Course report: Climate change adaptation in agriculture and natural resource management - Integrating climate change in policy making and programming for sustainable development

At the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) in the Netherlands, Wageningen UR1 has initiated a support programme for climate change adaptation in Eastern Africa in 2008. In partnership with ASARECA2, IUCN – EARO3 and RUFORUM4 a scoping workshop and follow-up were organised. The focus was on capacities needed to better integrated climate change adaptation responses into agricultural, rural development and natural resources policy processes. The initiative led, among others, to the development of a new training course in 2009, implemented by the partnership, in collaboration with HoA-REC5 at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. The regional training on Climate Change Adaptation in agriculture and NRM took place from 15 to 26 June 2009 in Addis Ababa. It was attended by 26 participants from Ethiopia (20), Uganda (3), Kenya (2) and Tanzania (1). Participants were drawn from universities, agricultural research institutes, non-governmental organisations and government departments. The course was coordinated and facilitated by a team from HoA-REC and Wageningen UR, complemented by presenters and lecturers from various universities and institutes, such as Prof. Richard Odingo (University of Nairobi), Dr. Jan Verhagen (Wageningen UR), Dr. Gebru Jember (National Meteorological Agency, Ethiopia), and Dr. Lulseged Tamene (Addis Ababa University)

Ice and gas in protostellar clouds and planet-forming disks: a combined laboratory and observational study

This thesis takes steps toward understanding the interaction between gas-phase and solid-state molecules in star- and planet-forming regions. Chapter 1 and 2 provide the reader with an introduction and in-depth description of methods used in subsequent chapters. Chapter 3 and 4 present the spectroscopic infrared characterization of acetaldehyde, dimethyl ether, ethanol, and methyl formate in the solid state, both pure and mixed in astronomically relevant matrices. This characterization will allow for probing of the solid-state organic inventory of star- and planet-forming regions with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Interferometric observations of the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array are presented in Chapter 5. These results hint that the observed gas-phase formaldehyde is formed in the gas phase, contrary to the generally accepted solid-state formation. Chapter 6 provides an insight to the interaction between gas-phase carbon monoxide and solid-state hydroxyl radicals on the surface of vacuum-UV irradiated water ice. Even tough residence times of carbon monoxide are short, they are sufficient to allow reactions with hydroxyl radicals and produce carbon dioxide. This process could explain the lack of gas-phase carbon monoxide in protoplanetary disks and the presence of carbon dioxide mixed in solid-state water.Instrumentatio

Monitor Bouwen met de Natuur

Part I Introduction and justification of the Monitor Building with NatureThis report describes the Monitor Building with Nature in the IJsselmeer region. When itcomes to implementing the concept of building with nature the main issue is not how it istechnically possible, but whether stakeholders consider it possible and desirable. The monitorgives insight into perceptions of stakeholders and provides possibilities for improvements indecision making and in generating societal support for Building with Nature projects. Theproject that developed this monitor is part of the Building with Nature research andinnovations programme.The monitor has the following goals:Describe the (changes in) perceptions and actions related to ‘building with nature’ inhydraulic engineering projects. Among which:1.Describe the situation of the project at the start of the monitoring, include the history of the project, the broad context, the assignment of the project, and the (formal) involvement of stakeholders.2.Make an inventory of the (developments in) observed threats and opportunities at project level (design, project management, process).3.Make an inventory of the (developments in) observed threats and opportunities for building with nature within the external field of force.4.Make an inventory of perceptions related to improvements and the involvement of the different stakeholders.The focus of the monitor is on perceptions of people who are involved in hydraulicengineering projects. For the development of the monitor, existing monitor approaches areused. The focus of the monitor is gathering of information and has characteristics ofconstructivist monitoring. However, the monitor aims to show the diversity of the availableperceptions and actions. The focus of the monitor is not merely on ‘learning’, although whenthe monitor is used in meetings or workshops, it can contribute to learning about building with nature. The monitor is qualitative of nature, with implicit use of indicators. The monitor is one of the initiatives of monitoring within the Research programme Building with Nature. Oneother initiative is for example the monitoring of the Community of Practice in the IJsselmeerregion.Part II The Monitor – QuestionnaireIn preparing for the use of the monitor, three main questions are to be asked. The firstquestion is: what is the focus in the project? The second question is: who are the respondentsand why? There are no universal criteria, nor are these desirable. And the third question is:how do we use the questionnaire? Are we interested in doing face to face interviews, orinterviews by phone? How the questionnaire is used depends largely on the goal of themonitor and the resources (i.e. time, money, people) availableThe questionnaire consists of four different parts. Part A discusses issues related to buildingwith nature within the project and deals with stakeholders’ perceptions of the concept. Part Bdiscusses factors influencing the feasibility of building with nature. Part C is about placingissues on the agenda and possibilities for improvements. Part D rounds up the questionnaire.For analysing the results of the monitor the following elements compromise the framework ofanalysis:1.Aspects perceived as characteristic for building with nature2.Aspects of building with nature in the project3.Best practices of building with nature according to respondents4.Perceptions of factors and conditions which stimulate or obstruct building with nature.5.Perceptions of the future and future possibilities for realizing building with nature6.Perceptions of action perspectives to realize building with nature on large scale in multiple7.projects in the IJsselmeer region.Part III The Monitor testedTo test the monitor two projects were selected as pilots: the dike strengthening project Edam-Amsterdam and the silt catch pit. Applying the monitor in these projects has lead to animproved version of the monitor and lessons learned on how to apply the monitor. It was notpossible to apply the monitor itself in the dike strengthening project, although the process wasvery useful. We found that interesting projects to apply the monitor also are subject tosensitive issues. Great concern is necessary to deal with these issues. Therefore, sensitiveissues require more preparation time.In the project ‘silt catch pit’ we were able to apply the monitor and make a case description ofthe project. Applying the questionnaire and developing the case description lead toimprovements of the monitor and recommendations on its use.On the development of the monitor, the following is concluded:•Applying the monitor results in a broad insight into the feasibility of the building with nature concept, factors which are of influence and insight into the decision making in building with nature projects.•It is recommended to have an exploratory interview before using the questionnaire. This is necessary to gain enough information relevant for the case description, gain permission to apply the monitor and get in contact with the relevant stakeholders.•Applying the monitor in the silt catch pit showed that it is very suitable to find factors influencing the feasibility of building with nature in projects. Because it was only possible to develop one pilot, we recommend to again reflect critically on the monitor when applied.•Sensitive issues may make a project an (more) interesting one for applying the monitor. However, it may be more difficult to acquire permission for application and it may require more time. During application of the monitor one should be aware of the issues. Demarcation of concepts is important for the sake of comparing results, as the questionnaires are used for different persons and in different moments in time•The questionnaire can be combined with workshops or meetings to stimulate the realization of the building with nature concept.•The case description is based on a monitor that is incomplete and is part of developing the monitor. Therefore the case description should not be used as a complete example and should be considered together with the conclusions and recommendations made

TW Hya as a chemical Rosetta stone: the case of H2CO

Interstellar matter and star formatio

Nonlinear data-assimilation using implicit models

International audienceWe show how the traditional 4D-Var method can be adapted for implicit time-integration and extended for multi-parameter estimation. We present the algorithm for this new method, which we call I4D-Var, and demonstrate its performance using a fully-implicit barotropic quasi-geostrophic model of the wind-driven double-gyre ocean circulation. For the latter model, the different regimes of flow behavior and the regime boundaries (i.e. bifurcation points) are well known and hence the parameter estimation problem can be systematically studied. It turns out that I4D-Var is able to correctly estimate parameter values, even when background flow and "observations" are in different dynamical regimes