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Aims of this Study: To investigate the climate change{effects in Iraq on the quality and quantity of the water of the Tigris River from {Mosul” city to South of Baghdad city.00 This paper provides a review of the observed and the predicted impacts of climate change on the water quality in the Tigris River in Iraq. Study Design: Cross-Sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study area is starting {from Mosul city which is located in {the north part of Iraq to the Al-Azziziyah city located in the south of Baghdad (2005-2012) . Methodology: The current study was include the available historical data which are the discharge and hydrochemical analysis includes (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, HCO3, TDS,NO3, and EC) were taken from 6 stations along the Tigris’ River from Mosul to the south of Baghdad’ cities for the years 2005 to 20112. The available historical climate data’ includes (Rainfall and Temperature) for the period 1990-2012. In this paper also, used some of pervious studies and compared them with the current results. Results: The average annual flow of the Tigris River in Mosul station for the period (1990-2012) ranged between’ (193.8-906) m3/sec and for Sammarra station ranged between’ (366-977) m3/sec. Then, between south of Sammarra’city and north of Baghdad city, Canal of Dijla’joins the Tigris River has a discharge ranges between’ (9-217) m3/sec. After that, the ’Tigris River inter to Baghdad city, the discharge value range between’ (392-1173) m3/sec’and continue his flow to the south of Baghdad city and Diyala River joins it with discharge’range between (55-193) m3/sec. Finally, the Tigris River reaches to’Al-Azizziyah city station with’discharge ranges between (134-769) m3/sec. Conclusion: In general the water quality of the Tigris River are sulfates, calcium, and magnesium. But in Canal of Dijla the most dominant ion is sodium due to agricultural activities and geology of the area consist of gypsum rocks and this can be effects on water quality of Tigris River in the next station (Baghdad). In Al-Azizziyah city the sulfates, calcium, and Sodium is high level due to drainage from irrigation, industrial“and domestic activities.

Introduction: The lip service in tackling the climate change issues five years after the famous Paris Agreement on climate change is quite unwholesome to individual countries' pledges and promises that were made on reducing global carbon emissions at Le Bourget, France. The attempt to limit the global mean temperature to 1.50 Celsius preindustrial level has even resulted in warming the climate more than anticipated [1]. The bulk of the climate change adaptation and mitigation effort(s) have, generally, ended up in a tragic fiasco. The rise in sea level and temperature overshoot carry substantial and enormous risks and uncertainties that have caused the entire humanity to head towards an irreversible crossing tipping point [2]. For example, the year 2020 horrible flooding; animal and plant species extinction; coral reef death; permafrost melt; loss of sea and land ice; breaking of the two major glaciers in the coast of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica that has kept climatologists and meteorologists terrified in studying the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, are all cases in point that proved an irreversible condition of the climate change. Methodology: This paper used content analyses by reviewing the climate change brutal scenarios that occurred at random globally. The data on climate events was obtained from the existing literature on the magnitude of destruction of flood rains and storms’ damage due to sea level rise that is exacerbated by the breaking away of the two major glaciers in the coast of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica. Results: The paper examined critically the flood scenarios that occurred in Puerto Rico; Arecibo; Panzhihua; Gopalganj; Kara-Kache; Krasnoyarsk; Tlalpane; Talas; Taif; Valencia; Lagamenas; Khabarovsk; Hadejia; Dabi; Magarya; and Auyo etc. It revealed that massive flooding was witnessed globally within a span of a weeklong catastrophe. Sea level had risen by at least 0.05 percentile as a result of the breaking away and melting of the two glaciers at the coast of the West Antarctica. Conclusion: The paper concluded that human beings are no longer near the target of achieving the 1.50–20C goal. What remains now is for everyone to understand the dangers of the climate change blind investment that has already thrown the entire world habitat into a déjàvu phenomenon.

Additional warming caused by climate change will negative impacts on agricultural sectors. The problem is expected to be most harsh in regions were lacking in adaptive capacity in terms of information needed to make adaptive decisions to combat climate change impacts. Many strides have been made to understand and quantify climate impact on sensitive regions to climate change. However, for many food-insecurity hot-spot areas, the comprehensive data for impact assessment are rarely available. This paper outlined a research framework for providing knowledge for policy-makers, local authorities, and agricultural organizations to make informative climate change adaptive decisions for such areas. Several models are compared and discussed to show their advantage and disadvantage for appropriate model applications. We propose a framework to facilitate future impact assessment research, especially for regions where relevant data are lacking. This paper provides a research method of linking different models and combines the useful information acquired from models to make climate policies and adaption schemes cost-effectively with limited local data and farm information.

Taraba State is endowed with natural resources; vast lands, water resources, animal resources and human resources. However, amidst plenty, food insecurity and incessant crisis ravage the government efforts to sustainable agricultural and economic development. This paper discusses the nexus between Climate vagaries and skirmish leading to shift in crop yields. It assesses grain yield variation, problems and prospect across the local governments in Taraba State. Apart from personal observation and focus group discussion, the paper relied mainly on secondary data that were generated through the analysis of relevant data from government and non-governmental agencies. Rainfall and agronomic data were collected from Upper Benue River Basin and Ministry of Taraba Agricultural Development Program (TADP) respectively. These were collated and analyzed using standardized anomaly index and linear regression in SPSS environment. The study fails to reject the null hypotheses that no relationship exists between the average annual rainfall and quantity of sorghum produced annually. It recommends application of biotechnology using (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) for animal feeds and food crop diversification to cushion the ever increasing demand for forage that often vortex crisis in the state. SFF can stand heavy grazing reduce roaming encourage ranching eliminate crisis.

Aims: Temperature changes in the air, land and ocean together with the hydrological cycle and changing precipitation patterns are some of the topics assessed by scientist all over the world in order to study the signals of a changing climate. As the impacts of climate change are expected to be noticed both at global and local scale, a dataset of real-world precipitation and average air temperature at regional scale spanning a period of 19 years is provided and described in the present paper. Study Design: Starting from cumulative precipitation and average air temperature data, a set of annual and monthly spatially distributed maps have been generated in order to provide the scientific community with regional-scale data related to a temperate climate area. Place and Duration of Study: Marche Region, East-Central Italy, between January 2000 and December 2018. Methodology: We used in-situ rainfall and air temperature data provided by Marche Region (Italy) Security and Civil Protection Department in the framework of the regional meteorological and hydrological monitoring network (SIRMIP). SIRMIP network is composed of a mechanical and a telemetric sensing system. SIRMIP network consists of, among others, 230 rain gauges and 137 thermometers. Rainfall and air temperature data have been interpolated on a 1 km-resolution regular grid using Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) spatial interpolation. Temperature data were further processed through a linear regression using elevation from a high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM). Results: The generated dataset described in this paper consists of 228 monthly- and 19 annual-spatially distributed maps of rainfall and air temperature.

