creating basic guidelines for architecture firms to mitigate its carbon footprint. It also examines the possibilities of carbon footprint mitigation on a bigger scale by proposing a system that would encourage architectural and engineering firms to design and produce more energy efficient buildings. The proposed system deals with calculation and incorporation of creative handprint of an architectural firm and uses the system to rebate its carbon footprint and convert the surplus handprint to a credit in the carbon market. The argument made here is that this scheme is driven by incentives and encourages more architecture and engineering firms to design sustainable buildings. The final proposal links the entire building industry to the carbon market. The proposal made is that a positive handprint of architecture and engineering firms can be converted to carbon credits and traded in the carbon markets.

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Ponnamaneni, Padmaja. "Economically sustainable cattle production practices during multiple years of drought and differing price cycles." Laramie, Wyo. : University of Wyoming, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1445044271&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=18949&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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Kikerpuu, Tiina. "To Act or Not to Act : Muncipial Authority over Green House Gas Mitigation." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-150782.

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The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, it is a feasibility study intended to contribute tofurther research on the municipal authority to mitigate green house gas emissions. This will bedone by studying the municipal authority on green house gas mitigation measures in threeSwedish municipalities. To fulfil the purpose the following questions are set to be answered.What is the municipal authority over green house gas mitigation measures in these threemunicipalities?- What is the formal ability of municipalities in Sweden to act on GHG mitigation?- What measures do these three municipalities use to mitigate GHG emissions?- How do the municipalities consider their climate authority?The study focused on measures within three sectors; traffic and transport; energy, andinformation and out-reaches. Transport and energy make up the main sources of GHGemissions in the municipalities, and information was a common measure.4 categories of authority were developed; Legal authority, Economic authority, Climatecompetence and Collaborations, this to get a picture of what influenced climate authority. Theidea for this came from previous research that involved aspects similar to the categories. Theresult showed that municipal climate authority is quite relative, the categories are relevant, butpolitical will and ambitions on tackling climate change are decisive. In the transport sector themunicipal authority was restricted due to the authority of other actors. The authority in theenergy sector was limited because national legislation had precedence.The municipal climate authority is considered strong within its own organisation, themunicipal role as wide and involving many responsibilities. The role was described as widerthan the municipal authority. Most of the climate measures are directed towards themunicipality’s own organisation, the premises of the municipality and the services it provides.Outside the municipal organisation and services, but within its geographic unit, in the specificmeasures developed in this study, the climate authority was weaker and mainly exercisedthrough collaborations. The municipalities are not using their climate authority in full. Byimplementing measures like climate considerations in public procurement, their authoritycould be improved.

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Gingborn, Nicklas, and Hanna Wåhlén. "Investigating sustainable mitigation alternatives for groundwater in Matlab Upazila, Bangladesh. : A Minor Field Study." Thesis, KTH, Miljögeokemi och ekoteknik, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-99340.

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Since the late 20th century most people in rural Bangladesh use hand pumped tube wells to extract groundwater as their primary source of water. In 1993 it was officially recognized that many of the Holocene groundwater aquifers contain elevated levels of arsenic (As) and that millions of people in Bangladesh are exposed and at risk for mass poisoning. The need to focus efforts to areas with scarce supply of safe drinking water has raised the need to quickly locate and identify these areas. Mitigation options evaluated in this study focus on 1) how to target As safe aquifers and 2) how to identify As safe tube wells An attempt to target As safe shallow aquifers based on sediment color was evaluated. The majority of 30 new tube wells screened in off-white sand sediments have As safe water with respect to both the WHO and the national guideline, but including the failed attempts to target off-white sediments at shallow depths, the success rate of the method was considered to be too low. This study also attempt to validate platform color as a rapid low-cost screening tool for As by relating platform color to water chemistry in 103 tube wells. Different classification methods were tested to develop recommendations for the future use of this method. The results showed that a simplified color classification was better than a detailed classification at predicting water chemistry of iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and As. Recently, Mn has also emerged as a possible widespread problem in the Bengal Basin. Although not thoroughly investigated, present evidence indicates that a high concentration of Mn in drinking water affects the intellectual function in children. The occurrence of both low As and low Mn concentrations in shallow aquifers was found to be very unlikely since only one out of 133 tested wells had this water chemistry composition. Instead it was showed that the highest Mn concentrations occur in As-safe aquifers. Therefore WHO should consider reintroducing their previous health based guideline value for Mn to highlight the potential risk of excessive exposure, since more people risk being exposed to Mn when As-safe shallow aquifers are targeted.

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Golden, Jay S. "Engineering for sustainable development : an examination of the urban heat island and its mitigation." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.445579.

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Galante, Michael Victor. "Climate change mitigation through reduced-impact logging : a framework approach." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/20439.

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The implementation of reduced-impact logging (RIL) in Sabah is recognised in the literature as an activity to reduce the environmental impact of timber harvest activities, thus reducing carbon entering the atmosphere. With the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, modalities for its application as a project-based activity under the Climate Convention have yet to be developed. Investigations on both, its potential to reduce carbon from being released into the atmosphere in Sabah, specifically, and its modalities as a project-based activity under the Climate Convention in Malaysia, broadly, are warranted. This thesis addresses a set of research questions related to modalities for its inclusion under the Climate Convention, temporal and spatial responses of the forest after its implementation, to the investigation of activity-specific modalities, and their effectiveness, and its associated finance under the Climate Convention in Malaysia. The improvement of the forest activities under the Climate Convention are conceptualised through the Hierarchy of Production Forest Management (HoPFM), i.e., a modular framework defining the progression of the forest industry through demonstrable benefits. The conceptual framework begins from the basic legal and regulatory frameworks that govern forest management activities, towards sustainable forest management as the ideology of the Framework, designed to recognise both local, and global, approaches to forest management, while highlighting the need for balanced considerations of environmental, social and economic values. Through the Framework, the components of RIL in Sabah are discussed, relative to the modalities of the Climate Convention. Since he inception of the GIZ programme to improve forest management systems in the Deramakot forest reserve, there has been limited research on its recovery after RIL activities. Data on aboveground alive tree biomass and deadwood necromass was collected, and tested against 'harvest intensity', and 'time since harvest', to assess the temporal and spatial variability of forest responses, both within diameter classes, and major functional species classes of 'dipterocarp' and 'non-dipterocarp'. It was identified that 'harvest intensity' was found to be affecting forest recovery, relative to 'time since harvest', which was similarly identified for 'dipterocarp' species, relative to 'non-dipterocarp', respectively. The few significant changes detected indicate that long-term periods of analysis are required to identify consistent trends over-time. Since the mandate of the RIL policy in Sabah, conventional harvest activities are no longer eligible to be practiced in commercial production reserves. Therefore, to measure changes in carbon between the practices under the Climate Convention, a baseline needs to be developed, where conventional harvest activities were historically, the only form of harvest practice. An analysis of the literature was undertaken to estimate the difference between the practices, whereby broad impact classes of ‘infrastructure created’, and ‘harvest damage’, were identified. In its application, the ‘crediting’ approach is applied, whereby a benchmark is set, counterfactually, to estimate carbon that would be released without RIL activities. A number of carbon reductions are withheld from issuance into the market, to create a buffer between actually and potential issuance. The approach is conservative, to account for changes in policy and project-based circumstances, which may impact the number of carbon reductions issued in a project timeframe. RIL is currently implemented in the commercial production reserves, however it its effectiveness to reduce carbon from entering the atmosphere under the Climate Convention in Malaysia is unclear. Representing extremes along a range of anthropogenic disturbance through RIL activities, data from RIL activities was collected in a lower montaine forest harvested once, and a lowland forest, harvested multiple times. Both areas were tested against the carbon baseline, to represent conventional harvest practices in Sabah. The estimates were comparable to literature values, with RIL activities found to reduce carbon from entering the atmosphere. The variability in the accumulation of carbon stocks of aboveground alive tree biomass was identified as an important consideration in the trends observed. The condition of the forest at the time of harvest, i.e., primary or severely degraded logged-over forest, was found to impact carbon stocks immediately after harvest and the rate of carbon accumulation over time. The variability of the result supports the concept of conservativeness, as advocated for project-based activities, under the Climate Convention. As a signatory Party, Malaysia is developing the necessary institutional infrastructure to facilitate project-based activities under the Climate Convention. Investigating RIL as a nationally appropriate mitigation action is undertaken, where distinctions are made between its integration at the national level, and its implementation at the sub-national level. Drawing on experiences from Sabah, implementing RIL as a project-based activity under the Climate Convention is broadly applicable to all States in Malaysia, whereby monitoring, reporting and verification at the sub-national level may be implemented through the existing domestic forest certification standard in Malaysia. At the current price of carbon over a 35-year harvest cycle, RIL is estimated to be approximately at the break-even price for its implementation in Sabah. Relative to the cost of restoring severely degraded forests harvested through conventional practices in Sabah, implementing RIL is financially viable. The knowledge gained by investigating RIL as a sub-national approach may be useful to assist Malaysia to meet their intended national emission reduction targets under the Climate Convention. This thesis aims to improve our knowledge of the application of RIL in logged-over forest of Sabah, and its applicability as a project-based activity under the Climate Convention in Malaysia. Several research questions were raised, to contextualise the modalities of RIL in Sabah and the institutional framework in Malaysia, relative to the architecture of the Climate Convention. It highlights the need for a systematic approach to gather observations on forest carbon dynamics and their integration into larger carbon accounting frameworks, to improve our understanding of the potential of RIL to contribute to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere from the forest sector.

