Assessing the institutional capacity to adapt to climate change: a case study in the Cambodian health and water sectors     

Va Dany  Kathryn J. Bowen  Fiona Miller 《Climate Policy》2013,13(3):388-409

Institutional capacity is an important element for climate change adaptation (CCA) and the development of such capacity is a great challenge in a Least Developed Country like Cambodia where resources are limited. An important first step to increasing capacity is via an understanding of the level of existing capacity; future priorities can then be subsequently identified. This study aimed to assess the capacity of organizations to implement climate change activities in Cambodia in order to provide such a basis for building capacity. Four elements of capacity were investigated in this research: (1) financial resources, (2) cooperation and coordination of stakeholders, (3) availability and quality of information on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, and (4) the level of understanding of climate change vulnerability and adaptation. The data were collected through semistructured interviews with a wide range of government and non-government informants across a number of sectors. Results of the study showed that informants perceived capacity for CCA to be very constrained, especially in terms of financial resources and cooperation, and addressing these factors was ranked as the highest climate change capacity priority. Institutional capacity constraints were considered to relate more generally to weak governance of CCA. In light of our research findings, the absence of local higher education institutions in CCA activities should be addressed. The support of such institutions would provide an important mechanism to progress both capacity development as well as partnerships and coordination between different types of organizations and relevant sectors.

Policy relevance

Capacity for CCA within Cambodian health and water sectors was perceived to be very constrained across a range of interdependent factors. Increasing funding was ranked as the highest priority for building capacity for CCA; however, governance factors such as ‘improved cooperation’ were also ranked highly. Improving stakeholders' awareness of the availability of adaptation funds and resources, and their responsiveness to funding criteria, is an important implication of our research, as is improving the mobilization of local resources and the private sector. To address the issue of weak cooperation among stakeholders, improving the coordination function of the National Climate Change Committee (NCCC) regarding stakeholder engagement and capacity building is crucial. Ensuring that CCA activities are based on sound information and knowledge from across different disciplines and, importantly, include the perspectives of vulnerable people themselves, ultimately underpins and supports the realization of the above priorities.  相似文献   

Temperature response to future urbanization and climate change   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Daniel Argüeso  Jason P. Evans  Lluís Fita  Kathryn J. Bormann 《Climate Dynamics》2014,42(7-8):2183-2199

This study examines the impact of future urban expansion on local near-surface temperature for Sydney (Australia) using a future climate scenario (A2). The Weather Research and Forecasting model was used to simulate the present (1990–2009) and future (2040–2059) climates of the region at 2-km spatial resolution. The standard land use of the model was replaced with a more accurate dataset that covers the Sydney area. The future simulation incorporates the projected changes in the urban area of Sydney to account for the expected urban expansion. A comparison between areas with projected land use changes and their surroundings was conducted to evaluate how urbanization and global warming will act together and to ascertain their combined effect on the local climate. The analysis of the temperature changes revealed that future urbanization will strongly affect minimum temperature, whereas little impact was detected for maximum temperature. The minimum temperature changes will be noticeable throughout the year. However, during winter and spring these differences will be particularly large and the increases could be double the increase due to global warming alone at 2050. Results indicated that the changes were mostly due to increased heat capacity of urban structures and reduced evaporation in the city environment.  相似文献   

A Plan to Push Limits? Investigating the ecologically sustainable development dimensions of Melbourne's Central Region sustainable water strategy     

Fiona Miller  Annie Bolitho  Natalie Jamieson  Charlotte Catmur  Anna Hurlimann  Kathryn Bowen 《The Australian geographer》2014,45(1):19-35

Drawing upon theory from the field of urban political ecology, we analyse a major strategic water plan for Melbourne, Australia—the Sustainable water strategy for the Central Region, published in 2006. We assess the extent to which the strategy identified and addressed ecological sustainability in terms of: cultural frames; ecological context; social equity; and engagement processes. We identify that the strategy's framing of water was largely separate from its social and ecological context. This framing resulted in the importance of issues such as environmental flows, social equity and cultural values being diminished, thus avoiding the inevitable confrontation with environmental limits needed to ensure long-term ecological sustainability. Our analysis shows that the discursive dominance of economics limited the response to persuasive scientific arguments for greater ecological consideration in the strategy. Our findings suggest that broadening engagement with the diverse ways in which water is valued is likely to contribute to more equitable and ecologically sustainable water futures.  相似文献   