Climate variability and change has become a global phenomenon with many countries including Ghana working hard to mitigate the effect or develop strategies for adaptation. However, tropical forest has been identified to have the capacity to mitigate the impact of climate change and improve the general environment. The forest plays a critical role in the climate system, hydrology and the carbon cycle, and provide livelihood for over 2.5 billion rural dwellers in developing countries. This article therefore highlights the importance of tropical forest as a potential resource for climate change mitigation and the need for policy makers, stakeholders and the general public to seriously adopt positive approach to the management of forest resources. The article was carried out through extensive review of literature, official reports and policy documents. The paper outlines the threat of climate change, the state of Ghana’s forest and climate, and the role of the forest to mitigate climate change. It also highlights the socio-economic benefits of the forest in mitigating the changing climate. The documents reviewed showed that the state of Ghana’s forest has dwindled over the years through anthropogenic activities and the climate is also changing. It was also established that trees can remove substantial amount of CO2 from the atmosphere for storage. The paper concludes with recommendations for the preservation and regeneration of the tropical forest for the purpose of mitigating the effect of climate change in Ghana.

Aims: In Cambodia the frequency and impacts of natural disasters has been increasing. The impacts of droughts and floods are most severe within the agricultural sector which accounts for around 29% of Cambodia’s GDP and 59% of the work force. In this paper we assess the farmers’ perspectives on risk and adaptation strategies in the Mekong, Cambodia. Methodology: Interviews were conducted with 280 farmers in four Mekong provinces in Cambodia as well as at least 10 representatives of local authority and civil society staff from each of the four provinces. Place and Duration of Study: Prey Veng, Kampong Cham, Stung Treng, and Ratanakiri provinces, Cambodia, 2013. Results: Having experienced the adverse effects of flood many times, the farmers ranked flood highest among other risks. Drought was ranked second in particular in areas with lack of access to irrigation. Other risks considered by farmers were fluctuations in agriculture input and output prices, change in weather and shortage of irrigation water. The perception of farmers about the level of risk was closely linked with their adaptation strategy. If risks are perceived as low, no action is taken to cope with the risk. The government pays more attention to floods compared to other disasters. The research shows that most farmers (88%) got support from government and NGOs when there was a flood. The government and NGOs distributed food and hygiene packages during floods and crop seeds after floods. Because this support only lasts a short time, it does not compensate all impacts of the flood. Beside this emergency relief, the government and NGOs support the farmers to improve their livelihood through agriculture extension. However, the farmers did not think the program fit with them. They applied their own adaptation strategies such as selling labor and borrowing money to recover from the flood damage. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that the ongoing climate change programs initiated by NGOs and government alone cannot help farmers recover from the impact of floods. Consequently in this paper we argue that the government should improve their programs to help farmers cope with floods, droughts and other risks.

The current challenges of climate change and the fluctuating oil prices on the world market make it imperative to consider cheaper and alternative sources of energy for agricultural and rural development in Ghana. Solar energy is an environmentally friendly source of energy as compared to other conventional forms of energy and it is capable of providing all the energy needs of the world. This article seeks to draw the attention of government, NGOs, policy makers, stakeholders and the general public about the enormous energy from the sun and the need to tap such energy for agricultural and rural development. The research was carried out through field visitations and extensive review of important literature on renewable energy. The paper outlines the various uses of solar energy in agriculture such as crop drying and processing, pumping of water for irrigation, power supply, water heating and many more. It reviews solar energy use in Ghana and highlights the principles of solar energy. The paper also outlines the benefits and concludes with suggested recommendations which can help accelerate agricultural and rural development through solar energy application in Ghana.

Plant species are experiencing increasing challenges from climate change. Climate change is a serious threat to plant genetic diversity and the survival of many plant species which may substantially alter biodiversity. Crop wild relatives contribute many valuable genes for improvement of crops and being more resilient with the impact of climate change. Do these useful genetic traits from crop wild relatives make them safe from the impact for climate change on their genetic diversity? In this paper, the impact of climate change on crop wild relatives and how the impact will affect the genetic diversity of the species is discussed with focus on factors influencing the genetic diversity. Climate change is expected to cause changes in flowering phenology, plant-polinators interactions, seed dispersal and soil seed bank, the factors which influence the genetic reservoir, genetic composition and frequencies of alleles present in the population. Furthermore, the paper discussed how the climate change may play a direct role in promoting invasive plant species and potential for influencing a range of many plant pests and diseases which will profoundly affect the genetic diversity of plant populations. The consequences of loss of plant genetic diversity was also discussed which includes species being at risk of extinction. Finally, the paper highlighted in situ and ex-situ as important conservation and mitigation measures needed to preserve the genetic diversity of wild plant species.

Climate change has been described as among the major challenges of the twenty-first century. However, this trend cannot be completely halted but can only be slowed down through the development and adoption of adaptation practices especially among the rural people whose major source of livelihood is agriculture which is at stake. This paper examined the indigenous practices for climate change adaptation among rural households in Imo State. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select the sample. A total of 108 respondents were used for the study. Descriptive statistics were used in analyzing the data obtained from the study. Results show that a majority (78.3%) of the respondents were aware of climate change while about 40.6% knew a very little about it. The result also shows that the most effective local adaptation practices to climate change in the study area included growing drought-resistant crop varieties (M = 1.14), planting deeper into the soil to avoid heat stress (M = 1.10), increased weeding ( M = 1.29) and changing the timing of land preparation (M = 1.10). Further, the results show that major constraints to Original Research Article Umunakwe et al.; BJAST, 8(1): 67-79, 2015; Article no.BJAST.2015.187 68 adaptation to climate change in the study area included limited access to improved crop varieties (M = 1.95), high cost of farm labour (M = 1.80), inadequate financial resources to adapt (M = 1.80) and high cost of diversification of enterprise (M = 1.78). The paper recommends the massive involvement of the extension agency and the mass media in climate change adaptation programmes so as to raise the awareness of people on the subject and thus increase their adaptive

