Jalisco es un estado altamente vulnerable a los efectos del cambio climático. El estado es vulnerable a sequías en el norte e inundaciones en las costas. Jalisco también es un estado con un sector agrícola de alta producción. Los efectos del cambio climático ponen en riesgo esta producción agrícola, que en turno tendría efectos negativos en las familias agrícolas y la economía del estado. A través de varias estrategias de adaptación al nivel del agricultor y del gobierno, se puede crear un sector agrícola con posibilidades para afrontar los efectos del cambio climático con éxito. Para crear estas estrategias de una manera justa y eficaz, se podría usar el marco de las policy sciences durante la formulación para políticas públicas. El marco de las policy sciences promueve la colaboración entre las partes interesadas durante el proceso del desarrollo de políticas públicas. Por medio de la colaboración de las agencias gubernamentales, los agricultores, las organizaciones no gubernamentales, los centros de investigación y la ciudadanía se pueden crear e efectuar estrategias eficaces para adaptar al sector agrícola jalisciense a los efectos del cambio climático.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Bangladesh with its densely populated coastal areas is considered as one of the most vulnerable countries affected by climate change in the world. In this context, the goal of this research is to assess the social vulnerability of the south-western coastal communities of the country,which is becoming more vulnerable, trying to understand the underlying social conditions of coastal people who are dependent on limited natural resources. To do so, vulnerability indicators of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity are analyzed using quantitative data collected from different sample areas and focus group discussions (FGD) were held with the local women in two study areas. The results show that a community in the area have close dependency on natural resources such as water, mangrove forest and also has a limited set of livelihood options. Also many households, above the traditional fishing and agriculture, have no secondary occupation or alternative livelihood options. Therefore, unpredictable seasonal patterns on the sea and land would threat livelihood and mainly their food security. Considering that the coastal areas have potential opportunities for nation’s sustainable development, assessing on social vulnerability to climate change will help to create regulation and awareness programs in order to minimize vulnerabilities.

The study compiles and summarizes the existing knowledge about observed and projected impacts of climate change on agriculture in the Carpathian region, putting it in the context of rural development and giving suggestions for regional adaptation strategy.There are some differences in the social and age structures, stability of settlements and rates of unemployment within the Carpathian region. Adaptive capacity is higher in the Northern and Western Carpathians where there are more non-agricultural employment opportunities that could act as a safety net in case of loss of the harvest. Indicators show gradual decrease of well-being from North-West to South-East, which coincides with projected changes in the precipitation and severity of climate impacts. Southern part of the region (Romania and the Republic of Serbia) is identified as the most vulnerable.To achieve broader goal of sustainable agriculture in the face of climate change, the economic structure of rural areas should be reformed towards diversification of employment options, improvement of infrastructure and better access to services. Rich in biodiversity and beautiful landscapers, the Carpathian region offers significant opportunities in the field of eco- and rural tourism development. A regional adaptation strategy should focus on raising awareness to facilitate autonomous adaptation, climate proofing of the policies and creating favourable conditions for social entrepreneurship and green business.

The Red Tail site is one of 19 archaeological sites that lie within central Saskatchewan’s Wanuskewin Heritage Park. Since the creation of a long-term research program in 1984, many of these sites have been excavated making this the longest running archaeological project in Canada. This has provided an extensive body of archaeological evidence of human activity dating as early as the Early Precontact Period. Despite the extensive archaeological excavation and research that has occurred, relatively few geomorphic and paleoenvironmental studies have been conducted within the area. Paleoenvironmental data provide important context in building archaeological interpretations of past lifeways. The Red Tail site was originally excavated in 1988 and 1989 to a depth of approximately 2.7 m. In 2007, the site was revisited in order to conduct subsurface coring to a depth of over 6 m using a Geoprobe coring rig. This method allowed recovery of culturally sterile soils/sediments beyond the depth of the original excavation. This project includes analysis of these cores in order to investigate geomorphic processes active at the site and proxy indicators of paleoenvironment and paleoclimate. Analysis of two of the cores included detailed description of the recovered soils and sediments, as well as stable isotope and phytolith analysis of selected units in one of the cores. This suite of methods provides a robust, multi-proxy interpretation of geomorphic change and paleoenvironmental conditions at the site. The site was geomorphically active during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, reflective of a dynamic and fluctuating climate following the glacial retreat. As the environment became more stable during the Middle to Late Holocene, periods of landscape stability are reflected in a sequence of buried soils. The paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic record recovered from these buried soils shows a fairly consistent history of C3-plant dominated communities, reflective of moist, cool climate conditions. The relatively stable environmental and climatic conditions reflected at the site contribute to the understanding of the Wanuskewin area as an oasis on the prairies.

