Climate change imposes major threats for farming communities in South Asia as increased temperatures and changes in precipitation impact yields. Local farmers in Pakistan are facing similar challenges and the country has already been highly affected by climate change. Further, local knowledge is increasingly being recognized as an important complement to quantitative climate data. There is a need to go beyond the quantitative results in climate change research, and ground proof these data by including local experiences. Many farmers around the world are experiencing climate change and are responding to these with various adaptation strategies. This study examines climate change in the Gujrat and Jhelum districts in the Punjab province in Pakistan, how local farmers perceive climate change and what adaptation strategies local farmers have implemented. The study also intends to examine the main constraints to adaptation by incorporating expert views to analyze issues and gaps in the system. The results show increased temperatures and decreased precipitation in the study region between 1975-2014. Farmer surveys indicate that a majority of the farmers perceive these changes and have applied different adaptation strategies as a response. These strategies mainly consist of: changing planting/sowing time and increased irrigation using groundwater. A third form of response to smaller yields and decreased income was alternative off- farm jobs, as an additional income. Expert interviews reveal contradictions of implementation of climate change adaptation policies along with contrasting responses to the farmers regarding institutional efforts to support the local farmers. These results show how lack of institutional support is hindering effective, successful and long-term adaptation for these farming communities.

La gestion d'une ressource en eau souterraine utilisée pour l'irrigation est un phénomène dépendant de plusieurs facteurs et concernant différents acteurs (utilisateurs et gestionnaire). En cas d'aléa climatique comme la sécheresse, gérer une ressource devient un problème plus complexe. Il est justement important de mieux comprendre et d'anticiper les sécheresses car ils peuvent avoir des impacts significatifs sur l'activité économique agricole et sur les niveaux de la ressource. Pour cela, le type d'information dont disposent les utilisateurs et/ou les gestionnaire est essentiel. Dans les chapitres 2 et 3, nous analysons l'impact d'une sécheresse "hydrologique" sur la gestion optimale de la ressource, avant et après son arrivée. Dans le chapitre 2, nous montrons comment le gestionnaire de la ressource peut s'adapter le mieux possible à cette sécheresse selon l'information dont il dispose. Dans le chapitre 3, nous montrons que la prise en compte des interactions stratégiques et dynamiques entre les utilisateurs de la ressource entraîne une exploitation moins efficace de la ressource. Nous appliquons les modèles des chapitres 2 et 3 à l'aquifère La Mancha Occidentale au Sud de l'Espagne. Dans le chapitre 4, nous analysons l'impact d'une sécheresse "agronomique" sur la gestion optimale d'une exploitation agricole située dans la zone de la Beauce centrale, en France. Nous prenons en compte des informations de caractère hydrologique, agronomique et économique. En particulier, nous étudions l'impact d'une année sèche sur la valeur ajoutée de l'exploitation et sur la ressource en eau utilisée. De plus, nous nous intéressons au comportement stratégique que les agriculteurs peuvent avoir en année sèche, que ce soit sans ou avec restrictions des usages de l'eau. Nous montrons qu'une politique de régulation est nécessaire pour éviter la surexploitation de la nappe en année sèche. / The management of a groundwater resource used for irrigation is a phenomenon that depends on several factors and concerning various actors (users and manager). Moreover, the resource can be subject to droughts. In this case, the management of the resource becomes a more complex problem. Adaptation to droughts is important because they can have significant impacts on agriculturalactivity and on the water table of the resource. This adaptation hinges crucially on the information available to the manager and the resource users. In chapters 2 and 3, we analyze the impact of an hydrological drought on the optimal management of the resource, before and after its arrival. In particular, in chapter 2, we show how the manager can adapt as good as possible to this drought according to the nature of information he has. In chapter 3, we are show that taking into account strategic and dynamic interactions between the users of the ressource leads to less efficient resource use. We apply models of chapters 2 and 3 to the aquifer Western La Mancha, in Spain. In chapter 4, we study the impact of an agronomic drought on the optimal management of a farm in the area of Central Beauce, in France. We take into account hydrological, agronomic and economic informations. In particular, we analyze the impact of a dry period on the annual benefits of the farm and on the groundwater resource level. Furthermore, we study optimal strategic behavior of farmers in a dry year, whether they are subject to water restrictions or not. We show that a regulation policy is necessary to avoid the overexploitation of the ressource in a dry year.

