Search

This paper used original survey data in Shandong province of China to depict local farmers' perceptions of combined climatic and market risks, and their adaptive behaviors. Two Logit models were developed to capture the empirical relationship between farmers' risk perception of the combined risks and adaptive behaviors. Results show that farmer's risk perception of climate change and market significantly affected their adoption behavior of adaptive measures, including perception of rainfall decrease, gale decrease, drought increase, and price fall of agricultural products. Moreover farmers' adaptive behaviors are more sensitive to their perceptions of extreme climatic events. Addition of demographic factors can improve the explanatory capacity of the Logit model. As illustrated by the models, male and better educated farmers have greater willingness to take actions for averting risks, while household heads with bigger farm are more reluctant. A majority of respondents chose to construct farm structure for irrigation and water conservation to avert climatic risks. Insurance, which is regarded as an effective tool to help farmers mitigate risks and avoid losses, has not been sufficiently accepted by farmers in rural areas in Shandong province. This underscores the need of effective communication of knowledge to enhance farmers' coping capacity and to encourage their active response to risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary goal of studying climate change adaptation is to identify the adaptation options that are used to improve crop productivity or reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Many of the adjustments in farm management that farmers adopt do not necessarily represent true adaptations to climate change, an issue often ignored in existing literature and resulting in a risk that policy makers are misled to think that adaptation is easier than it actually is, and thereby underestimate the challenge that climate change presents. The overall goal of this study is to identify whether farmers’ adoptions are enhancing food production and adapting to climate change. The identification uses a plot-level panel from a survey of 619 rural households in three provinces in China and county-level weather data. With the use of plot and county-by-year fixed effects as well as instrumental variable approaches, our estimates show that the autonomous adoptions are not effective in improving crop yields. This implies that farmers’ adoptions cannot be always considered adaptations to climate change. The paper provides a possible explanation for the results and concludes with policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although ski tourism in China is experiencing a boom, and the number of operating ski areas has significantly increased, the influence of climate change on the future development of China's ski industry has so far largely been overlooked. This paper addresses this important gap by applying the ski season simulation model SkiSim 2.0 at 116 ski areas. Four main indicators of climate change impact were examined: ski season length, operational ski days in economically important season segments, technically produced snow and snowmaking requirements. For all ski resorts in China and all climate change scenarios, average ski seasons are projected to shorten (− 4 to − 61% RCP 4.5; − 6 to − 79% RCP 8.5 in the 2050s) while snowmaking needs increase (27 to 51% RCP 4.5; 46 to 80% RCP 8.5 in the 2050s). The results indicate that high regional differences in climate change vulnerability exist. The implications for altered competitiveness and development potential of the ski industry in China are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea level rise (SLR) and storm surge have significant impacts on tourism properties and activities in the low-lying coastal region. Coastal tourism in Zhejiang Province, China, is physically and socioeconomically susceptible to the flood risk posed by accelerated SLR and intensified storm surge. In this paper, within a scenario design of SLR and storm surge, a GIS-based dataset of major coastal tourist attractions in coastal Zhejiang is created to assess their potential flood risk by using a simple inundation model and a risk matrix. It is estimated that only two resorts would be directly flooded by a SLR of 1-2 m, but extensive inundation of coastal tourism communities may occur during low-frequency surges, especially after adding predicted 1-m SLR. The risk assessment further shows that a majority of the exposed sites is subject to moderate and low risk at current state but would be at higher (moderate and high)-risk categories in the future. In the long term, a combination of adaption measures is presented for policy-makers and other stakeholders for sustainable flood risk management in coastal tourism destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effects of ambient temperatures on mental health using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Chinese individuals. We find that temperatures over 30 ∘ C significantly increase the likelihood of depression. High temperatures have larger detrimental effects on the mental health of the middle-aged and elderly, females, the less-educated, and agricultural workers. We discuss two likely mechanisms for the mental health impact of high temperatures: raising the incidence of physical illness and reducing sleeping time. We find suggestive evidence of air conditioners moderating the adverse impacts of high temperatures and of adaptation to high temperatures in the long term. We reveal that without any government interventions or private adaptation, mental health will deteriorate by 3.1% in the medium term and 5.3% in the long term based on the Hadley GEM2-ES climate-change projection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international community is paying more attention to climate change because a consensus has been reached that climate change has an adverse effect not only on the environment but also on agriculture. Therefore, in this study, present and future climate datasets (obtained from general circulation models) including atmospheric carbon concentration were used to assess the impact of climate change on grain production for an important base of China (Northeast). An empirical model has been developed using climate and other additional variables (effective irrigation area, fertilizer, and labor force) to assess the effect of climate change on grain production. The results revealed that maximum temperature is a key climate determinant in grain production of the study area. Atmospheric carbon concentration showed a significant impact on grain outputs in most of the cases. During the analysis, it was observed that precipitation displayed a declining trend while an effective irrigation area showed positive non-significant contribution to grain production. Analysis based on different representative concentration pathways exhibited that maximum temperature may contribute negatively to grain production in the future. Overall, the analysis showed that climate change has a significant contribution to grain production. In conclusion, the implications for future research and policymakers have been addressed. Particularly, the importance of considering regional differences in adaptation planning in agricultural regions was also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is to identify the major methods used by local farmers to adapt to the drought hazard and to examine factors influencing their decisions to adapt in Yongqiao District, China. A random sampling technique was used to select 200 households in Yongqiao, while descriptive statistics and binary logit models were used to analyze the data obtained from the households. The results show that most farmers in the study area were aware of climate change. They were taking measures to protect their livelihoods against perceived change in climate. Results indicate that factors explaining farmers' adaptation choices include gender, the level of education, farming experience, farm size, household income, and perceptions of climate change impacts. The findings of this study can help decision-makers to design appropriate adaptation policies to cope with and adapt in drought situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]