Browsing by Subject "adaptation"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Open Access
    A case study from the southern Cape linefishery 2: Considering one’s options when the fish leave
    (2017) Gammage, Louise C; Mather, Charles
    Fishers in the small-scale, commercial linefishery in the southern Cape, South Africa, are exposed to variability and change in the marine social-ecological system of which they are a part. Faced with multi-scalar changes within this complex system, fishers employ a wide range of strategies in reaction to change. As part of a broader study of stressors that bring about change in these systems, this contribution examines the fishers’ responses to these changes and is based on a participant-led, semi-structured interview process of skippers/boat owners, crew, processors and spouses/partners, in six communities in the southern Cape region, and has been supplemented with appropriate secondary data. The results are discussed using a resilience framework. The data were initially considered thematically by stressor, but results identified that a place-based analysis was equally important. Three major groupings were identified: (1) fishers who adapt and show clear business-orientation, (2) fishers who cope, and (3) fishers who react and are thus caught in a poverty trap. In addition to place-specific history, local feedback loops and indirect effects need to be better accounted for to understand these responses to change at various scales. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the basis of scenario planning in the region.
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    Framework for adaptation to climate change for the City of Cape Town - FAC4T (City of Cape Town)
    (2006-08) Mukheibir, Pierre; Ziervogel, Gina
    The 20th century has seen the greatest warning in the past thousand years due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2001b). Climate models now predict that the atmosphere's temperature will increase by 1.4ºC to 5.8ºC by 2100. Climate change will continue to occur even if the global greenhouse gas emissions are curtailed significantly in the short- to medium term. Therefore, while controlling emissions is vital, this should be combined with efforts to minimise the effects of climate change. This is commonly called adaptation, and is generally defined as an adjustment in bio-physical, social and/or economic systems in response to an actual or expected climatic impact and its effect. The effect of climate change increases the likelihood of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and heat waves. The Northern and Western Cape provinces are projected as the two South African provinces most at risk of climate-induced warming and rainfall change. This makes the City of Cape Town's resource management more challenging.
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    Open Access
    The impact of climate change on small municipal water resource management: The case of Bredasdorp, South Africa
    (2007) Mukheibir, Pierre
    In response to the recent reports on climate change impacts, especially on the water supply sector, a methodology that incorporates climate change impacts in to water resource planning at small municipal level is proposed. The introduction of the term Climate Impact Factor helps to quantify the extent to which future drying will have on local water resources. The illustrative example reveals that a 30% reduction of available water by 2035 will be caused by a projected 8% reduction in precipitation. The reduction in available water resources due to climate change leads to in an increase of future supply cost of 3.5 times that under historical climate conditions. It is illustrated however, that this can to some extend be mitigated through demand side management strategies.
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    Multi-jurisdictional analysis of integration of climate change considerations in regulations and guidelines across 16 environmental impact assessment (EIA) regimes
    (2022) Mayembe, Rose; Norton, Marieke; Simpson, Nicholas P; Rumble, Olivia
    The contribution of the human activities to climate change is well understood. Yet integration of climate change considerations in tools designed to govern activities affecting the environment, such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), remains underdeveloped and inconsistently applied. There is no clear direction on what measure of consideration is sufficient for environmental decision-making on potential impacts on the climate for proposed policies, programs, plans and projects. This research reviews progress across a range of 16 EIA regimes and outlines the potential for integration of climate change considerations in EIA. The research used a desk review of EIA literature to identify and assess regulations and guidelines that have been established to promote the integration of climate change in EIA. A typology of levels of integration was developed to guide analysis across multiple EIA regimes. The findings identify a global and growing normative expectation for climate change considerations to be integrated into EIA and describe the range of ways this is done across the regimes selected. Climate change integration in EIA is typically concerned with climate change mitigation, specifically greenhouse gas emissions from proposed developments. Fewer regimes are concerned with climate change adaptation, and in general, an integration deficit is identified for regimes where climate change is partially considered. Several challenges to integrating climate change in EIA are identified, including lack of practice guidelines and regulatory frameworks. Reflecting on the variety of approaches, the discussion extends typologies of integration in EIA to examine and provide a better understanding of substantive consideration of climate change in EIA. Examples of high integration indicate that EIA holds potential to play a substantive role in environmental governance at project level decision making affecting climate change. However, the range of examples also cautions that many domestic obstacles can militate against integration including political, socio-technical, and economic imperatives – particularly those affecting sectoral and scope exclusions. Nevertheless, developments across some regimes indicate leverage points for greater integration, including the role of EIA review to establish new precedents for the relevance of climate change to EIA. Potential future research and practice directions are identified, including development of regulations and practice guidelines, inclusion of climate change adaptation aspects, strengthening postdecision monitoring, application to all relevant sectors and activities, alignment with SEA, and integration across all stages of the EIA process.
