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Climate change affects both men and women which, in turn, shapes their varied and contrasting perceptions of climate variability and change. This paper examined the gendered perceptions of climate variability and change among local communities in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. The objectives are threefold: - identify climatic shocks faced by the local communities; examine the perceptions of men and women of climate variability and change; and to compare their perceptions with empirical meteorological data. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods, with data collected from 215 respondents using survey, interviews and focused group discussions. From the findings, indicators of climate variability and change included reduced flooding events, occurrence of human diseases, increasing crop pests and diseases, dry spells and intensity of rains. There was increasing significant temperatures while rainfall was declining. Both male and female significantly associated with increasing temperatures and reduced flooding events. While climatic shocks affected both males and females, the impact was more pronounced depending on distinct livelihood activities and roles and responsibilities undertaken. The study concluded that people’s perceptions of climate change should be taken on by the government and integrated in the national climate programs that support people’s livelihoods and survival mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 50 years, temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) have risen roughly twice as fast as the global average, making it the most unpredictable region of environmental change due to global warming. In this paper, an Environmental Area Index model was developed using data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project to assess the ecological risk faced by QTP ecosystems under the influence of climate factors. The results show that ecological risk gradually decreases from northwest to the southeast, and there are different trends in ecological risk for each class in areas with different elevation gradients. As elevation increased, the proportion of potential risk areas gradually decreased, and the proportion of high- and higher-risk areas gradually increased. We predict that in the period 2021–2100, the overall ecological risk change trend on the QTP will not be obvious, but there will be a more obvious change on the vertical gradient. In general, under the existing global climate change scenario, the ecological risk faced by the QTP show a decreasing trend under the influence of climate factors, and the decrease in ecological risks is much higher at higher elevations than at lower elevations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As increasing global temperatures lead to sea level rise and associated impacts (e.g. flooding, erosion, saltwater intrusion), the relocation of people and assets away from sites of coastal risk has been viewed by some as a certainty. However, many people affected by emerging coastal changes remain in sites of residence. Here we examine the experiences of residents in three low-lying villages across two small island states: Dreketi and Karoko in Fiji, and Funafala in Tuvalu. Analysis of qualitative data from interviews shows that residents are concerned about local coastal changes, and largely attribute them to climate change. While some anticipate future relocation and retreat, and a few households have retreated short distances away from the coast, for now residents remain in and move to these sites to maintain livelihoods, practices, well-being, and sense of belonging. These are places that people value and plan to live in as long as possible. The contribution of this paper is to highlight the vernacular explanations of overlapping drivers of immobility and translocality in sites of coastal risk. It indicates the need to move away from the binaries of immobility/mobility and of trapped/voluntarily immobile populations and to examine the multiplicities of human (im)mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic idea of vibration-based damage identification approaches is that damage causes change in vibration response of structure. So monitoring the vibration response characteristics can be helpful in damage detection. The main limitation in such methods is that these characteristics are also affected by the Environmental and Operational Variability (EOV) that can be incorrectly known as structural damage or sometimes cover actual damages. This paper aims to propose an innovative approach to detect and locate damage considering the EOV conditions. In this regard, an Independent Component Analysis (ICA) based Blind Source Separation (BSS) approach is employed to remove the EOV influences from the time history response of the structure. The beneficial of using the ICA-based BSS method is that there is no need to measure the environmental/operational conditions. Moreover, it is able to remove EOV influences using a limited group of response data monitored during different environmental and operational conditions. Time series analysis is then performed to extract damage-sensitive features. Finally, a statistical tool is employed to damage identification and localization by using EOV independent features. Two recognized benchmark structures are employed for verifying the accuracy of the proposed approach. Results indicate that the proposed method is a time-saving tool and efficiently successful in damage assessment of structures under EOV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to assess and analyse the dynamics of flash flooding events in Slovenia. The paper examines in particular the frequency of flash floods and their seasonal distribution. The methodology is based on the analysis of historical records and modern flood data. The results of a long-term frequency analysis of 138 flash floods that occurred between 1550 and 2015 are presented. Because of the lack of adequate historical flood data prior to 1950 the main analysis is based on data for the periodbetween1951 and2015, while the analysis of data for the period between1550 and1950 is added as a supplement to the main analysis. Analysis of data for the period after 1950 shows that on average 1.3 flash floods occur each year in Slovenia. The linear trend for the number of flash floods is increasing but is not statistically significant. Despite the fact that the majority of Slovenian rivers have one of the peaks in spring and one of the lows in summer, 90% of flash floods actually occur during meteorological summer or autumn - i.e. between June and November, which shows that discharge regimes and flood regimes are not necessarily related. Because of the lack of flood records from the more distant past as well as the large variability of flash flood events in the last several decades, we cannot provide a definitive answer to the question about possible changes in their frequency and seasonality by relying solely on the detected trends. Nevertheless, considering the results of analysis and future climate change scenarios the frequency of flash floods in Slovenia could increase while