Advances in Global Change Research – serie

Global climate change - rapid, substantial and human-induced - may have radical consequences for life on earth. The problem is a complex one, however, demanding a multi-disciplinary approach. A simple cost-benefit analysis cannot capture the essentials, nor can the issue be reduced to an emissions reduction game, as the Kyoto process tries to do. This text considers an integrative approach, which reveals that global climate change needs to be considered as a spider in a web, a triggering factor for a range of other, related problems - land use changes, water supply and demand, food supply, energy supply, human health, and air pollution. But an approach like this, which takes account of all items of knowledge, known and uncertain, does not produce clear-cut, final and popular answers. It does provide useful insights, however, which will allow comprehensive and effective long-term climate strategies to be put into effect.

The contributors to this book focus on climate change issues in Australia, New Zealand and the small island nations in the South Pacific, as the world struggles to formulate responses and cope with possible impacts of global warming. The emphasis is on the scientific, political and legal issues that frame the climate change debate. An effort is made to assess the implications of climate on critical ecosystems in the region, as well as possible social and economic impacts on the region's inhabitants. Many of the contributors also discuss the role of regional factors, including government representatives and non-government organizations, in the formulation and evolution of the primary international legal instrument that addresses climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This volume contains a selection of scientific papers which were presented at an international workshop held in Wengen, Switzerland, in September 1998. A number of state-of-the-art papers are presented, which discuss scientific, technological and socio-economic issues related to large forest fires which occur both in the tropics and in the extra-tropical regions. The book comprises some of the most recent research conducted in the context of the large forest fires which occurred in South-East Asia, Australia, Brazil and Africa in late 1997 and early 1998; while essentially due to human interference, these particular fires appear to have been enhanced by the particularly strong El Nino episode which prevailed at that time. This interdisciplinary volume addresses a number of topics, in particular the contribution to climatic change by the greenhouse gases and aerosols emitted by large forest fires, the monitoring of fires both during and after combustion through satellite remote-sensing techniques, and numerical studies of the perturbation to the climate system using general circulation climate models.

This volume offers a broad overview of the science and technology of remote sensing, its policy implications, and the needs of operational users in the context of climate change and environmental degradation over land. The various chapters derive from presentations originally made at the first ENAMORS conference on Optical Remote Sensing of Terrestrial Surfaces: New Sensors, Advanced Algorithms, and the Opportunity for Novel Applications, held in Tuusula, Finland, in September 1997. This meeting assembled a panel of scientists, engineers, users, and policy makers, and provided a forum to debate scientific priorities, technological opportunities, and information requirements. Policy makers strive to take full advantage of investments in Earth Observation, scientists develop new and better algorithms to deliver more accurate characterizations of the environment, or propose innovative applications, while Space Agencies design observational systems better adapted to meet the requirements of a broad spectrum of scientific missions.

Research input constitutes a key component in the development of international environmental regime formation. Science-policy interaction is, however, complex and difficult, particularly because it is an encounter between two distinct systems of behaviour: the scientific ideal of impartiality and disinterestedness and the political reality of interest realisation and strategic behaviour. This study analyses the extent to which and how the institutional framework within which the science-policy dialogue takes place - through conscious design - can be utilised as an instrument to handle obstacles and barriers immanent of science-policy interaction and thereby serve as an instrument to enhance the effectiveness of the dialogue. Also, the impact of actor behaviour, particularly behaviour taking the form of leadership performance, is investigated. This book provides a detailed and in-depth empirical study of science-policy interaction in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from its establishment in 1988, to the provision of the Second IPCC Assessment Report in 1995. The main focus of the empirical investigation is on Working Group I of the IPCC.

Our views and understanding of variations in climate, geomorphological processes and the interrelationships that exist between climatic changes and land surface changes, both now and in the past, have developed greatly over the last decade. This book aims to encapsulate some of these recent advances and focuses on the integration of research that has been conducted by geomorphologists and climatologists on linking climate and land surface changes. This book is divided into two main parts: Section A incorporates research that has concentrated on short-term variations in climate, whilst Section B looks at some of the work on long-term climate variability. The volume concludes with a summary chapter that brings together the various ideas that have been presented in this work and other recent research in this general field. This text will be of interest to upper level students of geomorphology, Quaternary studies, climatology, earth sciences, and environmental studies. It will also be of use to researchers in these fields.

