Managers of historic sites need to understand their exposure to climatic and environmental change, which varies widely by property type and location. A large and evolving body of science and climate modeling identifies ongoing and future changes with increasing specificity. Changes range from the predictable, like mean temperature and sea-level rise, to the erratic, like storms and wildfires, and may include human adaptive measures like floodwalls and migration. These data can be cross-referenced against site attributes to evaluate risk. Relevant site attributes include location and topography, materials, character-defining features, landscape species, surrounding land uses, and operational needs. This work presents a vulnerability assessment protocol that serves to identify and rank risk in order to inform decision-making about adaptive measures, which can range from choice of repair materials to landscaping to relocation. When applied to a fleet of sites, the protocol can inform policy- and grant-making. / 1 / SPK / archives@tulane.edu

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Climate change and sea level rise are making it more dangerous to live in coastal towns and cities. Communities in these areas must learn how to become more disaster resilient and adaptive by creating more connected and educated populations. In places devastated by natural disasters, the most vulnerable populations are the ones who are left behind. Climate refuges will become more and more common as people are forced to move from the places they call home due to inhabitable conditions. It would be beneficial for these populations to move before a large scale disaster forces them to leave. As the Louisiana coast subsides and is flooded by rising sea levels, the area is becoming more vulnerable to intense floods and storms. While there is a levee surrounding the New Orleans metropolitan area, the communities outside of the levee's protection are exposed to the elements. In these neighborhoods, the frequent damage by storms and rising flood insurance rates are making it too expensive to stay. St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes are the areas that will lose the most land and where the land is vital to the local and national economy. An environmentally and contextually sensitive infrastructure will initiate the relocation of these populations, allowing them to remain in their communities while preserving their lifestyle and quality of life. To combat the dispersion of a strong community, I propose a system that allows the communities outside the levee walls to form new town centers within the flood protection. Specifically in St. Bernard Parish, a central hub would be built on the edge of the levee protection to attract people to move to a safer area. The town center is near the most southeastern part if the levee along Louisiana 46. The center will provide support for the intended increase in population as the area fills in with relocating residents. The center will increase the disaster resilience by providing spaces that can educate the public about climate change, facilitating movement to outside the levee with a boat and automobile transit hub, provide economic support through agriculture and fishing, and help the elderly population stay connected with their community. With the creation of this new town center, the residents that are threatened with sea level rise and flooding will be able to remain connected to their land, their communities, and their livelihoods while reducing their risk. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Anthropogenic (human caused) climate change is a major global issue because of the effects of climate change, which include increased frequency of drought, floods, erratic and/or insufficient rainfall, waterborne diseases; as well as related consequences such as water shortages, forest fires and loss of biodiversity. It is therefore imperative that there be a global effort to mitigate climate change in order to limit these potentially disastrous effects. Deforestation and forest degradation, principally in the tropics, cause approximately 12 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, one method to mitigate climate change is to address reducing GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries," also known as REDD+, is, at its core, a financial incentives based strategy that aims to compensate national governments, sub-national actors, private project developers and/or local communities, in return for demonstrable reductions in carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancements of terrestrial carbon stocks. REDD+ also focuses on building capacity for developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. Uganda is one of the developing countries that has shown enthusiasm for REDD+ and has actively engaged in REDD+ readiness activities. However, REDD+ readiness activities are costly due to various institutional capacity requirements that may pose a significant challenge to Uganda. The question posed by the study is whether Uganda's involvement in REDD+ is likely to result in net economic benefits for the country. The study aims to determine whether, in the absence of direct evidence of the success of the REDD+ mechanism in any country, Uganda's economic benefits from REDD+ are still expected to exceed the costs of implementation. Social benefits are an additional incentive however, even a combination of both economic and social benefits may not be reason enough for a country to become a REDD+ country, especially if alternative land uses are more lucrative or costs are too high. The methodology used is largely qualitative and theoretical, except for the economic analysis which is quantitative. The outcome of the study is that while there is insufficient evidence to suggest that Uganda will not benefit overall from being involved with REDD+, the feasibility study of the potential REDD+ project in the Murchison-Semkili landscape showed that, at least in that project area, the economic benefits were unlikely to cover both the implementation and opportunity costs in the long term. This does raise a legitimate concern that REDD+ might not result in net economic benefits for Uganda. Even though the economic benefits of Uganda's involvement in REDD+ are uncertain, the mechanism is still expected to result in social benefits, such as improved livelihoods in terms of service delivery; increased efficiency and accountability of government and governmental institutions; and increased public consultation and participation. There are, however, risks to Uganda's successful implementation of REDD+ such as unspecified donor funding, which may not be forthcoming, and the lack of clarity surrounding global compliance carbon markets. Uganda still has much to do in order to build the required institutional capacity for REDD+ to be successful, especially with regard to increasing the effectiveness of the institutions that manage the country's forests. Uganda also needs to reduce some of the drivers of deforestation in the country through programmes that target poverty alleviation and improve agricultural practices. In terms of REDD+ specifically, Uganda needs to complete the development of a National REDD+ Strategy, secure adequate funding for the mechanism, and accelerate the development of REDD+ pilot activities, which are currently in the planning phase. Further research is needed on determining the total value of Uganda's forests, taking into account economic, environmental and social considerations. Research is also needed on the impact successful REDD+ pilot activities have had in other comparable countries.