U–Pb SHRIMP zircon geochronology and T–t–d history of the Kampa Dome, southern Tibet     

M.C. Quigley  Y. Liangjun  C. Gregory  A. Corvino  M. Sandiford  C.J.L. Wilson  L. Xiaohan 《Tectonophysics》2008,446(1-4):97-113

Structural, petrographic and geochronologic studies of the Kampa Dome provide insights into the tectonothermal evolution of orogenic crust exposed in the North Himalayan gneiss domes of southern Tibet. U–Pb ion microprobe dating of zircons from granite gneiss exposed at the deepest levels within the dome yields concordia ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age populations of 506 ± 3 Ma and 527 ± 6 Ma, with no evidence of new zircon growth during Himalayan orogenesis. However, the granite contains penetrative deformation fabrics that are also preserved in the overlying Paleozoic strata, implying that the Kampa granite is a Cambrian pluton that was strongly deformed and metamorphosed during Himalayan orogenesis. Zircons from deformed leucogranite sills that cross-cut Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks yield concordant Cambrian ages from oscillatory zoned cores and discordant ages ranging from ca. 491–32 Ma in metamict grains. Since these leucogranites clearly post-date the metasedimentary rocks they intrude, the zircons are interpreted as xenocrysts that are probably derived from the Kampa granite. The Kampa Dome formed via a series of progressive orogenic events including regional ~ N–S contraction and related crustal thickening (D₁), predominately top-to-N ductile shearing and crustal extension (D₂), top-to-N brittle–ductile faulting and related folding on the north limb of the dome, localized top-to-S faulting on the southern limb of the dome, and crustal doming (D₃), and continued N–S contraction, E–W extension and doming (D₄). Structural and geochronologic variability amongst adjacent North Himalayan gneiss domes may reflect changes in the magnitude of crustal exhumation along the North Himalayan antiform, possibly relating to differences in the mid-crustal geometry of the exhuming fault systems.  相似文献   

Upwelling, species, and depth effects on coral skeletal cadmium-to-calcium ratios (Cd/Ca)     

Kathryn A. Matthews  Andréa G. Grottoli  James E. Palardy 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2008,72(18):4537-4550

Skeletal cadmium-to-calcium (Cd/Ca) ratios in hermatypic stony corals have been used to reconstruct changes in upwelling over time, yet there has not been a systematic evaluation of this tracer’s natural variability within and among coral species, between depths and across environmental conditions. Here, coral skeletal Cd/Ca ratios were measured in multiple colonies of Pavona clavus, Pavona gigantea and Porites lobata reared at two depths (1 and 7 m) during both upwelling and nonupwelling intervals in the Gulf of Panama (Pacific). Overall, skeletal Cd/Ca ratios were significantly higher during upwelling than during nonupwelling, in shallow than in deep corals, and in both species of Pavona than in P. lobata. P. lobata skeletal Cd/Ca ratios were uniformly low compared to those in the other species, with no significant differences between upwelling and nonupwelling values. Among colonies of the same species, skeletal Cd/Ca ratios were always higher in all shallow P. gigantea colonies during upwelling compared to nonupwelling, though the magnitude of the increase varied among colonies. For P. lobata, P. clavus and deep P. gigantea, changes in skeletal Cd/Ca ratios were not consistent among all colonies, with some colonies having lower ratios during upwelling than during nonupwelling. No statistically significant relationships were found between skeletal Cd/Ca ratios and maximum linear skeletal extension, δ¹³C or δ¹⁸O, suggesting that at seasonal resolution the Cd/Ca signal was decoupled from growth rate, coral metabolism, and ocean temperature and salinity, respectively. These results led to the following conclusions, (1) coral skeletal Cd/Ca ratios are independent of skeletal extension, coral metabolism and ambient temperature/salinity, (2) shallow P. gigantea is the most reliable species for paleoupwelling reconstruction and (3) the average Cd/Ca record of several colonies, rather than of a single coral, is needed to reliably reconstruct paleoupwelling events.  相似文献   

