Focus rural land policies on ecosystem services, not agriculture.

Land policies around the world are weighted towards agricultural output. We argue that this leads to ineffective public expenditure, environmental harm and missed opportunities for use of rural resources. Applying ecosystems services thinking to the governance of rural land would secure greater social value

Estimating the Adaptation Deficit - An empirical analysis of the constraints on climate change adaptation in agriculture

Agricultural adaptation to climate change is often simulated by changes in land use over time. Land use is commonly optimised in economic models, which rests on the neoclassical economic assumption of rational choice among farmers. A wealth of experimental and empirical evidence demonstrates that rational choice can be a poor approximation of human decision making. Models simulating adaptation by optimising producers’ behaviour are in effect simulating adaptive potential. Much evidence demonstrates that adaptive potential does not necessarily translate into adaptation. This investigation focuses on the ways by which farmers’ real-world adaptive behaviours depart from those assumed by the dominant economic models of agricultural responses to climate change. These departures are characterised as adaptation constraints, and they are assessed through an empirical case study of adaptive behaviours in the Hikurangi catchment, New Zealand. Data are collected using a mixed methodology comprising an extensive survey of rural decision making, to which this study contributes, and a suite of semi-structured interviews. The interviews give an understanding of the origins and processes of adaptation constraints, while the surveys provide information about the extent to which they impact adaptive propensity. These adaptation constraints are then formalised as mathematical rules and written into an existing agent-based model of land use change, which is substantially modified for the purposes of this study. Different combinations of constraints are then tested in order to produce estimates of their economic impacts. The constraints on adaptation are found to significantly reduce profits relative to a specification that assumes rational choice among farmers. This is understood to be the first empirically derived estimate of the extent of the adaptation deficit. The size of the deficit identified in this study implies that current economic models are likely to significantly underestimate the costs of adaptation to climate change, the benefits of climate change mitigation, and the residual loss and damage climate change will cause.This work was supported entirely by a Woolf Fisher Trust PhD scholarship, which is part funded by the Woolf Fisher Trust and part by the Cambridge Commonwealth Trus

Green-pumped, picosecond MgO:PPLN optical parametric oscillator

We investigate the performance of a magnesium-oxide-doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal (MgO:PPLN) in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) synchronously-pumped by 530nm, 20ps, 230MHz pulses with an average power of up to 2W from a frequency-doubled, gain-switched laser diode seed and a multi-stage Yb:fiber amplifier system. The OPO produces ~165mW (signal, 845nm) and ~107mW (idler, 1421nm) of average power for ~1W of pump power and can be tuned from ~800nm to 900nm (signal) and 1.28µm to 1.54µm (idler). Observations of photo-refraction and green-induced infrared absorption (GRIIRA) in different operational regimes of the MgO:PPLN OPO are described and the role of peak intensity and average power are investigated, both with the aim to find the optimal operating regime for pulsed systems

Ultraviolet writing of channel waveguides in proton-exchanged LiNbO₃

We report on a direct ultraviolet (UV) writing method for the fabrication of channel waveguides at 1.55 µm in LiNbO3 through UV irradiation of surface and buried planar waveguides made by annealed proton exchange and reverse proton exchange. A systematic study of the guidance properties as a function of the UV writing conditions is presented

Water Stress Vulnerability in the Himalayas of Nepal

Agricultural communities in the Himalayas are highly dependent on the availability of fresh water. Changes in precipitation and snowpack storage due to climate change are expected to greatly alter water availability in mountainous headwater catchments. While changes in water resources may prove problematic for communities in the Himalayas, these communities are capable of dynamic response. Their vulnerability to water stress caused by climate change is, therefore, dependent on both changes in the amount of water available and changes in how this resource is used. While studies exist which address each of these issues in isolation, no attempt has been made to explicitly reconcile the two. This thesis evaluated the degree to which climate change contributes to water stress vulnerability in two mountain communities in Nepal. This vulnerability was then compared to opportunities for adaptation in order to elucidate its effect on population in these communities. The investigation focussed on the village of Panglin in the district of Mustang and the village of Tallo Lorpa in the district of Jumla, and proceeded in three steps. First, scientific understanding of the possible effects of climate change on water availability in the surrounding areas was reviewed. Next, the vulnerability and adaptive capacity in each respective community was assessed using household surveys, focus group discussions and participatory rural appraisal techniques. Finally, the expected effects of climate change on water availability were linked to findings on community vulnerability to these changes. The findings show that both communities are vulnerable to changes in water availability under climate change. Vulnerability is particularly prevalent in the agricultural sector and poorer households in each community. Overall, this vulnerability is greater in Tallo Lorpa than in Panglin. Vulnerability to changes in water availability is, however, small in comparison to the opportunities for adaptation in each community. The ability of people to appropriate benefits from these opportunities is constrained by a number of conditions. It is the degree to which these conditions inhibit the effective realisation of adaptation opportunities that determines vulnerability in Panglin and Tallo Lorpa

