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Clouds Timelaps
Mammatus clouds over his house in Germantown, MD
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Perceptions of obvious and disruptive climate change: community-based risk assessment for two native villages in Alaska: In Climate 2015, 3(4), pp. 812-832
This work operationalizes the determinants of climate change risk, exposure and vulnerability, through the perceptions held by Native hunters, fishers, and gatherers in Savoonga and Shaktoolik, Alaska. Informed by their skill, experience, and the traditional knowledge of their elders, hunters, fishers, and gatherers in these communities are astute observers of their environment and environmental change. A questionnaire is used to sort and rank their perceptions of the most obvious and disruptive elements of climate change as representations of exposure and vulnerability, respectively.
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Planning for a more resilient future: a guide to regional approaches
This report summarizes the rapidly-growing body of research on resilience, describing the main ideas that are driving policy and practice across the country, and examining current thinking on regional and economic resilience. It is intended for regional development organizations (RDOs) as well as local governments, community foundations, voluntary organizations, and others who step forward as planners, conveners, organizers, fundraisers, mediators, coordinators, and advocates on behalf of communities impacted by, or at risk of being impacted by, disasters, natural and human-induced.
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Climate resilient infrastructure services: lessons learned
The Climate Resilient Infrastructure Services (CRIS) program was an initiative of USAID’s Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) project. CRIS worked to improve the ability of cities in developing countries to provide reliable and sustainable infrastructure services that support smart and lasting development, even in a changing climate. For two-and-a-half years the CRIS program worked with cities to develop, test, and implement approaches to improve the climate resilience of infrastructure services. These services—which include transportation, water, sanitation and waste management, energ ...
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Beyond Katrina: lessons in creating resilient communities
Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center (Risk Center) ; Zurich Insurance Group Limited - Zurich Insurance Group Limited, 2015This white paper explores the lessons learned from Katrina and how the recovery in New Orleans inspired the creation of new methods of building resilience. The paper identifies a number of critical areas to keep stakeholders aligned, including prioritizing flooding as the paramount risk, devoting more resources to preventive measures rather than post-event disaster relief, and overcoming current infrastructure vulnerabilities. The paper also offers first steps and tactics to help assess and address communities at risk, and ways to improve the affordability of risk-based disaster insurance.
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Twitter as a potential disaster risk reduction tool: a systematic review. In PLOS Currents Disasters. 2015 Jul 1, Edition 1
This four-part study examines Twitter as a viable communications tool at the community level during crisis events with potential for disaster risk reduction and management, and establishes an evidence-based technological science and knowledge base necessary for community-level replication and education and training of this communications tool.
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The year of recurring disasters: a review of natural disasters in 2012
This report examines four topics: (i) disasters in 2012, with a focus on recurring disasters; (ii) the role of regional organizations in disaster risk management; (iii) wildfires; and (iv) the important role of women in disaster risk management. It highlights the value given by governments and other actors in working together to prevent disasters and, to a lesser extent, to respond to disasters occurring in the region. It also features the development of strong regional initiatives and different mechanisms for encouraging collaboration, including frameworks for disaster risk reduction, regiona ...
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Using ICT and social media in disasters: opportunities and risks for government
This report examines four different issue areas to analyze how social media is used in the context of risk and crisis communication, using hurricane Sandy as an example. These areas include: public safety and preparedness; emergency warnings, alerts and requests for assistance; recovery efforts; and, finally, monitoring and situational awareness. In the context of each of these areas, the report highlights the key literature and real-life examples to explore the risks vs. opportunities in the utility of social media. These four areas capture the role of engagement and strategy in both the risk ...
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The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) tsunami scenario: executive summary and introduction
This document presents a tsunami scenario that depicts a hypothetical but plausible tsunami created by an earthquake offshore from the Alaska Peninsula and its impacts on the California coast. The scenario was developed to better understand tsunami impacts to California coastal communities. It includes evaluations of tsunami science such as tsunami source mechanics and tsunami deposits, as well as estimates of potential damage and the socio-economic and environmental impacts from such a scenario.