This work covers state-of-the-art research in two domains which are largely complementary, but which have until now not made optimum use of their complementarity: remote sensing techniques and climate models. The material presented in the book covers such diverse areas within satellite remote sensing techniques as aerosol loading of the atmosphere, characterization of the land surface (type and extent of vegetation, reflectivity of snow, land and vegetation), and soil moisture. Such parameters are important determinants of the climate system and its evolution, and are often poorly quantified in climate models; the advantage of remote sensing techniques, which have a global coverage, therefore becomes obvious for the climate modelling community. The book is primarily aimed at advanced academic research, at PhD or post-doctoral levels and beyond.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) was jointly established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Envir- ment Programme (UNEP) to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change. Since its inception the IPCC has produced a series of comprehensive - sessment Reports, Special Reports and Technical Papers on the state of the und- standing of causes of climate change, its potential impacts, and options for response strategies. In 1998, Working Group III (WG III) of the ongoing Third Assessment was charged by the IPCC Plenary to assess the scientific, technical, environmental, economic and social aspects of the mitigation of climate change and a series of cross-cutting issues such as equity, development and sustainability. Its mandate was changed from a predominantly disciplinary assessment of the economic and social dimensions of climate change in the Second Assessment Report to an interdisciplinary assessment of the options to control the emissions of greenhouse gases and/or enhance their sinks. One key issue of the IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR) on mitigation of climate change, which has undergone an extensive review by scientists and governments, is the role of present and future behaviour of individuals, households, private and p- lic companies, public authorities and other stakeholders.

The scope of this book is to show that protected areas may be the regions where early signs of the impact of global change can be observed. These signs are not limited to physical parameters like temperature and precipitation, but could include changes in the biosphere and in social behaviour. The book is a collection of papers presented at the meeting "Global Change and Protected Areas" held in L'Aquila, Italy, in September 1998. It is divided into four sections dealing with the physical evidence for climatic and environmental changes, the impact on the biosphere and hydrology and the socio-economic implications. The last section is a case study on the Abruzzo Region which has the peculiarity among the Italian regions of having dedicated a third of its territory to natural parks. Most of the contributions have been prepared for this book and each section is opened by a general review that may also be very useful as a teaching tool.

Developing countries recognize the importance of their future role in responding to the uncertainty posed by global climate change through appropriate technical, institutional, and policy measures. A comprehensive assessment and understanding of issues relevant to developing countries, such as greenhouse gas emissions inventories, contribution of developing countries to greenhouse gas emissions, projected climate change, impacts of climate change on the ecosystems and developing economies, mitigation opportunities, and potential socio-economic implications for developing countries, is necessary in order to address the emerging climate change. This title presents alternative perspectives of developing countries on opportunities to benefit from global negotiations, institutions, and mechanisms to address climate change. Analyses show that the developing countries, with appropriate policy and institutional responses, could benefit from the global programmes for mitigating the climate change.

year simulations in order to separate noise in the system from the climate change signal. Several contributing papers focused on case studies using Regional Climate Models (RCMs) linked to hydrological models, applied to the analysis of runoff under conditions of convective activity and extreme precipitation, in regions of complex topography, or stakeholder-driven investigations such as water runoff simulations in Quebec undertaken for a major utility. Thorough analyses of GCM results for the Century were reported at the Workshop, in order to illustrate the improvements in model results which have taken place in recent years, and the increasing confidence with which the models can be used for projecting climatic change in coming decades. However, there is still much room for improvement; there is also a need to address more fully the manner in which climate and impacts models (e. g. , hydrological models) can be linked, in terms of consistency and the overlap between different scales, the underlying physical assumptions, and the parameterizations used. Session 2 was devoted to the two extremes of water resources, namely floods and droughts, the focus here being to identify the climate change component in river floods. These have significant economic implications, as was shown by several scientists from Western and Central Europe. Many long time series have been studied worldwide with the aim of detection of nonstationarities, yet there is no conclusive evidence of climate-related changes in flow records, in general.

Among global environmental issues, climate change has received the largest attention of national and global policy makers, researchers, industry, multilateral banks and NGOs. Climate change is one of the most important global environmental problems with unique characteristics. It is global, long-term (up to several centuries) and involves complex interactions between climatic, environmental, economic, political, institutional and technological pressures. It is of great significance to developing countries as all the available knowledge suggests that they, and particularly their poorer inhabitants, are highly vulnerable to climate impacts. The projected warming of 1. 4 to 5. 8° C by 2100 and the related changes in rainfall pattern, rise in sea-level and increased frequency of extreme events (such as drought, hurricanes and storms) are likely to threaten food security, increase fresh water scarcity, lead to decline in biodiversity, increase occurrence of vector-borne diseases, cause flooding of coastal settlements, etc. Recognizing the potential threat of severe disruptions, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was organized in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to begin to address ways to reduce these impacts, which led to the formulation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. This Convention and the subsequent Kyoto Protocol recognize “the common but differentiated responsibility” of developing and industrialized countries in addressing climate change. Developing countries thus have a unique role to play in formulating a sound, reasoned, and well informed response to the threat of climate change.