the period of flash flood occurrence could be extended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a spatiotemporal analysis performed by applying a Bayesian hierarchical model on NORA10 data of significant wave height. The model has previously been applied to corrected ERA-40 data of significant wave height and was generally found to perform well. However, a new set of high-resolution significant wave height data has recently become available, which is believed to be an improvement compared to the C-ERA-40 data, and a similar spatiotemporal analysis is performed on this new data set. NORA10 differs from C-ERA-40 in various ways and in particular the spatial resolution is significantly increased. Hence, one main motivation for the study presented in this paper is to investigate how the model performs on data with very high spatial resolution. In particular, the model contains a separate component for identifying long-term trends in the wave climate, possibly due to climate change. For the C-ERA-40 data, significant increasing trends were detected in the selected area in the North Atlantic Ocean. These trends are not reproduced in the NORA10 data, but there are differences in geographical and temporal coverage that may, at least partly, explain such differences. The new analysis and the results pertaining to the NORA10 data are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate a potential use of the large samples of seasonal means that hindcasts provide for investigating different aspects of climate variability. This use of hindcasts complements their traditional uses in bias correction, real-time forecast calibration, and prediction skill assessment. For seasonal hindcast data from NCEP CFSv2 we show that a sample size 5208 for each target season is achievable. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed concept, we use this large sample dataset to illustrate how it could be used in documenting spatial variability in various moments of seasonal mean precipitation PDF over the US, and further, quantify nuances in the variations in precipitation PDF at different geographical locations with the amplitude of ENSO SSTs. It is our hope that analysis presented in this paper will accelerate utilization of seasonal hindcast datasets in furthering our understanding of different aspects of climate variability. With the advantage of the large sample size, we demonstrated that the precipitation PDF at the each grid of the CONUS can be represented by gamma distribution for a more concise and effective way to summarize precipitation variability. The availability of the large sample dataset also allowed us to analyze the statistical characteristic of the precipitation responses to the different amplitudes of ENSO SSTs. The results show that for strong warm events, enhancement in precipitation has larger amplitude than decrease in precipitation for cold events in the regions of Southern California and southeastern US. The variation of the precipitation signal over the other sub-regions including the southwestern US, mid-northwest, and mid-east shows more linear relationship with the ENSO SSTs. In response to anomalous ENSO SSTs, although the PDF of December-January-February seasonal mean precipitation anomaly is shifted from its climatological PDF, there is still a large overlap between precipitation PDFs for ENSO and its climatological counterpart. This uncertainty in seasonal mean outcomes of precipitation, therefore, limits the seasonal prediction skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use a case study of an online parenting forum to theorise how mothers’ everyday environmental and caring labour is a form of environmental and social activism in the home, that while not organised as such, is still collectivised in a “hybrid activist collective”.Design/methodology/approach Using ethnographic data and content analysis from an online parenting forum for the nappy-free infant hygiene practice known as “elimination communication”, the author compares the matters of key concern arising for this group of mothers with economic activist concerns as identified by Gibson-Graham et al. (2013) in their community economies work.Findings The paper finds a high degree of resonance between the key concerns of the elimination communication forum members with the key concerns of community economies. Furthermore, the author identifies the components of what might comprise a “hybrid activist collective” of mothers and others undertaking direct action for environmental and social change.Social implications Mothers and others acting for social and environmental change through domestic practices should be recognised for their important environmental and caring labour.Originality/value The paper proposes the “hybrid activist collective” as a way of understanding the human and non-human elements that gather together to act for environmental and social change in a collectivised, but not formally organised manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to investigate the hydrological consequences of current climate change. Hydrological responses to climate warming and wetter conditions include changes in discharge (frequency, amplitude, and volume). This paper describes current climate change and its impact on hydrological flow within the Horyn River basin. Daily air temperature and precipitation data obtained from the 17 meteorological stations located in and nearby the Horyn River basin, in combination with hydrological data (such as daily water discharges obtained from 9 water gauges), were used for the analysis of climate variability and its hydrological consequences. Analyses of meteorological variables and water discharges are crucial for the assessment of long-term changes in the river regime. Thiessen polygons were used to determine the area of influence of assigned specific meteorological stations, which affect the river's catchments within the Horyn River basin. As a result of the trend analysis, it was observed that discharge within the Horyn River basin decreased over time. These results were congruent with the trends of precipitation data and air temperature data of the stations determined by the Thiessen polygons and basin boundaries. To understand current changes in the daily flow in the basin, changes in air temperature and precipitation for the period 1991-2020 were compared with the period of the climatic norm (1961-1990). A similar analysis was done for daily water discharges. Increasing air temperature and decreasing precipitation in the current period led to a significant decrease in discharges in the Horyn River basin, especially during the spring flood period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data-driven prediction of time series is significant in many scientific research fields such as global climate change and weather forecast. For global monthly mean temperature series, considering the strong potential of deep neural network for extracting data features, this paper proposes a data-driven model, ResGraphNet, which improves the prediction accuracy of time series by an embedded residual module in GraphSAGE layers. The experimental results of a global mean temperature dataset, HadCRUT5, show