Developing a model of climate change behavior among adolescents     

Kathryn T. Stevenson  M. Nils Peterson  Howard D. Bondell 《Climatic change》2018,151(3-4):589-603

Research on adolescent climate change perceptions has uncovered key insights about how knowledge, concern, and hope might relate to behavior and the potential for educational interventions to influence these factors. However, few of these studies have employed treatment/control designs that might address causality and none have addressed how these factors might interact to influence behavior. We developed a model of behavior change where a climate education treatment impacted knowledge, knowledge impacted hope and concern, and hope and concern together impacted behavior. We empirically tested the utility of this model and the causal relationships within it using a pre/post, treatment/control evaluation of climate education among adolescents in North Carolina, USA (n?=?1041). We found support for a causal relationship between the treatment and gains in knowledge, but not between treatment and behavior. However, we did find support for a path model in which climate change knowledge positively relates to increased climate change concern and hope, and increases in concern and hope predict changes in pro-environmental behavior. Low SES was related to smaller gains in knowledge, concern, and behavior. Our results contribute to a theoretical understanding of climate change behaviors among adolescents and suggest that climate education aiming to change behavior should focus on building hope and concern.  相似文献   

Stable carbon isotopes (δ<Superscript>13</Superscript>C) of total organic carbon and long-chain <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-alkanes as proxies for climate and environmental change in a sediment core from Lake Petén-Itzá, Guatemala     

Jennifer L. Mays  Mark Brenner  Jason H. Curtis  Kathryn V. Curtis  David A. Hodell  Alex Correa-Metrio  Jaime Escobar  Andrea L. Dutton  Andrew R. Zimmerman  Thomas P. Guilderson 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2017,57(4):307-319

Sediment core PI-6 from Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala, possesses an ~85-ka record of climate and environmental change from lowland Central America. Variations in sediment lithology suggest large and abrupt changes in precipitation during the last glacial and deglacial periods, and into the early Holocene. We measured stable carbon isotope ratios of total organic carbon and long-chain n-alkanes from the core, the latter representing a largely allochthonous (terrestrial) source of organic matter, to reveal past shifts in the relative proportion of C₃–C₄ terrestrial biomass. We sought to test whether stable carbon isotope results were consistent with other paleoclimate proxies measured in the PI-6 core, and if extraction and isotope analysis of n-alkanes is warranted. The largest δ¹³C variations are associated with Heinrich Events. Carbon isotope values in sediments deposited during the last glacial maximum indicate moderate precipitation with little fluctuation. The deglacial was a period of pronounced climate variability, e.g. a relatively warm and moist Bølling–Allerød, but a cool and dry Younger Dryas. Arid periods of the deglacial were inferred from samples with high δ¹³C values in total organic carbon, which reflect times of greater proportions of C₄ plants. These inferences are supported by stable isotope measurements on ostracod shells and relative abundance of grass pollen from the same depths in core PI-6. Similar trends in carbon stable isotopes measured on bulk organic carbon and n-alkanes suggest that carbon isotope measures on bulk organic carbon in sediments from this lake are sufficient to infer past climate-driven shifts in local vegetation.  相似文献   

Public health implications of social media use during natural disasters,environmental disasters,and other environmental concerns     

Kathryn C. Finch  Kassandra R. Snook  Carmen H. Duke  King-Wa Fu  Zion Tsz Ho Tse  Atin Adhikari  Isaac Chun-Hai Fung 《Natural Hazards》2016,83(1):729-760

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Aeromagnetic interpretation in the south-central Zimbabwe Craton: (reappraisal of) crustal structure and tectonic implications     

Rubeni T. Ranganai  Kathryn A. Whaler  Cynthia J. Ebinger 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》2016,105(8):2175-2201

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Rapid diffusion of the poloidal geomagnetic field through the weakly conducting mantle: a perturbation solution   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Edward R. Benton  Kathryn A. Whaler 《Geophysical Journal International》1983,75(1):77-100

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