The shifting position of homeowners in flood resilience: From recipients to key-stakeholders

The academic debate on flood risk governance is paying increased attention to the shifting position of homeowners. Homeowners are increasingly expected to adapt their homes to protect against possible floods. Although an overall agreement seems to exist on the involvement of homeowners in flood risk governance, the academic literature is dispersed in its argumentation on why homeowners should be involved. Therefore, this article provides a coherent overview of the transition from flood protection to flood risk management, and subsequently of the arguments that unfold regarding the shifting position of homeowners within this debate. This overview, based on a systematic review of the academic literature, helps to shed light on the changing role of homeowners in flood risk governance and contributes to categorizing the arguments used in current academic reasoning on homeowner involvement in flood risk governance. We use a conceptual distinction between macro-level and micro-level arguments, and between individual and collective efforts to structure our results. This conceptual overview illustrates the potential gap in convincing homeowners of the urgency to take action, because the connection between the macro-level arguments (i.e., climate change and responsibility) and the micro-level arguments (i.e., minimizing flood damage on privately owned properties) is generally not made. We, therefore, suggest that a stronger coherence in the argumentation would contribute to increase homeowner awareness of their changing responsibilities, which might bring about a future shift toward a new phase in flood risk governance, in which the responsibilities of homeowners are more explicitly acknowledged and integrated into climate adaptation strategies. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance.</p

The influence of tailored risk communication on individual adaptive behaviour

Hydro-meteorological hazards annually lead to considerable economic losses worldwide. Property level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures have shown to decrease potential damages by floods and other hazards. However, such measures are often implemented inadequately, frequently because of lacking communication between public administration and homeowners. Thus, risk communication systems have been created by multiple actors, ranging from the government to private companies and insurance groups, which have the goal to communicate risks to homeowners and businesses in a tailored manner. Consequently, adaptive behaviour can be triggered by risk communication. This paper conducted a cross-comparison of several risk communication systems which encompassed an output in the shape of a label or guideline, based on semi-structured interviews with relevant experts. One system, the German Hochwasserpass, was focused on in more detail. The results show that risk communication systems should include participatory approaches with experts to trigger adaptive behaviour. However, even in an example including mutual knowledge transfer a gap between knowledge about mitigation measures and actually implementing them was present. Thus, this implies going a step beyond, which ultimately questions the resource efficiency of such risk communication systems on a larger scale

Hole dynamics and photoemission in a t-J model for SrCu_2(BO_3)_2

The motion of a single hole in a t-J model for the two-dimensional spin-gap compound SrCu_2(BO_3)_2 is investigated. The undoped Heisenberg model for this system has an exact dimer eigenstate and shows a phase transition between a dimerized and a Neel phase at a certain ratio of the magnetic couplings. We calculate the photoemission spectrum in the disordered phase using a generalized spin-polaron picture. By varying the inter-dimer hopping parameters we find a cross-over between a narrow quasiparticle band regime known from other strongly correlated systems and free-fermion behavior. The hole motion in the Neel-ordered phase is also briefly considered.Comment: 4 pages, 3 fig

Nonlinear cotunneling through an artificial molecule

We study electron transport through a system of two lateral quantum dots coupled in series. We consider the case of weak coupling to the leads and a bias point in the Coulomb blockade. After a generalized Schrieffer-Wolf transformation, cotunneling through this system is described using methods from lowest-order perturbation theory. We study the system for arbitrary bias voltages below the Coulomb energy. We observe a rich, non-monotonic behavior of the stationary current depending on the internal degrees of freedom. In particular, it turns out that at fixed transport voltage, the current through the system is largest at weak-to-intermediate inter-dot coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Quantum suppression of shot noise in field emitters

We have analyzed the shot noise of electron emission under strong applied electric fields within the Landauer-Buttiker scheme. In contrast to the previous studies of vacuum-tube emitters, we show that in new generation electron emitters, scaled down to the nanometer dimensions, shot noise much smaller than the Schottky noise is observable. Carbon nanotube field emitters are among possible candidates to observe the effect of shot-noise suppression caused by quantum partitioning.Comment: 5 pages, 1 fig, minor changes, published versio

Adiabatic Transfer of Electrons in Coupled Quantum Dots

We investigate the influence of dissipation on one- and two-qubit rotations in coupled semiconductor quantum dots, using a (pseudo) spin-boson model with adiabatically varying parameters. For weak dissipation, we solve a master equation, compare with direct perturbation theory, and derive an expression for the `fidelity loss' during a simple operation that adiabatically moves an electron between two coupled dots. We discuss the possibility of visualizing coherent quantum oscillations in electron `pump' currents, combining quantum adiabaticity and Coulomb blockade. In two-qubit spin-swap operations where the role of intermediate charge states has been discussed recently, we apply our formalism to calculate the fidelity loss due to charge tunneling between two dots.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Transport properties of strongly correlated metals:a dynamical mean-field approach

