Abstract
The research in this thesis focuses on the impacts of and adaptation to present variations in climate and to projected future changes. The research has dealt with different levels, i.e. household/community, national/policymaking, and sectoral level, to show different perspectives of the implications of climate variability and change to development. In particular, it focuses on how present variations in rainfall patterns affect rural households, ways to strengthen households' resilience to climate variability, and the costs and benefits of adaptation measures. The research attempts to contribute to the knowledge that informs the development community and national governments for policy-making on the implications of climate change on development planning and strategies. It is argued in the thesis that it is essential for sustainable development to mainstream climate change into strategies and planning where relevant. To do this a knowledge of the costs and benefits of diverse adaptation measures is essential. Fluctuations in annual and seasonal rainfall, both in terms of modest and excessive rains, are found to cause negative shocks to rural household incomes in the Kagera a region of Tanzania. An analysis of rainfall and household data for the region shows large local discrepancies in the distribution of rainfall, as well as
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Meltofte Traerup, S L
[1]
- Technical Univ. of Denmark, Risoe National Lab. for Sustainable Energy, Systems Analysis Div., Roskilde (Denmark)
Citation Formats
Meltofte Traerup, S L.
Ensuring sustainable development within a changing climate.
Denmark: N. p.,
2010.
Web.
Meltofte Traerup, S L.
Ensuring sustainable development within a changing climate.
Denmark.
Meltofte Traerup, S L.
2010.
"Ensuring sustainable development within a changing climate."
Denmark.
@misc{etde_1010721,
title = {Ensuring sustainable development within a changing climate}
author = {Meltofte Traerup, S L}
abstractNote = {The research in this thesis focuses on the impacts of and adaptation to present variations in climate and to projected future changes. The research has dealt with different levels, i.e. household/community, national/policymaking, and sectoral level, to show different perspectives of the implications of climate variability and change to development. In particular, it focuses on how present variations in rainfall patterns affect rural households, ways to strengthen households' resilience to climate variability, and the costs and benefits of adaptation measures. The research attempts to contribute to the knowledge that informs the development community and national governments for policy-making on the implications of climate change on development planning and strategies. It is argued in the thesis that it is essential for sustainable development to mainstream climate change into strategies and planning where relevant. To do this a knowledge of the costs and benefits of diverse adaptation measures is essential. Fluctuations in annual and seasonal rainfall, both in terms of modest and excessive rains, are found to cause negative shocks to rural household incomes in the Kagera a region of Tanzania. An analysis of rainfall and household data for the region shows large local discrepancies in the distribution of rainfall, as well as in households reporting shocks to income caused by harvest failure. It is also evident from the research results that the timing of rainfall seems to play a greater role than the level of annual precipitation. The coping strategies that households report following subsequent to a harvest failure further show local divergence in the choice of, for example, taking casual employment and relying on support from others in the form of informal networks. These results support earlier work which points in the same direction and emphasizes that policies should be targeted to local specificities. This provides a great motivation for targeted responses to climate change instead of exclusive national strategies. This thesis has demonstrated that there is a large potential for integrating climate change adaptation into already existing and on-going development programmes, projects and planning efforts, and that this can be done for relatively low costs. It is vital to quantify the burden of impacts attributable to climate change at the national and local levels, as opposed to exclusively at the regional level, to enable informed national and local decision-making. (LN)}
place = {Denmark}
year = {2010}
month = {Sep}
}
title = {Ensuring sustainable development within a changing climate}
author = {Meltofte Traerup, S L}
abstractNote = {The research in this thesis focuses on the impacts of and adaptation to present variations in climate and to projected future changes. The research has dealt with different levels, i.e. household/community, national/policymaking, and sectoral level, to show different perspectives of the implications of climate variability and change to development. In particular, it focuses on how present variations in rainfall patterns affect rural households, ways to strengthen households' resilience to climate variability, and the costs and benefits of adaptation measures. The research attempts to contribute to the knowledge that informs the development community and national governments for policy-making on the implications of climate change on development planning and strategies. It is argued in the thesis that it is essential for sustainable development to mainstream climate change into strategies and planning where relevant. To do this a knowledge of the costs and benefits of diverse adaptation measures is essential. Fluctuations in annual and seasonal rainfall, both in terms of modest and excessive rains, are found to cause negative shocks to rural household incomes in the Kagera a region of Tanzania. An analysis of rainfall and household data for the region shows large local discrepancies in the distribution of rainfall, as well as in households reporting shocks to income caused by harvest failure. It is also evident from the research results that the timing of rainfall seems to play a greater role than the level of annual precipitation. The coping strategies that households report following subsequent to a harvest failure further show local divergence in the choice of, for example, taking casual employment and relying on support from others in the form of informal networks. These results support earlier work which points in the same direction and emphasizes that policies should be targeted to local specificities. This provides a great motivation for targeted responses to climate change instead of exclusive national strategies. This thesis has demonstrated that there is a large potential for integrating climate change adaptation into already existing and on-going development programmes, projects and planning efforts, and that this can be done for relatively low costs. It is vital to quantify the burden of impacts attributable to climate change at the national and local levels, as opposed to exclusively at the regional level, to enable informed national and local decision-making. (LN)}
place = {Denmark}
year = {2010}
month = {Sep}
}