Suchergebnisse

At the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate and Adaptation Partnerships (CAP) Program and the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Community Resilience Program (CRP) collaborate on a portfolio of research projects, across national and regional scales that explore small- and medium-sized business (SMB) disruption and resilience to complex climate events. Some of the most significant costs associated with the impact of weather and climate disasters stem from disruptions experienced by SMBs, but the full extent of immediate and downstream impacts on communities can only be fully understood over time. The NOAA-NIST portfolio of projects uses social science framing to bridge federal research priorities that typically orient around specific hazards and risks, with sector-specific (i.e. SMBs) climate change resilience needs. This approach lends itself to a deeper understanding of complex climate events by focusing on cascading and compound events, including both acute and chronic exposures, as well as the broader social structures that formulate a variety of socio-economic stressors and that can exacerbate both vulnerability to impacts and recovery potential over time. In this commentary, we describe the development of the research portfolio and highlight the importance of the complex event framework and cross-agency cooperation in the federal approach to understanding and addressing climate change. This approach moves beyond considerations relevant to discrete risk types or events, to uncover the social and sectoral spaces in which conditions for impacts and recovery are formed and realized across multiple geographies and over time. Understanding the formulation of complex events, and in this demonstrative case how SMB operators across communities learn about and implement resilience measures, is key for effective and equitable climate services and building community resilience.

Through this book, readers will gain a comprehensive overview of transdisciplinary knowledge co-production in local contexts as an issue-driven and solution-oriented process, and will come to understand its relationship to societal transformation processes toward sustainability. In a single volume, the theory, approaches and academic implications of this novel type of knowledge production are addressed, together with its societal impacts. In the midst of global anthropogenic impacts that affect various environments, over the past few decades we have observed autonomous initiatives in local communities around the world to tackle these environmental challenges. It is vital that such local actions be scaled up to achieve sustainable societies, which requires societal transformation on larger scales. Thanks to numerous collaborative actions in local communities, transdisciplinary knowledge co-production among diverse stakeholders has successfully been mobilized, resulting in the development of Integrated Local Environmental Knowledge (ILEK); knowledge that can inform and support decisions and actions promoting the sustainable transformation of society. This book uses comparative case studies in communities around the world to illuminate and clarify processes and factors promoting the co-production and utilization of ILEK to facilitate decision-making. In addition, readers will gain deeper insights into the science-society interactions that can contribute to finding collaborative solutions to a wide range of critical environmental problems. Though the book is ideally suited for researchers and students, it also offers a valuable resource for practitioners, government agencies, and stakeholder agencies.

Over 5 years, multiple hurricanes and a pandemic impacted small businesses in Charleston, South Carolina. In order to better understand the impacts of disasters on public-facing small businesses, we conducted a case study of customer, labor, location, and supply chain mobility. Although the disaster contexts of multiple hurricanes and the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic vary considerably, comparing the experiences of small business operators furthers our understanding of local disruptions and the potential for adaptive capacity. Drawing on 2 years of survey data, we focus on the importance of mobility to public-facing (e.g. service and recreation) small business recovery and adaptation. We then consider the relationship between multiple forms of mobility and resilience to two different disaster types. We conclude by identifying additional areas of small business adaptation and resilience inquiry informed by both hurricane and pandemic experiences. In contrast to previous global or regional mobility studies, this case study explores hyper-local small business mobility disruptions.

Abstract:The development of national and sectoral climate change adaptation strategies is burgeoning in the US and elsewhere in response to damages from extreme events and projected future risks from climate change. Increasingly, decision makers are requesting information on the economic damages of climate change as well as costs, benefits, and tradeoffs of alternative actions to inform climate adaptation decisions. This paper provides a practical view of the applications of economic analysis to aid climate change adaptation decision making, with a focus on benefit-cost analysis (BCA). We review the recent developments and applications of BCA with implications for climate risk management and adaptation decision making, both in the US and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. We found that BCA is still in early stages of development for evaluating adaptation decisions, and to date is mostly being applied to investment project-based appraisals. Moreover, the best practices of economic analysis are not fully reflected in the BCAs of climate adaptation-relevant decisions. The diversity of adaptation measures and decision-making contexts suggest that evaluation of adaptation measures may require multiple analytical methods. The economic tools and information would need to be transparent, accessible, and match with the decision contexts to be effective in enhancing decision making. Based on the current evidence, a set of analytical considerations is proposed for improving economic analysis of climate adaptation that includes the need to better address uncertainty and to understand the cross-sector and general equilibrium effects of sectoral and national adaptation policy.

Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- References -- Part I: Co-producing Knowledge -- Chapter 2: Making Meaning of Traditional Agricultural Knowledge: Ground Water Management in Arid Areas of Turkey -- 2.1 The Depletion of Groundwater -- 2.1.1 Global Situation Surrounding Groundwater -- 2.1.2 Irrigated Agriculture and the Problem of Groundwater Depletion -- 2.2 Karapinar´s Natural Environment and Agriculture -- 2.2.1 An Arid Region that Has Successfully Kept Desertification in Check -- 2.2.2 Agriculture in Karapinar -- 2.2.3 Where Does Groundwater in This Area Come From? -- 2.3 Shock at Water Intake Restrictions -- 2.3.1 Sudden Notification from the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works -- 2.3.2 Farmers Filing Petitions -- 2.4 Issues and New Light that Have Become Apparent Through Collaboration with Stakeholders -- 2.4.1 Aims of the Stakeholder Workshops -- 2.4.2 Farmers and Groundwater -- 2.4.3 How Is Irrigation Water Being Used? -- 2.4.4 Farmers Who Are Being Led Along and Increasingly Unquestioning Stance Toward Modern Irrigated Agriculture -- 2.4.5 The Beginnings of Cooperation Brought About by Groundwater Depletion and Restrictions on Water Intake -- 2.4.6 Visualizing the Story in Which Issues Provide a Chance for Change -- 2.5 The Production of Knowledge in Karapinar and Its Distribution -- 2.5.1 Pickling Melon Cultivation Which Makes Low Volume Irrigation Possible -- 2.5.2 Rainfed Wheat, a Practice Which Has Continued Since Before the Common Era -- 2.5.3 Oral Tradition in Turkey and the Transmission of Knowledge of Irrigated Agriculture -- 2.6 Moving Towards Sustainable Agriculture Through the Utilization of Local Environmental Knowledge -- 2.6.1 Problems Inherent in the Various Agricultural Systems -- 2.6.2 Issues that Have Become Apparent with Modern Irrigated Agriculture.

Abstract. The simultaneous rise of tropical-cyclone-induced flood waters across a large hazard management domain can stretch rescue and recovery efforts. Here we present a means to quantify the connectedness of maximum surge during a storm with geospatial statistics. Tide gauges throughout the extensive estuaries and barrier islands of North Carolina deployed and operating during hurricanes Matthew (n=82) and Florence (n=123) are used to compare the spatial compounding of surge for these two disasters. Moran's I showed the occurrence of maximum storm tide was more clustered for Matthew compared to Florence, and a semivariogram analysis produced a spatial range of similarly timed storm tide that was 4 times as large for Matthew than Florence. A more limited data set of fluvial flooding and precipitation in eastern North Carolina showed a consistent result – multivariate flood sources associated with Matthew were more concentrated in time as compared to Florence. Although Matthew and Florence were equally intense, they had very different tracks and speeds which influenced the timing of surge along the coast.

Abstract
Recent major investments in infrastructure in the United State and globally present a crucial opportunity to embed equity within the heart of resilient infrastructure decision-making. Yet there is a notable absence of frameworks within the engineering and scientific fields for integrating equity into planning, design, and maintenance of infrastructure. Additionally, whole-of-government approaches to infrastructure, including the Justice40 Initiative, mimic elements of process management that support exploitative rather than exploratory innovation. These and other policies risk creating innovation traps that limit analytical and engineering advances necessary to prioritize equity in decision-making, identify and disrupt mechanisms that cause or contribute to inequities, and remediate historic harms. Here, we propose a three-tiered framework toward equitable and resilient infrastructure through restorative justice, incremental policy innovation, and exploratory research innovation. This framework aims to ensure equitable access and benefits of infrastructure, minimize risk disparities, and embrace restorative justice to repair historical and systemic inequities. We outline incremental policy innovation and exploratory research action items to address and mitigate risk disparities, emphasizing the need for community-engaged research and the development of equity metrics. Among other action items, we recommend a certification system – referred to as Social, Environmental, and Economic Development (SEED) – to train infrastructure engineers and planners and ensure attentiveness to gaps that exist within and dynamically interact across each tier of the proposed framework. Through the framework and proposed actions, we advocate for a transformative vision for equitable infrastructure that emphasizes the interconnectedness of social, environmental, and technical dimensions in infrastructure planning, design, and maintenance.