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Amin, Mohammed Rabiul. "Technology transfer for sustainable development through clean development mechanism (CDM) : the Bangladesh perspectives /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2005.

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Melville-Shreeve, Peter. "Rainwater harvesting for drought mitigation and flood management." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/30260.

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Rainwater harvesting (RWH) in the UK has seen a low level of uptake relative to similar settings such as Australia and Germany. The relatively low cost of municipal water in the UK limits the financial savings associated with RWH systems, especially in a domestic setting. Although financial benefits can be relatively low (in terms of reduced water bills), academic and practitioner studies have demonstrated the potential for RWH to significantly reduce potable water demands at typical UK houses. Hence, increased uptake of RWH has potential to contribute to mitigating droughts in water scarce regions. Stormwater management in the UK is receiving increasing attention at all levels; from grass-roots sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) such as downpipe disconnections and raingardens; through to implementation of urban realm attenuation schemes and continued development of guidance from UK policy makers. The public realm nature of most SuDS presents a need for partnership approaches to be fostered between infrastructure mangers and the general public. The application of RWH as a technology within the SuDS management train has been limited in the UK as policy makers have taken the view that RWH tanks may be full at the start of a design storm, and thus the potential for attenuation and peak discharge reduction has been largely ignored. However, in the last few years there has been a shift in emphasis; from RWH perceived purely as a water demand management technology to a focus on its wider benefits e.g. mitigating surface water flooding through improved stormwater management. RWH systems examined in this thesis are now available which offer multiple benefits to both end-users and water service providers. The application of RWH in a dual purpose configuration (to displace potable water demands and control stormwater discharges) has seen increasing interest during the development of this thesis. However, the successful design of RWH as a stormwater management tool requires a series of calculations to be completed. To date, practitioners have frequently relied upon low-resolution heuristic methods which lead to a small range of configurations being deployed, with minimal demonstrable stormwater control benefits. In this thesis, full details of novel and traditional RWH technologies were identified and described. Empirical data was collected, both in laboratory conditions and at field sites, to identify the real world operating characteristics of a range of RWH configurations. Additionally a new time series evaluation methodology was developed to enable RWH systems to be designed and analysed. This method quantifies water demand benefits and also focusses on stormwater management metrics (i.e. largest annual discharge and total discharge volume per year). The method was developed to enable a range of RWH configurations to be evaluated at a given site. In addition, a decision support tool (RainWET) was developed and tested which enabled the methods to be deployed in real world settings. The application of the RainWET software allowed a UK-wide, time series analysis of RWH configurations to be completed and the holistic benefits of a range of dual purpose RWH systems to be analysed and described. Evidence from the UK study suggests that a traditional RWH installation (3000l storage, 300l/day demand and 60m2 roof) installed at a house in a water scarce region (London, SAAR 597mm) was able to fully mitigate stormwater overflows over a 20 year analysis whilst providing a mean water saving of 31,255l/annum. An equivalent system located in the wettest region studied (Truro, SAAR 1099mm) saw mean reductions in the largest annual storm of 62% (range 35-86%) whilst satisfying a mean rainwater demand of 50,912l/annum. The study concluded that suitably designed dual purpose RWH systems offered better stormwater management benefits than those designed without a stormwater control device. In addition, the integration of smart RWH controls were shown to maximise stormwater control benefits with little or no reduction in a system’s ability to satisfy non-potable water demands.

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Malla, Lesego. "Greenhouse gas mitigation cost of energy from biogas : a techno-economic analysis of co-digestion of three types of waste in Cape Town." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12489.

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This paper investigates, in the context of Cape Town the emission reduction potential (ERP) of energy from biogas and related cost. Two project-scale models and a city-scale model were developed. Substrates for project model 1 were organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and primary sludge (PS) from sewage works. Project model 2 considered waste paper sludge (WPS) and PS. For the city-scale model, substrates for project model 1 were extended to include total amounts of OFMSW and PS generated in Cape Town. Financial results show that at the REFIT tariff model 1 would have a higher internal rate of return (20.5%) than model 2 (5.6%). The landfill ERP of the project-scale models is 98 600 CO2 equivalent tons per year, corresponding to a weighted average capital investment of R372 per CO2 equivalent ton saved in year 1. The results for the city-scale model indicate that a landfill ERP of 458 000 CO2 equivalent tons per year can be expected at an investment cost of R287 per CO2 equivalent ton saved in year 1. Energy emissions from fossil fuels at city-scale are most effectively mitigated if coal rather than other fossil fuel based power and heat generation are replaced.

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Schanes, Karin, Stefan Giljum, and Edgar Hertwich. "Low carbon lifestyles: A framework to structure consumption strategies and options to reduce carbon footprints." Elsevier, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.154.

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There are many opportunities for consumers to design their lives more sustainably. While a rapidly growing body of literature has investigated how consumers can reduce carbon footprints in key con- sumption areas, such as food, housing and mobility, an overall framework that allows structuring those options across all consumption areas is still missing. Hence, this paper presents a novel and systematic framework to identify improvement options that promote climate change mitigation and structure them based on their primary mode of impact on GHG emissions. The framework targets consumer practices and focuses on ambitious, but technically and socioeconomically feasible strategies for consumers to lower their carbon footprint. Four major categories for reducing consumption-based emissions form the basic framework, which are then subdivided into behavioural strategies and sub-strategies. The practical application of the framework is illustrated by using food consumption as an example. Systematically identifying improvement options can advance a holistic understanding of the range of behavioural strategies targeting consumer choices that operate at different stages in the supply chain. It thus provides a starting point for addressing critical questions related to the role of consumers in supporting climate change mitigation. (authors' abstract)

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Howard, Ethan. "Collaborative learning and the mitigation of UK ammonia emissions." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-324251.

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This is a study on the conditions of collaborative learning in the context of UK ammonia emissions. By conducting an extensive review of over 40 scientific articles, this study identifies and synthesizes a list of nine conditions deemed necessary for successful collaborative learning processes and explores their extent and overall influence between three stakeholders involved in UK ammonia emissions. Hybrid focus group/key informant interviews provided the data for this exploration. This study suggests that the extent of these 9 conditions are present enough between the three stakeholders to initiate a collaborative learning process. By conducting further studies with a wider field of stakeholders, a collaborative learning process could identify possible ways to mitigate UK ammonia emissions.

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Hall, Elin. "Sustainable forests: A strategy for climate change adaptation and mitigation? : A case study from Babati District, Tanzania." Thesis, Södertörn University College, School of Life Sciences, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-2719.

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This Bachelor‟s thesis aims at explaining the relationship between forests and climate change, a subject that has been given a lot of attention in environmental discussions in recent years, particularly because forests are a source of carbon dioxide emissions and in the same time have the potential to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration. However, with the importance of mitigation as a background, the focus of this study is on adaptation. The purpose is to identify mutual benefits from the diverse forest ecosystems, and examine the possible benefits from forests to the rural poor population in Tanzania, in a future scenario of increased vulnerability to climate change. The methodology for the study can be divided into two parts, one qualitative literature study and one field study in Babati District northern Tanzania, limited to interviews and excursions. This thesis gives details about the scientific projections and local perceptions of climate change and the effects of climate change. The results of the thesis highlights the importance of sustainably managed forests and agroforestry systems, which have been successful in Babati through local participation; economic incentives such as carbon credit and other payments for ecosystem services, which is a possible future extension of forestry activities; and increased integration between sectors, which make sure that adaptation within different sectors can be done simultaneously.

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Riedy, Christopher. "The eye of the storm an integral perspective on sustainable development and climate change response /." Connect to this title online, 2005. http://adt.lib.uts.edu.au/public/adt-NTSM20050603.101829/.

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Francart, Nicolas. "Buildings in municipal climate change mitigation strategies : towards life cycle thinking." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-244063.

