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Klimatanpassning av dagvattenhantering : Hur arbetar kommuner i Västra Götalands län med klimatanpassning av sin dagvattenhantering?Glennvall, Julia January 2016 (has links)
The purpose of this report was to investigate how municipals in the county of Västra Götaland work with climate adaptation of storm water management and to identify problems that occur in the work. As with the rest of the world, Sweden will be affected by expected climate changes and it is therefore important that Swedish municipalities work with climate adaptation and to help them make the work manageable. The method used was semi-structural qualitative interviews where 13 municipalities were interviewed in April 2016. The result of the interviews shows that there is an ambition to work with climate adaptation of storm water management but that there are different problems associated with the work that have made it difficult to start. 69% of the municipalities include climate adaptation to some extent when they work with master plans and 5 out of 8 municipalities are or will be including climate adaptation strategies in their storm water management document. A majority of the municipalities don’t prioritize climate adaptation and could be doing more to include climate adaptation in their work. The most common problems reported by the municipalities were too little resources/lack of finance, undecided responsibility and not clear enough laws regarding the subject.
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Ranking of tree-ring based temperature reconstructions of the past millenniumTrouet, Valerie, Esper, Jan, Krusic, Paul J., Ljungqvist, Fredrik C., Luterbacher, Juerg, Carrer, Marco, Cook, Ed, Davi, Nicole K., Hartl-Meier, Claudia, Kirdyanov, Alexander, Konter, Oliver, Myglan, Vladimir, Timonen, Mauri, Treydte, Kerstin, Villalba, Ricardo, Yang, Bao, Buntgen, Ulf 01 August 2016 (has links)
Tree-ring chronologies are widely used to reconstruct high-to low-frequency variations in growing season temperatures over centuries to millennia. The relevance of these timeseries in large-scale climate reconstructions is often determined by the strength of their correlation against instrumental temperature data. However, this single criterion ignores several important quantitative and qualitative characteristics of tree-ring chronologies. Those characteristics are (i) data homogeneity, (ii) sample replication, (iii) growth coherence, (iv) chronology development, and (v) climate signal including the correlation with instrumental data. Based on these 5 characteristics, a reconstruction-scoring scheme is proposed and applied to 39 published, millennial-length temperature reconstructions from Asia, Europe, North America, and the Southern Hemisphere. Results reveal no reconstruction scores highest in every category and each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Reconstructions that perform better overall include N-Scan and Finland from Europe, E-Canada from North America, Yamal and Dzhelo from Asia. Reconstructions performing less well include W-Himalaya and Karakorum from Asia, Tatra and S-Finland from Europe, and Great Basin from North America. By providing a comprehensive set of criteria to evaluate tree-ring chronologies we hope to improve the development of large-scale temperature reconstructions spanning the past millennium. All reconstructions and their corresponding scores are provided at www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb09climatology. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Sub-national government responses to reducing the climate impact of carsAnderton, Karen L. January 2012 (has links)
This D.Phil. thesis is an international comparative study looking at the development and implementation stages of policies tasked to reduce emissions from transport. The substance of policy is all too often the primary focus of research, leaving the settings in which these policies are developed and implemented relatively underexplored. Examining the relationships and interplay that exists between departments responsible for climate change and transport at the sub-national (state) level and those with their local and national counterparts, this research tries to unpick the organisational intricacies that may act as barriers to delivery. State governments have become a promising source of action to reduce emissions from other sectors for which they have legislative responsibility; however, the private road transport sector remains a challenge. This research examines the barriers preventing such progress and whether the lack of collaboration between departments and across levels of government are responsible in part for these challenges. Taking a specific policy intervention designed to reduce transport-related emissions from four case study governments (Bavaria, California, Scotland and South Australia) this research is about organisational structures of government and policy processes. The main hypothesis of the research is that conventional environmental/climate change- and transport-policymaking practices are incompatible – and that this incompatibility is hampered by organisational structures of government. Together these factors render implementation of policies to reduce the climate impact of transport difficult. The hypothesis is guided by four research themes – scale, scope, leadership and process. Each of these themes has a distinct yet important part to play in understanding and comparing the case study contexts, in terms of the cross-departmental and cross-level interactions occurring within each of the sub-national governments. Each of the subject case study governments have been chosen since they are self-determined ‘leaders’ on climate change. This research serves to highlight some of the governance issues that need to be overcome or removed for such positive political intent to be realised. It posits that without successfully linking frameworks and interested stakeholders in the process, tangible emissions reductions will be difficult to achieve. The main objective of the research is to investigate the frameworks, interplay and dynamics at the sub-national level of government across departments and between levels of government. The relationship and collaboration with industry is also examined as a supplementary consideration. The second objective is to look at how and whether climate change policy can be more closely integrated with transport policy and the barriers to this integration. This investigation is underpinned by cross-disciplinary governance theory, as well as notions from socio-political governance and applies the concept of institutional interplay in this context between levels of government. It develops the concept of sub-national governance which argues that relationships between levels are distinct and non-hierarchical in terms of policy development and implementation.
