Creating the conditions for community resilience: Aberdeen, Scotland—an example of the role of community planning groups

Governments are increasingly trying to ensure that communities are resilient to the effects of climate change and encourage community empowerment and autonomy. Local resilience planning groups (LRPGs), which include stakeholders with an interest in a local area, are emerging as one potential approach to building community resilience. A conceptual framework has been developed to identify the common requirements for community resilience, building upon existing work in the wider community resilience literature. Aberdeen Resilient, Included and Supported Group, Scotland, UK is an example of a LRPG. In this study the data collected during a workshop with the Aberdeen LRPG were used with the conceptual framework to identify some of the challenges faced when building community resilience. The study examined whether the Aberdeen LRPG illustrates the challenges and constraints faced by LRPGs more widely, and how the membership influences the potential to develop the attributes of community resilience outlined in the conceptual framework. The thematic analysis of the workshop revealed Aberdeen LRPG’s six dominant challenges: engaging with individuals, culture, attitudes, assumptions, terminology, and timescale. These challenges impede the group in utilizing the skills, knowledge, and resources that its members possess to build community resilience. While the Aberdeen LRPG cannot change all factors that affect community resilience, framing specific problems experienced by the group within a conceptual framework applicable to any community contributes to understanding the practical challenges to developing community resilience

When Does Response End and Recovery Begin? Exploring preparation and planning to support community’s resilient recovery. Research Summary 05

The focus of this research project is to identify resilience practitioners’ (RPs) and emergency responders’ (ERs) influence on a community during a Natural Hazard Emergency (NHE), and how this affects a community’s capacity to recover. This is important because a community’s ability to effectively recover from impacts of an NHE have implications for that community’s future resilience, and its ability to adapt to the effects of climate change. The purpose of this research project is to aid ERs and RPs to identify appropriate approaches to incorporate into their NHE response planning and preparation that assist a community’s process of recovery, and A) contribute to a community’s future resilience and B) support the Scottish climate change adaptation program (SCCAP)

When Does Response End and Recovery Begin? Exploring preparation and planning to support community’s resilient recovery

This research project explores areas in which resilience practitioners’ (RPs) and emergency responders’ (ERs) can influence on a community during a Natural Hazzard Emergency (NHE), and how this affects a community’s capacity to recover. This is important because a community’s ability to effectively recover from impacts of an NHE has implications for that community’s future resilience, and its ability to adapt to the effects of climate change. In this report the influence of RPs and ERs on a community’s capacity to recover is examined. Twelve mechanisms were identified through which ERs and RPs can affect a community during the response to an NHE. Five successful strategies taken from academic literature, which have helped communities to recover in the aftermath of an NHE which A) contribute to a community’s future resilience to NHEs and B) support communities to adapt to climate change, are analysed and summarised. The characteristics of the mechanisms and successful strategies with the potential to be incorporated into NHE response preparation and planning by ERs and RPs are given. The report, concludes with a summary of the findings and a list of recommendations

Framework for remediation of rivers impacted by legacy metal mine pollution

Seven percent of surface waters in England and Wales are impacted by pollution from abandoned non-ferrous metal mines. It is estimated that there are about five thousand five hundred of these. There is no legal liability to any party attached to abandoned metal mines in the UK if they ceased operation before 1999. Preventing pollution from entering river catchments from these sources can be expensive and public funds are limited in extent. These enduring sources of pollution are a significant impediment to compliance with the legislative requirements, such as the European Water Framework Directive. This thesis develops a framework for integrating pre-existing tools and methodologies to address this environmental problem: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). By fully quantifying the economic, social and environmental impacts of abandoned mine discharges and the net benefits of potential management interventions over different scales, it is proposed that the framework can provide a sustainable way forward for identifying appropriate cost-effective remedial interventions, identify sources of funding for remediation to take place through PES, while at the same time being sensitive to stakeholder concerns. To determine the effectiveness of this framework two phases of research have been undertaken. The first was a series of interviews with a range of key stakeholders with relevant knowledge and expertise, targeting key concerns and conflicts that arise in managing legacy pollution. The second was to apply the framework to a specific mine-impacted catchment to determine the effectiveness of the framework and an optimal solution for that site. Key findings of stakeholder interviews revealed the general positive attitude towards PES-schemes also discrepancies in knowledge between different sectors. Industrial representatives emphasised the likely need for regulation to initiate such processes. The potentially important role of stewardship and conservation organisations as “ethical brokers” for such schemes was highlighted, given their expertise at communicating and managing a range of stakeholder opinions. The application of the framework to the Hebden Beck catchment in North Yorkshire found that multiple small scale passive remediation at affected locations would be an optimal solution. The full costs of such systems are outweighed by the potential ecosystem service benefits of metal removal from upland streams. Fundamental to the acceptability and sustainability of the remedial solution was the requirement for habitat offsetting to be incorporated into the proposed works

