Contextual and interdependent causes of climate change adaptation barriers: Insights from water management institutions in Himachal Pradesh, India

Research on adaptation barriers is increasing as the need for climate change adaptation becomes evident. However, empirical studies regarding the emergence, causes and sustenance of adaptation barriers remain limited. This research identifies key contextual causes of adaptation barriers in water institutions in the mountainous Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with representatives from twenty-six key governmental, non-governmental, academic and research institutions in the State with responsibilities spanning domestic water supply, irrigation and hydropower generation, environmental monitoring and research. It identified low knowledge capacity and resources, policy implementation gaps, normative attitudes, and unavailability and inaccessibility of data and information compounded with weak interinstitutional networks as key adaptation barriers. Although these barriers are similar to those reported elsewhere, they have important locally-contextual root causes. For instance, inadequate resources result from fragmented resources allocation due to competing developmental priorities and the desire of the political leadership to please diverse electors, rather than climate scepticism. The identified individual barriers are found to be highly inter-dependent and closely intertwined which enables the identification of leverage points for interventions to maximise barrier removal. For instance, breaking down key barriers hindering accessibility to data and information, which are shaped by systemic bureaucracies and cultural attitudes, will involve attitudinal change through sensitisation to the importance of accurate and accessible data and information and the building trust between different actors, in addition to institutional structural changes through legislation and inter-institutional agreements. Approaching barriers as a system of contextually interconnected cultural, systemic, geographical and political underlying factors enriches the understanding of adaptation enablers, thereby contributing to achieving a better adapted society

On Determinants of Laplacians on Compact Riemann Surfaces Equipped with Pullbacks of Conical Metrics by Meromorphic Functions

Let $\mathsf m$ be any conical (or smooth) metric of finite volume on the Riemann sphere $\Bbb CP^1$. On a compact Riemann surface $X$ of genus $g$ consider a meromorphic funciton $f: X\to {\Bbb C}P^1$ such that all poles and critical points of $f$ are simple and no critical value of $f$ coincides with a conical singularity of $\mathsf m$ or $\{\infty\}$. The pullback $f^*\mathsf m$ of $\mathsf m$ under $f$ has conical singularities of angles $4\pi$ at the critical points of $f$ and other conical singularities that are the preimages of those of $\mathsf m$. We study the $\zeta$-regularized determinant $\operatorname{Det}' \Delta_F$ of the (Friedrichs extension of) Laplace-Beltrami operator on $(X,f^*\mathsf m)$ as a functional on the moduli space of pairs $(X, f)$ and obtain an explicit formula for $\operatorname{Det}' \Delta_F$.Comment: typos. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1612.0866

Assessing the cumulative environmental effects of marine renewable energy developments: establishing common ground

Assessing and managing the cumulative impacts of human activities on the environment remains a major challenge to sustainable development. This challenge is highlighted by the worldwide expansion of marine renewable energy developments (MREDs) in areas already subject to multiple activities and climate change. Cumulative effects assessments in theory provide decision makers with adequate information about how the environment will respond to the incremental effects of licensed activities and are a legal requirement in many nations. In practise, however, such assessments are beset by uncertainties resulting in substantial delays during the licensing process that reduce MRED investor confidence and limit progress towards meeting climate change targets. In light of these targets and ambitions to manage the marine environment sustainably, reducing the uncertainty surrounding MRED effects and cumulative effects assessment are timely and vital. This review investigates the origins and evolution of cumulative effects assessment to identify why the multitude of approaches and pertinent research have emerged, and discusses key considerations and challenges relevant to assessing the cumulative effects of MREDs and other activities on ecosystems. The review recommends a shift away from the current reliance on disparate environmental impact assessments and limited strategic environmental assessments, and a move towards establishing a common system of coordinated data and research relative to ecologically meaningful areas, focussed on the needs of decision makers tasked with protecting and conserving marine ecosystems and services

Enhancing the value of adaptation reporting as a driver for action: lessons from the UK

As increasing evidence shows that the risks of climate change are mounting, there is a call for further climate action (both reducing global emissions, and adaptation to better manage the risks of climate change). To promote and enable adaptation, governments have introduced, or are considering introducing, reporting on climate risks and efforts being taken to address those risks. This paper reports on an analysis of the first two rounds of such reports submitted under the UK Climate Change Act (2008) Adaptation Reporting Power. It highlights benefits and challenges for reporting authorities and policymakers receiving the reports that could also inform other countries considering such reporting. For reporting authorities, benefits arise from the reporting process and resulting reports. These benefits include elevating climate risks and adaptation to the corporate level and with stakeholders, alongside facilitating alignment and integration of actions within existing risk management and governance structures. For policymakers, reporting provides enhanced understanding of climate risks and actions from a bottom-up perspective that can be integrated into national-level assessments and adaptation planning processes. The identified challenges are those related to capacity and process. These include limited risk and adaptation assessment capacities; relevance of climate change risks and adaptation in the context of other urgent risks and actions; reporting process effectiveness and robustness; and the provision of effective and sufficiently comprehensive support, including feedback

Delivering organisational adaptation through legislative mechanisms: Evidence from the Adaptation Reporting Power (Climate Change Act 2008)