that compared with 11 traditional prediction technologies, the proposed ResGraphNet obtains the best accuracy. The error indicator predicted by the proposed ResGraphNet is smaller than that of the other 11 prediction models. Furthermore, the performance on seven temperature data sets shows the excellent generalization of the ResGraphNet. Finally, based on our proposed ResGraphNet, the predicted 2022 annual anomaly of global temperature is 0.74722 °C, which provides confidence for limiting warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change, the global energy footprint, and strategies for sustainable development have become topics of considerable political and public interest. The public debate is informed by an exponentially growing amount of data and there are diverse partisan interest when it comes to interpretation. We therefore believe that data analysis methods are called for that provide results which are intuitively understandable even to non-experts. Moreover, such methods should be efficient so that non-experts users can perform their own analysis at low expense in order to understand the effects of different parameters and influential factors. In this paper, we discuss a new technique for factorizing data matrices that meets both these requirements. The basic idea is to represent a set of data by means of convex combinations of extreme data points. This often accommodates human cognition. In contrast to established factorization methods, the approach presented in this paper can also determine over-complete bases. At the same time, convex combinations allow for highly efficient matrix factorization. Based on techniques adopted from the field of distance geometry, we derive a linear time algorithm to determine suitable basis vectors for factorization. By means of the example of several environmental and developmental data sets we discuss the performance and characteristics of the proposed approach and validate that significant efficiency gains are obtainable without performance decreases compared to existing convexity constrained approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to current knowledge of climate change impacts on Indian agriculture by accounting for spatial features that may influence the climate sensitivity of agriculture. Using panel data over a 20-year period and on 271 districts, this study estimates the impact of climate change on farm level net revenue in India. The key findings reveal that there is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation and that accounting for this can improve the accuracy of climate impact studies. Furthermore, the paper argues that better dissemination of knowledge among farmers through both market forces and local leadership will help popularize effective adaptation strategies to address climate change impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand complex networks like online social networks (OSNs), one must explore them. This gives a partial view of the real object, which is generally assumed to be representative of the whole, like an iceberg. OSNs are growing rapidly, not only in the number of users they attract, but also in the mass of data produced in a short period of time. Once created, the data attracts the attention of other users, who interact with it. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of keywords used on content attraction, through an analysis of the attraction's different modes as well as the nature of the interactions of the different communities. The study concerns a crucial topic: the environment and climate change. This paper looks at the keywords used on Twitter and their impact on the interactions of different users for this complex network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ingegneria Ferroviaria is the property of Ingegneri Ferroviari and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Natural conditions other than the ecological conditions of the Chinese gene center (as 34-38° latitude and 600 to 2400 m above sea level), mainly dry subtropical, i.e. Mediterranean effects, facilitated the development of new forms and varieties (Scorza & Okie, 1991; Faust & Timon, 1995). Probably the primary cause of nectarines, this could also be the primary cause of mutations (probably about 2000 years ago) (Roach, 1985; Surányi, 1985). During the long domestication of peaches, its natural occurrence increased, which was greatly enhanced by its ecological and mutational ability and the organoleptical values of its fruit (Hedrick, 1917; Roach, 1985; Scorza & Okie, 1991; Faust et al., 2011). Through the Ellenberg-Borhidi model and its refinement, the author has demonstrated the suitability of peaches in a broad climate zone based on the relative ecological and biological values of 700 varieties. Among the varieties, clone cultivars and hybrids were Hungarian selected and crossed form, because the diverse environmental conditions of the Carpathian Basin and the past and present size of cultivation were representative (Faust & Timon, 1995; Timon, 2000). It can be concluded from the present relative ecological data that the average standard deviation is below 12% for both peach and nectarine varieties, but the relative biological values were very different. Comparison of cultivars or classical (downy) peaches (n = 562) and nectarines (n = 138) in terms of environmental values confirmed the difference in heat demand and salt tolerance of the two groups of varieties. The pictures of the paper also demonstrated the rich diversity of this fruit species, and after analyzing the apricot and plum varieties (Surányi 2014, 2018), the peculiarities of the relative ecological and biological values of peaches were confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The evolutionary process of pipe jacking method in Japan was reviewd. • The classification system provided by the Japan Microtunneling Association was introduced. • The application status of this method is investigated based on survey data from JSTT. • SPJ and HDSPJ have better performance for the ultra-long pipe jacking construction. • Curved pipe jacking projects account for 40% of total jacking projects, and HDSPJ is most adopted for curved pipe jacking. Pipe-jacking is one of the trenchless methods being widely used for the construction and maintenance of urban underground pipelines. As an eco-friendly construction method, it has the capacity for the installation of pipelines with diameters from 100 mm (4 in.) to 5000 mm (200 in.) covering the majority needs of municipal pipeline construction and is considered the most widely used trenchless method in Japan. However, there is little English literature that systematically introduces the research and application status of pipe jacking technology in Japan, resulting in a serious underestimation of Japanese research achievements in this field. This paper briefly reviews the origin, evolutionary stages, and classification system of the pipe jacking method in Japan, and representative technological advances are also introduced through case statistics. Meanwhile, the deficiencies in the current classification system of the International Society of Trenchless Technology (ISTT) are discussed as well. In addition, the application status of this method is investigated based on survey data from the Japan Society for Trenchless Technology (JSTT). According to the survey data from 5232 projects, a systematic analysis is carried out on the selection of pipe jacking equipment, the scale of jacking construction, the profile of curved projects, and the geological adaptability of the pipe jacking method in Japan. The emphasis of this paper is to introduce the current technical situation and analyze the development trends of the pipe-jacking method based on Japan's experience, and to popularize this method in other countries that need this simple, effective, and economical construction technique under the background of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Construction projects usually suffer delays, and the causes of these delays and its cost overruns have been widely discussed, the weather being one of the most recurrent. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of climate on standard construction work activities through a case study. Design/methodology/approach – By studying the extent at which some weather variables impede outdoor work from being effectively executed, new maps and tables for planning for delays are presented. In addition, a real case regarding the construction of several bridges in southern Chile is analyzed. Findings – Few studies have thoroughly addressed the influences of major climatic agents on the most common outdoor construction activities. The method detailed here provides a first approximation for construction planners to assess to what extent construction productivity will be influenced by the climate. Research limitations/implications – Although this study was performed in Chile, the simplified method proposed is entirely transferable to any other country, however, other weather or combinations of weather variables could be needed in other environments or countries. Practical implications – The implications will help reducing the negative social, economic and environmental outcomes that usually emerge from project delays. Originality/value – Climatic data were processed using extremely simple calculations to create a series of quantitative maps and tables that would be useful for any construction planner to decide the best moment of the year to start a project and, if possible, where to build it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Statistical Research / İstatistik Araştırma Dergisi is the property of Turkish Statistical Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents the results of time-related changes in maximum temperatures in lakes. The analysis was carried out on the basis of 9 lakes located in the northern part of Poland. The analysis was based on daily water and air temperatures in the period 1971–2015. Mann–Kendall's and Sen's tests were applied to determine the directions and rates of change of maximum air and water temperatures. The average increase of maximum water temperature in analysed lakes was found to be 0.39 °C dec–1, while the warming trend of the maximum air temperature was 0.48 °C dec–1. Cluster analysis (CA) was used to group lakes characterised by similar changes of maximum water temperature. The first group included five lakes in which the values of the maximum temperature trends were 0.41 °C dec–1. In the second cluster the average value of maximum water temperature increase was smaller than in the first cluster (0.36 °C dec–1). Comparing the results of cluster analysis with morphometric data show that in the first cluster lakes are having a greater average depth, maximum depth and water transparency in comparison to the lakes of the second cluster. The study showed significant changes in the maximum annual water temperatures in post-glacial lakes located in Poland in the years 1971-2015. The highest rate of increase in monthly maximum water temperature was recorded in April and the lowest in January and February. The value of maximum water temperature trends was lower than annual air temperature trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate conditions are recognised as an important determinant of tourism demand and consequently different pioneering studies have started to estimate the impact of climate change on tourism flows. However, the lack of data concerning domestic tourism demand has motivated that the majority of studies focuses on international tourism flows or considers domestic trips as the alternative to the international ones. This paper investigates the impact of temperature on destination choice decisions in the context of domestic tourism in Spain. Using a data set that comprises Spanish domestic trips from 2005 to 2007 and applying a gravity model for regional data, results confirm climate as an important factor in determining domestic tourism flows. Moreover, a simulation exercise concerning an increase in the mean temperatures of the Spanish provinces is undertaken. Findings show that while colder provinces in the north of Spain would benefit from rising temperatures, warmer provinces in the south would experience a decrease in the frequency of trips there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-year ice has replaced multiyear ice in the Northern Sea Route area since 2008. In this area, sea ice survival during summer substantially depends on first-year ice thickness at melt onset, and thus monitoring of first-year ice thickness in the freezing period is a key to forecasting sea ice distributions in the following summer. In this paper we introduce a new algorithm to estimate flat first-year ice draft using brightness temperature data measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-2 (AMSR2). The algorithm uses a gradient ratio (GR) of 18- and 36-GHz vertically polarized brightness temperatures based on decreases in sea ice emissivity in higher AMSR2 frequency channels with thermodynamic growth associated with an increase in volume scattering. Such spectral characteristics of the emissivity are examined by comparing GR values with flat first-year ice draft extracted by mode values of in situ draft data measured by a moored ice profiling sonar. The accuracy of the daily draft estimated from GR values after applying proper noise filters is about 10 cm for a draft range of 0.4–1.2 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rareness and inhomogeneity of the data points cause difficulties in the reconstruction of past average temperature. Optimal regional averaging is a method that can overcome these difficulties and obtain the average temperature of target area by means of optimal weights using limited temperature data. In this paper, the average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere is calculated by the optimal regional averaging method using two types of data: temperature data from Climatic Research Unit from 1901 to 2000 and maximum latewood density dataset of tree from 1500 to 1949. Five, ten, fifteen data points from CRU and forty data points from MXD are used in our research. The results show that even with the relatively less data used in this reconstruction, the method allows the reconstruction of the average temperature of the