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, open reservoirs provide the majority of the drinking water. In the study present and future condition of these water sources and supplies were systematically assessed regarding water quantities. The study was done by reviewing municipal documents and accessing meteorological, hydrological and demographical data in Addis Ababa. 0%, 5% and 10% change in reservoir inflow/rainfall were used and projections for 2020 and 2030 were used to estimate future temperature and population sizes. The result indicated that supplied water quantity per capita from surface sources in Addis Ababa is likely to be reduced. Both climate and socio-economic related vulnerabilities were identified and the four following got the highest risk score: Increases in population, increased per capita water demand, overexploited land and increased distribution losses.At present the annual increase in population in Ethiopia is 4.4% and annual GDP increase is 7%, leading to a growing water demand in Addis Ababa. If the water supplies are not substantially increased the situation will lead to water scarcity. By 2020 water demand coverage will be 34% and by 2030 22%, compared with the current 50% coverage.Overexploited land was also identified as a major vulnerability due to the impact on catchment hydrology and distribution losses, caused by insufficient maintenance and replacement of aged pipes. At present 20% of the treated water is lost and it is likely to increase during the coming decades. However, the climate change induced rainfall variability is unlikely to cause large problems within the observed timeframe. Even with a 100 year drought 14% of the available water would be spill due to the limited reservoir capacity.To secure future water distribution Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority (AAWSA) should build dams north of the Entoto ridge. They should also gain further understanding about and find appropriate measures for, highlighted vulnerabilities. A full vulnerability assessment should be done by AAWSA and they should consider implementing a „Water Safety Plan‟ for the whole water supply system.

Does birth order influence our attitudes? The present study examined the effects of birth order on attitudes toward climate change and racism. Three hundred and two par- ticipants from two American universities completed a questionnaire about climate change, family constellation, and racism. The results showed initially no significant correlations but after controlling for gender, age, sibship size, parent’s education, and conflict with parents the results showed that lastborns had significantly higher racial prejudice than only children and firstborns. Moreover, the results showed that gender and age influenced our attitudes. For the former, men were less concerned about cli- mate change and had a higher racial prejudice toward immigration compared to women. For the latter, the older we become, the less conservative attitudes we will hold.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to communicate messagesrelated to sustainable development through cultural works. Culture is here synonymous toliterature or, more specifically, the fiction genre. According to ecocritical research, this genrehas the capacity to contribute to a more sustainable development and is therefore interestingto analyse from an environmental point of view.The novel selected for the study is Vips så blev det liv - eller en hyllning till blågrönalgen(2010), written by the Swedish author Bob Hansson. The analysis is mainly focused on howthe book’s climate related messages are formulated and integrated in the story. Alsoconsidered is in what way Hansson’s strategies are compatible with the expectations raisedtowards the fiction genre within the context of sustainable development; expectations thatinclude the ability to evoke emotion, to convey new values and perspectives, and to act as alink between different parts of society.One conclusion to be drawn from the analysis is that Hansson approaches the climate issuein several ways. For example, Vips så blev det liv reflects both anthropocentric and bio-/ecocentric values, and the messages are delivered in an informative as well as in anillustrative manner. Moreover, the literary tropes give the book an emotional touch, whichmay help the reader to comprehend the information. In other words, the methods used are to alarge extent in line with the above mentioned expectations towards the fiction genre.What is however important to remember, is that the book includes several parallel themesand many comic episodes. For that reason, it cannot be taken for granted that the reader willpay much attention to the climate messages; however emotional, multidisciplinary andunconventional they may be. This highlights the difficulty in predicting the response to acertain cultural work. In order to understand its true potential in terms of communicatingmessages for a sustainable development, it is therefore essential to analyse the whole chainthat links the creator of the work to its recipients.

Global warming is a current topic on the international agenda. The rise of temperature in the atmosphere threatens populations living on island, deltas and coastal areas, and people living nearby the Arctic and areas covered by permafrost are threatened. In turn this leads to the people in these areas being projected to be homeless or displaced due to climate change and the rising numbers of natural disasters. Those people are what you can label as climate refugees. According to IOM and Brown (2001) climate refugees are persons who for compelling reasons of change in the environment which change their living conditions have to escape their homes, either within their country or abroad.The United Nations Refugee Convention is the binding legislation followed by 147 (in 2008) of the UN member states. Either the UN Refugee Convention or any other international law recognizes climate refugees, and those people are due to that not granted any legal status. Who will protect these people when they have to escape their homes? This paper aims to explore what distinguish climate refugees from the refugees embraced by the UN Refugee Convention by a comparative literature review, for in this way be able to recognize the assumptions that make the United Nations to not classify climate refugees with refugee status. Both groups of refugees has in common that they live under the pressured decision they have to make as they flee their native homes to ensure their own and their families survival according to Grove (2006).In the long run both climate refugees and the UN Refugee Convention embraced refugees face the same traumatic experiences escaping their homes and have due to that the similar right to get the same mental help and be protected under international law. But populations facing the effects of global warming do not want to leave their land and believe it is an issue of human rights.