The Large N Limits of the Chiral Potts Model

In this paper we study the large-N limits of the integrable N-state chiral Potts model. Three chiral solutions of the star-triangle equations are derived, with states taken from all integers, or from a finite or infinite real interval. These solutions are expected to be chiral-field lattice deformations of parafermionic conformal field theories. A new two-sided hypergeometric identity is derived as a corollary.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX 2E file, using elsart.cls and psbox.tex (version 1.31 provided), [email protected]

Analysis of an Abandoned Reform Initiative: The Case of Mathematics in British Columbia

Throughout this era of greater educational accountability, assessment researchers have argued that large-scale comparative assessment data can enhance learning within and across systems of education and can foster reforms based on the practices of high achieving jurisdictions. Other researchers are less optimistic, warning that educational reform is fraught with danger. This paper explores an unsuccessful British Columbia Ministry of Education initiative to reform its mathematics curricula. This case study illustrates the myriad factors which prevent the success of planned reforms.

Resource recovery and remediation of highly alkaline residues : a political-industrial ecology approach to building a circular economy

Highly alkaline industrial residues (e.g., steel slag, bauxite processing residue (red mud) and ash from coal combustion) have been identified as stocks of potentially valuable metals. Technological change has created demand for metals, such as vanadium and certain rare earth elements, in electronics associated with renewable energy generation and storage. Current raw material and circular economy policy initiatives in the EU and industrial ecology research all promote resource recovery from residues, with research so far primarily from an environmental science perspective. This paper begins to address the deficit of research into the governance of resource recovery from a novel situation where re-use involves extraction of a component from a bulk residue that itself represents a risk to the environment. Taking a political industrial ecology approach, we briefly present emerging techniques for recovery and consider their regulatory implications in the light of potential environmental impacts. The paper draws on EU and UK regulatory framework for these residues along with semi-structured interviews with industry and regulatory bodies. A complex picture emerges of entwined ownerships and responsibilities for residues, with past practice and policy having a lasting impact on current possibilities for resource recovery

When Does Response End and Recovery Begin? What Can Resilience Practitioners Learn from Academia?

The aim of this research project is to improve planning and preparation for the more effective long-term recovery of communities, which will improve future resilience and contribute the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation (SCCAP). A series of semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted with expert stakeholders in community resilience. These interviews were supplemented by two online workshops with professional resilience practitioners. The following conclusions were drawn from this data and supplemented by the findings from the first phase of this two-phase research project. This project focuses upon community resilience within Scotland and the Scottish governments are guidance on community resilience. The argument is made that a response to an event is dealing directly with the impacts of the emergency and the aim of a response is to protect from and mitigate those direct harms associated with the event. Recovery from an event is dealing with the impacts and consequences resultant from that event having occurred and ensuring that the community is able to better protect and mitigate itself from direct harms associated with any subsequent events. Response and recovery occur simultaneously. What is happening, why, and the community’s perception of this affects their immediate reactions and emotional responses. A formal transition period which is part of planning and preparation and is incorporated into Scottish guidance has potential to address some of the key challenges raised by participants in this research project. Presenting an opportunity to engage with and empower communities, giving them time to consider, what their recovery looks like to them. The SCCAP program and its seven outcomes have a role in building communities’ resilience to natural hazard emergencies (NHE). Community resilience is a core part of SCCAP, which can be used as a framework for communities to use when considering how they would recover from the impacts of an NHE. The following recommendations have been made based upon the findings from this research project: • Guidance on a formal transition phase which is incorporated into category one and two planning and preparation is needed • Local citizen assemblies to engage and empower local communities in advance of any NHE or other emergency event to engage with SCCAP • TSO should be actively engaged with and encouraged to participate in local citizen assemblies • TSI should form part of RRPs and LRPs as part of preparation and planning for response and recovery • Response and recovery phases should be delineated by a transition phase • Engagement and empowerment of communities should be part of how category one and two responders manage a community’s expectations of, the response to, and recovering from an NHE or other emergenc