The document presents evidence for past tsunamis, the scientific basis for the sou ...
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Cost-efficient climate change adaptation in the North Atlantic
Schechtman Judd; Brady Michael; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - United States of America - gov, 2013The purpose of this report is to provide National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with best practice information to assist with ongoing climate change adaptation outreach in the North Atlantic region of the United States and to identify and collate cost-effective adaptation projects implemented at the municipal level. The report is divided into three sections: (i) section one introduces the study and explains the background of the region; (ii) section two defines the goals and objectives of the study, explains the research methods, and defines key terms; (iii) and section three c ...
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Scenario planning for climate change adaptation: a guidance for resource managers
This document is intended to be a step-by-step guide to using scenarios to plan for climate change adaptation. The document aims to aid natural resource managers, planners, scientists and other stakeholders working at a local or regional scale to develop resource management approaches that take future possible climate change impacts and other important uncertainties into account.
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The state of adaptation in the United States
Hansen Lara - EcoAdapt, 2013This report provides illustrative examples of the variety of work on climate change adaptation that is underway in the United States and insight into the resultant gaps and opportunities available for advancing this essential aspect of sustainability. The report focuses on four areas of activity: agriculture, natural resources, human communities, and policy.
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Feeding an urban world: a call to action
This report focuses on the specific issue of urban food security, describing the demographic and environmental trends as well as food production and infrastructure challenges that impact supply and demand for food in urban areas. Before providing specific examples of the food security challenges faced by cities around the world, the authors propose a framework, or matrix, of issues for policymakers to use in developing and assessing urban food security strategies. The report focuses on case studies in the United States before looking in depth at Chicago, highlighting the city’s challenges as w ...
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Business and disaster risk reduction: good practices and case studies
UN/ISDR, 2013This publication contains 14 good practices and case studies that have been compiled by the Private Sector Advisory Group of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). Each of the 14 examples applies one or more of the five essentials for business in their pursuit of disaster risk reduction. It presents the various types of collaboration and cooperation, core to the all five essentials, that are positioned as critical in minimizing or potentially eliminating disasters as well as disasters’ effects on people, property and ultimately, the health, economy and resilience of wo ...
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Better laws, safer communities? Emerging themes on how legislation can support disaster risk reduction
IFRC, 2013This short pamphlet sets out some preliminary findings from a 2-year comparative study of legislation for disaster risk reduction in 26 countries.
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The policy climate
This report offers an overview of climate change policy issues across the world. It focuses on: 1) Brazil, China, India, Europe and the United States, which represent the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions but vary widely in terms of economic development, natural resource endowment, political system and climate policy; 2) The economic sectors that represent the greatest potential for greenhouse gas mitigation; and 3) A defined set of policy issues within these regions and key sectors that most affect climate change. For each of the sectors covered, the report provides facts and data a ...
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An Interpretation of the Origins of the 2012 Central Great Plains Drought: Assessment Report
NOAA, 2013This report describes the morphology of the 2012 summer U.S. central Great Plains drought, placing the event into a historical context, and providing a diagnosis of its proximate and underlying causes.
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Preparing for the rising tide
This report discusses current models prediction that Boston will experience up to two feet of sea level rise by 2050 and up to six feet by 2100, and it provides vulnerability analyses for Boston Harbor and time-phased preparedness plans for Boston’s long and central wharves and UMass Boston campus to increase their resilience to coastal flooding over time.
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Climate legislation study: a review of climate change legislation in 33 countries
CDKN, 2013This review of climate change legislation in 33 countries shows that developing countries are leading action on climate change. Overall, there has been significant progress in the climate and/or energy-related legislation of almost all major economies, but a great amount of the 2012 effort took place in emerging countries. In particular, among major economies Mexico and China are leading the action against climate change thanks to their recent steps to cut carbon emissions and raise energy efficiency. The study aims to support legislators advancing climate-related legislation by providing deta ...