<p>Abstract</p><p>When immigrants move to Sweden from their native country it is not unusual that they experience some kind of identity crises. Their own experience of their cultural identity can be very problematic and they often lose a part of what they previously saw as their own identity. To handle such crises the immigrants can use different strategies. They can for example accept their disparity, deny it or emphasize it. The aim of this study is to examine how immigrants in Sweden experience that their cultural identity has changed since they moved here from a country that has a culture that is different from the Swedish culture. To reach my goal with this study I interviewed immigrants/refugees from Chile, Lebanon and Thailand. Some of the results are that my presentation of the problem and the aim with the study were not profound enough. I intended to only write about cultural identity but I came to the conclusion that individual identity and different adaptation strategies were no less important. A further conclusion is that these three ingredients are completely different things; an immigrant can have one individual identity, another cultural identity and use a strategy that does not correspond with any of these. Moreover I also found that a person’s identity does not need to change when moving from their native country to Sweden. Finally I want to stress that my study is not about making sweeping statements, it is rather exemplifying. Identity and strategies are different from one person to another.</p><p>Keywords: individual identity, cultural identity, adaptation strategies</p>

Abstract When immigrants move to Sweden from their native country it is not unusual that they experience some kind of identity crises. Their own experience of their cultural identity can be very problematic and they often lose a part of what they previously saw as their own identity. To handle such crises the immigrants can use different strategies. They can for example accept their disparity, deny it or emphasize it. The aim of this study is to examine how immigrants in Sweden experience that their cultural identity has changed since they moved here from a country that has a culture that is different from the Swedish culture. To reach my goal with this study I interviewed immigrants/refugees from Chile, Lebanon and Thailand. Some of the results are that my presentation of the problem and the aim with the study were not profound enough. I intended to only write about cultural identity but I came to the conclusion that individual identity and different adaptation strategies were no less important. A further conclusion is that these three ingredients are completely different things; an immigrant can have one individual identity, another cultural identity and use a strategy that does not correspond with any of these. Moreover I also found that a person’s identity does not need to change when moving from their native country to Sweden. Finally I want to stress that my study is not about making sweeping statements, it is rather exemplifying. Identity and strategies are different from one person to another. Keywords: individual identity, cultural identity, adaptation strategies

In this thesis, the decision analysis process of investigating the best optimal strategy for Tehran water management in 2021 is described. Such process is normally divided into four steps including: structuring the problem; identifying feasible strategies, their impact and uncertainty; quantifying preferences; and evaluation of countermeasures and sensitivity analysis. Here, in order to structure the problem, the characteristics of Tehran with respect to water issues and its history of water management are reviewed. The state of surface waters and ground waters and a description of Tehran plan for waste water treatment are given, the most significant constraints of Tehran water sector are classified and the challenges of climate change and variability are explained. The feasible adaptation strategies are designed subsequently based on that classification, data extracted from a survey and a number of interviews with water officials and managers and ordinary citizens in Tehran. Each strategy contains a series of separate measures with different weights. The phase of quantifying preferences and elucidating utility functions is conducted based on the data available from previous studies and also the current survey. The measures include: installing water saving devices, awareness raising to change citizens’ water consumption pattern, adding new sources of surface water, investing on waste water utilization, migration control and repairing water distribution network.Different combinations of these measures provide different possibilities for formulating adaptation strategies. We compare two more discussed adaptation strategies of the spectrum of strategies; one is inclined toward exploiting more water resources while the other one is more focused on demand management. The former is mainly supported by water officials and the latter advocated by water experts we interviewed. The criteria of comparison are social acceptability, economic feasibility, time-efficiency and environmental tenability. By considering the uncertainty attributed to the criteria weights, the WEB-HIPRE DSS analysis shows that the demand-oriented strategy is the optimal one in most cases, however, if time-efficiency and/or economic feasibility gain very high significance, the strategy of water officials wins over that of experts.

