Gender differences in climate change perception and adaptation strategies: A case study on three provinces in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta

This brief summarizes the findings of a project output for the Policy Information and Response Platform on Climate Change and Rice in ASEAN and its Member Countries (PIRCCA), being implemented by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The report focuses on the results of the survey conducted in the first half of 2015 on climate change perception and adaptation strategies of male and female farmers in three selected provinces across the Mekong River Delta (MRD) region in Vietnam: An Giang, Bac Lieu, and Tra Vihn. The survey gathered information on current climate change perceptions and adaptation strategies and gaps between the identified male and female respondents

The Current State of Climate Change Perceptions and Policies in Vietnam: 2014 Report

This report was constructed to assess the current perceptions and policies regarding climate change in Vietnam. The report comprises a country report, outlining current policies relating to climate change, stakeholder mapping regarding climate change locally and nationally, and results from two stakeholder perception surveys conducted locally and nationally in Vietnam. A total of 50 stakeholders were interviewed, 25 locally and 25 nationally. The stakeholders in the survey represented government offices, universities, research institutions, NGOs, and farmers’ groups. Concerns about climate change impacts included drought, flooding, rainfall variation, and salinity intrusion. These concerns, as well as the methods in which stakeholders would like to receive climate information, varied between local and national stakeholders as well as by the type of institution that the stakeholder represented. This emphasizes a need for location- and user-specific responses to climate change

The Current State of Climate Change Perceptions and Policies in Myanmar: 2014 Report

This report was constructed to assess the current perceptions and policies regarding climate change in Myanmar. It is comprised of a country report outlining current policies relating to climate change, as well as results from two stakeholder perception surveys conducted at the local and national level in Myanmar. The stakeholder perception survey was administered to 33 local stakeholders and 12 national stakeholders from government organizations, farmers’ groups, universities, and research institutes. Results indicate that the primary concern regarding climate change is mostly concentrated on rainfall trends, such as drought and flooding. In addition, local stakeholders have concerns over heat stress, whereas national stakeholders are less concerned with the issue. Only 11 local stakeholders report that their institution currently has a division or staff member working on climate change issues. Seven of 12 national stakeholders reported that their institutions did have a division or staff member working on climate change issues

Metallurgical investigations of Philippine nickeliferous ores /

Based on work done in cooperation with the International Cooperation Admininstration.Includes bibliographical references.Mode of access: Internet

Towards an Operational SAR-Based Rice Monitoring System in Asia: Examples from 13 Demonstration Sites across Asia in the RIICE Project

Rice is the most important food security crop in Asia. Information on its seasonal extent forms part of the national accounting of many Asian countries. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery is highly suitable for detecting lowland rice, especially in tropical and subtropical regions, where pervasive cloud cover in the rainy seasons precludes the use of optical imagery. Here, we present a simple, robust, rule-based classification for mapping rice area with regularly acquired, multi-temporal, X-band, HH-polarized SAR imagery and site-specific parameters for classification. The rules for rice detection are based on the well-studied temporal signature of rice from SAR backscatter and its relationship with crop stages. We also present a procedure for estimating the parameters based on “temporal feature descriptors” that concisely characterize the key information in the rice signatures in monitored field locations within each site. We demonstrate the robustness of the approach on a very large dataset. A total of 127 images across 13 footprints in six countries in Asia were obtained between October 2012, and April 2014, covering 4.78 m ha. More than 1900 in-season site visits were conducted across 228 monitoring locations in the footprints for classification purposes, and more than 1300 field observations were made for accuracy assessment. Some 1.6 m ha of rice were mapped with classification accuracies from 85% to 95% based on the parameters that were closely related to the observed temporal feature descriptors derived for each site. The 13 sites capture much of the diversity in water management, crop establishment and maturity in South and Southeast Asia. The study demonstrates the feasibility of rice detection at the national scale using multi-temporal SAR imagery with robust classification methods and parameters that are based on the knowledge of the temporal dynamics of the rice crop. We highlight the need for the development of an open-access library of temporal signatures, further investigation into temporal feature descriptors and better ancillary data to reduce the risk of misclassification with surfaces that have temporal backscatter dynamics similar to those of rice. We conclude with observations on the need to define appropriate SAR acquisition plans to support policies and decisions related to food security