When Does Response End and Recovery Begin? Exploring preparation and planning to support community’s resilient recovery

This research project explores areas in which resilience practitioners’ (RPs) and emergency responders’ (ERs) can influence on a community during a Natural Hazzard Emergency (NHE), and how this affects a community’s capacity to recover. This is important because a community’s ability to effectively recover from impacts of an NHE has implications for that community’s future resilience, and its ability to adapt to the effects of climate change. In this report the influence of RPs and ERs on a community’s capacity to recover is examined. Twelve mechanisms were identified through which ERs and RPs can affect a community during the response to an NHE. Five successful strategies taken from academic literature, which have helped communities to recover in the aftermath of an NHE which A) contribute to a community’s future resilience to NHEs and B) support communities to adapt to climate change, are analysed and summarised. The characteristics of the mechanisms and successful strategies with the potential to be incorporated into NHE response preparation and planning by ERs and RPs are given. The report, concludes with a summary of the findings and a list of recommendations

What factors are associated with ambulance use for non-emergency problems in children?:A systematic mapping review and qualitative synthesis

Objective To explore what factors are associated with ambulance use for non-emergency problems in children. Methods This study is a systematic mapping review and qualitative synthesis of published journal articles and grey literature. Searches were conducted on the following databases, for articles published between January 1980 and July 2020: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and AMED. A Google Scholar and a Web of Science search were undertaken to identify reports or proceedings not indexed in the above. Book chapters and theses were searched via the OpenSigle, EThOS and DART databases. A literature advisory group, including experts in the field, were contacted for relevant grey literature and unpublished reports. The inclusion criteria incorporated articles published in the English language reporting findings for the reasons behind why there are so many calls to the ambulance service for non-urgent problems in children. Data extraction was divided into two stages: extraction of data to generate a broad systematic literature € map', and extraction of data from highly relevant papers using qualitative methods to undertake a focused qualitative synthesis. An initial table of themes associated with reasons for non-emergency calls to the ambulance for children formed the € thematic map' element. The uniting feature running through all of the identified themes was the determination of € inappropriateness' or € appropriateness' of an ambulance call out, which was then adopted as the concept of focus for our qualitative synthesis. Results There were 27 articles used in the systematic mapping review and 17 in the qualitative synthesis stage of the review. Four themes were developed in the systematic mapping stage: socioeconomic status/geographical location, practical reasons, fear of consequences and parental education. Three analytical themes were developed in the qualitative synthesis stage including practicalities and logistics of obtaining care, arbitrary scoring system and retrospection. Conclusions There is a lack of public and caregiver understanding about the use of ambulances for paediatrics. There are factors that appear specific to choosing ambulance care for children that are not so prominent in adults (fever, reassurance, fear of consequences). Future areas for attention to decrease ambulance activation for paediatric low-acuity reports were highlighted as: identifying strategies for helping caregivers to mitigate perceived risk, increasing availability of primary care, targeted education to particular geographical areas, education to first-time parents with infants and providing alternate means of transportation. PROSPERO registration number CRD42019160395