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Fulfilling climate targets requires ambitious changes. The building sector is a large contributor to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), but also offers opportunities for climate change impact reductions. This thesis aims at supporting strategic decisions to reach climate change mitigation targets in the building sector, based on knowledge about what factors contribute significantly to climate impact from buildings in a life cycle perspective and how practitioners can influence these factors. More specifically, a first point of investigation concerns what aspects play a key importance in buildings’ climate impact, and what climate change mitigation strategies for the building sector should focus on. A quantitative analysis of backcasting scenarios for 2050 was performed using a spreadsheet model to estimate GHG emissions for the building sector. The parameters were adjusted to ensure that a GHG emission quota was reached in every scenario. This provided an illustration of four very different ways the building sector could contribute to the fulfillment of a global climate change mitigation target. The results were used to discuss what aspects of buildings were particularly important for target fulfillment. These aspects include a low-carbon energy mix, a reduction of GHG emissions from construction materials and an optimized use of space. A second point of investigation concerns how municipalities can influence practices through the use of environmental requirements in construction, in particular requirements based on a life cycle approach. A survey of Swedish municipalities was used to assess their current practices and knowledge level regarding mitigating climate change impact from construction, as well as the influence of a municipality’s size on these practices. It was followed up by semi-structured interviews investigating barriers to the use of environmental requirements in construction. Barriers were identified regarding in-house skills, access to data, resources, ambiguities regarding the law and guidance from national authorities. A stepwise strategy was suggested to overcome these barriers and successfully implement environmental requirements. Therefore, the thesis as a whole provides insight on how municipalities could use environmental requirements in construction to influence current practices in the building sector, so that the changes needed to fulfill the 1.5℃ target are implemented.

QC 20190218

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Hossain, Mohammed. "Sustainable Arsenic Mitigation A Strategy for Scaling-up Safe Water Access : A Strategy for Scaling-up Safe Water Access." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-179197.

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In rural Bangladesh, the drinking water supply is mostly dependent upon manually operated hand pumped tubewells, installed by the local community. The presence of natural arsenic (As) in groundwater and its wide scale occurrence has drastically reduced the safe water access across the country and put tens of millions of people under health risk. Despite significant progress in understanding the source and distribution of As and its mobilization through sediment-water interactions, there has been limited success in mitigation since the problem was discovered in the country’s water supply in 1993. This study evaluated the viability of other kinds of alternative safe drinking water options and found tubewells are the most suitable due to simplicity and technical suitability, a wide acceptance by society and above all low cost for installation, operation and maintenance. During planning and decision making in the process of tubewell installation, depth of the tubewell is a key parameter as it is related to groundwater quality and cost of installation. The shallow wells (usually < 80m) are mostly at risk of As contamination. One mitigation option are deep wells drilled countrywide to depths of around 250 m. Compared to safe water demand, the number of deep wells is still very low, as the installation cost is beyond affordability of the local community, especially for the poor and disadvantaged section of the society. Using depth-specific piezometers (n=82) installed in 15 locations spread over the 410 km2 area of Matlab (an As-hot spot) in southeastern Bangladesh, groundwater monitoring was done over a 3 year period (pre- and post-monsoon for 2009-2011 period). Measurements were performed for hydrogeological characterization of shallow, intermediate deep and deep aquifer systems to determine the possibility of targeting safe aquifers at different depths as the source of a sustainable drinking water supply. In all monitoring piezometers, As was found consistently within a narrow band of oscillation probably due to seasonal effects. Hydrogeochemically, high-As shallow groundwaters derived from black sands are associated with elevated DOC, HCO3, Fe, NH4-N and PO4-P and with a relatively low concentration of Mn and SO4. Opposite to this, shallow aquifers composed of red and off-white sediments providing As-safe groundwater are associated with low DOC, HCO3, Fe, NH4-N and PO4-P and relatively higher Mn and SO4. Groundwaters sampled from intermediate deep and deep piezometers which were found to be low in As, are characterized by much lower DOC, HCO3, NH4-N and PO4-P compared to the shallow aquifers. Shallow groundwaters are mostly Ca-Mg-HCO3 type and intermediate deep and deep aquifers’ groundwaters are mostly Na-Ca-Mg-Cl-HCO3 to Na-Cl-HCO3 type. A sediment color tool was also developed on the basis of local driller’s color perception of sediments (Black, White, Off-white and Red), As concentration of tubewell waters and respective color of aquifer sediments. A total of 2240 sediment samples were collected at intervals of 1.5 m up to a depth of 100 m from all 15 nest locations. All samples were assigned with a Munsell color and code, which eventually led to identify 60 color varieties. The process continued in order to narrow the color choices to four as perceived and used by the local drillers for identification of the targeted As-safe aquifers. Munsell color codes assigned to these sediments render them distinctive from each other which reduces the risk for misinterpretation of the sediment colors. During the process of color grouping, a participatory approach was considered taking the opinions of local drillers, technicians, and geologists into account. In addition to the monitoring wells installed in the piezometer nests, results from 87 other existing drinking water supply tubewells were also considered for this study. A total of 39 wells installed in red sands at shallow depths producing As-safe water providing strong evidence that red sediments are associated with As-safe water. Average and median values were found to be less than the WHO guideline value of 10 μg/L. Observations for off-white sediments were also quite similar. Targeting off-white sands could be limited due to uncertainty of proper identification of color, specifically when day-light is a factor. Elevated Mn in red and off-white sands is a concern in the safe water issue and emphasizes the necessity of a better understanding of the health impact of Mn. White sediments in shallow aquifers are relatively uncommon and seemed to be less important for well installations. Arsenic concentrations in more than 90% of the shallow wells installed in black sands are high with an average of 239 μg/L from 66 wells installed in black sediments. It is thereby recommended that black sands in shallow aquifers must be avoided. This sediment color tool shows the potential for enhancing the ability of local tubewell drillers for the installation of As-safe shallow drinking water tubewells. Considering the long-term goal of the drinking water safety plan to provide As-safe and low-Mn drinking water supply, this study also pioneered hydrogeological exploration of the intermediate deep aquifer (IDA) through drilling up to a depth of 120 m. Clusters of tubewells installed through site optimization around the monitoring piezometer showed a similar hydrochemical buffer and proved IDA as a potential source for As-safe and low-Mn groundwater. Bangladesh drinking water standard for As (50 µg/L) was exceeded in only 3 wells (1%) and 240 wells (99%) were found to be safe. More than 91% (n=222) of the wells were found to comply with the WHO guideline value of 10 µg/L. For Mn, 89% (n=217) of the wells show the concentration within or below the previous WHO guideline value of 0.4 mg/L, with a mean and median value of 0.18 and 0.07 mg/L respectively. The aquifer explored in the Matlab area shows a clear pattern of low As and low Mn. The availability of similar sand aquifers elsewhere at this depth range could be a new horizon for tapping safe drinking water at about half the cost of deep tubewell installation. All findings made this study a comprehensive approach and strategy for replication towards As mitigation and scaling-up safe water access in other areas of Bangladesh and elsewhere having a similar hydrogeological environment.

QC 20151211

Sida-SASMIT project (Sida Contribution 75000854).

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Mahachi, Heather. "Towards zero emissions and zero poverty in the Global South: a comparative analysis of South Africa, India and Mexico's approach to development and climate change mitigation." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29360.

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Among the foremost challenges of the 21st century are sustainable development and climate change mitigation. In light of these challenges, this thesis seeks to analyse and compare the extent to which development and climate change mitigation are aligned on a policy level in three countries in the global south, namely South Africa, India and Mexico. These three middle-income countries are plagued by high levels of poverty and large inequality gaps, and address the challenge of reducing GHG emissions in this context. The objectives of this study are fourfold: (1) an analysis of each country’s climate change policies mainly its Nationally Determined Contributions and climate response strategies and assesses to which extent development is addressed; (2) analysis of each country’s national development plans and the extent to which climate change mitigation is addressed; (3) based on the initial analysis, assessing the overall extent to which the development and climate policies are aligned; and (4) a comparative analysis of how each country performed in this regard. The study found that South Africa, India and Mexico are in pursuit of lower carbon development in the years to come. Targets for reducing their emissions in light of climate change considerations have been set and sectoral approaches to low carbon development are illustrated to varying degrees. South Africa was found to have done relatively well in integrating development and poverty alleviation into its national climate policy. The detailed analysis presented in the thesis found this at national scale, while a focus on co-benefits was particularly well integrated in Mexico’s and India’s climate policy. Thus the thesis shows that each country could learn or adopt some approaches to alignment from the other – and that there are several benefits associated with aligning development and climate policies. More research would need to be conducted at a finer scale to identify the trade-offs of certain mitigation actions and this information should be used in future national and sectoral development.

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Jameel, Ahmed. "A model to integrate the management of hazards and disasters in the national sustainable development planning of the Maldives." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Geological Sciences, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/1442.