Northern Hemisphere more accurately, which provides the temperature information for palaeoclimate reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of climate-friendly technologies and its diffusion across countries is of key importance to slow climate change. This paper considers technologies in the mobile air-conditioning (MAC) sector which is a major contributor of fluorinated greenhouse gas emissions. Using patents as an indicator of innovations and patent citations as a proxy for knowledge flows, the inducement of new environmental and non-environmental technologies and knowledge diffusion within and across countries are analysed. The focus is on direct abatement of fluorinated greenhouse gases excluding energy efficiency improvements. We find that most environmental MAC patents originate from the US and Germany. Most knowledge flows take place within countries. Regarding cross-country flows most environmental knowledge diffuses from French and German patents, which is likely to be a result of regulatory activities in Europe and intensified research on environmentally benign MAC systems. Yet, this exchange of knowledge is not very intensive and stable so that the impact of EU regulations on US and Japanese patenting behaviour seems to be fairly weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the repackaging and consistent distribution of the world's major atmospheric and oceanic reanalyses. It also presents examples of the usefulness of examining multiple reanalyses. This service will make it much easier for anybody using reanalysis to access multiple datasets using an approach similar to that of phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Experienced users as well as students will find the standardized formatted data convenient to use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the regional climate model REMO is used to investigate the added value of downscaling low resolutions global climate models (GCMs) and the climate change projections over Central Africa. REMO was forced by two GCMs (EC-Earth and MPI-ESM), for the period from 1950 to 2100 under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario. The performance of the REMO simulations for current climate is compared first with REMO simulation driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis, then by the corresponding GCMs in order to determine whether REMO outputs are able to effectively lead to added value at local scale. We found that REMO is generally able to better represent some aspects of the rainfall inter-annual variability, the daily rainfall intensity distribution as well as the intra-seasonal variability of the Central African monsoon, though few biases are still evident. It is also found that the boundary conditions strongly influences the spatial distribution of seasonal 2-m temperature and rainfall. From the analysis of the climate change signal from the present period 1976-2005 to the future 2066-2095, we found that all models project a warming at the end of the twenty-first century although the details of the climate change differ between REMO and the driving GCMs, specifically in REMO where we observe a general decrease in rainfall. This rainfall decrease is associated with delayed onset and anticipated recession of the Central African monsoon and a shortening of the rainy season. Small-scales variability of the climate change signal for 2-m temperature are usually smaller than that of the large-scales climate change part. For rainfall however, small-scales induce change of about 70% compared to the present climate statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since residential apartments are important sources of energy for the world's population, many excellent studies have examined how well-insulated buildings and apartment's function. However, because of the building's location relative to the equator, the impact of the building on climate data varies, and the role of engineering spaces within the apartment in influencing thermal performance was not discussed in most of these studies. The purpose of this research is to use ECOTECT2011 to examine the thermal loads of virtual residential areas in two different cities: Kuala Lambor, which is located close to the equator, and Mosul, which is located far from it. The study will also examine the ratio of thermal loads in each city to the other, the number of days of rest, and the thermal and transitional period in each city. According to the study's findings, there are more rest days and transition periods in the city close to the equator than in the city farther away. These findings may indicate that space engineering is less effective as a thermal treatment in areas close to thermal extremism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To implement the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) developed by AASHTO for pavement construction and rehabilitation, it is necessary to evaluate its performance prediction models using actual pavement performance data, material properties, traffic information, and environmental factors. This paper validated the MEPDG models using the performance of typical pavements in the state of Tennessee from pavement management system (PMS). With traffic and pavement structural information collected from PMS, the performance of selected highway pavement sections was analyzed with MEPDG Version 1.100 software. The predicted present serviceability index (PSI) and rutting were compared with the actual measurement values. An initial value for the international roughness index (IRI) was suggested for Tennessee highways through investigation into the actual roughness data. The dynamic moduli of asphalt mixtures for input level 1 were obtained from laboratory testing. Those for input level 3 were estimated with the Witczak model. The results show that rutting of asphalt concrete (AC) pavements was more accurately predicted at input level 1, whereas it was overpredicted at input level 3. Traffic level was found to be an important factor affecting predicted pavement roughness. It was also found that MEPDG software was relatively conservative for highway pavements with low traffic level. However, MEPDG with nationally averaged default parameters was not sensitive enough to differentiate various climates, traffic, and materials in Tennessee for the prediction of PSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for perturbing Weather Generators (WGs) for future decades and to assess its effectiveness. Here the procedure is applied to the WG implemented within the UKCP09 package and assessed using data from a Regional Climate Model (RCM) simulation which provides a significant "climate change" between a control run period and a distant future. The WG is normally calibrated on observed data. For this study, data from an RCM control period (1961-1990) was used, then perturbed using the procedure. Because only monthly differences between the RCM control and scenario periods are used to perturb the WG, the direct daily RCM scenario may be considered as unseen data to assess how well the perturbation procedure reproduces the direct RCM simulations for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Please