This volume contains research papers presented during the Second International Symposium on the Limnology, Climatology, Palaeoclimatology, and Biodiversity of the African Great Lakes, organized by the International Decade for the East African Lakes (IDEAL). The book provides comprehensive coverage of the large lakes of the African Rift System, touching on climate, limnology, palaeoclimatology, sedimentation processes, biodiversity, and management issues of these lakes. The papers contained in this book have significantly advanced our understanding of natural and anthropogenic processes operating in the African Great Lakes, their temporal and spatial variability, their rates of change, and the linkages between environmental and ecological systems.

This book is a collection of the lectures, held at the International Summer School ISSAOS-2000 in L'Aquila (Italy), given by invited lecturers coming from both Europe and the USA. The goal of the book is to provide a broad panorama of spaceborne remote sensing techniques, at both microwave and visible-infrared bands and by both active and passive sensors, for the retrieval of atmospheric and oceanic parameters. A significant emphasis is given to the physical modeling background, instrument potential and limitations, inversion methods and applications. Topics on international remote sensing programs and assimilation techniques into numerical weather forecast models are also touched. The main purpose of the book is to offer to young scientists, Ph.D. or equivalent students, and to all who would like to have a broad-spectrum understanding of spaceborne remote sensing capabilities, introductory material to each remote sensing topic written by the most qualified experts in the field.

The United Nations' International Year of Mountains - 2002 can be regarded as the culmination of a long process involving research, development of research networks, a greater awareness by various sectors of society of the critical importance of mountain regions for a sustainable future, and recognition of that fact by policy makers. This volume reviews climatic trends in high elevation regions of the world, assessing the reliability of various environmental indicators that can be used for monitoring climatic change and whether physical impacts of climatic change in high elevation areas are becoming evident, as well discussing a range of monitoring strategies needed to observe and to understand the nature of such changes.

This text explores some of the ways that climate, hydrology, and water resource management converge at the borders between jurisdictions and countries in the western Hemisphere. It focuses on case studies of climate-hydrology-water resource management in diverse contexts in South, Central, and North America. The book highlights important problems arising from the very existence of boundaries drawn and defined by society. Addressing such problems takes on increasing urgency as the world becomes ever more inter-connected and interdependent. Target groups for this book include water resource managers and decision makers at levels from the international to the local; scientists involved in interdisciplinary studies of basic and applied climatology, hydrology, and environmental studies; and readers specializing in institutional analyses, including transboundary water law, policy analysis, and risk assessment.

Scattered and Filtered Solar UV Measurements provides comprehensive information about the scattered and filtered solar UV environment, the techniques to measure this radiation and the resulting UV exposures to humans. The incidence of skin cancer and sun-related eye disorders can be reduced by the minimization of exposures to UV radiation. For this to occur, a greater understanding of the solar UV exposure to humans for varying conditions and in different environments is necessary. Accordingly, this book aims to quantify, understand and provide information on the filtered and scattered solar UV. This book is aimed at students and new researchers in the field of solar UV and environmental measurements; however there is sufficient detail to provide a valuable reference for the experienced researcher. Researchers and students in atmospheric sciences, health sciences, environmental monitoring, photobiology and skin cancer prevention will find this monograph useful.

This book was conceived during the workshop "Emission of Chemical Species and Aerosols into the Atmosphere" which took place in Paris in June 2001, involving many experts who presented a number of state-of-the-art papers. Many of these papers are presented in this book where they are set in the wider context of other published work, providing comprehensive documentation of many aspects of this field of Earth science. The book is divided into 12 chapters, most dealing with inventories of emissions related to anthropogenic emissions or biomass burning, emissions from vegetation and soils, emissions of mineral and sea-salt aerosols, and emissions of sulphur compounds from the oceans. The final three chapters show how atmospheric observations have been used to improve our knowledge of emissions, such as the use of isotopes, large observation networks as well as the latest inverse modelling techniques and their application to surface and satellite observations.

Climatic Change is a rapidly evolving domain that has prompted the publication of numerous scientific works in recent years, reflecting both the public and scientific interest in the topic. This book focuses upon climate processes, variability and change and applies the general principles related to these issues, particularly in Switzerland. Although a small country, Switzerland is characterized by complex topography where climatic processes are often enhanced due to the presence of the Alps. In addition, there is a remarkable density of observational data in both the natural and social sciences that enable a comprehensive assessment of climate processes, their long-term trends and their impacts. This book draws upon recent scientific work by the author, as well as by close colleagues working within scientific networks both in Switzerland and Europe, in order to provide the reader with up-to-date information on climate processes in the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. This book is intended for students from the undergraduate level onwards and researchers interested in climate issues specific to the alpine region.

