A Primer for Monitoring Water Funds

This document is intended to assist people working on Water Funds to understand their information needs and become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of various monitoring approaches. This primer is not intended to make people monitoring experts, but rather to help them become familiar with and conversant in the major issues so they can communicate effectively with experts to design a scientifically defensible monitoring program.The document highlights the critical information needs common to Water Fund projects and summarizes issues and steps to address in developing a Water Fund monitoring program. It explains key concepts and challenges; suggests monitoring parameters and an array of sampling designs to consider as a starting-point; and provides suggestions for further reading, links to helpful resources,and an annotated bibliography of studies on the impacts that result from activities commonly implemented in Water Fund projects

Powerful-synergies: Gender Equality, Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability

This is a collection of evidence-based papers by scholars and practitioners that explore the interconnections between gender equality and sustainable development across a range of sectors and global development issues such as energy, health, education, food security, climate change, human rights, consumption and production patterns, and urbanization. The publication provides evidence from various sectors and regions on how women's equal access and control over resources not only improves the lives of individuals, families and nations, but also helps ensure the sustainability of the environment

Political Economy Analysis for Development Effectiveness

{Excerpt} Political economy embraces the complex political nature of decision making to investigate how power and authority affect economic choices in a society. Political economy analysis offers no quick fixes but leads to smarter engagement. Economics—the social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of material wealth and with the theory and management of economic systems or economies—was once called political economy. Anchored in moral philosophy, thence the art and science of government, this articulated the belief in the 18th–19th centuries that political considerations—and the interest groups that drive them—have primacy in determining influence and thus economic outcomes at (almost) any level of investigation. However, with the division of economics and political science into distinct disciplines from the 1890s, neoclassical economists turned from analyses of power and authority to models that, inherently, remove much complexity from the issues they look into

GLOBE: Science and Education

This article provides a brief overview of the GLOBE Program and describes its benefits to scientists, teachers, and students. The program itself is designed to use environmental research as a means to improve student achievement in basic science, mathematics, geography, and use of technology. Linking of students and scientists as collaborators is seen as a fundamental part of the process. GLOBE trains teachers to teach students how to take measurements of environmental parameters at quality levels acceptable for scientific research. Teacher training emphasizes a hands-on, inquiry-based methodology. Student-collected GLOBE data are universally accessible through the Web. An annual review over the past six years indicates that GLOBE has had a positive impact on students' abilities to use scientific data in decision-making and on students' scientifically informed awareness of the environment. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Using Data in Undergraduate Science Classrooms

Provides pedagogical insight concerning the skill of using data The resource being annotated is: http://www.dlese.org/dds/catalog_DATA-CLASS-000-000-000-007.htm

A Forest of Blue - Canada's Boreal Forest, the World's Waterkeeper

Describes how the lakes, rivers, and wetlands comprising the boreal forest preserve biodiversity, mitigate global climate change effects, and offer food and cultural benefits to rural communities. Suggests policies to limit damaging industrial activities

Coping with Water Scarcity: What Role for Biotechnologies?

At a conference of the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2007, 78 participants from 24 countries offered their views on agricultural biotechnologies and water scarcity, addressing the pros and cons of various methods and their potential application. These viewpoints are represented in this discussion paper, along with an introductory section that defines the issues to be discussed. Funders in the WASH sector can use this document to educate themselves about the potential gains to be made in supporting different types of scientific research and agricultural technology development

Growing a Green Economy for All: From Green Jobs to Green Ownership

This Democracy Collaborative report provides the first comprehensive survey of community wealth building institutions in the green economy. Featuring ten cases, the report identifies how policy and philanthropy can build on these examples to create "green jobs you can own.

Responding to Climate Change: The Economy and Economics - Part of the Problem and Solution

The Climate Change Starter’s Guide provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principles. The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into school curricula. It has been created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies, curricula, programmes and lesson plans. The guide covers four major thematic areas: 1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes; 2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics; 3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and 4. education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable lifestyles. A selection of key resources in the form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each of the thematic sections

The Ecology and Sociology of the Mission-Aransas Estuary : An Estuarine and Watershed Profile

watershed profileThe Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) is one of 28 national estuarine reserves created to promote the responsible use and management of the nation's estuaries through a program combining scientific research, education, and stewardship. The purpose of this document is to provide researchers and resource managers with an adequate basis of knowledge to further development of scientific studies and applied management investigations. This document describes the different physical ecosystem components, ecological processes, habitats, and watersheds of the Reserve. The Mission-Aransas NERR is a complex of wetland, terrestrial, and marine environments. The land is primarily coastal prairie with unique oak motte habitats. The wetlands include riparian habitat, and freshwater and salt water marshes. Within the water areas, the bays are large, open, and include extensive wind tidal flats, seagrass meadows, mangroves, and oyster reefs. This site profile describes each habitat by their location, type, distribution, abundance, current status and trends, issues of concerns, and future research plans. Research within the Mission-Aransas NERR seeks to improve the understanding of the Texas coastal zone ecosystems structure and function. Current research includes: nutrient loading and transformation, estimates of community metabolism, water quality monitoring, freshwater inflow, climate change and fishery habitat. Harmful algal blooms, zooplankton, coliform bacteria, submerged aquatic vegetation, and marsh grass are monitored through the System- Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). This document also describes the climate, hydrography and oceanography, geology, water quality, and endangered species within the Mission-AransasUniversity of Texas Marine Science InstituteMarine Scienc