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Nowadays, an increasing number of crises worldwide, triggered by climate extremes, natural and human-made hazards, the coronavirus pandemic, and more, pose a high pressure on crisis, emergency, and disaster management. Spatial data and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) are key issues in the successful and immediate response to crises. This paper aims to explore the use of VGI in crisis management, including emergency and disaster management, based on a scoping review of existing literature in English for five years (2016–2020). Specifically, the research intends to answer Scoping Review Questions (SRQ) regarding the use of VGI in crisis, emergency, and disaster management, and the verified cases' spatial distribution, the VGI sources utilized (e.g. OpenStreetMap – OSM, Crowdsourcing, Twitter), the types of hazards (e.g. natural and human-made hazards, pandemic), the specific tasks in crisis, emergency or disaster management and VGI use in the management of actual crisis events, e.g. COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Katrina, etc. Eligible papers on VGI use in crisis, emergency, and disaster management are geolocated based on first-author affiliation, and as a result, a spatial bibliography is provided. Thus, the term Spatial Scoping Review is introduced. Scoping Review Questions are answered, and the results are analyzed and discussed. Finally, implementing the "VGICED Atlas", a web atlas, permits the publication of the research results to a broad audience and the visualization of the analysis with several interactive maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate extremes are threatening transportation infrastructures and hence require new methods to address their vulnerability and improve their resilience. However, existing studies have yet to examine the climate impacts on transportation networks systematically rather than independently assessing the infrastructures at a component level. Therefore, it is crucial to configure alternative shipping routes from a systematic perspective to reduce climate vulnerabilities and optimise the resilience of the whole shipping network. This paper aims to assess the global shipping network focusing on climate resilience by a methodology that combines climate risk indicators, centrality analysis and ship routing optimisation. The methodology is designed for overviewing the climate vulnerability of the current and future scenarios for comparison. First, a multi-centrality assessment defines the global shipping hubs and network vulnerabilities. Secondly, a shipping model is built for finding the optimal shipping route between ports, considering the port disruption days caused by climate change (e.g. extreme weather) based on the climate vulnerability analysis result from the first step. It contributes to a new framework combining the global and local seaport climate vulnerabilities. Furthermore, it recommends changing shipping routes by a foreseeable increase in port disruptions caused by extreme weather for climate adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan Africa, of which Kenya is part, is considered the most vulnerable region to climate change impacts due to its dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural resources. Since the rural livelihood systems in Kenya are expected to bear some of the worst effects of climate change, it is imperative to assess rural households' vulnerability to climate change impacts to facilitate the development of adaptation strategies. Therefore, this paper determines the level and sources of households' livelihood vulnerability to climate variability in the Migori River watershed, Kenya. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) framed within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) vulnerability framework (LVI-IPCC) was applied. A cross-sectional household survey conducted on 318 randomly selected households was used to assess how vulnerability differs across three watershed zones, upstream, midstream, and downstream. The LVI-IPCC scores were −0.047, −0.003, and 0.008 for the upstream, midstream, and downstream zones, respectively, with significant differences noted in the scores (ANOVA, p < 0.05). Findings indicate that while the livelihoods in all three zones showed moderate vulnerability to environmental and socio-economic stressors, there are notable variations between them. The downstream households exhibit the highest vulnerability, attributed to their lower adaptive capacity, increased exposure, and heightened sensitivity. Conversely, the upstream households demonstrate the least vulnerability compared to the other zones, owing to their lower sensitivity and exposure, as well as better adaptive capacity. Policy recommendations for reducing households' exposure to climate risks and for strengthening their adaptive capacity are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought poses a severe threat to terrestrial ecosystems' carbon sequestration function, which in turn affects regional sustainable development. Understanding its impact on carbon source/sink dynamics is crucial for addressing extreme climate change challenges. This study, based on the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford approach (CASA) model and soil heterotrophic respiration equation, the Net Ecosystem Productivity (NEP) of the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin (MRYRB) from 2001 to 2019 were estimated and utilized to characterize the vegetation carbon source/sink. Additionally, four factors, namely, average surface temperature (AST), root-zone soil moisture (RM), drought frequency (DF), and drought intensity (DI), were selected and a multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model was applied to assess the dominant factors influencing vegetation carbon source/sink dynamics at the spatial scale. The results indicated that: (1) MRYRB vegetation acted as a carbon sink, showing an increasing trend. Carbon sink was primarily located in Shaanxi's central region, while carbon source was primarily located in Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi's northern part. (2) Both the extent and severity of drought in the MRYRB showed a mitigating trend, presenting a spatial distribution of high-intensity low-frequency and low-intensity high-frequency. (3) AST, RM, DF, and DI had larger effects on carbon source than carbon sink. AST dominated mainly in northern Shanxi and Shaanxi, RM in central Shaanxi and Gansu, while DI and DF were concentrated in central Shaanxi and northern Shanxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semi-arid farming systems in India are facing an increasing frequency of climate change-induced extreme weather events. With the aim of improving their climate resilience, we retrospectively assess climate resilience in two case studies in Maharashtra, India. We considered a 15-year period and multiple interventions in both. The systems showed improved climate resilience when agricultural productivity-enhancing interventions were combined with those related to water management, soil health, livelihood diversification, and food and nutrition security. Further, we recommend embedding a monitoring, evaluation and learning component within the design of all interventions to help with adaptive decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme climate events challenge the livelihoods of shrimp farmers worldwide. A comprehensive analysis of farmers' choices of adaptive measures is essential for developing approaches that can lessen the effects of these climate risks. This study presents the determinants that influence the choice of adaptive measures in response to two climate risks, drought, and irregular weather, using a survey of 437 shrimp farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong region and applying a multinomial logit model. Five adaptation choices identified include changing feeding schedules/stocking densities, changing water exchange schedules, water conservation, water treatments, and early harvesting. The results revealed that education, training, extension services, credit access, farm size, pond numbers, and the farmers' perception of drought and irregular weather are the main factors influencing farmers' choices of adaptive measures. Intensive and extensive farmers chose different adaptations to climate risks, with the former applying a variety of measures while the latter chose to change water exchange schedules. The conclusions bring policy implications concerning how to cope with climate risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]