Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Weather and Climate Information for Tourism

The tourism sector is one of the largest and fastest growing global industries and is a significant contributor to national and local economies around the world. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, as climate represents both a vital resource to be exploited and an important limiting factor that poses risks to be managed by the tourism industry and tourists alike. All tourism destinations and operators are climate-sensitive to a degree and climate is a key influence on travel planning and the travel experience. This chapter provides a synopsis of the capacities and needs for climate services in the tourism sector, including current and emerging applications of climate services by diverse tourism end-users, and a discussion of key knowledge gaps, research and capacity-building needs and partnerships that are required to accelerate the application of climate information to manage risks to climate variability and facilitate successful adaptation to climate change

Climate Services to Support Sustainable Tourism and Adaptation to Climate Change

Tourism is one of the largest global economic sectors, is a vital contributor to the economy of many nations, and is highly promoted as an important means of future development and poverty reduction in developing countries. The interface between climate and tourism is multifaceted and complex, with broad significance for tourist decision-making and expenditures, as well as industry marketing and operations worldwide. With the close relationship of tourism to the environment and climate, the integrated effects of climate change are anticipated to markedly affect tourism businesses and destinations, as well as the destination choices and mobility of individual tourists in the decades ahead. As recent major natural, political, and economic shocks have demonstrated, the tourism sector has relatively high adaptive capacity. Improved climate services will be vital for travelers and tourism businesses and destinations to adapt to climate change in an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable manner. This paper outlines the range of applications of weather and climate information within the tourism sector and discusses priorities for future work to advance climate services for weather risk management and climate change adaptation for the tourism sector

Perceptions of the Visionary Leadership of Assistant Principals in Georgia Middle Schools

This study was intended to explore the visionary leadership of assistant principals in public middle schools. A study of this type conducted on a statewide basis provided empirical information on the visionary leadership of assistant principals as perceived by themselves and their respective teachers in Georgia middle schools. Since a limited amount of research existed on the visionary leadership role of middle school assistant principals, this study helped to fill a void in the current professional literature. Quantitative research methodology was used to analyze data generated from The Leadership Profile surveys, principals\u27 middle school concept implementation surveys, and the assistant principals\u27 selected demographic/biographic surveys. The collected data from the surveys determined how the 43 middle school assistant principals were perceived as visionary leaders by the 86 teachers within the respective schools. Additionally, the data determined how the assistant principals viewed themselves as visionary leaders. The data also determined to what extent were selected demographic/biographic variables related to the visionary leadership perceptions of teachers and assistant principals in Georgia middle schools. Finally, the data helped to determine if a relationship existed among middle school concept implementation and assistant principals\u27 self perceptions of visionary leadership. The results of the study indicated that middle school assistant principals perceived themselves as visionary leaders. Their respective teacher observers also perceived the middle school assistant principals as visionary leaders. Overall, the results indicated that as a collective group the assistant principals in the study had higher perceptions of their visionary leadership roles than did their respective teacher observers. This difference in perception, however, was not great enough to be considered statistically significant. A major finding of the study indicated that assistant principals who have worked in their current schools for several years perceived themselves significantly stronger in their ability to see followers as empowered partners when compared to assistant principals new to the school. The degree to which a school implements the middle school concept was not related to the visionary leadership of the assistant principal

Evidence-based Decision-making in Canada’s Protected Areas Organizations: Implications for Management Effectiveness

Aichi Biodiversity Target 19 calls on Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to improve, share, transfer, and apply knowledge. In this study, we provide an initial assessment of the state of evidence-based decision-making in Canada’s protected areas organizations by examining (1) the value and use of various forms of evidence by managers and (2) the extent to which institutional conditions enable or inhibit the use of evidence in decision-making. Results revealed that although managers value and use many forms of evidence in their decision-making, information produced by staff and their organizations are given priority. Other forms of evidence, such as Indigenous knowledge and peer-reviewed information, are valued and used less. The most significant barriers to evidence-based decision-making were limited financial resources, lack of staff, inadequate timeframes for decision-making, a lack of monitoring programs, and a disconnect between researchers and decision-makers. Overall, our results suggest that the potential benefits of evidence-based approaches are not being maximized in Canada’s protected areas organizations. We propose several recommendations to introduce or improve the use of diverse forms of evidence to enhance management effectiveness of Canada’s protected areas and by extension conservation outcomes