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The small land area of the islands of the Maldives, combined with high population density, makes the communities of these islands vulnerable to natural disaster events such as flooding and tsunami. The Indian Ocean Tsunami on 26 December 2004 impacted 69 islands of the Maldives, killing 82 people, leaving 26 people missing and 15, 000 people internally displaced, making it the worst disaster in recorded history. Following the event, the Government of the Maldives announced a Safer Island Development Programme which seeks to provide the infrastructure necessary to adapt to natural disasters. The key focus of disaster management is to reduce the vulnerability of the communities exposed to hazards and risks, and to help them to enhance their resilience. Efforts have been made to develop safer and sustainable communities in all corners of the developed and developing worlds. New Zealand Government announced its effort to build safe and secure communities in 2007 while at a local level the Christchurch City Council published the Safer Christchurch Strategy in 2005. Overseas, the Community Strategy 2000, outlines the vision of "A safe and strong Island" at Isle of Wight United Kingdom. The islands of the Maldives have natural characteristics which make them vulnerable to disasters such as tsunami. This research has been able to identify the relationship between these characteristics and the natural vulnerability of the islands using the data that was collected following the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Out of 11 island, that have been identified for the Safer Islands Development Programme, one island is found to have very high natural vulnerability and 5 islands a high natural vulnerability, from the island vulnerability index model developed through this study. The Island Vulnerability Index model could be used to enhance the present Safer Island Development Programme island selection criteria, to reduce the possibility of 'building risk' into the infrastructure development on the islands. The index could also be used in the Environmental Impact Assessment studies to address the issue of disasters, effective resources allocation in the Public Sector Infrastructure Programme for 'building back better', and resource identification in land use planning.

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Wong, Man-chi Man Joao, and 黃文志. "Potential of zero carbon buildings in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48543743.

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It is doubtless that global warming is enhanced by human activities, and being accelerated in recent years. The building sector is one of the main contributors in carbon emissions over the world, which contributed to over 20%. Hong Kong is a typical metropolis located in the sub-tropical region, whereas financing and servicing are the major industries supporting the development of the city. With these industries, it implies the major carbon emission is from buildings of commercial and residential sectors. A wide range of policies and researches on high efficient / green building design were conducted in the Western countries since the 90s, and there are more in the Asia Pacific since 2000. Among different countries there are many methods in calculating carbon emissions, which are similar in principle and different in the details. It is important to agree a consistenct framework on the calculation of carbon emission and study the performance of different carbon reduction strategies, hence to serve a reference for designers. This study conducted a critical review on the calculation of carbon emission, hence definition of carbon emissions. The review classified different calculation methods by 7 factors, which are the major governors on the results. All methods reviewed in the section were either current standards or methods suggested by scholars. With the critical review, a potential calculation methodology is suggested and will used for the calculation in the later part. A case study was carried out for the identification of the strategies used on two zero carbon buildings and one zero energy building. The study shows these buildings used similar strategies on the emission reduction, including photovoltaics, well insulated fabric, natural lighting, natural ventilation, high efficient lighting system and solar hot water system. A computer simulation was used to analyze the performance of different strategies that could be used on buildings in Hong Kong climate. Commercial buildings and residential buildings are selected as sample buildings for the analysis. A baseline building is setup with typical design. The computer simulation studied the strategies used by other buildings from case study and compares their effect with baseline building. The simulation shows that a zero carbon residential building is possible with sufficient offsetting on the building surface. However, office building cannot be zero carbon by applying the analyzed strategies. The study shows solar hot water is the most effective strategy for residential buildings and day lighting is the most effective strategy for office buildings.
published_or_final_version
Environmental Management
Master
Master of Science in Environmental Management

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Fireman, Naomi. "Oberlin's Experimental Hazelnut Orchard: Exploring Woody Agriculture's Potential for Climate Change Mitigation and Food System Resilience." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1559171019286324.

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Ley, Debora. "Sustainable development, climate change, and renewable energy in rural Central America." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:90ce7966-ad99-4bcc-9192-001712ca03f1.

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Can rural renewable energy projects simultaneously meet the multiple goals of sustainable development, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation? If so, under what conditions? Rural communities throughout Latin America have increasingly suffered the impacts of climate change and few policies exist to help them adapt to these impacts. The basic infrastructure and services that they frequently lack can be provided by low carbon technologies, potentially funded by international carbon finance flows that could enable the Millennium Development Goals of economic growth and poverty alleviation to be met while minimizing carbon emissions. This research will focus on this interrelationship among development, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation policies and practices using political ecology to analyse community renewable energy projects in rural Central America. I assess fifteen community-owned renewable energy projects in Guatemala and Nicaragua to analyse whether current renewable energy projects are achieving these goals in an integrated way. The projects were established primarily as development, emissions reductions, climate change adaptation and disaster relief. The projects are evaluated on economic, development and climate change indicators that include sustainable development, poverty alleviation, emissions reductions, and climate vulnerability. I examine how the type of common property governance, local historical and environmental background and project implementation process influence the project success in meeting multiple objectives of climate adaptation, mitigation and development. Research methods include participatory poverty assessment techniques, semi-structured interviews, stakeholder analysis, and a combination of rapid and participatory methods. The analysis of sustainable development and vulnerability used the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach methodologies and emissions reductions were calculated using standard carbon reduction methodologies. The results show that, under certain conditions, renewable energy projects can simultaneously meet these three objectives, and thus that responses to climate change can be integrated with poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Small scale hydroelectric and solar systems can reduce emissions, enable adaptation and help local livelihoods although there are numerous problems that limit the success of projects including poor design, inequitable distribution of benefits, and poorly designed governance and maintenance structures.

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Tufvesson, Kristian. "Climate mitigation potential of the Swedish forest under different forest management regimes and levels of substitution effect." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-444832.

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The Swedish forest is currently being debated as to how it should be managed to provide climate mitigation. Forest management can contribute to climate mitigation in mainly two ways. Either through increased sequestration and storage of carbon in the forest or as a consequence of the substitution effect, through which emissions can be avoided by utilizing harvested wood products to replace other emission-intensive products. However, these two climate benefits are at odds with each other, as efforts to increase the sequestration of carbon in the forest by increased conservation will decrease the amount of harvested biomass available for substitution. This fact has led to a disagreement between scholars regarding the climate benefits of increased forest conservation versus the climate benefits of maintaining a high harvest level. The climate benefit of increased forest conservation is influenced by how much additional carbon the growing forest can sequester over time. The climate benefit of forest harvest is instead directly related to the level of achieved substitution effect. As the substitution level is dynamic, it may change in the future due to various technological, economic, and societal developments, which would influence the potential climate benefit of forest harvest. In addition, intensifying forest management as a means to increase forest growth is also commonly suggested as a possible measure for enhancing the climate mitigation potential of the Swedish forest. This study aimed to investigate how the climate mitigation potential of different forest management regimes develops over time based on different potential levels of achieved substitution effect. Based on input data from the National Forest Inventory, the Heureka RegWise system was used to simulate the impact on sequestration of carbon dioxide and the available harvested biomass to be used for substitution for the different forest management regimes over a 150-year period. The results indicate that increased forest conservation provides a higher climate mitigation potential throughout a majority of the 150-year period. However, the climate benefit of increased conservation does diminish over time due to the set-aside forests' declining ability to sequester additional carbon. The rate at which the forest management regimes without increased conservation can catch up is influenced on which level of substitution that is applied. The results also indicate that increased utilization of growth-enhancing practices increases the climate mitigation potential of forest management.

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Nyberg, Fanny. "Material choices for the building frame : Effects on the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för ekoteknik- och hållbart byggande, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-39126.

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Potential synergy effects and conflicts, so-called interactions, between a climate action that aims to mitigate the climate impact and five targets of the Sustainable Development Goals are identified in this study. The climate action is Conscious material choices for the frame, and the materials assessed are climate improved concrete and domestic wood. Standard concrete is used as the business as usual scenario. A pre-school building is used as an example building to demonstrate the difference in the climate impact of a frame made from the two materials assessed in the study. Life cycle assessments (LCA) of the frames shows that the domestic wood frame has a lower climate impact than the climate improved concrete frame.Two methods are used in this study. The first method is making an LCA for transportation of the materials assessed to see the environmental impact, and there is one scenario for each material where the transportation method is by a truck and one that is by train. The second method used for the study is a goal interaction scoring-method from “A draft framework for understanding SDG interactions” by Nilsson et al. (2016) that gives the interactions a score based on specific criteria. The scores are visualised in a colour coordinated matrix. The interactions generate synergies if the sums of the scores in the matrix are positive and will likely help accomplish the target. If the sums of the scores in the matrix are negative, it indicates that there are conflicts that could endanger the possibilities to reach the target.LCA of the transport scenarios shows that when the transportation distance is long, the climate impact is lowest when transporting as much as possible of the materials by train. Transporting the domestic wood for the frame by train (for longer distances) has a lower climate impact than transporting the climate improved concrete. For shorter distances, there is not a significant difference between transportation by truck or by train. The climate improved concrete gets score 0, meaning that there are neither positive nor negative interactions for the chosen material for the frame. The domestic wood gets the score +8, which indicates that there are synergies. Both the climate improved concrete and the domestic wood should not interfere with the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goal’s targets. However, the domestic wood for the frame generates more synergies and by choosing the domestic wooden frame for a building using a train as a transportation of the material when possible has the lowest environmental impact of the assessed materials for the frame.