clickhereto download the map associated with this article. There is considerable evidence of changes in vegetation phenology in response to climate change, where some of this evidence comes from field studies and some comes from the analysis of satellite image data. This paper reports on the analysis of a suite of six indices that depict the way that the phenological profile for vegetation as recorded in image time series can change over time and shows that these indices can be interpreted so as to provide information on how the vegetation is responding across more extensive areas. The analysis also shows that changes in vegetation phenology often include strong regional influences. Some of these regional influences defy easy analysis using just the indices alone, requiring more detailed field analysis to fully understand the changes that are taking place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper conducts the assimilating experiments and simulating experiments on typhoon "Aere" (No. 0418), by use of bogus data assimilation (BDA) method combined with advanced microwave sounding unit-A (AMSU-A) data assimilation method in the fifth-generation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)/Penn State Mesoscale Model Version-3 (MM5V3), the Radiative Transfer for TIROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder Version-7 (RTTOV) model, and their adjoint models. The Bogus data constructed with BDA technique are mainly located at sea level, while the peak energy contribution levels of the sounder channels selected in AMSU-A data assimilation technique are mainly located at upper troposphere. The two types of data can reconstruct the meso-scale information and improve the typhoon initial fields under themodel dynamic forcing effect, respectively from the low level and the upper level of atmosphere during the assimilating process. Numerical results show that with four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4DVAR) technique the circulation of initial fields is improved, the "warm core" of typhoon is enhanced, the "cloud water" phenomenon that occurs in the optimal initial fields and the numerical model is changed into "warm start" from "cold start". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daily data from climate models submitted to the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are compared with daily data from observations over Australia by measuring the overlap of the probability density functions (PDFs). The capacity of these models to simulate maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation is assessed. The resulting skill score is then used to exclude models with relatively poor skill region by region over Australia. The remaining sample of coupled climate models is then used to determine the seasonal changes in these three variables under a high- (A2) and low- (B1) emission scenario for 2050 and 2100. The authors demonstrate that some projected phenomena, such as the projected drying over southwest Western Australia, are robust and not caused by the inclusion of some weak models in earlier assessments. Some other results, such as the projected change in the monsoon, are more consistent among the good climate models. Consistent with earlier work, a consistent pattern of mean warming is identified in the projections. The amount of warming in the 99.7th percentile is not dramatically higher than the warming in the mean. However, while the mean warming is generally least in the south, the amount of warming in the 99.7th percentile is substantially higher along the southern coast of Australia. This is due to a coupling of the temperature response with reduced rainfall, which causes drying and allows extreme maximum temperatures to increase dramatically. The authors show that, in general, the amount of rainfall is projected to change relatively little, but the frequency of rainfall decreases and the intensity of rainfall at the upper tail of the distribution increases. However, the scale of the increase in extreme rainfall is not large on the time scales analyzed here. The range in projected temperature changes among those climate models with skill in simulating the observations is at least twice as large for the 99.7th/0.3rd percentiles as for the mean. For rainfall, the range among the good models is of order 10 times greater in the 99.7th percentile than in the mean. Since the impact of changes in extremes is increasingly recognized as societally important, this result strongly limits the use of climate model data to explore sectors that are vulnerable to extremes. This suggests an evaluation strategy that focuses on model capacity to simulate whole PDFs since capacity to simulate the mean is a necessary but insufficient criterion for determining a model’s value for future projection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Garden biodiversity is an integral part of the urban ecosystem and play an important role in improving green infrastructure and aid in climate change adaptations. Little research is available on the floral diversity of the parks and gardens. The present study is an attempt to document the floral diversity of 77 gardens in Vadodara city and elucidate trends based on the size of the gardens. Study indicated presence of 217 species belonging to 72 families from the gardens of Vadodara city. The floristic data revealed that around 53% of the species represented indigenous species and 47% belonged to exotic species. Paper concluded that diversity is more in the small gardens as compared to large sized garden, where plantation of few species in undertaken. Species suitable to the semi-arid climate with low water requirement dominated the gardens indicative of better management practices and adapt to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we introduce a novel functional clustering method, the Bagging Voronoi K-Medoid Aligment (BVKMA) algorithm, which simultaneously clusters and aligns spatially dependent curves. It is a nonparametric statistical method that does not rely on distributional or dependency structure assumptions. The method is motivated by and applied to varved (annually laminated) sediment data from lake Kassjön in northern Sweden, aiming to infer on past environmental and climate changes. The resulting clusters and their time dynamics show great potential for seasonal climate interpretation, in particular for winter climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the synchronization of synoptic processes in the atmosphere with tidal oscillations in the Earth's rotational speed discovered by the author. The causes and effects of the synchronization are explained. Data are given on the monthly revolution of the Earth, tidal oscillations in the Earth's rotational speed, and the main lunisolar cycles. An explanation is proposed for the causes of the Mul'tanovskii elementary synoptic periods and the manifestations of 4- and 8-year cycles in the climate system. It is shown that the 35-year Brückner cycle is attributed to the beat of the annual solar (365 days) and annual lunar (355 days) oscillations in meteorological characteristics. An explanation is proposed for how the lunisolar tides may affect the air