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Flood insurance: Participation of Indian tribes in federal and private programs
This report addresses the low participation of Indian's tribes, some of which being at high risk of flooding, in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and its three components: (1) the provision of flood insurance, (2) a requirement that participating communities adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations, and (3) the identification and mapping of floodplains.
2012/No. 3 - November 2012
is an issue of MeteoWorld. WMO, 2012Notably contains:
- Extraordinary Congress
- Commission for Basic Systems
- The hybridization of Sandy
- Brown Blizzards of the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica
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Building resilience for adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector : Proceedings of a Joint FAO/OECD Workshop
FAO, 2012
Sea-Level Rise for the Coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington: Past, Present, and Future
National Academies Press, 2012Tide gages show that global sea level has risen about 7 inches during the 20th century, and recent satellite data shows that the rate of sea-level rise is accelerating. As Earth warms, sea levels are rising mainly because ocean water expands as it warms; and water from melting glaciers and ice sheets is flowing into the ocean. Sea-level rise poses enormous risks to the valuable infrastructure, development, and wetlands that line much of the 1,600 mile shoreline of California, Oregon, and Washington. As those states seek to incorporate projections of sea-level rise into coastal planning, they a ...
Ready or not: an evaluation of state climate and water preparedness planning
This publication provides full analysis and state-by-state assessment that specifically focuses on how US state governments are planning and preparing for water related impacts of climate change. Based on the preparedness actions of state government entities, all 50 states have been categorized into one of four categories, developed to differentiate the best prepared and most engaged states on climate change preparedness issues from those that are largely unprepared and lagging behind.
Although many states have yet to formally address climate change preparedness within state go ...
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Agency climate change adaptation plan 2012
This adaptation plan is an annex to the agency sustainability plan which assesses climate change risks, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for USAID missions, programs, and operations, and it identifies agency-level actions to understand and address climate change vulnerabilities. This plan also highlights: (i) USAID climate change adaptation plan for 2013; (ii) USAID policy framework for climate change adaptation; (iii) agency vulnerability assessment - analysis of climate change risk and pportunities; (iv) infrastructure and support systems (v) health and safety.
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Climate change and agriculture in the United States: effects and adaptation
The report analyses the effects of climate change on U.S. agriculture on the basis of research needs categorized within a vulnerability framework addressing specific actions that would improve understanding of the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to: (i) improve projections of future climate conditions, including extreme temperatures, precipitation, and related variables; (ii) evaluate and develop process-level understanding of the sensitivity of plant and animal production systems; and (iii) develop and extend the knowledge, management strategies and tools needed by U.S. agricultur ...
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Flood preparedness in the Netherlands: a US perspective
This report discusses some aspects of Dutch crisis management for flooding and for the recovery period, and gives a description of what the American approach could mean for the Dutch situation. It contains a series of articles in which several aspects of the crisis are addressed: (i) flood response, an introduction; (ii) early warning, forecast, situational assessment and sense making; (iii) self reliance and community involvement in Dutch flood response; (iv) managing the response to large scale floods; (v) vertical evacuation: rethinking urban, rural and social space; (vi) public/private par ...
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Climate Security Report
ASP, 2012One of the most significant challenges to the global security system in the 21st Century will be a changing climate; the effects of these changes are already being felt all over the world. Climate change poses a clear and present danger to the United States through its effects on our global allies as well as its direct effects on our agriculture, infrastructure, economy and public health.
An exploration of the link between development, economic growth, and natural risk
This paper investigates the link between development, economic growth, and the economic losses from natural disasters in a general analytical framework, with an application to hurricane flood risks in New Orleans. It concludes that where capital accumulates through increased density of capital at risk in a given area, and the costs of protection therefore increase more slowly than capital at risk, (i) protection improves over time and the probability of disaster occurrence decreases; (ii) capital at risk -- and thus economic losses in case of disaster -- increases faster than economic growth; ...