This study focused on two central themes. The first addressed the vulnerability of farmers to climate change at household and regional levels. The second theme analysed determinants of adaptation measures and factors influencing the perceptions of climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. Three approaches are employed to address the above themes. The first approach is the vulnerability to expected poverty approach. It is based on estimating the probability that a given shock or set of shocks moves consumption by households below a given minimum level (such as a consumption poverty line) or forces the consumption level to stay below the given minimum requirement if it is already below this level. This is adopted to assess vulnerability at household level. Secondly, the method of principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to create vulnerability indices to conduct a comparative analysis of the vulnerability across regional states. Lastly, the Heckman selection probit model is used to analyse the two-step process of adaptation, which consists of perceiving a change in climate followed by taking appropriate adaptation measures in response. Results indicate that vulnerability is highly sensitive to a minimum income requirement (poverty line) that farm households require to survive on a daily basis. For example, when the daily minimum income is fixed at US$0.3 per day, only 7 percent of farmers are vulnerable to future climate change, whereas at a minimum income level of US$2 per day, 93 percent of the farmers are vulnerable to climate extremes. Therefore, policies should encourage income generation and asset holding, both of which will enable consumption smoothing during and immediately after harsh climatic events. Results further show that the relatively least-developed, semi-arid and arid regions namely, Afar and Somali, are highly vulnerable to climate change. The large Oromia region, which is characterised both by areas of good agricultural production in the highlands and midlands and by recurrent droughts, especially in the lowlands, is also vulnerable. Furthermore, the Tigray region, which experiences recurring droughts, is also vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change in comparison with the other regions. Integrated rural development policies, aimed at alleviating poverty with special emphasis on the relatively less-developed regions of the country (i.e., Afar and Somali), can play a double role in reducing poverty and in increasing adaptive capacity to climate change. The study also reveals that experienced farmers, more educated farmers, better-off farmers, better-informed farmers, farmers who access extension and credit services and those with stronger social networks are more likely to perceive climate change and adapt. Government policies and investment strategies that support the provision of and access to education; credit; extension services on crop and livestock production; information on climate and adaptation measures across different agro-ecologies and encourage informal social networks are necessary to better adapt to climate change in Ethiopia. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

When designing a complex Cyber-Physical System it is often impossible to foresee all potential situations in advance and prepare corresponding tactics to adapt to the changes in dynamic environment. This greatly hurts the system's resilience and dependability. All kinds of trouble can rise from situations that lie beyond the expected "envelope of adaptability" from malfunction of one component to failure of the whole system. Self-adaptation approaches are typically limited in choosing a tactic from a fixed set of tactics. Meta-adaptation strategies extend the limits of system's inherent adaptation by creating new tactics at runtime. This thesis elaborates and provides implementations of selected meta-adaptation strategies for IRM-SA in jDEECo as well as their evaluation in a scenario based on a firefighter coordination case study. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Bioclimate envelope models are widely used to project potential species habitat under changing climate. Conceptually, these models are also well suited to match natural resource management practices to new climatic realities, for example by guiding species choice in reforestation programs. Nevertheless, uncertainty due to a variety of causes has so far limited the practical application of bioclimate envelope models. The goal of this thesis is to examine sources of uncertainty, to reduce uncertainty if possible, and to develop methodology to systematically deal with the remaining variability in model projections. Secondly, this thesis develops practical climate change adaptation strategies for the forestry sector in western Canada. This requires answering what species should be used for reforestation for a particular site, and subsequently selecting planting stock of the species that is best adapted to current and anticipated environments. Using a novel approach to partition variance in results from multiple model runs, climate data were identified as arguably the most important source of uncertainty. Variation was primarily caused by different general circulation models, followed by different emission scenarios. Also, the method used to interpolate current weather station data was an important contributor to uncertainty at specific locations. Other sources of uncertainty were the choice of predictor variables and different bioclimate envelope modeling methods, which primarily contributed to uncertainty through interaction effects. For example, different modeling methods provided similar habitat projections for western Canada on average, but under certain climate change scenarios their results differed markedly. Given the large uncertainties in model projections, it is important to remember that ultimately, climate change adaptation has to be guided by climate trends that actually materialize. A considerable portion of this thesis therefore analyzes climate trends in western Canada over the past century. In a case study for aspen, it is shown that the combined information from multiple bioclimate envelope model runs, climate trends that have already materialized, and observed climate change impacts can make a strong case for implementing adaptation strategies in central Alberta. Amendments to aspen reforestation practices are proposed, avoiding the use of the species in areas where it is likely to lose habitat in the future, and recommending movement of planting stock so that it is reasonably well adapted under a range of future climate scenarios. / Forest Biology and Management