Water Stress Vulnerability in the Himalayas of Nepal

Agricultural communities in the Himalayas are highly dependent on the availability of fresh water. Changes in precipitation and snowpack storage due to climate change are expected to greatly alter water availability in mountainous headwater catchments. While changes in water resources may prove problematic for communities in the Himalayas, these communities are capable of dynamic response. Their vulnerability to water stress caused by climate change is, therefore, dependent on both changes in the amount of water available and changes in how this resource is used. While studies exist which address each of these issues in isolation, no attempt has been made to explicitly reconcile the two. This thesis evaluated the degree to which climate change contributes to water stress vulnerability in two mountain communities in Nepal. This vulnerability was then compared to opportunities for adaptation in order to elucidate its effect on population in these communities. The investigation focussed on the village of Panglin in the district of Mustang and the village of Tallo Lorpa in the district of Jumla, and proceeded in three steps. First, scientific understanding of the possible effects of climate change on water availability in the surrounding areas was reviewed. Next, the vulnerability and adaptive capacity in each respective community was assessed using household surveys, focus group discussions and participatory rural appraisal techniques. Finally, the expected effects of climate change on water availability were linked to findings on community vulnerability to these changes. The findings show that both communities are vulnerable to changes in water availability under climate change. Vulnerability is particularly prevalent in the agricultural sector and poorer households in each community. Overall, this vulnerability is greater in Tallo Lorpa than in Panglin. Vulnerability to changes in water availability is, however, small in comparison to the opportunities for adaptation in each community. The ability of people to appropriate benefits from these opportunities is constrained by a number of conditions. It is the degree to which these conditions inhibit the effective realisation of adaptation opportunities that determines vulnerability in Panglin and Tallo Lorpa

COSTS AND BENEFITS OF ECOSYSTEM-BASED ADAPTATION FOR FLOOD RISK REDUCTION IN FIJI

This paper quantifies the economic impacts of flooding in the Ba River and Penang River catchments in Viti Levu, Fiji. We conducted a detailed assessment of flood damage stemming from two major flooding events in 2012 that severely affected the two important catchments, primarily by using evidence from a novel survey administered in early 2013. We combine these empirical measures of damage with GIS data to estimate total damages from flooding and find that the January 2012 flood caused FJ$36.4 and FJ$12.2 in damages for the Ba River and Penang River catchments, respectively, while the March 2012 flood caused FJ$24.1 and FJ$8.4 in damages for the Ba River and Penang River catchments, respectively. We then estimate the cost of future flooding under moderate and severe climate change projections. Flooding is projected to become more frequent and more severe under both scenarios, with annual losses increasing by 100% with moderate climate change and by 300% with severe climate change. For perspective, damages from a 1-in-50 year flood, which is the estimated return period of the January 2012 event, are projected to cause between FJ$76.5 and FJ$153 million in damages in the Ba River Catchment under these two scenarios

A high power, variable repetition rate, picosecond, optical parametric oscillator pumped by an amplified gain-switched diode

We demonstrate a picosecond optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by a gain-switched laser diode, which is amplified in an Yb-doped fibre amplifier chain. Up to 7.3W at 1.54µm and 3.1W at 3.40µm is obtained at pulse repetition rates between 114.8 and 918.4MHz

Compact, high-pulse-energy picosecond optical parametric oscillator

We report a high-energy optical parametric oscillator (OPO) synchronously pumped by a 7.19 MHz, Yb:fiber amplified, picosecond, gain-switched laser diode. The 42m long ring cavity maintains a compact design through the use of an intracavity optical fiber. The periodically poled MgO-doped LiNbO3 OPO provides output pulse energies as high as 0.49 µJ at 1.5 µm (signal) and 0.19 µJ at 3.6 µm (idler). Tunability from 1.5 to 1.7 µm and from 2.9 to 3.6 µm is demonstrated, and typical M2 values of 1.5 x 1.3 and 2.8 x 1.9 are measured for the signal and idler, respectively, at high power.<br/

Guided-wave second harmonic generation in hexagonally poled RPE:LiNbO₃

Buried waveguides fabricated by reverse proton exchange (RPE) have recently allowed the demonstration of the highest Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) efficiency reported to date in 1D Periodically poled LiNbO3 (PPLN) [1] and appear extremely promising for practical applications of χ(2) nonlinearities. In this communication, we report on efficient SHG at telecom wavelengths in an optimised buried waveguide made by RPE in 2D Hexagonally poled LiNbO3 (HexLN). We demonstrate an RPE:HexLN device (the integrated version of the configuration of Ref.[2]) allowing the simultaneous generation of a pair of guided SH waves by means of two concurrent TM0(ω)+TM0(ω) --&gt; TM0(2ω) processes, quasi-phase-matched by different reciprocal lattice vectors of the HexLN pattern. A full characterisation of the angular and spectral SHG response of the RPE:HexLN device provides us also with additional information on the linear properties of the buried waveguide, difficult to determine via conventional linear measurements.<br/