Aims: In February and March 2014, more than 300,000 households were affected by water rationing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and the surrounding State of Selangor. Further south, reservoir levels in Singapore were dropping, prompting the government to raise the water conservation rhetoric, but falling short of implementing water rationing schemes. The region experienced a dry spell that was unprecedented in the last 30 years. Preparedness for storms has been the "talk of the town" since the 2001, 2006 and 2007 extreme high precipitation events in the southern parts of the peninsula and in Singapore resulted in costly flood damage. While resilience has been a concept used frequently in climate change adaptation, it is derived from ecology, where it refers to the capacity of the system to respond to a disturbance and resist the impact or recover from the damage of the disturbance. This paper examines the case of Singapore as an urban area in responding to a similar extreme hydrologic phenomenon by examining the climate Original Research Article British Journal of Environment & Climate Change, 4(3): 328-354, 2014 329 change resilience of the small city-state, with a view to recommending some considerations in designing climate change adaptation strategies. Place of Study: Singapore and peninsular Malaysia. Methodology: The paper reviews the rainfall extremes statistics covering the last 30 years for Singapore and then takes a hydrologic event-based case study approach to more closely examine the impact of record storms and the drought of March 2014 to discuss aspects of resilience that can serve as lessons for tropical cities in future adaptation to a climate-changing world. Results: Extreme rainfall events have become more frequent in Singapore over the past 30 years, while February, 2014 was the driest February since 1869. February, 2014 also had the lowest recorded daily relative humidity at 74.5%. Tropical cyclones are not expected to hit Singapore because of its location near the equator, yet Typhoon Vamei made history by delivering 210 mm of rain on 27 December, 2001. Between 19 and 20 December, 2007 Singapore received 366 mm of rain and within the same week another storm deposited 140 mm of rain in a 24 hour period. While there were some environmental and health impacts related to the February 2014 drought, including low dissolved oxygen levels in water and a localized fish kill, as well as reports of greater human respiratory problems, Singapore was able to weather the drought by requesting voluntary conservation measures, prudent reservoir management, and increasing the output of NEWater and desalinized water. Recent extreme rainfall events have produced localized flooding, but Singapore has progressively pursued a program of improved drainage, stream naturalization, and implementation of Low Impact Development (LID) technology to reduce flood-prone areas from 3,200 ha in the 1970’s to 36 ha today. Conclusion: We do not suggest that all countries need to have NEWater or desalinated water to solve drought problems. We do suggest that in managing rainfall related hazards, droughts and extremes have been treated rather independently. Based on the case study of extremes presented for Singapore we propose the importance of establishing a three-step preparedness program for extremes that includes Preparation (vulnerability and risk identification, adaptive capacity building, and monitoring), Response (information dissemination and relief action), and Recovery.

This paper evaluates the effect of three climate parameters on forest cover in Ghana and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at Digya National Park derived from Landsat image data. Climate data (temperature, humidity, dewpoint, rainfall) are assembled from statistics provided by Ghana's Meteorological Agency. The study introduces a weighted averaging method by computing weather information from neighbouring stations. Also, this research introduces a model of dewpoints, enabling the direct calculation of dewpoints from temperature and humidity data. The major finding is that while temperature significantly affects forest cover and Park vegetation, dew-points and rainfall do not. The paper suggests where future research may be more fruitful in analyzing the effects of climate on vegetation.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of climate change on maize production in Mali during the period 1990-2020. The unit root test (augmented Dickey-Fuller) was used to check the order of integration between the variables in the study. The ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) approach to cointegration limits is applied to assess the association between the study variables with evidence of a long-term relationship. The unit root test estimates confirm that all variables are stationary at the combination of I(0) and I(1). The results show that precipitation and temperature in June and July have a negative and highly significant effect on maize production in both the short and long term analyses. Among other determinants, the area of land devoted to maize crops and GDP per capita have a positive effect on production. The estimated coefficient on the error correction term is also highly also highly significant As Mali's population grows, in the coming decades the country will face food security challenges. Possible initiatives are needed to configure the Malian government to address the negative effects of climate change on agriculture and ensure adequate food for the growing population.

Climate change and its attendant fallouts such as drought, flood etc affect every aspects of environment including wetland ecosystem. This paper seeks to examine the effects of droughts on Dagona Waterfowl Sanctuary?an important wintering area for migratory birds in Bade local government, Yobe state, Nigeria. The study used annual rainfall data collected from the archives of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) with respect to Nguru weather station in the area for a period of 1956-2015. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) in conjunction with Percentage Deviation Below Mean (PDBM) models were applied for comprehensive drought detection on a time scale of twelve (12) months. SPI anomaly graphs were plotted to depict drought of varying magnitude. The researcher went round the sanctuary and made observations with the help of binocular and telescope. Findings explicitly revealed that the study area was replete with droughts of varying intensities ranging from mild, moderate, severe and extreme ones. And high magnitude droughts led to hydrological changes causing drying up of wetland water, decreased production of seeds that provide forage opportunities, intrusion of invasive species such as typha grasses forming dense biomass that hinder birds to prey on fishes or swim freely. The result of the analysis would add to the mainstream theoretical body of knowledge about droughts effects on wetlands. The research concludes that droughts of high magnitude occurred variably and affected both native and migratory birds in the study area and hence recommend the integration of disasters like drought in the management strategies of the wetlands.

This paper assessed the near future projected hydropower potential over Rwegura catchment hosting, up to date, the biggest hydropower plant of Burundi. Observed and gridded data were considered over the period 1981

Climatic change has a great challenge to almost all human activities over the years. Continuous increase in climate change could have a negative effect on global food security. In order to feed the current ever-increasing world population, there is a need to double the rate of agricultural productivity. Biotechnology through genetic modification can contribute their incredible roles positively towards reducing vulnerability of natural and human systems to climate change effects including greenhouse gas reduction, and increase agricultural production on less land in helping to meet future food by the adoption of GM-crop traits such as herbicide-tolerant crops, drought-tolerant crops, insect-resistant crops, and high-yielding transgenic crops which counters the negative effects of climate change. It is important that bio-safety regulatory systems to be established and good policies formulated on agricultural development with the use of sustainable agricultural biotechnology with public-private partnership to effectively utilize modern biotechnology to enhance food security and mitigate climatic changes. Currently, modern biotechnology has encountered enormous public debates related to risks and benefits of genetically modified organisms in terms of human health, environment, socio-economic, and ethical and cultural concern issues. However, safe application of modern agricultural biotechnologies is significantly contributing to the current and future climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, and greatly improve agricultural productivity and food security to ensure food availability or access to food for all and efficient utilization of food resources globally. This will ensure that the GM-crops have no adverse effect on living organisms and the environmentally safe. Therefore, the aim of this review paper was to assessed the current challenges and future perspectives of biotechnology through genetic modification for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and food security.

Aim: The maize is widely grown all parts of the world and it is consumed by all people. This paper studies the impact of climate variability on yield of maize crop in Tamil Nadu using Panel regression analysis. Study Design: Rainfall (max and min), Temperature (max and min) and yield details were collected from the Indian Meteorological Department and crop production reports respectively used for analysis. Place and Duration: Tamil Nadu, India. Methodology: Panel data model was used to estimate crop production functions. Results and Conclusion: The study focused on the impact of climate variability on yield of maize crop in Tamil Nadu using Panel regression analysis. The high rainfall leads to The effect of NEM rainfall on maize yield is dependent on the level of NEM temperature and vice-versa. This is probably because of the fact that in most of the districts in Tamil Nadu, maize is grown as a rainfed crop in north-east monsoon season with lower temperature and hence increase in temperature together with good amount of rainfall would lead to higher yield of maize.

The Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) assumes that all capitals are complementary and that more capital assets would lead to greater adaptive capacity. However, the SLA neglects the interactions and transformations between different livelihood capitals. This paper suggests a methodological approach to understand how different capitals may be structured, transformed, and used to improve the farm households’ adaptive capacity to climatic stresses. Data for this study were gathered by means of a questionnaire survey during 2018 from 100 farm households representing the main farming systems of Medenine governorate, Southeast of Tunisia. The analyses were carried out using three tools following a stepwise approach. First, to understand the interactions that exist between the different capitals, a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out. Then, the adaptive capacity was calculated using the PCA results. Finally, using the Pearson's correlation index, the impact of livelihood assets on adaptive capacity was tested. The results demonstrated that households are trying to compensate for the lack of certain assets through interactions with others in order to improve their adaptive capacity. Moreover, human, natural and financial capital seem to better influence the adaptive capacity of farmers, while the impacts of physical and social capital are relatively less important. These results have improved our comprehension of the livelihood capital purpose for strengthening the existing approaches that enhance the adaptive capacity. Finally, this study has demonstrated that exploring the interactions between livelihood capitals is a first concern, which should be incorporated into adaptive capacity planning and policy development.

Global climate has been changing for many thousands of years and will continue to do so in the future. While it is acknowledged that the entire climate change has always been happening even before the start of anthropogenic activities, this is perhaps the most serious problem that the civilized world is facing today. Key important phrases such as ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ now form part of our lives and rarely a day goes without being mentioned. There is a serious concern for the state of climate because of the strong consensus that climate change has implications on rainfall, temperature, agriculture and food security and human life styles, although climate change projections are quite diverse and vary widely across the globe. While industrialization has always been viewed as the key to wealth and better living (technological innovations, economic and social transformations of the human society), it has also been acknowledged that it affects the environment and ultimately contributes to climate change. This paper presents a review of the state of climate change and variability in Africa. We describe some common aspects on the African climate system and discuss related factors triggering its dynamics, aiming to determine social and demographic sectors vulnerable to climate change and whether there is evidence of critical thresholds beyond which climate drastically changes. With projected high temperature rise than the rest of the world, increase in the occurrence of droughts, floods and other natural disasters, Africa’s economy, its people and ecosystems are vulnerable to climate change. Immediate changes also impact on global energy budget, water resources, air quality and consequently influence changes in human lifestyles and philosophies, habitat quality and distribution of wildlife and other natural resources.

The noticeable decline of flow and drying of rivers in non-monsoon period is observed by smaller hydrologic units (sub-catchments and watersheds). The flow depletion or drying of rivers is generally observed initially near the origin and then progressively in the larger hydrologic units. Rivers are losing water because of variety of possible reasons, including the installation of dams and the use of water for agriculture. But in many cases the decrease in flow is because of climate change, which is altering rainfall patterns and increasing evaporation because of higher temperatures. Reduced run-off is increasing the pressure on freshwater resources in world as well as in India, especially with more demand for water as population increases. Inspite of the fact that large sums of money have been spent on river rehabilitation across the globe, the understanding of the science of restoration is incoherent. A scientific and global intervention and approach to tackle such challenges to river management in India requires a highly effective approach, which must be process-based, predictive and must be capable of yielding the desired outcome. River restoration is one of the most prominent areas of applied water-resources science, supporting a multibillion dollar industry across many countries and helping to drive fundamental river research to address knowledge gaps that limit successful restoration. A revival strategy should identify a future prospect and long run for the river basin, the desired outcome of the strategy over the planning horizon (goals), and specific, measurable targets to be achieved over the short to medium term (objectives). River restoration can be supported by a combination of policies, strategies and project-level and global-level plans. Keeping this in view this paper presents some of the revival works carried out in India as well as in abroad.

The restoration and preservation of terrestrial ecosystems are important challenges for human beings and are subject of many initiatives and intervention approaches. The present paper focuses on the dissemination approaches of sustainable land management and climate change adaptation (SLM/ CCA) measures implemented under the Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security Project. The influence of changes in these dissemination approaches on the adoption of SLM/ CCA by farmers in the department of Zou were analyzed. A survey was conducted on 150 farmers who are adopters and non-adopters of the targeted measures. These farmers were randomly selected in nine villages in the department of Zou. Interviews were carried out with the team of the project. As methodological approach, 150 farmers were randomly sampled in nine villages of the department of Zou. In addition, interviews were carried out with the project team. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, as well as Chi-square and Pearson's correlation tests. The results showed that the dynamics noted in the dissemination approaches influence the adoption of sustainable land management and climate change adaptation measures, depending on the main activity and the farm total area of the farmers. In addition, adopters of SLM/CCA measures are more affected by the "SOL-Mobil" (98.0%) and "ProSOL Technician" (85.1%) approaches. They are less affected by the “Relay producer” (41.8%) and “Radio broadcast” (4.4%) approaches. Non-adopters are affected by the “ProSOL Technician” (63%) and “Relay Producer” (33.3%) approaches. However, they are less aware of the “Radio broadcast” approach (33.3%) and not affected by the “SOL-Mobil” approach. It is therefore important to take into account the diversity of farmers when implementing these approaches.

Tea is the second most commonly consumed beverages, after water, across the globe. However, the quality and aroma of the produce largely depends on different climatic factors like temperature, rainfall, altitude etc. Even a slight alteration in these climatic factors, affects the quality and production adversely. Climate change, a global challenge, is a big threat to the tea industry as well as its workers. With degraded quality and swinging production due to changing rainfall and temperature, hundreds of tea gardens have been closed down in the past few decades, putting livelihood of thousands of tea workers to question. This paper attempts to find how the changing rainfall and swinging tea production varies with the profile characteristics of the tea workers. The study was conducted in the Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Dooars districts of West Bengal with 90 randomly selected tea workers from nine randomly selected tea gardens, three each belonging to three different altitudes. All the results has been analyzed using statistical tools of correlation coefficient, multiple and stepwise regression and path analysis. The results shows that treatment and mobility are two important variable explaining the variation in perception on change in rainfall and perception on tea production respectively. It has also been found that variables like income, treatment and garments have been reliable predictors for estimating the change in rainfall whereas the variable mobility exhibits a positive and significant relationship with perceived change in tea production. The regression analysis showed that treatment has explained 19.4 per cent of total variation in case of perceived change in rainfall and mobility has explained 16 per cent of total variance in case of perceived change in tea production.

