Global Change Abstracts The Swiss Contribution - SCNAT

More documents

Recommendations

Info

186 Global Change Abstracts – The Swiss Contribution | Human Dimensions 08.1-388 Sink or Swim? Water security for growth and development Grey D, Sadoff C W India, Sri Lanka, Switzerland Economics , Social Sciences , Water Resources Achieving basic water security, both harnessing the productive potential of water and limiting its destructive impact, has always been a societal priority. To capture this duality, water security is defined here as the availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments and economies. This paper looks broadly at those countries that have achieved water security, the paths they chose and the costs they paid, and those countries that have not achieved water security and how this constrains economies and societies. It defines three typologies: countries that have harnessed hydrology, those hampered by hydrology and those that are hostage to hydrology. It finds that countries remaining hostage to hydrology are typically among the world’s poorest. They face “difficult” hydrologies often characterized by high inter- and intra-annual rainfall and runoff variability, where the level of institutional and infrastructure investment needed is very high and the ability to invest is low. This paper seeks to capture the dynamics of achieving water security in a hypothetical water and growth “S-curve”, which illustrates how a minimum platform of investments in water institutions and infrastructure can produce a tipping point beyond which water makes an increasingly positive contribution to growth and how that tipping point will vary in different circumstances. As there are inevitable trade-offs, achieving water security is never without social and environmental costs; in some countries these are significant, often unforeseen and even unacceptable. This brief analysis suggests that the only historically demonstrated path to achieving water security at the national level has been through investment in an evolving balance of complementary institutions and infrastructure, but that lessons exist for following this basic path in more sustainable and balanced ways. Insights are provided for balancing and sequencing investments, adapting to changing values and priorities, and pushing down the social and environmental costs. The paper concludes that most water-insecure countries today face far greater challenges than those that achieved water security in the last century and are wealthy countries today. They face more difficult hydrologies and a greater understanding of and therefore greater responsibility for, the social and environment trade-offs inherent in water management. As the costs of poor countries not achieving water security, in terms of human suffering, sustained poverty, constrained growth and social unrest, would be very high, achieving water security is a challenge that must be recognized and must be met. Water Policy, 2007, V9, N6, pp 545-571. 08.1-389 Carbon constraints in the fourteenth and twenty-first centuries Hoffmann V, Busch T Switzerland Economics , History Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2007, V11, N3, SUM, pp 4-6. 08.1-390 Assessing psycho-social effects of participatory landscape planning Höppner C, Frick J, Buchecker M Switzerland Social Sciences Participation has become an important issue in landscape planning. Within the relevant literature, an increasing number of authors emphasise the meaning of psycho-social effects such as the building of trust and engagement for planning projects. Yet, empirical studies examining psycho-social effects of participatory techniques in landscape planning are still an exception and are often conceptually and methodologically limited. The present paper addresses these gaps by adapting a mixed method design consisting of repeated measurement (n = 35) and qualitative interviews (n = 11). In the course of a municipal Landscape Development Concept (LDC) in Switzerland, short- term effects were assessed regarding participants’ (a) trust in other persons involved, (b) confidence in the outcomes of the LDC, and (c) intention to participate. Significant changes were found on trust in involved persons and on the confidence in the general benefit of the LDC. The intention to participate did not change significantly. Information events had no significant effect on participants, whereas workshops had a significant effect on participants’ trust. Trust of workshop attendees decreased during the planning process, which may partly represent a shift from enthusiastic expectations to a more realistic view, and must not be regarded as a negative outcome, since it prevents participants from serious frustration. The paper concludes that a long-term participation strategy, providing different participatory arenas
Global Change Abstracts – The Swiss Contribution | Human Dimensions and settings, is essential in order to comprehensively affect all dimensions of trust and to foster engagement. Landscape and Urban Planning, 2007, V83, N2-3, NOV 19, pp 196-207. 08.1-391 Local learning-networks on energy efficiency in industry - Successful initiative in Germany Jochem E, Gruber E Switzerland, Germany Energy & Fuels , Political Sciences , Economics Profitable energy-efficiency potentials are often not exploited in industry since management tends not to focus on energy issues. Sharing experiences between companies reveals possibilities for reducing the transaction costs involved. For this purpose, regionally or locally-organised learning networks of companies have been established. Social mechanisms are used to motivate management to pay more attention to energy efficiency in Switzerland and Germany. The main elements of the activities include initial consultation for each company with an experienced engineer, agreement on a common target for energy-efficiency improvement, regular meetings with technical presentations and an exchange of experiences, yearly control of energy consumption and CO 2 emissions as well as scientific monitoring and evaluation of the process. The results of some evaluations show that substantial progress has been made in implementing organisational measures and investments in energy efficiency in the participating companies. The reasons for these achievements are discussed and conclusions drawn about the opportunities and limits of this instrument. Finally, a recommendation is made to implement this instrument on a broader level. Applied Energy, 2007, V84, N7-8, JUL-AUG, pp 806-816. 08.1-392 Objectives of public participation: Which actors should be involved in the decision making for river restorations? Junker B, Buchecker M, Müller Böker U Switzerland Political Sciences , Water Resources , Hydrology (1) River restoration as a measure to improve both flood protection and ecological quality has become a common practice in river management. This new practice, however, has also become a source of conflicts arising from a neglect of the social aspects in river restoration projects. Therefore appropriate public involvement strategies have been recommended in recent years as a way 187 of coping with these conflicts. However, an open question remains: Which stakeholders should be involved in the decision-making process? This, in turn, raises the question of the appropriate objectives of public participation. This study aims to answer these questions drawing on two case studies of Swiss river restoration projects and a related representative nationwide survey. Our findings suggest that public involvement should not be restricted to a small circle of influential stakeholder groups. As restoration projects have been found to have a substantial impact on the quality of life of the local population, avoiding conflicts is only one of several objectives of the involvement process. Including the wider public provides a special opportunity to promote social objectives, such as trust building and identification of people with their local environment. Water Resources Research, 2007, V43, N10, OCT 31 ARTN: W10438. 08.1-393 Portfolio screening to support the mainstreaming of adaptation to climate change into development assistance Klein R J T, Eriksen S E H, Naess L O, Hammill A, Tanner T M, Robledo C, O’brien K L Sweden, Norway, England, Switzerland Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences , Economics , Political Sciences The need to mainstream adaptation to climate change into development planning and ongoing sectoral decision-making is increasingly recognised, and several bilateral and multilateral development agencies are starting to take an interest. Over the past years at least six development agencies have screened their project portfolios, generally with two goals in mind: (1) to ascertain the extent to which existing development projects already consider climate risks or address vulnerability to climate variability and change, and (2) to identify opportunities for incorporating climate change explicitly into future projects. As each portfolio screening was conducted independently, the broader lessons emerging from the screenings have not been systematically analysed. In this paper we assess the screening activities to date, focusing on both the results and the methods applied. Based on this assessment we identify opportunities for development agencies to expand their current focus on the links between climate and development. Most agencies already consider climate change as a real but uncertain threat to future development, but they have given less thought to how different development patterns might affect vulnerability to climate change. The
Page 1 and 2:
Global Change Abstracts The Swiss C
Page 3 and 4:
Global Change Abstracts - The Swiss
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136: Global Change Abstracts - The Swiss
Page 185: Global Change Abstracts - The Swiss
show all

Global Change Abstracts The Swiss Contribution - SCNAT

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?