2020-06-08

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Yang, Jinsong. "Opportunities and Barriers of Carbon Farming from a Sustainable Livelihoods Perspective - A Case Study from Sweden." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-416479.

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With changes in climate and increasing resource scarcity in the future, transition towards a more sustainable and resilient agriculture system that promotes maintenance of a range of ecosystem services is important. Meanwhile, significant global greenhouse gas reduction targets require all sectors including agriculture to take radical actions immediately. Carbon farming is a promising approach which can contribute to mitigating climate change, increase soil accumulation and fertility, enhance ecosystem services and increase productivity within a range of farming systems. Currently, Sweden does not have any formal carbon farming projects. As the implementation of carbon farming is likely to be location, technology and circumstance specific, a case study was undertaken in Sweden in order to cast light on the envisaged synergies and trade-offs associated with carbon farming by assessing the opportunities and barriers to farmer’s sustainable livelihoods. Eleven pilot farmers from south and central Sweden participated in the case study. Data were collected through online survey. Findings suggest that opportunities and barriers to enhance the carbon sink potential of farmlands are closely linked to people’s livelihoods as well as their broader context and; Swedish farmers are interested in incorporating carbon farming practices within their existing farming systems. Further, opportunities and barriers were found in relation to different assets, external shocks and the policy environment. Moreover, carbon farming has the potential to promote sustainable rural livelihoods in Sweden by reducing farmer’s vulnerability context and enhancing farmer’s assets and livelihood strategies.

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Armstrong, Natalie S. "Plastics Derived From Derelict Fishing Gear in the Arctic: Looking at Sustainable Fisheries for a Strategy of Mitigation, Remediation and Prevention in Iceland and Alaska." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2020. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/95.

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Marine plastics are not just a problem, they are a silent, sinister epidemic. Marine plastics are the largest economic and ecological threat to our marine ecosystems, particularly marine plastics derived from lost and or discarded fishing gear, which affects sensitive marine communities, the chemical composition of the ocean water, and the physical makeup of the seafloor. With 6.4 million tons of marine debris entering our oceans annually, a third of which is lost fishing gear, it is estimated that, by weight, in 2050 there will be an accumulation of more plastic than fish in the ocean (Heath, 2018; Wilcox, 2015). Marine litter derived from plastic fishing gear, primarily passive gear, when lost in the ocean causes a series of consequences to the marine ecosystem, that of which increases when there are high concentrations of fishing activity in the geographic area. Arctic countries have some of the most abundant fisheries, that of which is projected to increase due to anthropogenic climate change. In the context of climate change affecting the Arctic ecosystem, in this thesis, we will review the consequences of plastics derived from fishing gear for the Arctic marine ecosystem, estimate the potential influx of derelict gear plastics originating from data obtained in Alaska and Iceland, and then confidently present effective forms of remediation, prevention, and mitigation strategized from models of sustainable fisheries to resolve the ramifications of lost and or discarded gear in Arctic communities.

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Tollin, Nicola. "A resilience transition for sustainable urban development : a process design methodology to support participatory decision making." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/336675.

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Actualmente, más del 50% de la población mundial vive en áreas urbanas (75% en EU), y las ciudades concentran entre un 60-80% del consumo energético global y el mismo porcentaje de las emisiones de GEI CO2. Así mismo, producen el 50% de residuos a nivel global, consumen 75% de los recursos naturales y concentran el 80% del PIB (UNEP-DTIE, 2013). -El cambio climático tiene el potencial de influir casi el total de los componentes del medio urbano y genera nuevos y complejos retos para la calidad de vida, la salud y la biodiversidad urbanas. Algunas ciudades experimentarán sequías y elevadas temperaturas. Otras podrían experimentar inundaciones. El cambio climático afectará muchos aspectos de la vida en una ciudad, desde la calidad del aire, hasta los patrones de consumo. La UE ha puesto en marcha ambiciosas políticas e iniciativas para promover soluciones sobre el terreno, entre las que se incluyen iniciativas para aumentar la resiliencia y promover tanto las energías renovables como las tecnologías de baja emisión de carbono. (EC, 2015). Las ciudades ya han comenzado a desarrollar políticas, planes y acciones específicas para la mitigación o la adaptación al cambio climático, y un relativamente pequeño pero creciente número de ellas, se encuentran liderando pioneros enfoques integrados basados en la resiliencia, que buscan responder a los retos presentados por la incertidumbre y la imprevisible naturaleza de los fenómenos que se abordan, lo cual se ve aunado a una falta de conocimiento especializado en cambio climático, en términos de investigación, evaluación, métodos, herramientas y habilidades de planeación. (EU, 2013). Haciendo una revisión en torno a los principios clave del desarrollo sostenible y a los retos clave a nivel urbano, tales como el cambio global ambiental y climático, aquí se presenta una metodología para el diseño de un proceso de transición hacia la resiliencia urbana. La metodología está basada en la amplia participación de los tomadores de decisiones, siguiendo los principios de co-diseño y co-evolución. El elemento más innovador de la metodología está relacionado con su contribución en términos de la teoría de la planeación y las prácticas para la resiliencia urbana a través de escalas tanto temporales como espaciales, lo cual se encuentra poco desarrollado actualmente. Además, el enfoque participativo del proceso de diseño redefine el rol de los planificadores aportando una perspectiva más amplia, no más como demiurgo, sino como un facilitador en los procesos de diseño y El objetivo original de la tesis, es el desarrollo de una metodología para la evaluación integrada del desarrollo urbano sostenible, expandido y ampliado para abordar la necesidad que existe, como se prueba tanto en la existencia de literatura científica como de documentos de políticas de la UE y de la ONU, de encontrar nuevas formas y métodos para la planeación en términos de resiliencia urbana, vista como un proceso dinámico y continuo de adaptación de la ciudad que permita un balance entre la necesidad de reducir el riesgo y la de innovar, todo ello para aumentar el bienestar de los ciudadanos a través de la co-evolución basada en procesos de planeación participativa. El resultado obtenido es una metodología de diseño de procesos completamente funcional para la transición hacia la resiliencia urbana, incluyendo un enfoque sistémico y un método de evaluación integrada de la sostenibilidad, el cual ha sido desarrollado desde su concepción a un Nivel de Preparación Tecnológica 7-8, finalmente incluyendo una demostración del prototipo del sistema en un ambiente operativo.
Today over 50% of world population lives in urban areas (75% in EU), and cities account for 60-80% of global energy consumption and the same share of GHG CO2, producing 50% of global waste, consuming 75% of natural resources and producing 80% of global GDP. (UNEP-DTIE, 2013) ¿Climate change has the potential to influence almost all components of the urban environment and raises new, complex challenges for quality of urban life, health and urban biodiversity. Some cities will experience droughts and increased temperatures. Others may experience floods. Climate change will affect many aspects of urban living from air quality to consumption patterns. The EU has put in place ambitious policies and initiatives to promoting solutions on the ground. These include initiatives to increase resilience and promote renewable energies and low-carbon technologies. (EC, 2015) Cities have already started to develop specific mitigation or adaption or risk policies/plans/actions; and a relatively small but growing number of them are now pioneering an integrated approach urban resilience based, facing challenges related uncertainty and unpredictability of the phenomena they are addressing, and ultimately suffering for a lack of knowledge in terms of research, evaluation methods/tools and planning skills. (EU, 2013) Following a review of sustainable development principles and key urban challenges, as climate and global environmental changes, it is here presented a process design methodology for urban resilience transition. The methodology is based on broad stakeholders' participation, following co-design and co-evolution principles. The most innovative element of the process design methodology is related to the contribution in terms of planning theory and practices for urban resilience, cross-scale both in time and space, which is currently very little understood and developed. Furthermore the participatory process design approach re-define the role of planner in a wider perspective, not any longer as demiurges, but as facilitator of planning and design processes. The original objective of the thesis, to develop a methodology for integrated evaluation of sustainable urban development, was expanded and broadened to address the very needed request, as proven by both existence of scientific literature and EU/UN policy document, for new forms and methodology of planning addressing urban resilience, as a dynamic process of continuous adaptation of cities balancing between the need to reduce risk and to innovate, ultimately to increase well-being urban citizens, through co-evolution based participatory planning processes. The results is a fully working process design methodology for urban resilient transition, including the original system thinking approach and embedded with an integrated evaluation of sustainability system, which has been developed from inception to a Technology Readiness Level 7-8, finally including the system prototype demonstration in operational environment.