This paper discusses the variability in rainfall and trend analysis of annual and seasonal rainfall time series of Shillong and Agartala stations located in the north-east region of India. Commonly used non-parametric statistical methods namely Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope estimator was used to analyse the seasonal and annual rainfall time series. Statistical analysis showed less variation in annual and south-west monsoon rainfall for both Shillong and Agartala stations. In the total annual rainfall, the share of south-west (SW) monsoon, north-east (NE) monsoon, winter season and summer season rainfall was observed 64.60%, 13.22%, 1.40% and 20.80%, respectively for Shillong station of Meghalaya state. However, the contribution of SW monsoon, NE monsoon, winter season and summer season rainfall in the total annual rainfall was 59.59%, 9.55%, 1.14% and 29.72%, respectively for Agartala station of Tripura state. Non-significant increasing trends of rainfall was observed by 4.54 mm/year, 2.80 mm/year and 2.54 mm/year for annual, SW monsoon, and summer season, whereas, non-significant decreasing trends in rainfall for NE monsoon and winter season was observed with a magnitude of 1.83 mm/year and 1.63 mm/year for Shillong, Meghalaya during 1992 to 2017. Results also revealed that rainfall increased by 1.07 mm/year and 0.18 mm/year in SW monsoon and winter season whereas, rainfall decreased by 7.64 mm/year, 2.58 mm/year and 1.29 mm/year during annual, NE monsoon and summer season non-significantly during 1995 to 2019 in case of Agartala. The findings of present study will be useful for water management and crop planning in hill agriculture of Meghalaya and Tripura state of India.

Introduction: Flood is one of the climate change induced hazards occurring in most parts of the world. It exposes humanity and many socio-ecological systems to various levels of risks. In Nigeria, extreme rainfall events and poor drainage system have caused inundation of several settlements to flooding. To contain the disaster, risk mapping were among the measures recommended. Aims: The aim of this paper is to highlight flood risk zones (FRZ) in Uhunmwonde Local Government Area (LGA), Edo State, Nigeria. Methodology: Flood risk (FR) was mapped using hazards and vulnerability and implemented using geographic information system (GIS)-based multi-criteria analysis analytic hierarchy process (MCA-AHP) framework by incorporating seven environmental and two socio-economic factors. Elevation, flow accumulation, soil water index of wettest quarter, normalized difference vegetation index, rainfall of wettest quarter, runoff of wettest quarter and distance from rivers constituted the hazard component while population density and area of agricultural land use was the vulnerability layer. The climate change induced flood risk was validated using the responses of 150 residents in high, moderate and low flood risk zones. Results: The resulting flood risk map indicated that about 40.4% of Uhunmwonde LGA fell within high flood risk zone, 35.3% was categorized under moderate flood risk zone whereas low flood risk zone extended up to about 24.3% of the LGA. The high number of respondents who reported occurrence of flooding with frequency being very often and the fact that flooding was a very serious environmental threat during on-the-spot field assessment validated the generated climate change induced flood risk. Conclusion: The utilitarian capabilities of GIS-based MCA-AHP framework in integrating remotely-sensed biophysical and climate change related flood inducing indicators with socio-economic vulnerabilities to arrive at composite flood risk was demonstrated.

The paper presents a micrometeorological study on the environmental benefits of trees in the Taraba State University, Jalingo in Nigeria. Temperatures under three different surfaces (under trees and among different tree species, bare-ground and asphalted surfaces) within the campus were measured. The temperature under trees such as Mahogany (Khaya senegalenses), Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus sp.), Gmalaina (Gmalaina aborea), Mango (Mangifera indica) found on the University campus alongside bare-ground (no vegetal coverage) and asphalted road surfaces were measured in degree Celsius for a period of three weeks. Additionally, 113 copies of some self-structured questionnaires were administered to the students of the University from the departments of Geography, Agricultural Science, Biological Science, Medical Laboratory Technology as well as the Male and Female hostels on campus. Data collected were analysed using frequency, percentage, line graph and pie chart. The study showed that there is a temperature variation under different surfaces. Under the trees recorded lowest mean temperature of 29.5°C followed by bare-ground with 32.5°C whereas asphalt surface recorded the highest mean temperature of 37.5°C. The temperature under different tree species shows that trees with bigger crown and broad leaves had lower temperatures. Mean temperature under the Mango tree was 28°C while under the Neem tree, mean temperature was 32°C. On the benefits of trees to the University campus, trees as a wind breaker constituted the highest benefit as expressed by the respondents (how many in %). The following recommendations were made among others; Students should be encouraged to plant trees by giving those who are willing the seedlings of trees as incentives and water should also be made available and accessible in different in locations order to maintain the planting and maintenance of trees. Cutting down of trees should be discouraged and environmental education on the benefits of trees should be a routine activity. There should be a follow-up study on carbon sequestration in Nigeria based on solid data on benefits.

This paper assesses the impact of rising temperatures on cereal production in Cameroon over the period 1980-2016. To achieve this objective, we used Auto Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL). Short and long-term results show that rising temperatures do not affect cereal production in Cameroon. It would therefore be possible to extend this research work using climate projection data. Moreover, this work would also have been better if it had been done on all agricultural crops by subdividing the country into agro-ecological zones.

Improper waste management and disposal in major cities of Malawi transpires to be one of the major environmental setbacks as waste remains uncollected and usually disposed in open dump sites. Such waste emits greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere that contribute to global warming and climate change in addition to pollution of water sources. The effects of climate change to Malawi have been far reaching to the extent of experiencing floods and droughts. This in retrospect has also had lasting impacts on Shire River where more than 95% of the country’s electricity is generated. Consequently, the rate of power generation is greatly hindered which has thus left only 11% of the population with access to electricity partly due to droughts. This paper therefore focusses on the capturing of methane from municipal solid waste as a solution to climate change and energy challenges through the utilization of methane, a combustible gas which is beneficial in regard to cooking, heating and electricity generation. This is amplified with particular review of the challenges, opportunities, policy framework in place and the pertinent role of anaerobic digestion as the game changer in climate change mitigation and adaptation in Malawi.

Egyptian mimosa or Acacia nilotica or Vachellia nilotica is a leguminous and complex species tree of great socio-economic and ecological significance in the world. It is called as Bagaruwa in Hausa and is a great source of livelihood. A. nilotica is an agroforestry and urban forestry tree species, which provide fruits, timber, fodder, gums and other services such shade, beauty, soil improvement. It is used for climate change mitigation, adaptation and phytomediation. Every part of the plant is medicinal. This paper reviews the perception and usage on taxonomy, socio-economic and ecological importance of Acacia nilotica. This attempted to compile and document information on different aspects of this important plant species and its potential uses from the literature. The study provides a base line information about the societal and ecological benefit derived from Egyptian mimosa, which is constitutes a management tool for the conservation of the species. This study recommends the use of Acacia nilotica trees in planting programmes.

