Drought and society: scientific progress, blind spots, and future prospects

Human activities have increasingly intensified the severity, frequency and negative impacts of droughts in several regions across the world. This trend has led to broader scientific conceptualisations of drought risk that account for human actions and their interplays with natural systems. This review focuses on physical and engineering sciences to examine the way and extent to which these disciplines account for social processes in relation to the production and distribution of drought risk. We conclude that this research has significantly progressed in terms of recognizing the role of humans in reshaping drought risk and its socio-environmental impacts. We note an increasing engagement with and contribution to understanding vulnerability, resilience and adaptation patterns. Moreover, by advancing (socio)hydrological models, developing numerical indexes and enhancing data processing, physical and engineering scientists have determined the extent of human influences in the propagation of drought hazard. However, these studies do not fully capture the complexities of anthropogenic transformations. Very often, they portray society as homogeneous, and decision-making processes as apolitical, thereby concealing the power relations underlying the production of drought and the uneven distribution of its impacts. The resistance in engaging explicitly with politics and social power—despite their major role in producing anthropogenic drought—can be attributed to the strong influence of positivist epistemologies in engineering and physical sciences. We suggest that an active engagement with critical social sciences can further theorisations of drought risk by shedding light on the structural and historical systems of power that engender every socio-environmental transformation

Remote sensing based predictive decision support system for assessment of environmental conditions for epidemic cholera

Cholera, a water borne diarrheal disease, is strongly associated with environmental processes. However, quantitative linkages of environmental processes with cholera and climate is still emerging. Linking diseases such as cholera with climate will aid in development of models that can predict spatial and temporal outbreaks in resource constrained regions of the globe. With the limited efficacy of cholera vaccines, it is necessary to develop mechanisms to predict cholera occurrence and thereafter devise intervention strategies for mitigating impacts of the disease. Hydroclimatic processes, primarily precipitation and air temperature are related to epidemic and episodic outbreak of cholera. However, due to coarse resolution of both datasets, it is not possible to precisely locate the geographical location of the disease. Here, using Land Surface Temperature (LST) from MODIS sensors, we have developed an algorithm to identify regions susceptible for cholera.;Conditions for occurrence of cholera were detectable at least one month in advance in several regions of Africa and were statistically sensitive to hydroclimatic anomalies of land surface and air temperature and precipitation. In order to ascertain the integrity of the hypothesis, there are four epidemic regions were picked in Africa with different outbreak\u27s time: Mozambique, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Rwanda. Our results indicate significant spatial and temporal averaging required to infer usable information from LST over selected areas

Comparison of sea-ice freeboard distributions from aircraft data and cryosat-2

The only remote sensing technique capable of obtain- ing sea-ice thickness on basin-scale are satellite altime- ter missions, such as the 2010 launched CryoSat-2. It is equipped with a Ku-Band radar altimeter, which mea- sures the height of the ice surface above the sea level. This method requires highly accurate range measure- ments. During the CryoSat Validation Experiment (Cry- oVEx) 2011 in the Lincoln Sea, Cryosat-2 underpasses were accomplished with two aircraft, which carried an airborne laser-scanner, a radar altimeter and an electro- magnetic induction device for direct sea-ice thickness re- trieval. Both aircraft flew in close formation at the same time of a CryoSat-2 overpass. This is a study about the comparison of the sea-ice freeboard and thickness dis- tribution of airborne validation and CryoSat-2 measure- ments within the multi-year sea-ice region of the Lincoln Sea in spring, with respect to the penetration of the Ku- Band signal into the snow

A Guide to Understanding the Fundamental Principles of Environmental Management

In this human-dominated “Anthropocene Epoch,” how does one protect and manage scarce environmental resources? This book uses plain language to introduce the non-expert to the fundamentals of environmental management, without requiring them to have a solid grounding in the basic sciences. The authors build upon the reader's natural understanding of scientific principles to learn how to follow the consequences of change through natural systems and to ask better questions about one's environment. Case studies are provided, drawn from temperate ecosystems and human-altered landscapes. Two sets of stories are crafted to explain scientific concepts and introduce analytical approaches, identifying where and how to obtain relevant information. The first covers water and where it goes and what factors affect its fate, and the second how key building blocks of life (carbon and the nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus) change chemical forms and cycles through the environment. The role of soils in the nexus of environmental media is explained. Finally, the authors describe, and also lead the reader to identify, how humans have altered core processes and to judge the significance of these changes. The reader will learn how to fix environmental dysfunction in both private and public lives