temperature, which is based on the interaction of the gravitational lunisolar tides with the radiation conditions in the atmosphere (due to changes in the cloud cover). A discussion is given of the relationship between the fluctuations in the climatic characteristics and the change in the Earth's rotational speed on decadal time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in the frequency of natural disasters around the world had caused a widespread attention to the issue of climate change. This research aimed to study the role of Community Based Disaster Risk Management approach in minimising these hazards by: 1) examining the level of commitment in the people of Lamphaya Subdistrict Municipality community towards Community Based Disaster Risk Management approach; and 2) examining the relationship between the 'prerequisites' and the success determined by preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Through quantitative data analysis, the research revealed that the level of commitment are high in all aspects. Astoundingly, the data showed that the people of Lamphaya also felt the level of disaster management success is high in all aspects even though those same people (all but 1.9 percent) also reportedly claimed being 'moderately' and 'highly' affected by the disasters. Unlike what we learned from an extensive literature review, data from multiple regression model shows that all factors but 'stakeholder' significantly predict the success of Community Based Disaster Risk Management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hailstorm research in tourism remains scant despite growing evidence of increasing hailstorms and associated damages to destinations and attractions due to climate change. This study examined hailstorm occurrence, damage and loss, preparedness and adaptation, recovery and resilience resilience-building at the Sun City Resort in South Africa. Data was collected from a staff survey (n=131), staff interviews, guest comments, and relevant Sun City Resort secondary documentation such as storm recovery and annual reports. It emerged that the 2018 hailstorm caused significant damages, yet no effective early warning systems were in place. This led to significant economic and non-economic losses, such as damage to infrastructure, cancelled activities and negative publicity. There was also no long-term strategy towards hailstorm resilience, with the resort adopting a reactive rather than proactive approach. The study contributes to climate change-induced hailstorm research in tourism while informing tourism destination resilience-building practices. Suggestions are made linked to building back and forth better in terms of hailstorm risk preparedness by the Sun City Resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Recently enacted environmental justice policies in the United States at the state and federal level emphasize addressing place-based inequities, including persistent disparities in air pollution exposure and associated health impacts. Advances in air quality measurement, models, and analytic methods have demonstrated the importance of finer-scale data and analysis in accurately quantifying the extent of inequity in intraurban pollution exposure, although the necessary degree of spatial resolution remains a complex and context-dependent question. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this commentary were to a) discuss ways to maximize and evaluate the effectiveness of efforts to reduce air pollution disparities, and b) argue that environmental regulators must employ improved methods to project, measure, and track the distributional impacts of new policies at finer geographic and temporal scales. DISCUSSION: The historic federal investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Biden Administration's commitment to Justice40 present an unprecedented opportunity to advance climate and energy policies that deliver real reductions in pollution-related health inequities. In our opinion, scientists, advocates, policymakers, and implementing agencies must work together to harness critical advances in air quality measurements, models, and analytic methods to ensure success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on multi-dimensional aspect of dam engineering is gaining momentum because of massive flood destructions in lives, ecosystem and development including Wivenhoe dam flood in 2011, Oroville dam's spillway incident 2017 and the Europe's widespread flooding in 2021. The aim of this study is to capture and review research activities in dam science since 1980. A case study of the Wivenhoe dam Brisbane Australia, focusing on its design, catchment, water storage and flood mitigation capacity, management procedure, climate change and historical rainfall pattern has been carried out to conclude why such a catastrophic flood event happened in Brisbane in January 2011. The methodology applied in the study includes related literature review followed by documentation and analysis of reports and data of Queensland Water, Wivenhoe Alliance and Flood Commission. Reviewed literatures indicated that dam failures are primarily associated with improper design, inadequate monitoring in construction period and poor management (operational) practices. In the case of the Wivenhoe dam flood, the report of the Flood Commission of Inquiry Australia was that the dam was operated so that its flood mitigation was near optimal. Whilst the operators were found to be at fault for not following the Operation Manual, it was found that the manual was confusing and difficult to follow, and therefore, they were cleared of all liability. Hence, it is difficult to conclude what would have actually happened if the Wivenhoe dam operators had released more water earlier, author's reasoned outlook about the flood mitigation measures used at the time is to ask the question "was reasonable discretion" used during the flood. In the light of the warnings that the dam operators were given even as far back as December 2010 about the strong La Nina, it would seem that operators made sub-optimal decision about water releases and hence "reasonable discretion" wasn't applied properly. Hence, it can be said that the Brisbane Flood 2011 was a dam release type flood basically related to poor management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The region situated along the southern coast of Papua Island exhibits a considerable likelihood of upwelling, which is distinguished by higher amounts of chlorophyll-a concentration. The present study examined the variability of upwelling phenomena spanning a period of 25 years (1998-2022) through the utilization of satellite-derived data obtained from the Ocean-Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). Apart from the chlorophyll-a concentration, the southern region of Papua exhibits a significant amount of suspended sediment contamination, as indicated by the observations of Rrs 555. Upon conducting EOF analysis during each season, it has been observed that there has been a significant rise in the levels of chlorophyll-a concentrations over the past several years in the northern region of the Arafura Sea. The period spanning from 2016 to 