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Nixon, Emily Cummings. "Silanes in sustainable synthesis: applications in polymer grafting, carbon dioxide capture, and gold nanoparticle synthesis." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/45847.

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Vinyltrialkoxysilanes are grafted onto polyolefins via a radical mechanism; in a subsequent step, the pendant alkoxysilanes hydrolyze and condense upon exposure to water, resulting formation of crosslinks. Straight chain hydrocarbons were used as model compounds to investigate the regioselectivity of vinyltrimethoxysilane grafting. To stabilize the water-sensitive grafted products, the methoxy groups were substituted using phenyllithium. It was found that this reaction must be carried out for a minimum of three days to ensure full substitution. The grafted products were then separated on a weight basis using semi-preparative HPLC. Analysis of the di-grafted fraction using edited HSQC and HSQC-TOCSY NMR showed that radical propagation occurs via 1,4- and 1,5-intramolecular hydrogen shifts along the hydrocarbon backbone, resulting in multiple grafts per backbone. Post-combustion carbon capture targets CO₂ emissions from large point sources for capture and sequestration. A new class of potential carbon capture agents known as reversible ionic liquids (RevILs) has been synthesized and evaluated in terms of potential performance parameters (e.g. CO₂ capacity, viscosity, enthalpy of regeneration). These RevILs are silylated amines, which react with CO₂ to form a salt comprising an ammonium cation and a carbamate anion that is liquid at room temperature. Structural modifications of the basic silylamine skeleton result in drastic differences in the performance of the resulting RevIL. Systematic variation of the silylated amines allowed determination of a structure-property relationship, and continued iterations will allow development of an ideal candidate for scale-up. The properties and potential applications of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) are highly dependent on their size and shape. These properties are commonly controlled during liquid-phase synthesis through the use of capping agents, which must be removed following synthesis. Reverse micelles can also be used to control the morphology of AuNP during their synthesis. When RevILs are used in the formation of these reverse micelles, either as the disperse phase or as the surfactant, the built-in switch can be used to release the nanoparticles following their synthesis. This release on command could decrease the post-synthetic steps required to clean and purify AuNP prior to use. We have successfully synthesized AuNP using a number of different RevILs.

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Rynning, Maja karoline. "Towards a Zero-Emission Urban Mobility Urban design as a mitigation strategy, harmonizing insights from research and practice." Thesis, Toulouse, INSA, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018ISAT0020/document.

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La thèse étudie la façon dont le design urbain peut être une stratégie pour promouvoir les mobilités zéro émission, dans le cadre d’une mobilité quotidienne, telles que la marche, le vélo et les transports en commun. Ce travail explore les connaissances des praticiens du design urbain bâti, à savoir des urbanistes, des aménageurs, des architectes ainsi que des paysagistes, en tant qu’une source complémentaire s’ajoutant à celles issues de la recherché. Des enquêtes ont été menées en France et en Norvège. Les résultats ont été croisés avec la littérature scientifique ainsi qu’avec la littérature issue du design urbain. Un changement modal permanent requiert que l’utilisation de modes zéro émission soit à la fois une possibilité et un plaisir. L’influence du design urbain sur les choix modaux est particulièrement importante durant le voyage, lorsque l’usager se déplace à travers la ville et ses espaces publics. En particulier, les interactions avec l’environnement bâti, à l’échelle d’un quartier, influencent la manière dont la personne se souviendra de son déplacement. Ce souvenir impactera, dans un second temps, ses futurs choix modaux. Ces interactions sont d’autant plus importantes dans le cas de la marche et du vélo, ce qui impacte directement l’utilisation des transports en commun
The doctoral thesis explores how urban design can be a mobility-mitigation strategy to promote the use of zero-emission modes such as walking, cycling, and public transport. What is the potential contribution of neighbourhood-scale built-environment interventions towards a sustainable modal shift? The work explores the experience-based knowledge of urban design practitioners (urban planners and designers, architects, landscape architects) as a source for new insights, complementary to those of research. A mixed-methods approach was employed in France and in Norway, consisting of workshops, interviews, and a survey. The results were crossed with findings from research and design literature, analyzed from an interdisciplinary, holistic perspective. The results show that achieving a permanent modal shift requires the use of zero-emission choices to be both possible and pleasurable. The influence of urban design is likely most significant during trips, when a person moves through a city and its public spaces. Interactions with the neighbourhood-scale built environment influences overall travel satisfaction, and the remembered trip experience matters for future modal choices. Modal choices are highly individual; people’s barriers for a zero-emission choice vary. Urban design interventions can help lower these, through bigger or smaller measures

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Mitchell, John Talmadge. "A Framework for Development in Rural Arid and Semi-Arid Environments in Africa: The Somalia Case." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/98224.

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This study proposes a framework and a process promoting creation of sustainable jobs and businesses in rural, arid and semi-arid agricultural conflict zones of Sub Saharan Africa, focusing on Somalia's societal stabilization and conflict mitigation. This task requires developing risk-reducing measures for infrastructure and service delivery in rural, post-conflict zones. Literature reviews identified two economic growth theories rooted in sustainability concepts for localized, pro-poor development. Ecological Economics Theory (EET) and Endogenous Growth Theory (EGT) are the philosophical bases establishing investment priorities. Additional research regarding Somali culture, key conflict factors, and potential business opportunities, provides an understanding of salient facts in Somalia's on-going, 27-years of war and potential culturally acceptable development pathways. Informal sources, Somali and non-Somali, were consulted to further identify and verify potential avenues for economic growth, sustainability, educational opportunities, allowing Somalia to emerge from the strife it has endured. Visits to Somalia and Somaliland confirmed that livestock, its products and related requirements, are key components for economic growth and job creation. Investigation, via pilot testing and case studies, was undertaken of technologies with potential to improve productive capacity and disrupt existing value chains. Initial framework elements were evaluated for job and business creation, through unstructured, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaire of Somali officials, and Somali and non-Somali conflict zone development practitioners. The pilot test used a small sample size and is a limitation of this work. Findings from the literature review, informal discussions, and the pilot test are synthesized into the framework presented in Chapter 5. The framework proposes development of an innovative, disruptive, and scalable business model that facilitates the simultaneous implementation of renewable energy production. It targets education for the livestock and agroforestry industry of Somalia, improving job and business opportunities. The model proposes modification of used shipping containers for the creation of modular elements, to satisfying infrastructural building components to initiate skills practice, job, and business growth.
Doctor of Philosophy
The wars and conflicts of various types in Africa have made the continent poorer and prevented development in many countries. One of the major, and seemingly intractable conflict locations, is Somalia located in the East Horn of Africa (EHA). This research provides an understanding of salient facts in Somalia's 27 years of war by examining culture and key conflict factors. The objective of this assessment is to identify potential culturally acceptable pathways that will lead to business opportunities and development as a means of conflict mitigation. The improvement of job opportunities for youth is viewed as a means to offset the current participation in the ongoing conflict. Somali and non-Somali sources were consulted to identify and verify avenues for economic growth, sustainability, and educational opportunities. Visits to Somalia and Somaliland confirmed that livestock, and related products, are key components for development and job creation. Technologies with potential to improve productive capacity and disrupt existing value chains were also evaluated. Findings from informal discussions and a pilot test of a proposed framework are presented. The framework identifies elements for development of an innovative, disruptive, and scalable business model that facilitates the implementation of renewable energy production. In addition, it targets education for the livestock and agroforestry industries, improving job and business opportunities.

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Zilinskaite, Emilija. "Is blue mussel farming a potential mitigation tool to combat eutrophication in the Baltic Sea? A synthesis based on stakeholder interviews." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-385792.