Towards Climate Change Adaptation in Canada's Protected Natural Areas: an Ontario Parks Case Study

Climate is a major catalyst of change in the composition, structure and function of the Ecosphere. Empirical studies of species response to climate consistently reveal that the anomalous warming occurring over roughly the past half-century is having a discernible impact on contemporary biodiversity. Climate change has also been implicated in several species extinctions, a phenomenon projected to be exacerbated in the future. These studies and events indicate that the implications of climate change for biodiversity conservation are considerable. Biodiversity conservation is one of the major modern rationales behind formal protected natural areas establishment, planning and management. However, most protected natural areas have been designed to protect in perpetuity specific natural features, species and communities in-situ, and don’t take into account shifts in ecosystem composition, structure and function that are being induced by climatic change. The ecological manifestations of climate change will be such that the established species management objectives of some protected natural areas will no longer be viable. Consequently, protected natural areas agencies will need to be adaptive in order to be able to respond to climate change-induced impacts and improve their ability to deliver their various protected natural area- and biodiversity-related mandates, such as the perpetual protection of representative elements of natural heritage. The principal goal of this dissertation was to begin the process of climate change adaptation (mainstreaming) within the Canadian protected natural areas community, thereby facilitating the ability of jurisdictions, agencies and organizations to adapt to climate change-related impacts and implement adaptation decisions. To realize this goal, four objectives were formulated: i) to synthesize the state of knowledge on climate change, biodiversity and protected natural areas policy, planning and management; ii) to establish the state of climate change adaptation with respect to Canadian protected natural areas agencies; iii) to assess the current position, priorities, and challenges of, and barriers to, Canadian protected natural areas agencies with respect to climate change adaptation; and iv) to develop a climate change adaptation portfolio and evaluate the suitability of the portfolio for implementation by a Canadian protected natural areas agency, Ontario Parks. The research revealed that while mainstreaming climate change into protected natural areas policy, planning and management will be essential for the persistence of biodiversity and the continued viability of current planning and management practices under a changing climate, there is a clear disconnect between the perceived salience of climate change and a lack of available resources (e.g., financial resources and staffing) and scientific capacity required to respond to the issue. Moreover, the limited protected natural areas climate change literature to-date provides little guidance to the planners and managers of already established protected natural areas. Accordingly, there is an indicated need to assist Canadian protected natural areas agencies in the identification and evaluation of adaptation options as a strategic starting point in working towards mainstreaming climate change into relevant program areas. In response to this indicated need, a policy Delphi survey method was used to facilitate the identification and evaluation of adaptation options tailored specifically to Ontario Parks. A panel of protected natural areas experts identified 165 adaptation options within Ontario Parks’ six major program areas [(i) Policy, System Planning & Legislation; (ii) Management Direction; (iii) Operations & Development; (iv) Research, Monitoring & Reporting; (v) Corporate Culture & Function; and (vi) Education, Interpretation & Outreach) in the first iteration of the policy Delphi. Adaptation options were subsequently evaluated individually for their perceived level of desirability, feasibility and implementation time-frame by the panel via a second iteration of the policy Delphi. In so doing, the research evaluated the relative merit (or practicality) of alternative adaptation options in these program areas in order to help identify priority (or ‘first-order’) adaptations for consideration in an official climate change adaptation strategy by Ontario Parks. The research provides a solid conceptual and methodological framework with important practical ‘lessons learned’ that will help Canadian protected natural areas jurisdictions understand, address and begin mainstreaming climate change into policy, planning and management decision-making. Collectively, the research includes the first practical discussion of adaptation to climate change within the institutional framework of any Canadian protected natural areas jurisdiction, representing a significant contribution to the protected natural areas planning literature at the science-policy interface