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Econometric methods and applications in modelling non-stationary climate dataPretis, Felix January 2015 (has links)
Understanding of climate change and policy responses thereto rely on accurate measurements as well as models of both socio-economic and physical processes. However, data to assess impacts and establish historical climate records are non-stationary: distributions shift over time due to shocks, measurement changes, and stochastic trends - all of which invalidate standard statistical inference. This thesis establishes econometric methods to model non-stationary climate data consistent with known physical laws, enabling joint estimation and testing, develops techniques for the automatic detection of structural breaks, and evaluates socio-economic scenarios used in long-run climate projections. Econometric cointegration analysis can be used to overcome inferential difficulties stemming from stochastic trends in time series, however, cointegration has been criticised in climate research for lacking a physical justification for its use. I show that physical two-component energy balance models of global mean climate can be mapped to a cointegrated system, making them directly testable, and thereby provide a physical justification for econometric methods in climate research. Automatic model selection with more variables than observations is introduced in modelling concentrations of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>, while controlling for outliers and breaks at any point in the sample using impulse indicator saturation. Without imposing the inclusion of variables a-priori, model selection results find that vegetation, temperature and other natural factors alone cannot explain the trend or the variation in CO<sub>2</sub> growth. Industrial production components, driven by business cycles and economic shocks, are highly significant contributors. Generalizing the principle of indicator saturation, I present a methodology to detect structural breaks at any point in a time series using designed functions. Selecting over these break functions at every point in time using a general-to-specific algorithm, yields unbiased estimates of the break date and magnitude. Analytical derivations for the split-sample approach are provided under the null of no breaks and the alternative of one or more breaks. The methodology is demonstrated by detecting volcanic eruptions in a time series of Northern Hemisphere mean temperature derived from a coupled climate simulation spanning close to 1200 years. All climate models require socio-economic projections to make statements about future climate change. The large span of projected temperature changes then originates predominantly from the wide range of scenarios, rather than uncertainty in climate models themselves. For the first time, observations over two decades are available against which the first sets of socio-economic scenarios used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports can be assessed. The results show that the growth rate in fossil fuel CO<sub>2</sub> emission intensity (fossil fuel CO2 emissions per GDP) over the 2000s exceeds all main scenario values, with the discrepancy being driven by underprediction of high growth rates in Asia. This underestimation of emission intensity raises concerns about achieving a world of economic prosperity in an environmentally sustainable fashion.