During the Quaternary period, cyclic glaciations have occurred over a global scale as the result of a climatic variability that affected the Earth's atmospheric, oceanic and glacial systems. Quaternary glaciations and their associated dramatic climatic conditions, such as kilometers-thick ice sheet formation and permafrost migration, are suspected to have had a large impact on the groundwater flow system over the entire North American continent. Because of the myriad of complex flow-related processes involved during a glaciation period, numerical models have become powerful tools to examine groundwater flow system evolution in this context. In this study, a series of key processes pertaining to coupled groundwater flow and glaciation modelling, such as density-dependent (i.e., brine) flow, hydromechanical loading, subglacial infiltration, isostasy, sea-level change and permafrost development, are included in the numerical model HydroGeoSphere to simulate groundwater flow over the Canadian landscape during the Wisconsinian glaciation (~ -120 kyr to present). The primary objective is to demonstrate the immense impact caused by glacial advances and retreats during the Wisconsinian glaciation on the dynamical evolution of groundwater flow systems over the Canadian landscape, including surface/subsurface water exchanges (i.e., recharge and discharge fluxes) both in the subglacial and the periglacial environments. The major findings of this study are that subglacial meltwater infiltration into the subsurface dominates when the ice sheet is growing and, conversely, groundwater exfiltrates during ice sheet regression. This conclusion, which seems to be opposite to the classical hydromechanical loading theory, is a consequence of the interaction between the subglacial boundary conditions and the elastic properties of the rocks. Subglacial infiltration rates during ice sheet progression can reach up to three orders of magnitude higher than the infiltration rate into the periglacial environment and the current recharge rate into the Canadian Shield. The impact of the ice sheet on groundwater flow and the brine distribution was dramatic. Hydraulic heads below the ice sheet increase by up to three thousand meters at land surface and up to 1.5 km into the ground. At present time, large over-pressurized zones occur at depth because there has been insufficient time to enable dissipation to their original values. Based on the hydraulic head and solute concentration distribution after the last glacial cycle, it can be shown that the system did not recover to its initial conditions, and that it is still recovering from the last glacial perturbation. The permafrost has the effect of restraining large areas of the subglacial and periglacial environment from surface/subsurface water interaction; the subglacial permafrost appears along with a cold-based ice sheet, which prevents subglacial meltwater production. The occurrence of a shallow trapped pressure zone below the permafrost after the glacial cycle highlights the critical importance of permafrost on the recovery of the flow system after a glacial cycle. As a final contribution, the mean groundwater age across the Canadian landscape at the last interglacial (LIG) and throughout the last glacial cycle was computed. Groundwater age is defined as the time elapsed since the water infiltrated in a recharge zone; the mean groundwater age is the mean age of all the particles of water that would be measured in a sample of water. It was found that at LIG, the mean groundwater ages span a large range of values from zero to 42 Myr. Forty-two Myr old groundwater was calculated at depth where there is little groundwater flow and where a mass of stagnant groundwater exists due to high brine concentrations. During the glacial period, old groundwater below the ice sheet mixes with young subglacial meltwater that infiltrates into the ground and the resulting mean groundwater age is younger. The mixing below the ice sheet occurs at great depth, and locations where the mean groundwater age was older than 1 Myr reaches mean age values between 10 kyr and 100 kyr.

Models for spatially interpolating hourly precipitation data and temporally disaggregating daily precipitation to hourly data are developed for application to multisite scenarios at the watershed scale. The intent is to create models to produce data which are valid input for a hydrologic rainfall-runoff model, from daily data produced by a stochastic weather generator. These models will be used to determine the potential effects of climate change on local precipitation events. A case study is presented applying these models to the Upper Thames River basin in Ontario, Canada; however, these models are generic and applicable to any watershed with few changes. <br /><br /> Some hourly precipitation data were required to calibrate the temporal disaggregation model. Spatial interpolation of this hourly precipitation data was required before temporal disaggregation could be completed. Spatial interpolation methods were investigated and an inverse distance method was applied to the data. Analysis of the output from this model confirms that isotropy is a valid assumption for this application and illustrates that the model is robust. The results for this model show that further study is required for accurate spatial interpolation of hourly precipitation data at the watershed scale. <br /><br /> An improved method of fragments is used to perform temporal disaggregation on daily precipitation data. A parsimonious approach to multisite fragment calculation is introduced within this model as well as other improvements upon the methods presented in the literature. The output from this model clearly indicates that spatial and temporal variations are maintained throughout the disaggregation process. Analysis of the results indicates that the model creates plausible precipitation events. <br /><br /> The models presented here were run for multiple climate scenarios to determine which GCM scenario has the most potential to affect precipitation. Discussion on the potential impacts of climate change on the region of study is provided. Selected events are examined in detail to give a representation of extreme precipitation events which may be experienced in the study area due to climate change.