2022 witnessed a rise in precipitation amounts, leading to a greater transportation of nutrients through water discharge and consequently resulting in an increase of chlorophyll-a concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nexus between sovereign environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues and corporate investment decisions from a sustainable perspective. By utilising firm-level balance sheets data, country-level governance and policy uncertainty data, we find country governance has a significant positive effect on firm investment. Moreover, this paper shows that climate and migration policy uncertainty has a statistically and economically significant dampening impact on corporate investment, indicating that environmental and social prospect plays a key role in promoting business investment in the United Kingdom. In addition, the empirical evidence on the moderation analysis of corporate leverage suggests that superior environmental, social, and governance performance can help businesses relieve the burden of debt overhang on firm investment. These results provide several important implications on climate change with the objectives of the COP26 conference. • The nexus between sovereign environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and corporate investment is examined. • Country governance has a significant positive effect on firm investment. • Climate and migration policy uncertainty has dampening impact on corporate investment • Superior environmental, social, and governance performance help businesses relieve the burden of debt overhang. • Several important implications on climate change regarding the objectives of the COP26 conference are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, which presents an annotated checklist of the ‘lower Nymphalidae’ (Libytheinae, Danainae, Satyrinae, Charaxinae), is the fourth in a series on the butterfly fauna of Mount Kilimanjaro. Four genera of lower Nymphalidae (Danaus, Amauris, Bicyclus, Charaxes), with a total of 11 included species, are known or believed to occur within the main forest zone, from c. 1800 to 2800 m. Of these, only three species ofCharaxes(Charaxesberkeleyi, Charaxes ansorgei, Charaxes xiphares) may be restricted locally to this primary forest. The lower slopes fauna, below 1800 m, is considerably richer, with a total of 11 genera and 41 species listed (8 species of which extend into the forest zone). Possible additional species, dubious earlier records, problems with African subspecies ofDanaus chrysippus, a need for more work on certain Satyrinae, and classification of the genusCharaxesare discussed. An identification key to the subfamilies of Nymphalidae, and the 19 genera of Libytheinae, Danainae, Satyrinae, Charaxinae that occur in Tanzania, together with a key to the adults of all the species of these four subfamilies considered to occur or have occurred on Kilimanjaro, with 206 colour images, are included as online Supplementary Information. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Current political discussions and developments indicate the importance and urgency of incorporating climate change considerations into EIA processes. The recent revision of the EU Directive 2014/52/EU on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requires changes in the EIA practice of the EU member states. This paper investigates the extent to which the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can contribute to an early consideration of climate change consequences in planning processes. In particular the roles of different actors in order to incorporate climate change impacts and adaptation into project planning subject to EIA at the appropriate levels are a core topic. Semi-structured expert interviews were carried out with representatives of the main infrastructure companies and institutions responsible in these sectors in Austria, which have to carry out EIA regularly. In a second step expert interviews were conducted with EIA assessors and EIA authorities in Austria and Germany, in order to examine the extent to which climate-based changes are already considered in EIA processes. This paper aims to discuss the different perspectives in the current EIA practice with regard to integrating climate change impacts as well as barriers and solutions identified by the groups of actors involved, namely project developers, environmental competent authorities and consultants (EIA assessors/practitioners). The interviews show that different groups of actors consider the topic to different degrees. Downscaling of climate change scenarios is in this context both, a critical issue with regards to availability of data and costs. Furthermore, assistance for the interpretation of relevant impacts, to be deducted from climate change scenarios, on the specific environmental issues in the area is needed. The main barriers identified by the EIA experts therefore include a lack of data as well as general uncertainty as to how far climate change should be considered in the process without reliable data but in the presence of knowledge about possible consequences at an abstract level. A joint strategy on how to cope with uncertain prognoses about main impacts on environmental issues for areas without reliable data requires a discussion and cooperation between EIA consultants and environmental authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale climate history of the past millennium reconstructed solely from tree-ring data is prone to underestimate the amplitude of low-frequency variability. In this paper, we aimed at solving this problem by utilizing a novel method termed “MDVM”, which was a combination of the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and variance matching techniques. We compiled a set of 211 tree-ring records from the extratropical Northern Hemisphere (30–90°N) in an effort to develop a new reconstruction of the annual mean temperature by the MDVM method. Among these dataset, a number of 126 records were screened out to reconstruct temperature variability longer than decadal scale for the period 850–2000 AD. The MDVM reconstruction depicted significant low-frequency variability in the past millennium with evident Medieval Warm Period (MWP) over the interval 950–1150 AD and pronounced Little Ice Age (LIA) cumulating in 1450–1850 AD. In the context of 1150-year reconstruction, the accelerating warming in 20th century was likely unprecedented, and the coldest decades appeared in the 1640s, 1600s and 1580s, whereas the warmest decades occurred in the 1990s, 1940s and 1930s. Additionally, the MDVM reconstruction covaried broadly with changes in natural radiative forcing, and especially showed distinct footprints of multiple volcanic eruptions in the last millennium. Comparisons of our results with previous reconstructions and model simulations showed the efficiency of the MDVM method on capturing low-frequency variability, particularly much colder signals of the LIA relative to the reference period. Our results demonstrated that the MDVM method has advantages in studying large-scale and low-frequency climate signals using pure tree-ring data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]