Climate resilient development index: theoretical framework, selection criteria and fit for purpose indicators

This report aims to contribute to the debate on climate change policies and their link to development. A climate resilient perspective is adopted to understand how climate change policy objectives can be reconciled with development goals. The report reviews the main theoretical concepts that characterise the scientific literature on climate risk and vulnerability assessments, and identifies climate resilient fit-for-purpose indicators accordingly. This makes it possible to build the theoretical foundations to improve understanding of the implications of climate aid financing. The novelty of this report lies in the emphasis given to economic aspects of climate risk, most notably: the concepts of loss and damage, the understanding of factors that enhance economic resilience, the links between climate change policies and development (besides economic growth) and the acknowledgment of the role of natural capital in pursuing development policies. By reviewing grey and peer-reviewed literature, 102 suitable indicators are identified and grouped into six components. A case study is proposed which involves building three climate resilient development indices. The three indices are built for climate resilient development using the same components and indicators but adopting different political perspectives. Our case study demonstrates that although there is some agreement on which indicators should be included in an index for climate resilient development, a single approach to building a global index for climate resilient development does not exist. The high number of differences between the scores of the three indices indicates that a single index in the climate resilient development domain is a sort of chimera. Any index should address a specific policy request with a clear objective. This is a first step to building a fit-for-purpose index.JRC.H.7-Climate Risk Managemen

PROCESSING CONSERVATION INDICATORS WITH OPEN SOURCE TOOLS: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DIGITAL OBSERVATORY FOR PROTECTED AREAS

The European Commission has a commitment to open data and the support of open source software and standards. We present lessons learnt while populating and supporting the web and map services that underly the Joint Research Centre's Digital Observatory for Protected Areas. Challenges include: large datasets with highly complex geometries; topological inconsistencies, compounded by reprojection for equal-area calculations; multiple different representations of the same geographical entities, for example coastlines; licensing requirement to continuously update indicators to respond to monthly changes in the authoritative data. In order to compute and publish an array of indicators, we used a range of open source tools including GRASS, R, python, GDAL, PostGIS, geometry libraries for Hadoop, Geoserver, Geonode, and Mapserver. In addition we assessed the value of the commercial ArcGIS Pro software and the Google Earth Engine platform. We describe the lessons that we learnt in building and documenting a usable and repeatable workflow,highlighting weak spots and workarounds., Code for our processing workflows will be shared via github and key process flows will be shared via a VRE to allow reproducible research while complying with data redistribution restrictions from the data providers. Our final goal is to move the entire processing chain to open source tools and share it as a versioned resource

Index for the EU global climate change alliance plus flagship Initiative

This report proposes an index to allow an ex-ante evaluation of the structural features of vulnerability to climate change for the countries identified by the Global Climate Change Alliance plus Flagship Initiative (GCCA+). It is clear from the overarching goals of the GCCA+ programme, that to rank the countries according to eligibility for funding the following issues need to be considered: vulnerability to climate change, adaptive capacity, climate change mitigation action, disaster risk, and a (political) commitment to respond to climate change and poverty reduction. The GCCA+ index identifies those countries most vulnerable to climate change and ranks them according to their eligibility for funding within the context of the EU GCCA+ programme classifying 34 “fit for purpose indicators” along one of four components (natural hazards, exposure, vulnerability and capacity). The list 34 ‘fit-for-purpose’ indicators has been compiled on the basis of their relevance with the GCCA+ programme, and the compliance with the following criteria: reliable, open source, consistent, scientifically robust, with global coverage, and based on data which are in the public domain. The indicators cover the social, economic and environmental aspects of each of the components under which they have been classified. Each indicator is described in terms of relevance, measuring unit, indicator creation method, data source, periodicity, missing data and geographical distribution in the sample of countries for the latest available year. The methodology applied to calculate the GCCA+index adopts a climate resilient development approach integrating the development policy perspective with a climate change risk management approach. The index is applied to five different samples of countries. The results of ranking the countries by the GCCA+ Index are shown in maps and tables.JRC.H.7-Climate Risk Managemen

Protected areas in the world's ecoregions:how well connected are they?

