An Alternative Home? ASEAN and Pacific Environmental Migration

An Alternative Home? ASEAN and Pacific Environmental Migration ASEAN is in a unique position to push for heightened global awareness and action for the vulnerable Pacific populations facing the possibility of relocation. Yet, it is strangely silent on the issue. ASEAN has both moral and legal obligation to not to turn its back on its Pacific neighbours. Morally, ASEAN – or at least most of it – is part of the western fringes of the Pacific region. It is proximate to many Pacific nations, and it has both the resources and landmass to help: two of the world’s largest archipelagos are ASEAN members. The obligations of humanity and justice require larger and more developed states aid and assist their more vulnerable neighbours. Legally, ASEAN may learn from the African Union (AU) experience. While AU accepted the UN Refugee Convention definition of ‘refugee,’ it expanded it to include those compelled to leave their country owing to ‘events seriously disturbing public order.’ Many scholars believe this includes the environmentally displaced. ASEAN can choose to take on the easy path of insularity and parochialism as regards the looming issue on environmental migration, or it can take the high road by transforming itself into a dynamic regional actor pushing for clear policies on how to address it. Displacements are by nature traumatic and carry with them the impoverishments of landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, increased morbidity and mortality, food insecurity, loss of access to common property resources, and social disarticulation. ASEAN can do much to help its vulnerable neighbors. As a bloc, it is a strong voice that can speak to the larger international community asking it to help address the issue

Philippine Community Mediation, Katarungang Pambarangay

First, we present a brief overview of the process, followed by a delineation of the history, purpose, operational structure, jurisdiction, venue, procedure, and time frame for this mediation approach. Finally, we report on interviews we conducted with mediators who have served on these panels. Their accounts reveal intriguing details as to how the mediation process unfolds and the benefits of this dispute resolution process. Our goals in this article are threefold: (1) to describe this grassroots mediation approach; (2) to expand our knowledge about mediation; and (3) to reflect on the advantages of this approach so as to improve mediation in other arenas

Circular Migration as Climate Change Adaptation: Reconceptualising New Zealand´s and Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programs

This paper looks into an aspect of adaptation, namely the role of the circular migration as climate change adaptation. It focuses on two of the Pacific region’s recently well -known seasonal labor schemes, Namely Australia’s Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) and New Zealand ‘s recognized Seasonal Employer Scheme (RSE), and asks if beyond the current goals the schemes May be reconceptualsed as adaptation programs responsive not only towards developmental and economic Concerns but the wider (and interconnected With the first two) climate change challenges. According to MacDermott and Opeskin, labor mobility schemes, for the sending country focus on the “development perspective “such as (a) Employment Opportunities, (b) Regular benefits of Remittances and (c) skills enhancement, while receiving countries country can meet the challenges posed by labor shortages in seasonal industries where “a reliable workforce is lacking”

Optimization–based Solution for Reducing Water Scarcity in the Greater Chao Phraya River Basin, Thailand: Through Re–operating the Bhumibol and Sirikit Reservoirs Using Non–linear Programming Solver

Water scarcity problem in Thailand has been intensively addressed over decades to realize its impact and to promote a systematic modernization framework and technological advancement for effective and sustainable water resources management. Accordingly, the optimization–based solution with three scenarios was conducted by aiming to reduce water scarcity in the Greater Chao Phraya River Basin through re–operating the Bhumibol (BB) and Sirikit (SK) Reservoirs using non–linear programming solver. The results reveal that water deficit can be definitely reduced by the implementation of Fmincon optimization. Water allocation between BB and SK Dams was shared in the existing 0.44:0.56 ratio for scenario 1 and current operation and 0.45:0.55 ratio for scenario 2 and 3. The proportion of water released from SK Dam in dry years and normal years is still higher than BB Dam for all scenarios and higher than the current operation particularly in normal years. However, Fmincon optimization proposes to supply water from BB Dam higher than SK Dam in wet years with the average water sharing ratio of 0.54:0.46, 0.55:0.45, and 0.55:0.45 for scenario 1, 2, and 3, respectively. This leads to the increase in water storages of two main dams for a long–term reservoir operation