Growing concern about the ongoing environmental crisis has prompted an increased awareness of pollution and climate change. These grave environmental problems are often framed as pressing global issues, but they take unique forms in different locations. This thesis endeavours to contextualize these global issues and explore how they are apprehended at a local level. Through a focus on embodied experiential knowledge and social, political, and historical context, I have examined the specificity and local character of what it means to live with pollution and climate change in Lima, Peru. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Lima’s Cono Sur, including participant observation and interviews, I argue that environmental understandings and practices must be seen as embodied, historical, and situated in time and space.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-223). / This thesis examines the interrelationship between “water, climate change and small towns”. The research question is framed in three parts: 1) can climate change be integrated into existing planning frameworks? 2) can small towns build resilient strategies against projected climate change impacts? and, 3) is adaptation to climate change an economic issue? It is evident that very little synergy exists between the different sectors dealing with water access. A holistic view of access and the impact of climate change does not exist in the sustainable development, urban planning and water resources management sectors. It is therefore proposed that the successful delivery of accessible water services lies with the integration of the urban planning, water resources management and climate change adaptation responses. In order to achieve this, a planning framework is introduced.

Includes bibliographical references / Wild plants assist in supporting human livelihoods worldwide, both within traditional systems of medicine, and as economically useful plants. Indigenous to the Fynbos biome in the north-western part of the Western Cape, South Africa is the leguminous shrub, A. linearis (rooibos), which is extensively used as ethnomedicine by local communities, while also commercially grown and exported for the herbal tea market. Being a range-restricted species, climate change poses a threat to wild plants and their dependent communities, as well as the sustainability of the rooibos industry. Climate mediated impacts on rooibos are mostly substantiated by anecdotal evidence from commercial growers and local communities and have traditionally been insufficiently addressed. This study integrates predictive modelling and empirical data to provide important insights into rooibos' plant physiological functioning in the presence of climatic and environmental constraints. The aim is to determine whether there is evidence of climate change over the rooibos distribution area, how these climate anomalies are expected to affect the species distribution and to perform experimental studies by testing plant physiological functioning of A. linearis under changing climate conditions. Analysis of climate parameters important for rooibos production (rainfall frequency and intensity, temperature extremes and wind speed) have shown that plants will experience a shorter period of water availability during winter, and prolonged exposure to summer conditions (high temperatures and water stress) in the coming decades. Under these conditions, climate envelope modelling suggests that wild and cultivated rooibos types are at risk to lose between 49.8% and 88.7% in the extent of the bio-climatically suitable localities, most notably along the western and northern periphery of the rooibos production area by 2070. Plant physiological responses (growth analysis, gas exchange parameters and leaf carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios) to the assessed climate anomalies were measured in experimental studies at glasshouse and field scale. Specific adaptation mechanisms (increasing water use efficiency, developing a higher level of sclerophylly and altering the allocation of plant reserves) which helped seedlings to survive short term drought in the glasshouse were not able to offset more severe conditions in field settings. Finally, a comparison of wild and cultivated tea has shown an apparent adaptive advantage of wild tea to tolerate increased aridity with greater water economy, and more reliance on biological nitrogen fixation for N nutrition, indicating a potentially less severe scenario of range contraction for wild types than initially indicated. This study provides a more robust prediction of rooibos plant responses to climate change factors to enable more effective adaptive planning and conservation management in a changing climate.