Environmental change in general, and climatic change in particular, are likely to impact significantly upon resources such as water and soils, transforming present day landscapes and their ecological characteristics. As a consequence, disruptions of socio-economic activities in sensitive regions of the globe can be expected in coming decades. Agriculture is at particular risk, especially in areas where prolonged droughts, sea level rise, enhanced natural hazards, or extreme meteorological events such as floods or mudslides threaten marginal existence. Disruptions and risks may have large effects on population migration. Conversely, large-scale movements of people, goods or capital may also disrupt local environments and further contribute to social problems.This volume provides an ample overview of state-of-the-art understanding of the multi-dimensional phenomenon of migration, in the characterisation of migration drivers, in environmental and agro-economic case studies and modelling issues as well as socio-political analyses.

Climate dynamicists generally characterize the Hadley circulation in terms of some derived meteorological parameters, such as the mass stream function (the nondivergent part of the flow) or the velocity potential (the divergent circulation), both of which are based on measurements of the three-dimensional wind field. Yet, we know very little about how such in- ces have varied in the past—beyond the most recent decades. Paleocli- tologists are unable to reconstruct such indices, so long-term reconstructions of the Hadley circulation must be based on indirect characteristics that can be in some way plausibly linked to the dynamics of the system. Rec- structed quantities, such as precipitation amount, position and strength of the trade winds, and the location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), have all been derived from different types of paleoclimatic (proxy) data, and could be potentially useful in understanding key aspects of past variability in the Hadley system. While these studies all provide an important perspective on changes that have taken place within the Hadley circulation, there has been little - fort to tie individual studies together, to obtain a more comprehensive p- spective on the overall variability of the system. With this in mind, a thr- day meeting was held at the International Pacific Research Center, Ho- lulu, Hawaii, in November 2002. This was the first time that climatologists, paleoclimatologists, and modelers had met with the specific goal of exam- ing this important part of the climate system.

Climate and economies have interdependent dynamics. Even though the pace of climate change is probably much slower than the speed of adjustment of the world economies, the global climate change impact of economic development and growth has to be controlled and taken into account in the policy assessment process. Integrated assessment models are now trying to capture the different feedbacks that link the climate system and the development of human societies. This book reviews the different approaches used to model these dynamic interactions between climate and economies and proposes new avenues of research in this domain. In fourteen chapters this book deals with various aspects of the building of integrated assessment models, either by coupling economic growth and climate change modules, or using mathematical models of viability or dynamic game theory to represent the interactions between the world regions concerned. It also focuses on more specific economic equilibrium models that can be used to assess international climate policies and it addresses the modelling of impacts of climate change in Switzerland as a test region. This book is the result of several years of joint research in an interdisciplinary project on the human dimension of climate change. It proposes innovative ways to include climate simulation modules in optimal economic growth models; it explores the possible use of computable general economic equilibrium models coupled with paradigms of game theory to assess the dividends of cooperation in climate policies; it reports on the building of multi-region dynamic energy-technology-environment models to assess the possible response of the world energy system to a global cap on GHG emissions, and it shows how to model the impacts of climate change at a regional level. This book is meant to serve as a reference work for researchers and graduate students who engage in interdisciplinary studies at the boundary between Earth and Socialsciences.

Mountain regions occupy about a quarter of the global terrestrial land surface and provide goods and services to more than half the humanity. Global environmental change threatens the integrity of these systems and their ability to provide the goods and services upon which humanity has come to depend. This book gives an overview of the state of research in fields pertaining to the detection, understanding and prediction of global change impacts in mountain regions. More than 60 contributions from paleoclimatology, cryospheric research, hydrology, ecology, and development studies are compiled in this volume, each with an outlook on future research directions.

Mountain regions occupy about a quarter of the global terrestrial land surface and provide goods and services to more than half the humanity. Global environmental change threatens the integrity of these systems and their ability to provide the goods and services upon which humanity has come to depend. This book gives an overview of the state of research in fields pertaining to the detection, understanding and prediction of global change impacts in mountain regions. More than 60 contributions from paleoclimatology, cryospheric research, hydrology, ecology, and development studies are compiled in this volume, each with an outlook on future research directions.