Impact of Climate Change on Reservoir Reliability: A Case of Bhumibol Dam in Ping River Basin, Thailand

Bhumibol Dam is the largest dam in the central region of Thailand and it serves as an important water resource. The dam’s operation relies on reservoir operating rules that were developed on the basis of the relationships among rainfall-inflow, water balance, and downstream water demand. However, due to climate change, changing rainfall variability is expected to render the reliability of the rule curves insecure. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of climate change on the reliability of the current reservoir operation rules of Bhumibol Dam. The future scenarios from 2000 to 2099 are based on EC-EARTH under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios downscaled by RegCM4. MIKE11 HD was developed for the inflow simulation. The model generates the inflow well (R2=0.70). Generally, the trend of increasing inflow amounts is expected to continue in the dry seasons from 2000-2099, while large fluctuations of inflow are expected to be found in the wet seasons, reflecting high uncertainties. In the case of standard deviations, a larger deviation is predicted under the RCP8.5 scenario. For the reservoir’s operation in a climate change study, standard operating procedures were applied using historical release records to estimate daily reservoir release needed to serve downstream water demand in the future. It can be concluded that there is high risk of current reservoir operating rules towards the operation reliability under RCP4.5 (80% reliability), but the risk is lower under RCP8.5 (87% reliability) due to increased inflow amounts. The unmanageability occurs in the wet season, cautioning the need to redesign the rules

Analysis of Potential Site for Managed Aquifer Recharge Scheme in the Upper Greater Mae Klong Irrigation Project, Thailand

This study developed a groundwater flow model to propose the possible Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) scheme for sustainable use of groundwater in the Upper Greater Mae Klong Irrigation Project, Thailand. The site suitability for MAR scheme was assessed through the GIS–based Multi–Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) using the Simple Additive Weighted (SAW) method. Five key relevant factors namely; groundwater drawdown, soil texture, depth to groundwater table, land slope and distance to surface water source were chosen as assessment criteria and reclassified for the analysis of site selection for MAR scheme. The results illustrate the potential site for the managed aquifer recharge scheme in the southwest of the Phanom Thuan Operation and Maintenance Project where soil texture is immensely sandy loam. The results of groundwater flow model also exhibit that 14 designated injection wells with discharge rate of 200 m3 d-1, each of which delineated in the potential area, can increase the hydraulic head in the aquifer ranging from 0.00–0.50 m during 2000–2016. In addition, a high increase of the hydraulic head in the aquifer is found nearby the locations of designated injection wells

The application of the analytic network process to the assessment of best available techniques

The European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau produces reference documents on Best Available Techniques, called BREFs. These documents give technical and descriptive information about the installations that represent a significant pollution potential in Europe. However, they do not provide an assessment of the Best Available Techniques, which is a decision to be made by the competent environmental authority. The present work proposes a decision-making process for assessing Best Available Techniques based on the Analytic Network Process. Seven evaluation criteria, grouped into three clusters, have been proposed. The process is applied to a case study and the results are described and analyzed. As a main conclusion, this paper describes a robust and scientific method for a better implementation of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control approach.The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Giner Santonja, G.; Aragonés Beltrán, P.; Niclos Ferragut, JJ. (2012). The application of the analytic network process to the assessment of best available techniques. Journal of Cleaner Production. 25:86-95. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.12.012S86952

Displacement and Resettlement: Understanding the Role of Climate Change in Contemporary Migration

How do we understand displacement and resettlement in the context of climate change? This chapter outlines challenges and debates in the literature connecting climate change to the growing global flow of people. We begin with an outline of the literature on environmental migration, specifically the definitions, measurements, and forms of environmental migration. The discussion then moves to challenges in the reception of migrants, treating the current scholarship on migrant resettlement. We detail a selection of cases in which the environment plays a role in the displacement of a population, including sea level rise in Pacific Island States, cyclonic storms in Bangladesh, and desertification in West Africa, as well as the role of deforestation in South America’s Southern Cone as a driver of both climate change and migration. We outline examples of each, highlighting the complex set of losses and damages incurred by populations in each case