Suchergebnisse

Nature-based solutions (NBS) for hydro-meteorological risks (HMRs) reduction and management are becoming increasingly popular, but challenges such as the lack of well-recognised standard methodologies to evaluate their performance and upscale their implementation remain. We systematically evaluate the current state-of-the art on the models and tools that are utilised for the optimum allocation, design and efficiency evaluation of NBS for five HMRs (flooding, droughts, heatwaves, landslides, and storm surges and coastal erosion). We found that methods to assess the complex issue of NBS efficiency and cost-benefits analysis are still in the development stage and they have only been implemented through the methodologies developed for other purposes such as fluid dynamics models in micro and catchment scale contexts. Of the reviewed numerical models and tools MIKE-SHE, SWMM (for floods), ParFlow-TREES, ACRU, SIMGRO (for droughts), WRF, ENVI-met (for heatwaves), FUNWAVE-TVD, BROOK90 (for landslides), TELEMAC and ADCIRC (for storm surges) are more flexible to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of specific NBS such as wetlands, ponds, trees, parks, grass, green roof/walls, tree roots, vegetations, coral reefs, mangroves, sea grasses, oyster reefs, sea salt marshes, sandy beaches and dunes. We conclude that the models and tools that are capable of assessing the multiple benefits, particularly the performance and cost-effectiveness of NBS for HMR reduction and management are not readily available. Thus, our synthesis of modelling methods can facilitate their selection that can maximise opportunities and refute the current political hesitation of NBS deployment compared with grey solutions for HMR management but also for the provision of a wide range of social and economic co-benefits. However, there is still a need for bespoke modelling tools that can holistically assess the various components of NBS from an HMR reduction and management perspective. Such tools can facilitate impact assessment modelling under ...

How smart grids are understood and defined will influence the kinds of smart grids users will encounter in the future and their potential impacts. Practitioners and policymakers largely perceive smart grids as technological interventions. However, a number of social, financial and governmental interventions can also make grids smart, i.e., more efficient, more responsive, more inclusive and more robust. Drawing on qualitative research done using elite interviews, site visits and document analysis of eight micro-grids in India, this paper provides concrete examples of what could be understood as social, financial and governmental smartness, and in doing so, broadens the knowledge on smart grids beyond the technical understanding. This paper argues that social, financial and governmental interventions are central to 'smartness', and that multifaceted and relational sociotechnical approaches will build cheaper, just, more democratic and sustainable smart grids. The paper observes that smart grids are not conceived as smart grids but rather develop incrementally. An incremental approach, rather than pushing a premeditated set of ideas and technologies, reduces adoption of non-contextual interventions as well as unnecessary investments in new technologies. The paper recommends that policymakers and practitioners should understand and develop smart grids as sociotechnical and incremental grids.

The rhetoric on development benefits of energy access often focuses on education, livelihoods and health. Using case studies of two energy access projects in India, this paper demonstrates that these claims, while true in part, are neither simple nor straightforward. It argues that pre-existing socio-cultural processes mediate the development outcomes of energy access projects. In particular, the roles of gender, socio-economic positions and the local economy are vital in understanding the links between education, livelihoods, health and energy. This paper is important for two reasons. First, working with culture as a mediator, it provides nuanced insights into relationships between energy access and three key development goals. Second, by presenting this analysis, the paper identifies a need for further research on the relationships between socio-cultural processes, development and energy access and, how by keeping these processes in mind, the benefits of energy access could be extended to less privileged social groups. This paper is based on a nine-month long ethnographic research in five villages in India's Bihar state. Home tours, interviews, participant observations and group discussions were used to collect the data.

AbstractThis article explores the origins and implications of differences in communicative goals in an intercultural negotiation setting. The basic thesis is that while American and Japanese business people may be united in their ultimate goal of arriving at an agreement, the processes by which they do so are different, and this difference makes it hard to conclude an agreement. Differences in the process of negotiation are reflected in the differences in communication goals that are pursued by both parties. This article attempts to analyze the implications of these differences in the crucial first interactions that take place between American and Japanese business people. A social cognitive model is developed to explore the dynamics of cross-cultural negotiations.

Front Cover -- PHOSPHATE ROCK -- PHOSPHATE ROCK: An Industry in Transition -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- One - Introduction -- 1.1 Phosphate rock -- 1.2 Phosphorous (P) cycle -- 1.3 Usages -- 1.3.1 Market specifications -- 1.4 Losses and recovery -- 1.5 Anomalies of mineral deposits -- 1.6 Key research areas -- 1.7 Consumption intensity -- References -- Further reading -- Two - Global resources, production, and depletion -- 2.1 Preamble -- 2.2 Resources vis-à-vis reserves -- 2.2.1 Reserve enhancement -- 2.2.2 Reserve potential -- 2.3 Evaluation of mining losses and contamination -- 2.4 Optimum solutions at production centers -- 2.5 Production: past, present, and future -- 2.5.1 Peak phosphorous -- 2.5.2 Uneven distribution of phosphate ores -- 2.5.3 Use of fertilizer -- 2.5.4 Losses in food production and consumption -- 2.6 Conservation strategies -- 2.6.1 Reduce demand through smarter fertilizer use -- 2.6.2 Extending supplies through recycling -- 2.6.3 Exploration for new reserves -- 2.6.4 Planned and sustainable use -- 2.6.5 Global collaboration on multilateral forums -- 2.7 Concluding remarks -- References -- Three - Geologic and urban mining -- 3.1 Preamble -- 3.2 Extractability -- 3.3 Excavation of phosphate rock -- 3.3.1 Surface mining with drilling and blasting -- 3.3.2 Surface miner -- 3.3.2.1 Automated cutting depth control -- 3.3.2.2 Phosphate mining at OCP in Ben Guerir -- 3.3.3 Dredge mining -- 3.4 Mine planning -- 3.5 Mining dilution -- 3.6 Cut-off grade -- 3.6.1 Grade-tonnage curves -- 3.6.2 Stockpiling -- 3.6.2.1 A case in point -- 3.7 Environmental, social, and governance -- 3.8 Material cycle: geological mine and urban mine -- References -- Four - Digitalization of mining industry -- 4.1 Digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation -- 4.2 Digitalization of mining.

This book studies Indian overseas labour migration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which involved millions of Indians traversing the globe in the age of empire, subsequent to the abolition of slavery in 1833. This migration led to the presence of Indians and their culture being felt all over the world. This study delves deep into the lives of these indentured workers from India who called themselves girmitiyas; it is a narrative of their experiences in India and in the sugar colonies abroad. It foregrounds the alternative world view of the girmitiyas, and their socio-cultural and religious life in the colonies. In this book, the author has developed highly original insights into the experience of colonial indentured migrant labour, describing the ways in which migrants managed to survive and even flourish within the interstices of the indentured labour system and how considerably the experience of migration changed over time