Climate change which is the variation in the climate condition over comparable periods has some indicators like surface temperature, atmospheric carbon and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and ozone layer area. This paper seeks to examine the state of the climate change indicators, their effects and how climate change can be mitigated. A review of data sources and literature reveal that global average temperature has increased more than 0.8ºC above the pre-industrial baseline over the past 100 years with 2016 and 2017 being the warmest years. Fossil carbon emissions also reached up to 41.5 billion tons in 2018. The extent of depletion of the ozone reduced to an area of 24.8x106 km2 in 2018 as against its value of 28.2 x106 km2 and 29.6 x106 km2 in 2015 and 2006 respectively. The effects of climate change on the socio-economic development were identified to include; natural disasters, food insecurity, diseases, human mobility and population displacement. To mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, minimizing our dependence on petroleum and fossil fuels by using cleaner and renewable energy sources, carbon capture and sequestration, proper management of land, forest and the entire ecosystem was highlighted. If these options are explored, climate change will drastically reduce while fostering global economic, environmental and social well-being.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. It affects all countries in the world, especially Sahelian countries in Africa. This paper aimed at evaluating the impact of climate change on cereal yield in Burkina Faso. The ordinary least squares (OLS) was applied to time-series data from 1991 to 2016 collected on the World Bank website. The results have shown that temperature adversely affects yield and cereal production, while precipitation has positive effect. An increase in rainfall of 1 millimetre would increase cereal production by 385 tons in the long term and 252 tons in the short term. In the same, an increase in rainfall of 1 millimetre would increase agricultural yield by 9 kg per hectare in the long term. However, in the short term, an increase in temperatures of 1ºC would result in a decrease in cereal production and agricultural yield of 134748 tons and 72 kg per hectare, respectively. However, in the long term, a rise in temperatures of 1ºC would result in a decrease in cereal production and cereal yield of 154 634 tons and 1074 kg per hectare, respectively. Besides, the results indicate that the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) has no significant effect on yield and cereal production. Implementing effective adaptation strategies, such as access to improved seed, introduce smart agriculture in the system of cereal in Burkina Faso and increasing irrigation infrastructure could reduce the cereal production's vulnerability to climate shocks.

Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is a strategy that relies on forest landscape’s biodiversity management and restoration to enhance the sustainable production and supply of ecosystem goods and services as alternative livelihoods to cushion the society against the negative impacts of climate change. As climate change becomes a reality, adaptation measures which are cost effective and economically beneficial are urgently required. Mount Elgon ecosystem in the western region of Kenya has EbA characteristics which could offer longer term solutions to adaptation to climate change impacts while providing a range of other benefits in terms of ecosystem goods and services. This paper established the existing capacities for Ecosystem based adaptation inclusion in the sub-national adaptation plans and policies in order to improve resilience to climate change impacts in the Mt. Elgon ecosystem. To achieve this, a descriptive survey was carried involving 405 household and 51 government and civil society respondent drawn from Saboti, Kiminini, Endebess and Kwanza sub-counties, Transnzoia County in Kenya. Results showed that there were good institutional representations in Mt. Elgon ecosystem with line ministries largely being responsible (63.4%) for the management of the individual natural resources that occur in the Mt. Elgon ecosystem while a few others were either co-managed (9.7%) or managed by the County Government of Transnzoia (9.7%). Majority (77%) of household respondents observed uncoordinated approach in ecosystem management. This should be addressed in order to increase ecosystem health which eventually leads to enhanced EbA services. Majority (73.2%) of government and civil society respondents cite inter-sectoral policy inconsistencies and conflicts as contributors to degradation of ecosystem health in the study area. This too has impacted negatively on EbA. A major conclusion in the study was that consolidation and harmonization of ecosystem policies in the Mt. Elgon’s ecosystem will lead to a healthy landscape that provides sustainable EbA services.

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, with many attributes which make it a useful potential resource for humankind. Though having fast growth and good regeneration performance after harvesting is a unique characteristic of the specie. It enhances a high carbon storage potential particularly when the harvested culms are transformed into durable products. China has many bamboo species with distribution and area coverage's, and highly connected in using the production of bamboo resources. Its characteristics make it an ideal solution for the environmental and social consequences of tropical deforestation. This review paper aims to assess the contribution of bamboo in mitigating and adapting impacts of climate change and its importance regarding ecological and socio-economic benefits. The review summarised the role of bamboo forests towards mitigating and adapting its potential to overcome the impacts of climate change currently seen globally and particularly to China. Therefore, advancing bamboo farming systems at different levels, it's advantages to reduce greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and expanding bamboo forests in future under wider use and intensive management is recommended.

Climate change, a global challenge facing mankind necessitates governments to develop mitigation and adaptation plans. The climate change has multidimensional impacts on environment, fishery, social, economic and development drivers. Climate change hot spots –can be defined as the ‘live labs’ where the manifestation of the climate change impacts is observed “first”. The South west India has been recognised as one among the twenty four hot spot regions identified globally. The present paper assessed the climate change vulnerability of over 800 fisher households in two major fishing villages of Kerala from the south west hotspot regions of India. Exposure (E), Sensitivity (S) and Adaptive Capacity (AC) are the pertinent factors that determine the vulnerability of households which were captured using a structured household questionnaire. One ninety eight indicators were identified in the construction of vulnerability indices of which 37 related to sensitivity, 36 related to exposure and the other 125 indicators dealt with adaptive capacity. The overall vulnerability of the regions was assessed and the analysis revealed that the Poonthura village of Kerala was more vulnerable when compared to Elamkunnapuzha. The coastal population on their vulnerability scores were categorised into low, moderate, high and very high based on score values and geo-spatial analysis was attempted. The results revealed that majority of fisher households in both villages were highly vulnerable to climate change, which is a major cause of concern. The study advocates the need for a bottom up approach with the proactive participation of the fishers in developing location specific adaptation and mitigation plans to ensure the livelihood of the fishers and the sustainable development of the fisheries sector in the climate change regime.

In this paper, the author describes a semi empirical climate model (SECM) including the major forces which have impacts on the global warming namely Greenhouse Gases (GHG), the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI), the Astronomical Harmonic Resonances (AHR), and the Volcanic Eruptions (VE). The effects of GHGs have been calculated based on the spectral analysis methods. The GHG effects cannot alone explain the temperature changes starting from the Little Ice Age (LIA). The known TSI variations have a major role in explaining the warming before 1880. There are two warming periods since 1930 and the cycling AHR effects can explain these periods of 60 year intervals. The warming mechanisms of TSI and AHR include the cloudiness changes and these quantitative effects are based on empirical temperature changes. The AHR effects depend on the TSI, because their impact mechanisms are proposed to happen through cloudiness changes and TSI amplification mechanism happen in the same way. Two major volcanic eruptions, which can be detected in the global temperature data, are included. The author has reconstructed the global temperature data from 1630 to 2015 utilizing the published temperature estimates for the period 1600 – 1880, and for the period 1880 – 2015 he has used the two measurement based data sets of the 1970s together with two present data sets. The SECM explains the temperature changes from 1630 to 2015 with the standard error of 0.09°C, and the coefficient of determination r2 being 0.90. The temperature increase according to SCEM from 1880 to 2015 is 0.76°C distributed between the Sun 0.35°C, the GHGs 0.28°C (CO2 0.22°C), and the AHR 0.13°C. The AHR effects can explain the temperature pause of the 2000s. The scenarios of four different TSI trends from 2015 to 2100 show that the temperature decreases even if the TSI would remain at the present level.