There is increasing recognition that organisations, particularly in key infrastructure sectors, are potentially vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events, and require organisational responses to ensure they are resilient and adaptive. However, detailed evidence of how adaptation is facilitated, implemented and reported, particularly through legislative mechanisms is lacking. The United Kingdom Climate Change Act (2008), introduced the Adaptation Reporting Power, enabling the Government to direct so-called reporting authorities to report their climate change risks and adaptation plans. We describe the authors' unique role and experience supporting the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) during the Adaptation Reporting Power's first round. An evaluation framework, used to review the adaptation reports, is presented alongside evidence on how the process provides new insights into adaptation activities and triggered organisational change in 78% of reporting authorities, including the embedding of climate risk and adaptation issues. The role of legislative mechanisms and risk-based approaches in driving and delivering adaptation is discussed alongside future research needs, including the development of organisational maturity models to determine resilient and well adapting organisations. The Adaptation Reporting Power process provides a basis for similar initiatives in other countries, although a clear engagement strategy to ensure buy-in to the process and research on its long-term legacy, including the potential merits of voluntary approaches, is required

Adapting water management to climate change: Institutional involvement, inter-institutional networks and barriers in India

The capacity of a nation to address the hydrological impacts of climate change depends on the institutions through which water is governed. Inter-institutional networks that enable institutions to adapt and the factors that hinder smooth coordination are poorly understood. Using water governance in India as an example of a complex top-down bureaucratic system that requires effective networks between all key institutions, this research unravels the barriers to adaptation by combining quantitative internet data mining and qualitative analysis of interviews with representatives from twenty-six key institutions operating at the national level. Institutions' online presence shows a disconnect in the institutional discourse between climate change and water with institutions such as the Ministries of Water Resources, Earth Sciences and Agriculture, indicating a lesser involvement compared to institutions such as the Ministries of Finance, External Affairs, Planning Commission. The online documents also indicate a more centralised inter-institutional network, emanating from or pointing to a few key institutions including the Planning Commission and Ministry of Environment and Forests. However, the interviews suggest more complex relational dynamics between institutions and also demonstrate a gap between the aspirational ideals of the National Water Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change and the realities of climate change adaptation. This arises from institutional barriers, including lengthy bureaucratic processes and systemic failures, that hinder effective inter-institutional networks to facilitate adaptation. The study provides new understanding of the involvement and barriers of complex multi-layered institutions in climate change adaptation

Comparison of automatic and guided learning for Bayesian networks to analyse pipe failures in the water distribution system

The reliability of the water distribution system is critical to maintaining a secure supply for the population, industry and agriculture, so there is a need for proactive maintenance to help reduce water loss and down times. Bayesian networks are one approach to modelling the complexity of water mains, to assist water utility companies in planning maintenance. This paper compares and analyses how accurately the Bayesian network structure can be derived given a large and highly variable dataset. Method one involved using automated learning algorithms to build the Bayesian network, while method two involved a guided method using a combination of historic failure data, prior knowledge and pre-modelling data exploration of the water mains. By understanding common failure types (circumferential, longitudinal, pinhole and joint), the guided learning Bayesian Network was able to capture the interactions of the surrounding soil environment with the physical properties of pipes. The Bayesian network built using data exploration and literature was able to achieve an overall accuracy of 81.2% when predicting the specific type of water mains failure compared to the 84.4% for the automated method. The slightly greater accuracy from the automated method was traded for a sparser Bayes net where the interpretation of the interactions between the variables was clearer and more meaningful

Revaluating the Challenges of Property Ownership and Its Ethical Implications

Property ownership remains a major ethical issue in our world today, as it has continued to occupy the minds of scholars and academic players. Its controversial nature can be seen in the many principles the concept embodies. Governments however are key players as it lies within their capacity to maintain and regulate the means of property acquisition and ownership and in extension develop policies that regulate the process. Scholars have noted that one of the major challenges involved in property ownership has remained the false roles played by the Government and some privileged few leading to injustice and lack of respect for individual properties and mismanagement of collective properties. Hence, this article focuses on those issues that govern properties, given to its relevance in our contemporary society; it pays particular attention to those ethical principles that regulate the means of ownership of properties in a given society. Keywords: Properties and Ownership of propertie

Advances in Human Factors in Complex Trauma and Emergency Anaesthesia and their Implementation into Military and Civilian Trauma Systems

The role of human factors in healthcare was introduced into the mainstream medical literature following two important seminal reports, ‘To Err is Human’ from the United States and ‘An Organisation with A Memory’ from the United Kingdom. This subsequently led to work conducted by the University of Aberdeen into defining the role of non-technical skills in the Operating Theatre for Anaesthetists, Surgeons and Scrub Practitioners. This thesis is an overview of work that I have undertaken in both Military and Civilian settings exploring and defining the importance of human factors in the management of complex trauma and emergency anaesthesia. I have undertaken original research investigating the barriers that exist to challenging seniors and have created guidelines for the management of non-iatrogenic airway injuries. This thesis also discusses a novel project that I have been involved in, the development of the ‘Trauma WHO’, which is a simple checklist designed to improve patient safety during their pathway in complex trauma. I will describe how this was developed, tested in a field hospital in Afghanistan and is now embedded into military practice and some civilian centres. This thesis also describes further knowledge assimilation in the form of two published peer reviewed systematic reviews exploring the importance of human factors in the emergency department and operating theatre and the management of non-iatrogenic trauma to the airway. Additionally, I have selected five papers for inclusion that demonstrate a translation of knowledge into different trauma arenas where the importance of human factors is essential and now embedded. The implications of this thesis are that advances in human factors in complex trauma and emergency anaesthesia that were originally developed in the military setting have now been refined and adopted into certain areas of the NHS. The impact of these advances in guidelines for the management of penetrating airway injuries, streamlining communication and flattening hierarchies by awareness of barriers to challenge have been recently witnessed in the expert and successful management of seriously injured patients. Further work to promote these advances is still required to encourage further adoption in other major trauma centres in England