Šio darbo tikslas – ištirti užsienio studentų, atvykstančių studijuoti Lietuvos aukštosiose mokyklose (šiuo konkrečiu atveju – VPU), adaptacijos strategijas mūsų visuomenėje. Tyrimo metodologija Remdamiesi sociologų R. Grigo, J. Kuznecovienės, B. Peterso ir kitų tyrėjų idėjomis, priklausomai nuo vyraujančio įsitraukimo būdo ar būdų, išskyrėme keturias adaptacijos strategijas, nusakančias užsienio studentų susisaistymo su nauja visuomene – Lietuva – ypatumus: konformistinę strategiją, reprezentacinę, segregacinę ir navigacinę. Sutelkiant dėmesį į susisaistymą su Lietuvos visuomene neabejotina, jog šis susisaistymas galimas ir su atvykusių studentų kilmės šalimi. Tyrimo duomenys bus apibendrinti analizuojant keturių pagrindinių adaptacijos būdų – psichologinio (kaip jaučiasi gyvendami Lietuvoje), socialinio (bendravimas su lietuviais, kitais užsieniečiais), kultūrinio (santykis su Lietuvos kultūra, etninio tapatumo išlaikymas) ir ekonominio-profesinio (gyvenimo ir mokslo sąlygos) – raišką. Tyrimo hipotezės: 1. Tikėtina, kad studentai užsieniečiai Lietuvoje daugiausia susiduria su psichologinio ir socialinio-kultūrinio pobūdžio problemomis: kalbos barjeru, neigiamais stereotipais, nenoru su jais bendrauti ir pan. 2. Užsienio studentams lengviau bendrauti ir jie dažniau bendrauja su kitais studentais užsieniečiais ir savo tautiečiais, nei su vietiniais gyventojais. 3. Adaptavimasis svečioje visuomenėje didžiausių sunkumų kėlė musulmonų kraštų studentams, o mažiausiai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Subject. Foreign students’ adaptation in Lithuanian society: sociological analysis (VPU – Vilnius teacher training university case) The objective of this work is to analyze the adaptation strategies of the foreign students studying in higher schools of Lithuania Methodology of analysis. Based on the ideas of such sociologists as R. Grigas, J. Kuznecoviene, B. Petersas and other 4 strategies of adaptation in Lithuanian society were distinguished: conformists’ strategy, representational, strategies of segregation and navigation. During the research the attention will be paid to the intercommunication between Lithuania and the native country of foreign students. The research data will be generalized with accordance to four ways of adaptation: psychological (how they feel living in Lithuania), sociological (communication with Lithuanians and other foreigners), cultural (adaptation to Lithuanian culture and ethnicity), economical-professional (conditions for live and study). Hypotheses: 1. It is possible that foreign students more often face psychological and psychological- cultural problems: language barrier, negative stereotypes, reluctance of communication. 2. Foreign students are more open and willing to interact with their natives and other foreign students than with locals. 3. The most complicated adaptation is for the students from Muslim countries; less difficult is for the Europeans. Thus the ways of adaptation are different, from conformist to navigation. 4. Due to lack... [to full text]

No description available.