International audience; Environmental protection becomes a global challenge currently. Green roof is one of the innovativeconcepts to face this battle. An increase in its use is noticed in urban areas worldwide. But a question arises: what are the environmental consequences of the green roofs’ life cycle? In this paper, the environmental performance of two complete systems of lighter and heavier green roofs implemented in a global south low-income country are analyzed and compared in order to determine the potential impacts of both types of green roof systems. For proposing solutions aiming at reducing environmental loads of green roofs, Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was used in the present study. For this purpose, the approach consists of the following phases: definition of the objective, life cycle inventory, characterization of impacts, and interpretation of results. LCA calculations were done with the help of OpenLCA software. Results show that, non treated materials and / or imported ones are more environmentally impactful. Hence, it is profitable to reduce the use of cement, gravel, virgin plastics, and soil as well as imported materials whose transport is done by plane. In addition, use of natural fertilizer for amending the growth substrate and water from well for watering the green roof, is also recommended.

Climate change has been one of the most sought out and debated topic of this decade and is evident to have profound effect on human health, climatic conditions and biodiversity. Though changes in climatic conditions has been referred as natural process but scientific investigation has shown that the recent climatic variation has gone beyond the natural level suggesting the evolution of a process i.e. “global climate change”. The disease burden of a population, and how that burden is distributed across different subpopulations (e.g. infants, women), are important pieces of information for defining strategies to improve population health. Disease burden estimates provide an indication of the health gains that could be achieved by targeted action against specific risk factors. The measures also allow us to prioritize actions and direct them to the population groups at highest risk. It has been noticed that one in three developing-country children under the age of five – 178 million children suffers stunting due to chronic under nutrition and poor quality diets. Chronic malnutrition during the first two years of life usually results in irreversible harm. Keeping in view the above conditions this review paper was prepared to pledge the proficiency and admonish the people i.e., our children from ill effects of climate change by making people aware how they can save their children with suggestions to overcome the severe and grievous effects of looming climate change, and most of all through various suitable government policies at national and international level.

Climate change has become a great challenge to our generation and its impact is felt in almost every society in the world. Nigeria as a developing country with a population of about 180 million is likely to be adversely impacted by climate change due to its vulnerability and low coping capability. Evidences have shown that climate change impacts on Nigeria arises from various climate change related causes experienced due to the increase in temperature, rainfall, sea level rise, impact on fresh water resources, extreme weather events, flooding, drought in the north and increased health risk. The study reviews some existing literatures, information, policies, and data on climate change in Nigeria and its impact on the various sectors of the economy. The finding for this paper indicates that many sectors of Nigerian economy appear to be directly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as agricultural sector, health, energy, etc. This generally affects the growth of economy. The impacts of climate changed highlighted in this study raise the need for more support in research and education awareness on the impact of climate change in Nigeria. This review attempts to create awareness on the impacts of climate change in Nigeria and presents some policy recommendations for adaptation and mitigation measures to tackle the challenges.

Drought is one of the most worrying manifestations of variability and change of climate in many West African countries. Due to its threats on human life, socio-economic activities, agricultural productivities, shortage of water, natural resources and environments, the problems related to drought have caught the attention of scientists, researchers and policy makers in recent decades. Original Research Article Doumouya et al.; AIR, 6(6): 1-12, 2016; Article no.AIR.25349 2 The aim of this paper is to characterize and analyze climatic events and their impact on water resources, environmental ecosystems and population. For this, we have selected rainfall time series of Sine Saloum river basin at Foundioune’s rain gauge. We have first conducted an exploratory analysis based on the graphic study. So, histograms relating to annual rainfall, monthly rainfall decadal, interannual monthly rainfall and interannual monthly averages, were analyzed separately compared to the corresponding average; this has highlighted the spatial and temporal distribution of intra and inter annual rainfall compared to the average and allowing viewing wet and dry years and months. We have secondly calculated the drought indices such as standardized precipitation index and normal precipitation index to evaluate climate fluctuations, characterize the progression of drought and its degree of intensity. This has also highlighted the deficit years and surplus years. In total, over the 43 years of the study period, we have counted 13 wet years and 20 dry years. We have also noted that 1971 was the wettest year and 2007 the least wet year. Characterization of these 30 deficit years has highlighted 3 categories of drought: mild drought, moderate drought and great drought. It appears from this study that the impacts of drought can be attributed in part to a deficit or erratic rainfall. Analysis of the results has showed the high vulnerability of the watershed to drought. Examination of drought years revealed a higher frequency in space and in the time of light drought. These results are very useful for drought monitoring, evaluation and mitigation.

This paper examined residents’ socio-economic attributes as drivers of adaptation to climate change effects in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. Through systematic random sampling, primary data were obtained from 442 household heads in the core, transition and sub-urban residential areas. The study established that residents' socio-economic characteristics varied along the line of the identified residential areas. The major adaptive strategies adopted were reactive rather than anticipatory. The three most important adaptive strategies measured on a 5-point likert scale were ‘repair/replace damaged properties’ (3.76), ‘eliminate deliberate dumping of waste in drain’ (3.72) and 'listening to information about climate change’ (3.70). Adaptive strategies in the different residential areas were similar, but different in magnitude as denoted by the resident response index (RRI ) RRI c=3.35, RRI t=3.46 and RRI s=3.55 . Residents in different socio-economic groups, especially in the education status and income groups exhibited different levels of mean score, but showed that same responses were given to the same climate change effects. The study concluded that residents were susceptible to similar adverse effects of climate change and that the contents of

The rising water turbulence in the Anthropocene changes the water research and policy agenda, from a water-resource efficiency to a water resilience focus. Irrigation systems, as examples of complex social-ecological systems, deal with both the uncertainty of ecosystem dynamics and the interdependencies resulting from human needs. The water-agriculture nexus is context-dependent, socially constructed and technically uncertain, and it should be analysed as a hydrosocial cycle, which likewise takes into account the inseparability of social and physical aspects of water systems. Water management options have typically been categorized as either supply management or demand management, and even though physical solutions continue to dominate traditional planning approaches, these solutions are facing increasing social opposition. Focused on the Anthropocene dynamics, how to ensure stakeholders’ involvement? The value of stakeholder participation is to reduce the rigid influence of the technocratic state by devolving greater decision-making power to users directly invested in, and knowledgeable of, the management of natural resources. This paper aims to review key questions about water governance in order to promote the transition from being problem-oriented to proactive and forward-thinking management tools by ensuring social learning.