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The Baltic Sea is the most polluted sea in the world. Its hydrological conditions and ongoing eutrophication are a high threat for marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Additionally, eutrophication has negative effects on the wellbeing of countries and their societies in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Actions to mitigate eutrophication in the Baltic Sea have been implemented through on-land measures in the last 40 years. Although the improvement in the marine environment is notable, it happens very slowly. In order to combat eutrophication, there is a need for a combination of on-land and in-situ measures. In this study, blue mussel farming practices are presented as one of the in-situ measures to combat eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. Blue mussel farming has been implemented in Sweden since the 1980s and has potential to not only mitigate the amounts of nutrients that accumulate in the sea but also brings a circular approach to resource use. In this study, stakeholders from four different sectors that are closely related to blue mussel farming practices and Baltic Sea issues have been interviewed with the aim of making a comprehensive analysis of stakeholder perceptions of blue mussel farming practices in the BSR. Interviewed stakeholders represent four different sectors - academia, entrepreneurs, municipalities and NGOs. A comprehensive analysis of stakeholders’ perceptions on blue mussel farming practises from environmental, social and economic perspective is presented. All interviewed stakeholders are actors in Sweden and represent Swedish perspective on blue mussel farming activities. Potential causes for different perceptions across sectors are discussed.

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Bernhardt, Johannes [Verfasser], and Stephan [Akademischer Betreuer] Albrecht. "The Effectiveness of Science-Policy Interactions : Case Studies on Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Development in Pan-European Forest Research and Politics / Johannes Bernhardt. Betreuer: Stephan Albrecht." Hamburg : Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1066898359/34.

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Burchett, Olivia R. "Sustainable Development through Green Infrastructure: A Critical Evaluation of the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2014. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1897.

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Sustainable development is achieved through the equal promotion of environmental protection, economic development and social equity. Urban planners play a key role in sustainable development through the mediation of tensions inherent between these priorities. Using urban planning theory that focuses on the conflicts between the priorities of sustainable development and lessons learned from planning practice provides a basis from which to evaluate the claims of sustainability present in the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. Outreach initiatives, policy frameworks and ecosystem co-management are suggested to make the planning and implementation processes of the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan more feasible in terms of its ability to foster sustainability. Additionally, conceptualizing integrated stormwater management for Greater New Orleans within the context of the Louisiana coastal crisis can help to make the goals of the Urban Water Plan more realistic in the long term and boost institutional capacity to promote regional resilience.

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Flores, Nicole Leiann. "Impact Assessment of Natural Resource Management Policy Research: A case study of the contribution of the Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Project to the effectiveness of the Indonesian Forest Moratorium." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71894.

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The complexity of interactions that inform policy-making poses several challenges to evaluating the impact of policy research. Two key obstacles to policy-oriented research impact assessment (PORIA) are determining the degree of influence that can be claimed by a knowledge-generating entity and quantifying the impact of a policy-oriented research program. This thesis builds upon prior PORIA efforts to develop a framework for the evaluation of the impact of the Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Program (SWAMP), an environmentally-focused, policy-oriented research project led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). We examine a case study of the Indonesian Forest Moratorium policy to determine the policy's impact on emissions from peat deforestation. Results indicate that the policy has been largely ineffective in decreasing deforestation to date and has in fact been associated with increased deforestation above business-as-usual trends. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that if the moratorium were to achieve full protection, Indonesia could avoid the release of 10 - 20 million tons of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years, which corresponds to a mean social value of $402 - 805 million using a $40/ton social cost of carbon. With SWAMP's timely knowledge generation on tropical wetland carbon dynamics we estimate that $4.03 - 40.26 million of these social benefits can be attributed to CIFOR. Furthermore, through its involvement in the IPCC Wetlands Supplement and the Blue Carbon Initiative, SWAMP stands to positively influence outcomes of the 45 billion tons of carbon stored in non-Indonesian tropical peatlands and the global extent of mangroves, further increasing the impact of CIFOR.
Master of Science

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Sun, Qie. "Understanding the Clean Development Mechanism and its dual aims : the case of China's projects." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-37462.

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Having been running for over 10 years, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is considered an innovative and successful mitigation initiative. CDM has the dual aims of helping industrialised countries achieve compliance with their emission limitation and reduction commitments in a cost-effective way, while simultaneously assisting developing countries in sustainable development. This thesis does a comprehensive analysis of the dual aims of CDM and is intended to assist in discussions about the post-2012 regime regarding CDM. To analyse the aim of assisting mitigation in a cost-effective way, the prices of certified emission reductions (CERs) on the international carbon market was studied and the provision of CDM was tested by comparing the amount of CERs with the mitigation commitments of the Annex I countries. It was found that CDM plays an important role in maintaining the international carbon price at a low level and that the total amount of CERs alone had already reached up to 52.70% of the entire mitigation commitments of industrialized countries by the end of 2010 and was continuing to grow before 2012. A theoretical analysis of the impacts of CDM showed that CDM has a double mitigation effect in both developing countries and industrialised countries, without double counting at present. A quantitative evaluation of the effects of China’s CDM projects on China’s total emissions showed that the contribution of CDM projects to limiting total emissions is small due to the dominance of fossil fuels, but CDM’s role in stimulating renewable energy is significant, e.g. about 11% of hydropower and 93% of wind power was generated by CDM projects in 2010. The results provide strong evidence in support of CDM’s contribution under the current Kyoto Protocol mitigation regime. To analyse the aim of promoting sustainable development in developing countries, popular methods such as checklist, Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) were reviewed, a CBA of co-benefits of China’s CDM projects was carried out, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied in an experimental study. The results showed that every method has its own advantages and problems. In other words, neither the CBA of co-benefits nor the AHP method alone is able to assess sustainable development in a completely satisfactory way. Currently, a bottom-up approach through engaging local stakeholders in CDM design and approval, combining a mandatory monitoring and evaluation of co-benefits, could be more effective for safeguarding local sustainable development than any consolidated standards. The future of the CDM is still unclear mainly due to uncertainties about the post-2012 regime. This thesis shows that there is more than sufficient reason for CDM to continue after 2012. Industrialised countries in general should make more substantial efforts to reduce their domestic emissions rather than blaming developing countries. For developing countries, learning from the CDM projects and further applying the knowledge, technology and experiences to their domestic development agenda could be more valuable than the present CER revenues. CDM can be an important starting point for developing countries to gradually make incremental greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and limitation efforts.
QC 20110817

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Sumani, John Bosco Baguri. "Exploring Perceptions of the Potential of Agricultural Insurance for Crop Risks Management Among Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1529494821429119.

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46

Allemeier, Jodi. "Developing a vulnerability reference framework for Cape Town International Airport in the context of carbon uncertain futures." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/80778.

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Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
In recent years there has been a growth in literature from multiple disciplines on the potential effects of climate change and a corresponding growth in literature on potential mitigation and adaptation response strategies, including multiple means of shifting to a low-carbon future. Multiple assessment techniques have been developed to understand the potential vulnerability to, and impacts of climate change. At the same time, there is a lack of methodology to understand the potential vulnerability to, and impacts of, responses to climate change on a micro level. This research report describes the development of a reference framework to be used to monitor the vulnerability of the Cape Town International Airport to changes in carbon pricing and/or a shift to a low-carbon future. A theoretical approach was taken, which reviews existing techniques and proposes an integrated framework approach which was then applied to the case study of Cape Town International Airport. Existing literature on what is understood by a low carbon future shows that there is uncertainty about what mitigation and adaptation approaches will be adopted on various scales, and, similarly, uncertainty on what this means for a low carbon economy. Existing scenario development, vulnerability assessment, risk assessment and impact assessment methodologies were then reviewed, revealing a dearth of integrated approaches and an emphasis on the direct impacts of climate change, with a lack of attention to the impacts of responses to climate change. Finally, an overview of what are considered key driving forces in airport feasibility is provided in order to identify potential areas of vulnerability that require attention in any assessment of an airports’ vulnerability to different futures. Building on the various methodologies reviewed, and the understanding of key airport drivers, a reference framework is developed with special focus on the Cape Town International Airport and its current financial structure and planning framework. The final section of the paper discusses preliminary findings as illustrative of the approach, concluding that the framework can be applied via multidisciplinary collaboration, but that further work would be required both internally and externally in order to better manage uncertainties.

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Boberg, Molly, and Märta Selander. "Systematic and Automatized Hydrogeological Data Capturing for Provision of Safe Drinking Water in Daudkandi, Bangladesh." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-297811.