Research into microwave radiation from the Earth’s surface in the presence of vegetation canopies, as well as the development of algorithms for retrieval of soil and vegetation parameters from microwave radiometric measurements, have been actively conducted for the last 30 years by scientific groups worldwide. The capability of the microwave radiometric method to determine soil moisture and vegetation biometric indices was revealed 25 years ago by the author and his colleagues. Soil moisture and vegetation covers play a key role in the hydrological cycle and in water and energy transfer on the border of land surface and atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration. Accomplishment of large international projects shows that microwave radiometry of soil and vegetation has become an instrument of practical application and operational use. A systematic account of questions concerning the microwave radiometry of the Earth’s surface in the presence of vegetation canopies is the main objective of the book.

While we cannot hope to provide definitive answers to these questions, as political scientists we proceed from the assumption that much can be learned through the application of the existing tools of comparative political analysis. Two of the incidents occurred in developing countries (one a parliamentary democracy, the other a democratizing presidential system), and one occurred in a highly developed presidential democracy. All three countries are federal systems, with multiple layers of environmental regulation, although sub-national government seems to be better institutionalized and more effective in the United States. Only one of the incidents occurred within the sovereign territory of a country with an effective federal environmental protection agency and highly transparent policy and judicial processes. None of the three nation-states involved has a strong “green” political party. And the affected communities in all three cases remain dissatisfied with the outcomes to varying degrees. What can we make of these observations? Is there a systematic relationship between them (or any other political, social, cultural or economic factors) and the responses to environmental crises by nation-states? To answer these questions a more systematic analysis of the attendant political processes is needed. Only then can we suggest whether hope or despair is a more appropriate reaction. 1. 2 Global Environmental Issues Since the 1960s, environmental issues have entered the agendas of most nation-states. Pollution of land, air, and water have endangered ecosystems and public health, and called for a governmental response.

The past 25 years have witnessed an increasing worldwide concern over the issue of climate change and the specter of immense environmental and economic damage which would accompany unmitigated global warming trends. National governments in the industrialized world along with numerous multinational organizations have made a strong case for curbing the use of fossil fuels as an energy source, and agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol have come about largely due to their efforts. Many groups of researchers in both the natural and social sciences have made great strides in understanding this complicated issue. To date, however, the vast majority of climate change literature has addressed the topic from a European, North American, or global perspective, and the implications for developing countries have largely received only cursory treatment. This book represents a major step forward in addressing the issue of climate from the perspective of a country in the developing world. It highlights the climate change concerns for a particular developing country – Mexico, and analyses the economic impacts of different policies designed to mitigate the use of fossil fuels in the context of economic development and growth. The effects of energy pricing policies, technological change, carbon sequestration, and tradable permits are all economically modeled and discussed at length by the authors. Of particular interest are the issues that these authors raise for policy makers, such as the tradeoffs between environmental concerns, economic growth, and income distribution.

WHY THIS BOOK? This book is an exploration of the possibility that a significant portion of the North American Great Plains (NAGP), now primarily in rangeland, corn, soybean, and small-grain production, can be converted to the production of biomass-energy crops. Biomass can be used as a substitute for some of the fossil fuels the use of which is now increasing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO ) 2 and contributing to global warming and climatic change. Such a land use change to biomass could lead not only to a global good but also to specific economic and environmental benefits for the NAGP region. This analysis is prompted by the following facts and trends: The emission of CO from fossil fuel combustion and tropical deforesta- 2 tion and the rising concentrations of other greenhouse gases make global warming a virtual certainty in this century; indeed the evidence is strong that a warming is already discernible. Global warming will lead to climatic change and, while the geographic d- tribution of this change is not yet known, most general circulation models (GCMs) suggest that midcontinental regions in the northern hemisphere (such as the NAGP) are likely to become drier as well as warmer. NAGP, one of the world’s major breadbaskets, is subject to periodic droughts and other climatic stresses that may worsen with global wa- ing.

Measuring Precipitation from Space presents state-of-the-art rainfall estimation algorithms, validation strategies, precipitation modelling, and assimilation in numerical weather prediction models. Clouds and precipitation observations and modelling are addressed for the improvement of the rainfall product quality. Special attention is given to the applications to monitoring and forecasting weather events and to climate monitoring in a frame of growing public interest. No other book can offer to scientists, Ph.D. or equivalent students, professionals in environmental disciplines, and decision makers such a powerful tool to understand the basics of remote sensing for precipitation, to make use of existing products and to have a glimpse of the near future missions and instruments. Other categories of readers will find in the book reference material for their questions on weather and climate applications. The essays are written by the most qualified experts in the field of passive and active remote sensing, cloud and mesoscale modelling, validation and space mission planning. Top academic and research institutions and space agencies have concurred to the first joint effort ever.