The Impact of Urban Heat Islands: Assessing Vulnerability in Indonesia

The impacts of global change can be felt by local communities during both short-term events such as intense storms and long-term changes such as rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. Natural disasters related to hydrometeorology are likely to increase in severity, while in coastal areas sea-level rises require serious attention. At city scale, with high levels of urbanisation, local rising temperatures can affect the quality of life of communities. Urban heat islands (UHI) reflect the magnitude of the difference in observed ambient air temperature between cities and their surrounding rural regions. This study aims to identify whether the urban heat island phenomena is occurring two cities in Indonesia: Jakarta, a large metropolitan city with a business and industrial background, and Bandar Lampung, a growing city with an agricultural background. The aim is to identify community vulnerability to UHI impacts and community adaptation efforts related to UHI. The results show that UHI is present in both Jakarta and Bandar Lampung. The UHI was clearly evident in morning temperatures in Bandar Lampung, showing that the area surrounding the city had more air moisture due to vegetation land cover, compared to the city area. In Jakarta the UHI effect was clearly visible in the afternoon, and the highest temperature was in high density settlement areas compared to the business and industrial area. Communities in both Bandar Lampung and Jakarta were assessed to have average (moderate) vulnerability levels. Bandar Lampung's moderate vulnerability level is due to low levels of community knowledge of climate change impacts and public facilities, but there were indications of adaptation in the form of natural spontaneous adaptation. Jakarta faces rising temperatures but has low adaptation levels which could be due to low levels of participation in community programmes in general

Our Mission to Planet Earth: A Guide to Teaching Earth System Science

This teaching guide provides hands-on activities and information related to studying the Earth system. Its primary goal is for children to become familiar with the concept of cycles and to learn that some human activities can cause changes in their environment. Educational levels: Primary elementary

A proposal for an ecological park towards a sustainable humane habitat in Abu Qir, Alexandria, Egypt

This paper represents a preliminary stage of a multiphase research-project, carried out at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) by the Environmental Design Research Group (EDRG) looking at alternative proposals for urban development strategies at Abu Qir Area in Alexandria, Egypt. Abu Qir is located east of Alexandria has a very important productive bay on the Mediterranean Sea and its eastern and south east coast is the only mirror of Egypt on the Dead Sea. Besides being one of the most important spots on Alexandria bay, Abu Qir is considered one of the highest polluted areas in Alexandria, although the area itself has a very high potential on the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. This paper explores the design and development of an ecological park as a part of the urban development at Abu Qir bay. The paper investigates the proposals of conceptual design strategies for an Ecological Park at Abu-Qir. Lessons learnt from examples that have successfully introduced and developed the ideas of Ecological parks in the international built environment are reviewed. Parks are key elements in the urban ecosystem, serving dual roles as core zones of urban nature and as multi-use recreational open space. Moreover, as part of an open space system, they play important functional roles as part of landscape-scale habitat and hydrological networks. Today, there is an urging need for the development of urban parks. As urban populations have rapidly increased through civilization and industrialization, cities have been enlarged, nature has been impaired, and human relations have been damaged. For these reasons, people have lost the opportunity to come into contact with nature. Environmental problems such as air and water pollution have resulted, in conjunction with a gradual decrease in natural surroundings. Ecological destruction has caused the landscape to be devastated. For this reason, ecological parks, places serving to reintroduce beautiful birds and insects into the devastated landscape, are needed. There is a need for ecological parks as places where sound ecological values can be instilled and established through the observation and study of nature. Higher priority is given to the ecological environment than in other parks. The design proposal of the ecological park is a place that is ecologically restored and preserved for the purposes of scientific observation and study, and also to provide an easily accessible place for visitors to observe plants, animals and insects living in their natural environment. The proposed park also plays an important role as an educational open classroom for the community and aims at raising global awareness issues in Abu-Qir, thus ensuring that children grow up with an awareness of the global problems facing the world today, and how they can contribute, as active members of the society, in reducing the consequences of pollution and global warming we have created with our own hands. The paper analyses the Abu Qir village potentials and constraints and put forward an urban development strategy based on this analysis. The paper then presents the strategy that has been established to thoroughly preserve, protect and maintain areas of rich natural resources at Abu Qir, and method have been developed to allow enjoyment of them with minimum artificial influence. Eco-tours have been developed for observation of ecosystems. A variety of opportunities to experience nature has been made available by minimization of human interference and by the introduction of an "Environment Commentator" as will be discussed in this paper