The temperature dependence of the transport properties of the metallic phase of a frustrated Hubbard model on the hypercubic lattice at half-filling are calculated. Dynamical mean-field theory, which maps the Hubbard model onto a single impurity Anderson model that is solved self-consistently, and becomes exact in the limit of large dimensionality, is used. As the temperature increases there is a smooth crossover from coherent Fermi liquid excitations at low temperatures to incoherent excitations at high temperatures. This crossover leads to a non-monotonic temperature dependence for the resistance, thermopower, and Hall coefficient, unlike in conventional metals. The resistance smoothly increases from a quadratic temperature dependence at low temperatures to large values which can exceed the Mott-Ioffe-Regel value, hbar a/e^2 (where "a" is a lattice constant) associated with mean-free paths less than a lattice constant. Further signatures of the thermal destruction of quasiparticle excitations are a peak in the thermopower and the absence of a Drude peak in the optical conductivity. The results presented here are relevant to a wide range of strongly correlated metals, including transition metal oxides, strontium ruthenates, and organic metals.Comment: 19 pages, 9 eps figure

Frustration and the Kondo effect in heavy fermion materials

The observation of a separation between the antiferromagnetic phase boundary and the small-large Fermi surface transition in recent experiments has led to the proposal that frustration is an important additional tuning parameter in the Kondo lattice model of heavy fermion materials. The introduction of a Kondo (K) and a frustration (Q) axis into the phase diagram permits us to discuss the physics of heavy fermion materials in a broader perspective. The current experimental situation is analysed in the context of this combined "QK" phase diagram. We discuss various theoretical models for the frustrated Kondo lattice, using general arguments to characterize the nature of the $f$-electron localization transition that occurs between the spin liquid and heavy Fermi liquid ground-states. We concentrate in particular on the Shastry--Sutherland Kondo lattice model, for which we establish the qualitative phase diagram using strong coupling arguments and the large-$N$ expansion. The paper closes with some brief remarks on promising future theoretical directions.Comment: To appear in a special issue of JLT

Cryo-EM structures of light-harvesting 2 complexes from Rhodopseudomonas palustris reveal the molecular origin of absorption tuning

The genomes of some purple photosynthetic bacteria contain a multigene puc family encoding a series of α- and β-polypeptides that together form a heterogeneous antenna of light-harvesting 2 (LH2) complexes. To unravel this complexity, we generated four sets of puc deletion mutants in Rhodopseudomonas palustris, each encoding a single type of pucBA gene pair and enabling the purification of complexes designated as PucA-LH2, PucB-LH2, PucD-LH2, and PucE-LH2. The structures of all four purified LH2 complexes were determined by cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) at resolutions ranging from 2.7 to 3.6 Å. Uniquely, each of these complexes contains a hitherto unknown polypeptide, γ, that forms an extended undulating ribbon that lies in the plane of the membrane and that encloses six of the nine LH2 αβ-subunits. The γ-subunit, which is located near to the cytoplasmic side of the complex, breaks the C9 symmetry of the LH2 complex and binds six extra bacteriochlorophylls (BChls) that enhance the 800-nm absorption of each complex. The structures show that all four complexes have two complete rings of BChls, conferring absorption bands centered at 800 and 850 nm on the PucA-LH2, PucB-LH2, and PucE-LH2 complexes, but, unusually, the PucD-LH2 antenna has only a single strong near-infared (NIR) absorption peak at 803 nm. Comparison of the cryo-EM structures of these LH2 complexes reveals altered patterns of hydrogen bonds between LH2 αβ-side chains and the bacteriochlorin rings, further emphasizing the major role that H bonds play in spectral tuning of bacterial antenna complexes

Recent Developments and Applications of the HYDRUS Computer Software Packages

The HYDRUS-1D and HYDRUS (2D/3D) computer software packages are widely used finite-element models for simulating the one- and two- or three-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably saturated media, respectively. In 2008, Šimůnek et al. (2008b) described the entire history of the development of the various HYDRUS programs and related models and tools such as STANMOD, RETC, ROSETTA, UNSODA, UNSATCHEM, HP1, and others. The objective of this manuscript is to review selected capabilities of HYDRUS that have been implemented since 2008. Our review is not limited to listing additional processes that were implemented in the standard computational modules, but also describes many new standard and nonstandard specialized add-on modules that significantly expanded the capabilities of the two software packages. We also review additional capabilities that have been incorporated into the graphical user interface (GUI) that supports the use of HYDRUS (2D/3D). Another objective of this manuscript is to review selected applications of the HYDRUS models such as evaluation of various irrigation schemes, evaluation of the effects of plant water uptake on groundwater recharge, assessing the transport of particle-like substances in the subsurface, and using the models in conjunction with various geophysical methods