Protected areas (PAs) are the main instrument for biodiversity conservation, which has triggered the development of numerous indicators and assessments on their coverage, performance and efficiency. The connectivity of the PA networks at a global scale has however been much less explored; previous studies have either focused on particular regions of the world or have only considered some types of PAs. Here we present, and globally assess, ProtConn, an indicator of PA connectivity that (i) quantifies the percentage of a study region covered by protected connected lands, (ii) can be partitioned in several components depicting different categories of land (unprotected, protected or transboundary) through which movement between protected locations may occur, (iii) is easy to communicate, to compare with PA coverage and to use in the assessment of global targets for PA systems. We apply ProtConn to evaluate the connectivity of the PA networks in all terrestrial ecoregions of the world as of June 2016, considering a range of median dispersal distances (1–100 km) encompassing the dispersal abilities of the large majority of terrestrial vertebrates. We found that 9.3% of the world is covered by protected connected lands (average for all the world's ecoregions) for a reference dispersal distance of 10 km, increasing up to 11.7% for the largest dispersal distance considered of 100 km. These percentages are considerably smaller than the global PA coverage of 14.7%, indicating that the spatial arrangement of PAs is only partially successful in ensuring connectivity of protected lands. The connectivity of PAs largely differed across ecoregions. Only about a third of the world's ecoregions currently meet the Aichi Target of having 17% of the terrestrial realm covered by well-connected systems of PAs. Finally, our findings suggest that PAs with less strict management objectives (allowing the sustainable use of resources) may play a fundamental role in upholding the connectivity of the PA systems. Our analyses and indicator make it possible to identify where on the globe additional efforts are most needed in expanding or reinforcing the connectivity of PA systems, and can be also used to assess whether newly designated sites provide effective connectivity gains in the PA system by acting as corridors or stepping stones between other PAs. The results of the ProtConn indicator are available, together with a suite of other global PA indicators, in the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

Global trends in protected area connectivity from 2010 to 2018

Connectivity of protected areas (PAs) is needed to ensure the long-term persistence of biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery. The Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in 2010 to have 17% of land covered by well-connected PA systems by 2020 (Aichi Target 11). We here globally assess, for all countries, the trends in terrestrial PA connectivity every other year from 2010 to 2018 using the ProtConn indicator, which quantifies how well the PA systems are designed to support connectivity. The percentage of protected connected land (ProtConn) has increased globally from 6.5% in 2010 to 7.7% in 2018. Oceania experienced the largest recent increase in PA connectivity, whereas Asia is the only content with a lower ProtConn in 2018 than in 2010. Globally, the relative increase in the percentage of protected connected land (ProtConn) is nearly twice that of the percentage of land under protection (PA coverage), due to clear improvements in the design of PA systems for connectivity in many regions. The connectivity of the PA networks has become more dependent on the permeability of the unprotected landscape matrix in between PAs and on the coordinated management of adjacent PAs with different designations and of transboundary PA linkages. The relatively slow recent increase in PA connectivity globally (2016–2018) raises doubt as to whether connectivity targets will be met by 2020, and suggests that considerable further action is required to promote better-connected PA systems globally, including the expansion of the PA systems to cover key areas for connectivity in many countries and regions

Protected area connectivity:Shortfalls in global targets and country-level priorities

Connectivity of protected areas (PAs) is crucial for meeting their conservation goals. We provide the first global evaluation of countries' progress towards Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity that is to have at least 17% of the land covered by well-connected PA systems by 2020. We quantify how well the terrestrial PA systems of countries are designed to promote connectivity, using the Protected Connected (ProtConn) indicator. We refine ProtConn to focus on the part of PA connectivity that is in the power of a country to influence, i.e. not penalizing countries for PA isolation due to the sea and to foreign lands. We found that globally only 7.5% of the area of the countries is covered by protected connected lands, which is about half of the global PA coverage of 14.7%, and that only 30% of the countries currently meet the Aichi Target 11 connectivity element. These findings suggest the need for considerable efforts to improve PA connectivity globally. We further identify the main priorities for improving or sustaining PA connectivity in each country: general increase of PA coverage, targeted designation of PAs in strategic locations for connectivity, ensuring permeability of the unprotected landscapes between PAs, coordinated management of neighbouring PAs within the country, and/or transnational coordination with PAs in other countries. Our assessment provides a key contribution to evaluate progress towards global PA connectivity targets and to highlight important strengths and weaknesses of the design of PA systems for connectivity in the world's countries and regions

Integrating multiple spatial datasets to assess protected areas:lessons learnt from the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA)

The Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA) has been developed to support the European Union’s efforts in strengthening our capacity to mobilize and use biodiversity data so that they are readily accessible to policymakers, managers, researchers and other users. Assessing protected areas for biodiversity conservation at national, regional and international scales implies that methods and tools are in place to evaluate characteristics such as the protected areas’ connectivity, their species assemblages (including the presence of threatened species), the uniqueness of their ecosystems, and the threats these areas are exposed to. Typical requirements for such analyses are data on protected areas, information on species distributions and threat status, and information on ecosystem distributions. By integrating all these global data consistently in metrics and indicators, the DOPA provides the means to allow end-users to evaluate protected areas individually but also to compare protected areas at the country and ecoregion level to, for example, identify potential priorities for further conservation research, action and funding. Since the metrics and indicators are available through web services, the DOPA further allows end-users to develop their own applications without requiring management of large databases and processing capacities. In addition to examples illustrating how the DOPA can be used as an aid to decision making, we discuss the lessons learnt in the development of this global biodiversity information system, and outline planned future developments for further supporting conservation strategie

La realizzazione dell'Atlante dei Mammiferi dell'Umbria

L?Atlante dei Mammiferi dell?Umbria è il risultato dell?attuazione del programma di ricerca denominato Progetto Atlante dei Mammiferi dell?Umbria (PAMU), realizzato nel periodo che va dal gennaio 1995 al giugno 2001 in collaborazione con la Regione dell?Umbria. Per la realizzazione dell?Atlante è stato utilizzato in massima parte <em>software Open Source</em>, in ambiente Debian Linux 2.2. L?archiviazione e parte dell?elaborazione dei dati sono state effettuate con Gnumeric. Le 42 carte di distribuzione specifica e le 8 carte tematiche regionali sono state redatte con GRASS GIS 4.3 e con GIMP. I testi sono stati redatti con OpenOffice. La ricerca ha interessato l?intero territorio amministrativo regionale, così come rilevabile dalla cartografia ufficiale (CTR Umbria 1:25.000, 1982; CTR Umbria 1:100.000, 1994) per un totale di circa 845.000 ettari. Tale superficie è stata suddivisa in 383 discreti cartografici (quadrati con lato di km 5) impostati su reticolo Gauss-Boaga; ad ogni quadrato è stata attribuita una categoria ambientale fisionomica derivata dalla Carta geobotanica dell?Umbria. Per ogni quadrato i 32 ricercatori coinvolti nell?indagine di campo hanno raccolto dati oggettivi sulla presenza delle specie mediante metodo naturalistico, ricerca bibliografica e museologica, inchiesta per intervista diretta. Sono stati archiviati 6238 <em>record</em> distribuiti in 352 quadrati. Sono risultate presenti 64 specie di Mammiferi selvatici, delle quali: 9 Insettivori, 22 Chirotteri, 2 Lagomorfi, 15 Roditori, 11 Carnivori, 5 Artiodattili. Il numero minimo di specie presenti per quadrato è 0, il massimo è 22. La specie più diffusa è risultata essere la volpe (327 quadrati), la meno diffusa il topolino delle risaie (1 quadrato); le ?novità?, rispetto alle conoscenze pregresse, sono costituite dall?orso bruno e dalla lince eurasiatica. Per ogni specie è stato calcolato l?Indice di Diffusione Regionale (ID = n / N, con n = numero di celle nelle quali è accertata la presenza della specie; N = numero di celle indagate). Per alcune specie è stata proposta una descrizione quantitativa dell?habitat frequentato, relativamente alle 6 categorie ambientali considerate. Sulla base della frequenza delle specie nelle celle del reticolo sono stati calcolati indici di ?valenza teriologica? dello spazio regionale e delle categorie ambientali

Software libero per lo sviluppo in Africa orientale

Free Software for development in East Africa  Since 1999 Istituto Oikos (Italian NGO) in partnership with Oikos East Africa (Tanzanian NGO) are carrying out integrated development projects in collaboration with local Government Authorities at Regional, District, and Village level. With the aim to ensure sustainability to the interventions addressed to strengthen the governance capacities and the use of IT technologies in the rural areas, the projects have promoted the use of Free Software tools such as Ubuntu and Debian Linux as OS; Qgis and GRASS as G.I.S.; SQLite/Spatialite and PostgreSQL/PostGIS as Spatial-enabled DBRMS, OpenOffice as productivity suite

Software libero per lo sviluppo in Africa orientale

Free Software for development in East Africa  Since 1999 Istituto Oikos (Italian NGO) in partnership with Oikos East Africa (Tanzanian NGO) are carrying out integrated development projects in collaboration with local Government Authorities at Regional, District, and Village level. With the aim to ensure sustainability to the interventions addressed to strengthen the governance capacities and the use of IT technologies in the rural areas, the projects have promoted the use of Free Software tools such as Ubuntu and Debian Linux as OS; Qgis and GRASS as G.I.S.; SQLite/Spatialite and PostgreSQL/PostGIS as Spatial-enabled DBRMS, OpenOffice as productivity suite