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Climate change policy in Canada: domestic influences on foreign policy formulationBenger, Matthew 22 September 2016 (has links)
This thesis examines the domestic politics that infuence government decison making. Specifically, how these domestic constituents, such as institutions, organizations and individuals, shape how the Canadian government formulates and impliments environmental policy. It will do so by providing a comparative analysis using the Chretien and Harper governments. / October 2016
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Productivity of Montane Meadows in a Warming World: Evidence from an Elevation Gradient and a Warming ExperimentHenderson, Amanda, Henderson, Amanda January 2016 (has links)
Climate change is expected to disproportionately impact high elevation ecosystems by disrupting current temperature and precipitation regimes. The future carbon balance of these systems is uncertain, given the interplay between longer growing season length and the potential for increased drought. Currently, the most robust inferences about ecosystem responses to changing climate come from the integration of experimental and observational methods. In this thesis, I utilize evidence from a warming experiment and an elevational gradient to gain insights into how aspects of ecosystem productivity and community functional composition change in response to the abiotic environment. First, I show that ecosystem productivity was similar in the heated and ambient treatment groups of the warming experiment. Net ecosystem productivity (NEP) was similar between treatments with only slightly increased NEP in the early season in the heated treatment. Important leaf functional traits (leaf mass per area, LMA; leaf dry matter content, LDMC) shifted with heating in directions associated with higher productivity, both at the community level and within species. While these results are counterintuitive, potential insight was provided by a soil cooling effect found in the heated plots in the early season. Second, I investigate ecosystem productivity across spatial and temporal gradients using phenology cameras. I show strong relationships between greenness indices generated from camera images and on-the-ground measurements of gross primary productivity (GPP). I also used changes in greenness indices early season to infer green-up rates, and found a strong pattern of increasing green-up rate with increasing elevation. Together, these studies highlight the importance of comparing experimental and gradient methods to assess how different spatial and temporal scales influence our conclusions about the effect of climate change on ecosystems.
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Vem styr vad? : En undersökning av miljöjournalisterna Annika Digréus och Calle Elfströms kontakter med sina källorOttander, Malin, Svensson, Linnea January 2017 (has links)
Climate change is one of the the world's biggest challenges. How media report about it has a big affect on how people interpret it and if government take action. Sources has a big importance for all journalism that is produced. Does the journalist or the source control what is reported about climate change, what does their relationship look like and how does that affect the result of the reporting? This is a study about the relationship between environmental journalists and their sources. We investigate in what way they are dependent on each other and who or what controls the reporting about climate change in Swedish Public Service. We are analyzing this by doing a case study of two climate journalists, one from Public Service Television (SVT) and one from Public Service Radio (SR). We are interviewing them and their sources to find the sources approach towards environmental journalist and vice versa. We also analyze if the journalist, the source or the circumstances controls the reporting and set the agenda about climate change. Our study shows that environmental sources have a positive attitude towards environmental journalists and that they find knowledge as a highly valued quality. Furthermore it shows that both the journalists and the sources actively works to initiate what is brought up in media. Sources write press releases, debate articles, tweet their work and contact journalists but in most cases it is the journalist who initiates contact with the source. In our study it becomes clear that environmental sources and environmental journalist depend on each other and have a dynamic relationship.
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Long-term analysis of the wave climate in the North East Atlantic and North SeaAgarwal, Atul January 2015 (has links)
Changes in the marine environment have been reported for over three decades in terms of mean annual wave heights, exceedance probabilities and extreme conditions. More recently, the existence of a link between these changes and anthropogenic climate change has been postulated. This is not unreasonable, as climatic changes in regional warming and cooling are likely to alter wind patterns, and therefore the wave climate as well. In an attempt to mitigate climate change and increase energy security, the offshore environment is being looked at to provide sustainable energy from wind, waves and tides. As a result the number of marine structures is only likely to increase. While survivability in this environment is essential for all such installations, some devices such as wave energy converters also rely on the environment for energy production. In designing these offshore structures to survive the harshest conditions as well as to ensure optimum operation, knowledge of the evolution of the wave climate is essential. This study aims to identify and evaluate any historical trends that may be exhibited by the wave climate in the North East Atlantic and North Sea region. The study also aims to investigate the link between any observed changes and atmospheric greenhouse gas levels and projected wave conditions for the 21st century. This is achieved by producing a long-term, high resolution hindcast of wave conditions for 1871-2010 using the third-generation spectral wave model WAVEWATCH III. A dataset of wave climate projections for the high, medium and low emissions scenarios is also prepared by forcing the model with GCM winds for 2001-2100. In addition to dynamically projecting the wave climate in the 21st century for different IPCC climate change scenarios, statistical methods were applied to historic data to estimate extreme events in terms of 100-year return values of significant wave height. These, together, provide some idea of the plausible wave climate up to 2100. The results of the work show the existence of long-term trends in the historical wave climate in the region from 1921 onwards. However, based on the findings of the study, it is unlikely that these are a result of changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and are more likely due to internal variability in the system.