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Arsenic-contaminated drinking water exposes ~230 million people worldwide to increased risks of several diseases and is considered one of the greatest threats to public health. In Bangladesh, arsenic-contaminated water has been declared the largest poisoning of a population in history, where 39 million people are exposed to arsenic levels above the WHO guidelines (>10 μg/L). Drinking water is mainly provided by tube-wells installed by local drillers and the majority are located in aquifers with high arsenic levels. The major challenges of identifying arsenic-safe aquifers consist of a lack of a common tool for quality assurance of hydrogeological data, post-processing of the data, and a possibility to forward analyzed data to national and local stakeholders. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of applying a digital solution for collecting and managing hydrogeological data in a quality assured platform. This study was a pilot-project in the sub-district Daudkandi, Bangladesh in collaboration with the KTH-International Groundwater Research Group. To fulfill the purpose, a method was developed for systematic and automated data capturing of hydrogeological information in GeoGIS, an advanced software that proved to be an efficient tool for visualizing hydrogeological data. The results show that collecting a few field data in a systematic and automated way is helpful for interpreting aquifer sequences and will enable better prerequisites for targeting safe aquifers and installing safe tube-wells. Conclusions are that the integration of a digital platform as a decision tool may significantly improve arsenic mitigation strategies. Furthermore, providing information to public and private sectors in Bangladesh would increase the transparency of hydrogeological conditions and may help improve safe water access to high arsenic areas of Bangladesh.
Över 230 miljoner människor världen över exponeras dagligen för arsenik-förorenat dricksvatten vilket kan ge upphov till hjärt- och kärlsjukdomar, diabetes samt olika cancersjukdomar. Arsenik (As) är en extremt giftig halvmetall som är naturligt förekommande i grundvatten och klassas som ett utav de största hoten mot allmän folkhälsa, vilket gör reducerande åtgärder till en samhällsutmaning av global karaktär. Ett land som är hårt drabbat av höga arsenikhalter är Bangladesh, där miljontals människor utsätts för arsenik-nivåer som överstiger WHO:s rekommenderade riktlinjer (>10 μg/L). Dricksvattenförsörjningen tillhandahålls framförallt genom vattenbrunnar installerade av lokala borrare och där majoriteten är placerade i akviferer med skadligt höga arsenikhalter. Utmaningarna med att identifiera arseniksäkra akviferer är flera, bland annat saknas ett gemensamt verktyg för att hantera, kvalitetssäkra och analysera hydrogeologisk data, samt för att delge denna till olika parter på lokal, regional och nationell nivå. Syftet med den här studien var således att undersöka potentialen i att tillämpa ett digitalt verktyg för insamling och hantering av fältdata från olika databaser till en kvalitetssäkrad plattform. Studien genomfördes som ett pilotprojekt i distriktet Daudkandi, Bangladesh i samarbete med forskningsgruppen KTH-International Groundwater Research Group. För att uppfylla syftet utvecklades en metod för systematisk och automatiserad datainsamling av hydrogeologisk information i GeoGIS, en avancerad mjukvara som visade sig vara ett effektivt verktyg för visualiseringar av hydrogeologiska data. Resultaten visar att insamling av en liten mängd fältdata är till stor hjälp för att tolka akvifersekvenser samt för att urskilja arseniksäkra akviferer, vilket skapar bättre förutsättningar för installation av säkra vattenbrunnar. En slutsats som dras är att integreringen av en digital plattform för datainsamling avsevärt kan förbättra beslutsfattandet för arsenikreducerande strategier samt underlättar ett transparent informationsflöde. Genom att tillhandahålla transparent hydrogeologisk information till privat och offentlig sektor i Bangladesh kan även tillgången på säkert dricksvatten förbättras.

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Hwargård, Louise. "Swedish companies' current use of carbon offsetting - underlying ethical view and preparedness for post-2020 carbon market conditions." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-413308.

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In 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed by nations all over the world. The new climate agreementwill replace previous Kyoto Protocol post-2020 and will likely change the conditions for using carbonoffsetting. It is probable that even more stringent controls will be required to ensure a credible carbon marketwhich avoids double counting and secures environmental integrity. Voluntary use of offsetting has to becompatible with the new rules set under the Paris Agreement to manage these risks. More countries will countemission reductions to their new nationally determined contributions, and therefore increases the risk ofdouble counting. Hence, the purpose of this master thesis was to reveal how the Swedish companies’ currentuse of voluntary carbon offsetting is compatible with the likely carbon market post-2020. The companiesreasons as why they use voluntary carbon offsetting, together with their underlying ethical view, based ontheir practices around carbon offsetting, were investigated. Eight qualitative semi-structured interviews withSwedish companies using voluntary carbon offsetting were conducted during February - March in 2020. Theresult was analysed through the ethical theories consequentialist and duty-based theory to understand theirunderlying ethical view in relation to their carbon offsetting. The result showed that there are two primaryreasons as why companies use voluntary carbon offsetting. The first reason is that voluntary carbon offsettingis a part of their strategy to reduce their climate impact, and the second reason is to gain the trust of customersand marketing themselves through voluntary carbon offsetting. The thesis concludes that for the companies’to best guarantee the expected outcome of their offsetting, and be compatible with the post-2020 carbonoffsetting, they should have a combination of consequentialist and duty-based underlying ethical view withstrong follow up. Furthermore, regardless of reason for using voluntary carbon offsetting, or their ethicalview towards the action, the companies may choose to move to the alternative of financially supportingthe host countries in their work to reduce their GHG emissions instead of offsetting post-2020.

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Bubendorfer, Alwin. "Adoption of effective improved cookstoves in sub-Sahara Africa: case study in the Arua District." Thesis, KTH, Energi och klimatstudier, ECS, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-104461.

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In rural areas of least developed countries, the preparation of meals remains the predominant energy consuming activity. Cooking is mostly performed with firewood – using the ancient “technology” of the 3-stone fire. This practice results in numerous challenges that hinder the transformation envisioned by the Millennium Development Goals and it therefore contributes towards slowing the development of rural areas. Activities focussing on amending this status-quo can be termed insufficient in scope- and sustainability. The main deficiencies of most projects are that the prime focus of the mainstream of these endeavours has been on demand side management, mainly performed by disseminating cookstoves, and that there has been little innovation in respect to raising stove adoption rates. As the strict efficiency focus obviously only captures one side of the problem – merely focussing on treating symptoms rather than providing an effective solution, this thesis stresses the need for a paradigm shift towards more holistic interventions. This work very much focuses on the topic of stove adoption. This is a complex topic - very much linked to attaining behavioural change. Deliberations concluded that the identification of enabling factors for adoption, which can be termed a prerequisite for developing sustainable methods for stove projects, requires a mix of instruments. To suffice the required data demand the initial literature review was complemented by a thorough assessment of the kitchen environment and the cooking behaviour of stove owners. The fieldwork concentrated on 210 beneficiaries of an efficient cookstove project. The applied methods included interviews, observations and pictorial documentation. As a remedy to the challenges and current shortcomings identified during field work and literature review, the author herein develops a novel and more holistic implementation strategy for stove projects – the so- called 3-Step approach. This is based on the simultaneous implementation of availing cookstoves, building capacity in respect to kitchen management, as well as performing small-scale household level tree planting. The research, which further encompassed the piloting of the 3-Step approach, led to the overall conclusion that the proposed increase in project scope holds a multitude of opportunities for improving the livelihoods of the rural target groups. The main impact of this innovative strategy lies in a decrease of average transaction costs as well as in a considerable increase in project sustainability. As will be extensively elaborated, the former is achieved by a more effective utilisation of the extensive infrastructure of trained artisans. The latter refers to the expected income increase on household level, as well as to improvements in environmental- and human health. In combination these enable rural communities to better adapt to climate change.

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Bennar, Hajar. "Les énergies renouvelables, entre garantie des besoins des consommateurs et respect des exigences du développement durable : étude du cas de l’Allemagne." Thesis, Rennes 2, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018REN20025.

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Le développement des énergies renouvelables et leur expansion à travers le monde s'inscrit dans une démarche de lutte contre le changement climatique. En Allemagne, le phénomène de l'expansion de l'«énergie verte» connaît un essor fulgurant depuis la décision prise par Angela Merkel en 2011 de sortir progressivement du nucléaire d'ici l'an 2020. La question posée est de savoir si les énergies renouvelables, figurant parmi les indicateurs de développement durable en Allemagne en respectent vraiment les principes fondamentaux? Ce travail relève donc dans un premier temps les défis auxquels font face l'infrastructure et l'économie allemandes. Ensuite, sur le plan micro-économique, une étude de la performance en matière de développement durable a été établie par le biais d'une analyse quantitative grâce à la méthode du Data Envelopment Analysis. La dernière partie s'intéresse aux changements sociaux et environnementaux tels que la participation de la société civile, ou encore la ‘pollution atmosphérique’ engendrée par ce type d’énergies
The development and expansion of renewable energies throughout the world is part of a global approach undertaken to tackle climate change. In Germany, the expansion of "green energy" is soaring since the decision by Angela Merkel in 2011 to phase out nuclear power by 2020. The question is whether renewable energy, as one of the sustainable developmentindicators in Germany, really respects the fundamental principles of the latter? Hence, this first addresses the challenges faced by the German economy and infrastructure. Then, at the micro level, a sustainability performance study was established through a quantitative analysis using the Data Envelopment Analysis method. The final part deals with social and environmental changes such as the participation of civil society, or the atmospheric pollution caused by renewables

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sustainable mitigation'

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