Includes bibliographical references / Drought is one of the natural hazards that threaten the economy of many nations, especially in Southern Africa, where many socio-economic activities depend on rain-fed agriculture. This study evaluates the capability of Regional Climate Models (RCMs) in simulating the Southern African droughts. It uses the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI, computed using rainfall and temperature data) to identify 3-month droughts over Southern Africa, and compares the observed and simulated drought patterns. The observation data are from the Climate Research Unit (CRU), while the simulation data are from 10 RCMs (ARPEGE, CCLM, HIRHAM, RACMO, REMO, PRECIS, RegCM3, RCA, WRF, and CRCM) that participated in the Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) project. The study also categorizes drought patterns over Southern Africa, examines the persistence and transition of these patterns, and investigates the roles of atmospheric teleconnections on the drought patterns. The results show that the drought patterns can occur in any season, but they have preference for seasons. Some droughts patterns may persist up to three seasons, while others are transient. Only about 20% of the droughts patterns are induced solely by El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), other drought patterns are caused by complex interactions among the atmospheric teleconnections. The study also reveals that the Southern Africa drought pattern is generally shifting from a wet condition to a dry condition, and that the shifting can only be captured with a drought monitoring index that accounts for temperature influence on drought. Only few CORDEX RCMs simulate the Southern African droughts as observed. In this regard, the ARPEGE model shows the best simulation. The best performance may be because the stretching capability of ARPEGE helps the model to eliminate boundary condition problems, which are present in other RCMs. In ARPEGE simulations, the stretching capability would allow a better interaction between large and small scale features, and may lead to a better representation of the rain producing systems in Southern Africa. The results of the study may be applied to improve monitoring and prediction of regionally-extensive drought over Southern Africa, and to reduce the socio-economic impacts of drought in the region.

In response to the protracted and ineffective international action on the climate change crisis, this study critically considers the potential of building-integrated agriculture (BIA) as retrofitting strategy to improve the climate change adaptation (CCA) capacity of buildings in South African inland cities. Based on a pragmatism paradigm, the study uses a mixed method research design, to evaluate current BIA farms and their efficacy as CCA retrofitting strategies to improve the thermal performance of the local built environment. The exploratory research is structured in three phases. During the first phase the unused and underutilised spaces of Hatfield, a rapidly changing neighbourhood in Tshwane, South Africa, are mapped and defined in terms of their latent climate change adaptation capability. Secondly, the spatial and technological characteristics of the current BIA industry is surveyed through a series of interviews and observational studies. As the final research phase, a specific BIA farm type, passively controlled non-integrated rooftop greenhouses, is assessed in terms of its reciprocal thermal impact on the built environment. As outcome, the research findings reveal a land-use form that can contribute to the climate change adaptation response strategies of South African cities on a spatial level. Unfortunately, the design resolution and technological realisation, specifically the prevalent form currently implemented in Johannesburg and Tshwane, adversely affect both farmers and building occupants during overheated periods. As a result, the study advocates developing and testing contextually appropriate technological solutions in the BIA industry. The study advances the climate change discourse by assessing the performance of BIA farms as constituent entities in networks of small-scaled climate change adaptation projects in resource constrained urban environments. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Architecture / PhD / Unrestricted