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An investigation into use of the freshwater gastropod Viviparus as a recorder of past climatic changeBugler, Melanie Jane January 2011 (has links)
Through isotopic analysis of Viviparus lentus (V. lentus) a high resolution record of stepwise changes in δ18O and δ13C across the Eocene / Oligocene transition and Oi-1 glacial maximum has been produced for the continental Solent Group strata, Isle of Wight (UK). Comparison of this V. lentus δ18Ocarb. record with high resolution marine δ18Ocarb. records shows that similar isotopic shifts exist in the near coastal continental and marine realms. In order to calculate palaeotemperatures from this new continental record an investigation into the biology of modern Viviparus and its effect on the isotopic composition of its shell carbonate was undertaken. Experimental measurements of the 18O/16O isotope fractionation between the biogenic aragonite of Viviparus and its host freshwater were undertaken on samples derived from the Somerset Levels in order to generate a genus specific thermometry equation. The results from using this new Viviparus equation on fossil V. lentus shell fragments suggests that aquatic and terrestrial biota were being affected by climate change associated with the Late Eocene Event. This conicides with a decrease in mammal species richness in the Osborne Member, reaching its climax at the end of the Osborne / Seagrove Bay Members. This event is followed by a brief warming in the Bembridge Limestone which was marked by a within-Europe mammal turnover involving dispersal from the south and an increase in species richness, concurrent with this is an increase in size of Harrisichara gyrogonites. An additional investigation into seasonal isotopic variability using whole well preserved V. lentus specimens has also revealed a shift from tropical /subtropical to temperate climatic zones occurring before the Eocene /Oligocene boundary and Oi-1 glacial maximum. Overall the evidence provided by these investigations would suggest that climatic change was already in progress prior to the build up of glacial ice on Antarctica.
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Enviropreneurial management : an effective approach to cope with the ecological challengeMitic, Ljiljana January 2000 (has links)
Humankind is the major force influencing our planet earth. Irreversible environmental degradation are a widespread problem. Atmospheric changes, worsening climate, ozone depletion, etc. is accompanying our daily life. From the ecological perspective the future of the 21's century is endangered. A change of consumption pattern, material thinking, lifestyles have to change fundamentally. It may even require to break with 'business-asusual'. In the age of continuously and rapidly changing competitive environments, companies are increasingly forced to be highly flexible and responsive to changes having an impact on their competitiveness or even affecting the firm's viability. "Entrepreneurship" is an emerging practice, which involves the application of an entrepreneurial spirit to established businesses. The management style is seen to embody the appropriate characteristics for surviving or even growing in a constantly changing environment. A major objective of this research is to determine whether an entrepreneurial management style has an impact on the ecological approach a firm may adopt. For this purpose a mail survey of 500 German firms across all industries was undertaken in the first phase. The aim is to further determine whether firms adopting a proactive ecological approach meet the ecological challenge in a strategic manner. In order to achieve this objective a case study approach was chosen in the second phase based on ten interviews conducted in the food & allied industry. The survey aimed at examining the management style, organisational structure and the business environment of 212 firms to determine firms' nature and style of strategic response to their business environment. Moreover, firms' ecological orientation and ecological environment is measured to determine to which degree firms are proactively oriented. Based on this, the relationship between the management style adopted by firms and the ecological approach is analysed. The results of the survey suggest that firms' response to the ecological issue is strongly influenced by the way in which they respond to business challenges or changes in the business environment. Furthermore, the case study aimed at identifying the degree to which firms integrate the ecological issue into their strategic behaviour. Another aim is to analyse if the relationship between management style and ecological approach can be confirmed further, thus supporting the results of the first phase. The results indicate that a proactive ecological approach demands a comprehensive way of realisation. The ecological issue should be an integral part of the firms' strategic management process and be approached in a strategic manner. Thus, the research project strongly suggests that an entrepreneurial style supported by organic organisational structures is seen as the appropriate approach to follow the path of an ecologically sustainable future. An entrepreneurial approach will enable firms to be innovative and thus inducing fundamental changes with regard to ecological matters. Far-reaching environmental improvements are needed to take a large step towards a sustainable society. An entrepreneurial environmental approach enables firms to anticipate and give fresh impetus to the ecological development. However, it has to be kept in mind that all forces upsetting the equilibrium of the global system have to be handled sustainably.
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