OPAL Community Environment Report

The Open Air Laboratories network, or OPAL, as it quickly became known, was launched in 2007 following a successful application to the Big Lottery Fund It was the first time that Big Lottery funding on this scale had been awarded to academic institutions. The University of Central Lancashire led by Dr Mark Toogood was responsible for understanding public engagement with OPAL. The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)network is a nationwide partnership comprising of ten universities and five organisations with grants awarded totalling £14.4 million. • Over half a million people have participated in the OPAL programme. OPAL activities are carried out by people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, including 10,000 people in ‘hard to reach’ communities. • OPAL opens people’s eyes to the natural world. Nearly half (44%) of OPAL survey participants said that this was the first time that they had carried out a nature survey. 90% of participants have learnt something new. • OPAL has the ability to change people’s behaviour. Almost half (43%) of respondents said OPAL had changed the way they thought about the environment and more than a third (37%) said they will change their behaviour towards it. • In addition to raising environmental awareness, OPAL also improves personal well-being by motivating people to spend time outdoors doing something positive, while connecting with people and nature

A weather forecast model accuracy analysis and ECMWF enhancement proposal by neural network

This paper presents a neural network approach for weather forecast improvement. Predicted parameters, such as air temperature or precipitation, play a crucial role not only in the transportation sector but they also influence people's everyday activities. Numerical weather models require real measured data for the correct forecast run. This data is obtained from automatic weather stations by intelligent sensors. Sensor data collection and its processing is a necessity for finding the optimal weather conditions estimation. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model serves as the main base for medium-range predictions among the European countries. This model is capable of providing forecast up to 10 days with horizontal resolution of 9 km. Although ECMWF is currently the global weather system with the highest horizontal resolution, this resolution is still two times worse than the one offered by limited area (regional) numeric models (e.g., ALADIN that is used in many European and north African countries). They use global forecasting model and sensor-based weather monitoring network as the input parameters (global atmospheric situation at regional model geographic boundaries, description of atmospheric condition in numerical form), and because the analysed area is much smaller (typically one country), computing power allows them to use even higher resolution for key meteorological parameters prediction. However, the forecast data obtained from regional models are available only for a specific country, and end-users cannot find them all in one place. Furthermore, not all members provide open access to these data. Since the ECMWF model is commercial, several web services offer it free of charge. Additionally, because this model delivers forecast prediction for the whole of Europe (and for the whole world, too), this attitude is more user-friendly and attractive for potential customers. Therefore, the proposed novel hybrid method based on machine learning is capable of increasing ECMWF forecast outputs accuracy to the same level as limited area models provide, and it can deliver a more accurate forecast in real-time.Web of Science1923art. no. 514

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF\u27s 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt will affect trade, fisheries, tourism, coastal ecology, air and water quality, animal migration, and demographics not only in the Arctic but also in lower latitude coastal regions such as New England. With profound changes on the horizon, this is a critical opportunity for New England to prepare for uncertain yet inevitable economic and environmental impacts of Arctic change

ECONOMIC DISADVANTAGES OF BLACKS IN HIGH BLACK PROPORTION CITIES

This paper proposes wage premiums for jobs in high black proportion cities as a source of the continuing economic disadvantages for poor blacks. The estimated hedonic model of individual wages confirms the presence of such wage premiums which result in high labor costs and economic stagnation in a black-concentrated region, while the regional black ratio regression indicates a significant statistical correlation between a region¡¯s black ratio and its disamenities. From the empirical results emerge the following conclusions: First, the equality of the estimated wage premiums for high black ratio between blacks and whites precludes direct prejudice-based discrimination. A caveat, however, is that the full wage premiums are conferred upon workers moving freely across regions in search of better wages and amenities, not applying to the mobility-restricted or the non-employed. Second, the wage premiums for high black ratio, causing economic stagnation of a black- concentrated region, constitute a statistical discrimination against blacks. This is because, given the pre-existing poverty among inner city blacks, the victims of the regional economic decline are mainly those unskilled, poor blacks who suffer non-employment due to inadequate resources for job search and mobility.Wage Premium, Black-concentrated Region, Statistical Discrimination

Teacher's guide book for primary and secondary school

There is an urgent need for collective action to mitigate the consequences of climate change and adapt to unavoidable changes. The complexity of climate change issues can pose educational challenges. Nonetheless, education has a key role to play in ensuring that younger generations have the required knowledge and skills to understand issues surrounding climate change, to avoid despair, to take action, and to be prepared to live in a changing world. The Office for Climate Education (OCE) was founded in 2018 to promote strong international cooperation between scientific organisations, educational institutions and NGOs. The overall aim of the OCE is to ensure that the younger generations of today and tomorrow are educated about climate change. Teachers have a key role to play in their climate education and it is essential that they receive sufficient support to enable them to implement effective lessons on climate change. The OCE has developed a range of educational resources and professional development modules to support them in teaching about climate change with active pedagogy

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3