A Guide to Understanding the Fundamental Principles of Environmental Management

In this human-dominated “Anthropocene Epoch,” how does one protect and manage scarce environmental resources? This book uses plain language to introduce the non-expert to the fundamentals of environmental management, without requiring them to have a solid grounding in the basic sciences. The authors build upon the reader's natural understanding of scientific principles to learn how to follow the consequences of change through natural systems and to ask better questions about one's environment. Case studies are provided, drawn from temperate ecosystems and human-altered landscapes. Two sets of stories are crafted to explain scientific concepts and introduce analytical approaches, identifying where and how to obtain relevant information. The first covers water and where it goes and what factors affect its fate, and the second how key building blocks of life (carbon and the nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus) change chemical forms and cycles through the environment. The role of soils in the nexus of environmental media is explained. Finally, the authors describe, and also lead the reader to identify, how humans have altered core processes and to judge the significance of these changes. The reader will learn how to fix environmental dysfunction in both private and public lives

Climate change adaptation for sustenance of rural livelihoods in Jotsholo, Lupane District, Zimbabwe

Climate change is a serious challenge on a global and local scale, with severe consequences for rural livelihoods sustainability and socioeconomic well-being. The study's major objective was to examine how rural livelihoods in Jotsholo, Lupane district in Zimbabwe are adapting to climate change. With the goal of arming research participants against climate change vagaries, rural livelihood policies and rural household’s knowledge levels were examined in the study. The research also examined the effects of climate change on biophysical and socioeconomic situations before evaluating adaptation approaches to climatic occurrences after examining relevant literature and collecting primary data. The study was anchored on the Conservation of Resources Theory and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Incorporating features such as people-centeredness, flexibility, responsiveness, and participatory action, the frameworks that were utilized assisted in identifying the sources of strength for improving sustainability and creating resilience among rural livelihoods. This was complemented by observations and secondary data. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were both beneficial in presenting and analyzing data. The study’s findings demonstrated that climate change's vagaries have a detrimental effect on Jotsholo's biophysical and socioeconomic situations as reflected by water shortages and few sustainable livelihoods strategies utilized. The findings also reflected that though the participants have knowledge of understanding that climate change was taking place, there was low adaptive capacity as a result of lack of adaptation knowledge. Adaptation strategies in the Jotsholo ward included cultivating drought-tolerant crops, rearing animals that like goats and sheep, livelihoods diversification, and conservation farming. A number of challenges were identified as hampering climate change adaptation thus insufficient funding, inadequate infrastructure, unfavourable market conditions and the scarcity of alternative fuels. To ensure the sustainability in climate adaptation, the study recommended properly constituted, enhanced, and monitored policies to be put in place with a bottom up approach to inculcate ownership. More capacity building and awareness campaigns should be initiated to increase the adaptive capacity for the rural households. A climate adaptation plan was developed with the study participants with the aim of enhancing the adaptive capacity in Jotsholo, Lupane district.Development StudiesPh.D (Developmental Studies

REACHING FOR BLUE GOLD - How the EU can rise to the water challenge while reaping the rewards. EPC Issue Paper No. 80, November 2015

Foreword. Climate change is bad news for water resources – and thus for human development, societies, economies, the environment, and local and global security. The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods serves as a reminder of the effects climate change can have on the quantity and quality of global water reserves, and thus on various other aspects of life. Even though the effects differ from region to region, this is a global challenge with far-reaching consequences to which Europe is not immune. As the world leaders gather in Paris in December 2015 to discuss a new international climate deal, it is worth to remind politicians, businesses and citizens of the water challenge and its wider implications, which already affect us today – and which will only get worse with climate change. However, water-related risks resulting from climate change are not a fatality and damage control doesn’t have to be the only mantra. Placing the water challenge at the centre of political and security dialogues, development strategies and climate mitigation and adaptation measures, and implementing smarter water management, could also bring great economic, environmental and social benefits, in and outside the European Union. It would also contribute to global security. Water matters – now more than ever. This is also what this publication demonstrates. Building on the European Policy Centre’s, two-year “Blue Gold” project, this publication shows the rationale for action, how the EU could use its existing internal and external policy instruments to tackle the water challenge with its various dimensions and the benefits of action