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    TEDI 2 Week 3 - Modifying the Learning Environment
    (2019-06-01) Swift, Odette
    In this video, the very cheerful Odette Swift, herself a teacher of deaf children, discusses basic modifications and adaptations that teachers can make in their own classrooms to ensure that deaf learners have access to all subject content. This video lecture 2/9 of week 3 of the course: Educating Deaf Children: Becoming an Empowered Teacher.
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    The vulnerability, impacts, adaptation and climate services advisory board (VIACS AB v1.0) contribution to CMIP6
    (2016) Ruane, Alex C; Teichmann, Claas; Arnell, Nigel W; Carter, Timothy R; Ebi, Kristie L; Frieler, Katja; Goodess, Clare M; Hewitson, Bruce; Horton, Radley; Kovats, R Sari; Lotze, Heike K; Mearns, Linda O; Navarra, Antonio; Ojima, Dennis S; Riahi, Keywan; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Themessl, Matthias; Vincent, Katharine
    This paper describes the motivation for the creation of the Vulnerability, Impacts, Adaptation and Climate Services (VIACS) Advisory Board for the Sixth Phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), its initial activities, and its plans to serve as a bridge between climate change applications experts and climate modelers. The climate change application community comprises researchers and other specialists who use climate information (alongside socioeconomic and other environmental information) to analyze vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation of natural systems and society in relation to past, ongoing, and projected future climate change. Much of this activity is directed toward the co-development of information needed by decision-makers for managing projected risks. CMIP6 provides a unique opportunity to facilitate a two-way dialog between climate modelers and VIACS experts who are looking to apply CMIP6 results for a wide array of research and climate services objectives. The VIACS Advisory Board convenes leaders of major impact sectors, international programs, and climate services to solicit community feedback that increases the applications relevance of the CMIP6-Endorsed Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs). As an illustration of its potential, the VIACS community provided CMIP6 leadership with a list of prioritized climate model variables and MIP experiments of the greatest interest to the climate model applications community, indicating the applicability and societal relevance of climate model simulation outputs. The VIACS Advisory Board also recommended an impacts version of Obs4MIPs and indicated user needs for the gridding and processing of model output.
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    Vulnerability to environmental change
    (2014-08-22) Ziervogel, Gina
    The material is presented in the form of powerpoint presentations for 6 sections. Activities to accompany the slides are presented here. The slides form the basis of presenting the theory and linking it to key literature. Examples are provided in many places of how the theory is applied in case studies, often from work that the lecturer has been involved in and relevant to the southern African region. It is suggested that teachers who use this material in other contexts draw on local examples to support the theoretical discussions. Course objectives: 1. understand theoretical concepts of vulnerability 2. overview of what methods to use to assess vulnerability 3. understanding of the concept and application of adaptation to climate change. This 4 week module on vulnerability to environmental change is part of a third year course called Sustainability and the Environment (EGS 3021F) in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science , University of Cape Town. The course introduces the concept of vulnerability and explores its origin, drawing on three different conceptual approaches namely Risk/hazard, Political economy/ecology and Ecological resilience. It then looks at different methods for undertaking vulnerability assessments. Building on the theory and method sections it focuses on why the concept of vulnerability is important in the field of environmental change with a focus on climate change. The international process of assessing the science is explored followed by material addressing adaptation to climate change and examples of vulnerability and adaptation in practice in South Africa.