Climate change, population growth, migration, urbanisation ,and ageing infrastructure will all impose significant strains on the urban water services in Europe, and cities across Europe will experience increasingly frequent shortfalls in supply/demand balance. It is widely accepted that the mitigation of these and other emerging challenges should be sensitive to increasing energy prices, the environment ,and the desire for low carbon intensity solutions. This paper presents the development of a new methodology for assessing the impact of household water savings from different water demand management interventions based on their water -related energy use and cost, as well as their impact on the supply/demand balance. T he methodology has been applied to the water distribution system of a European city to demonstrate its application using different water demand management interventions for different types of water savings. Sensitivity analysis for different popula tion growth rates that are representative of the different growth rates across the EU was carried out. The results show different degrees of water, energy,and cost savings can be achieved depending on the type (s) and proportion of household micro-compone nt appliances and fittings considered. In all the intervention strategies considered, there are important trade

Weather affects almost all modes of transportation in a modern society, and likewise, transportation has an enormous impact on the weather. Transportation greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) impact climate change, which impacts transportation in return. Reduction of transportation impacts on climate change can mitigate the reverse climate change impacts on transportation. This paper examines the relationship between transportation and climate change and establishes prospective solutions to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emission impacts on climate change and mitigate the reverse climate change impacts on transportation.

In this paper, we examine the association between climate change and outbreak probability of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A virus (HPAI H5N1) in birds. Climate change is a potential factor for the recent spread of H5N1 outbreaks because it can directly alter the conditions involved in persistence of the virus and disease transmission. Also it can contribute indirectly by changing wild bird migration patterns. Econometric analyses using a dynamic Probit model over monthly data from January 2004 to December 2008 found that a 1% rise in winter total precipitation increases the risk of HPAI H5N1 outbreaks by 0.26%. Spring mean temperature was also found to have positive and significant impacts. Our findings are robust across different model specifications and under out-of-sample tests. Using historical data we find the realized climate change of the last 20 years partly explains the recent expansion in outbreaks. Under future climate change projections, we find that countries having higher projected spring temperature or more winter precipitation or both, such as Japan and Romania, will have large increases in outbreak probabilities. This suggests that climate change may play an even greater role in Original Research Article British Journal of Environment & Climate Change, 4(2): 166-185, 2014 167 the future, although magnitudes will vary across countries and climate projections. From a policy perspective, future climate conditions may give rise to a need for different disease control and prevention strategies.

The objective of this analysis is mainly to examine the current trend of climate change diplomacy carry forward by the Government of Bangladesh. This focus on effectiveness of Climate Change (CC) Diplomacy for the climate change victim nation like Bangladesh. Some interrelated issues addressed here are: (i) essence of climate change diplomacy for the developing nations mostly affected by climate induced disasters; (ii) performance of Bangladesh in the bilateral and multilateral negotiations. The findings of the analysis suggest that, climate change diplomacy of the government of Bangladesh is not formally fashioned yet to influence foreign governments and/or multilateral institutions towards extending highest support in mitigating and adapting the climate change impact. It is apparent that, climate change diplomacy does not seem to have emerged as an integral component of its international relations to complement the national efforts through tie up with international affiliations. The paper is concluded with a roadmap to make the climate change diplomacy more effective so that Bangladesh could avail optimum assistance from the international community/alliance to mitigate and adopt climate change for reduction of vulnerability of the community recurrently affected by climate change induced disasters. With the prominence of climate change diplomacy on the top, Bangladesh should have a strategy of playing a pro-active role at the international level in coming years. Such strategy would help Bangladesh to draw on the global assistance in favor of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The topography effects on vegetation biomass under climate change impact have been ignored in prairie regions as it is not as significant as in mountain areas. This paper aims to investigate the topographic effects on vegetation biomass under climate change in semiarid Canadian mixed grass prairie. The study site is Grasslands National Park (GNP) and the study period is from 1985 to 2007. Data used include dry green biomass data sampled from June to July of 2003 to 2005, 10-day Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) 1km Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) composites of 1985 to 2007, and Global Digital Elevation Model derived from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER GDEM) data with 90 m resolution. To achieve the objective, the applicability of AVHRR NDVI data being a proxy of vegetation biomass was investigated. Then, the range and standard deviation (SD) of each individual vegetation patch in both valley and upland grasslands were calculated. In addition, the variation trend of valley and upland vegetation was analyzed respectively using the Mann-Kendall (M-K) test and the Sen’s slope. The results indicate that the interannual variation of vegetation biomass at GNP can be fairly well represented by AVHRR 1 km NDVI data. Although some patches in valley grassland have similar NDVI range and SD values as those in upland grassland, the others have much smaller range and SD Short Research Article British Journal of Environment & Climate Change, 4(2): 229-242, 2014 230 values than the highest range (0.154) and SD (0.045) of upland grassland. The M-K test and Sen’s slope analyses indicate that NDVI had an increase trend with a larger slope (0.0005) in upland and a smaller slope (0.0002) in valley grassland. It is concluded that climatic variation has more effects on upland grassland than valley grassland in GNP. Topography effects in prairie regions should not be ignored.

The aim of the special issue “Interactions of Forests, Climate, Water Resources, and Humans in a Changing Environment” is to present case studies on the influences of natural and human disturbances on forest water resources under a changing climate. Studies in this collection of six papers cover a wide range of geographic regions from Australia to Nigeria with spatial research scale spanning from a tree leaf, to a segment of forest road, and large basins with mixed land uses. These studies clearly show the strong interactions among forests, global climate change, water quantity and quality, and human activities at multiple scales. Understanding the underlying processes of response of natural ecosystems and society to global climate change is essential for developing actionable science-based climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and methodologies. Future research should focus on feedbacks among forests, climate, water, and disturbances, and interactions of ecohydrologic systems, economics and policies using an integrated approach.

The study discusses use of indigenous knowledge as a strategy for climate change adaptation among farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The local farmers in this region through the indigenous knowledge systems have developed and implemented extensi ve adaptation strategies that have enabled them reduce vulnerability to climate variability and change over the years. However, this knowledge is rarely taken into consideration in the design and implementation of modern mitigation and adaptation strategie s. This paper highlights some indigenous adaptation strategies that have been practiced in sub Saharan Africa and the benefits of integrating such indigenous knowledge into formal climate change adaptation strategies. The study recommends the need to incor porate indigenous knowledge into climate change policies that can lead to the development of effective adaptation strategies that are cost -effective, participatory and sustainable.