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Climate change, water stress, conflict and migration
UNESCO, 2012This collection of papers, presented at the symposium ‘Climate change, water stress, conflict and migration’ held on 21 September 2011 in the Netherlands, highlight how climate change, water stress and other environmental problems threaten human security. For example, the paper by Muniruzzaman ilustrates how water ignores political and community boundaries, and how decisions in one place can significantly affect water use elsewhere. India’s plans to build more dams could, for instance, have devastating affects for Pakistan’s agricultural productivity which is highly dependent on water supply f ...
Climate vulnerability monitor
DARA, 2012The Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2nd Edition reveals that climate change has already held back global development and inaction is a leading global cause of death. Harm is most acute for poor and vulnerable groups but no country is spared either the costs of inaction or the benefits of an alternative path.
Commissioned by the world’s most vulnerable countries and backed by high-level and technical panels, the new Monitor estimates human and economic impacts of climate change and the carbon economy for 184 countries in 2010 and 2030, across 34 indicators.
Building urban resilience to climate change: what works where, and why
This document reports on a resilience-building curriculum that includes laying the groundwork for addressing climate change and climate resilience, conducting a climate change vulnerability and risk assessment, and using this assessment and other materials to prepare an initial resilience strategy, developed in 15 cities in 5 countries — Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand and the United States.
Managing drought risk on the ranch: a planning guide for great plains ranchers
National Drought Mitigation Center ; United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) - University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), 2012This guide is designed to help rangeland managers to better prepare for and manage drought. For ranchers in the United States, drought can be defined as too little soil moisture to meet the needs of dominant forage species during their rapid growth windows. The longer you wait to make decisions, the fewer options you will have available to you and producers who focus on increasing flexibility and maximizing the health of resources are more likely to find solutions during drought that minimize painful decisions with limited resources. Accordingly, having a plan will help producers get through a ...
Sea level rise and the Freely Associated States: addressing environmental migration under the compacts of free association
Dema Briana - Columbia Law School, 2012This paper is concerned with rising sea levels that have the potential to submerge coastal regions and displace millions of people. It reports on how current international legal frameworks applicable to refugees and immigrants will offer little protection to citizens of Freely Associated States (FAS) displaced by rising sea levels. The FAS are sovereign nations (Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau) that have negotiated Compacts of Free Association with the United States, under which the U.S. provides the states with certain types of assistance. It addresses how current refugee and immigrat ...
Crisis response and disaster resilience 2030: forging strategic action in an age of uncertainty
This progress report addresses the Strategic Foresight Initiative (SFI), which is a transformative, community-wide effort in the United States to create an enduring foresight capability intended to advance strategic planning and thinking about the future. SFI also seeks to prepare the community for emerging challenges and for the key opportunities presented by the world's changing environment. This report is concerned about a future which is highly uncertain, noting that the complexity of this uncertainty will test the ability of the emergency management community to execute its mission. It is ...
Heat waves and climate change
A report about the current scientific understanding of the connection between climate change and the recent increase in extreme temperatures, as reported in peer-reviewed research articles published through May 2012. Issues addressed: (i) heat waves: the details; and (ii) heat waves and wild fires.
Improving the Assessment of Disaster Risks to Strengthen Financial Resilience: A Special Joint G20
GFDRR, 2012This report – Avoiding Future Famines: Strengthening the Ecological Basis of Food Security through
Sustainable Food Systems - has been a unique collaboration of 12 leading scientists and
experts involved in world food systems including marine and inland fisheries.
The institutions involved include the UN Environment Programme, the International Fund
for Agricultural Development, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations,
the World Bank, the World Food Programme and the World Resources Institute. The report provides
detai ...
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US Weather Satellites saw tornado swarm coming 5 days out
SAN FRANCISCO — Five days before approximately 200 tornadoes swept through six states in the Southeastern United States between April 25 and April 28, local meteorologists were alerted to the possibility of unusually severe weather by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite data.
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Multi-scale modeling study of the source contributions to near-surface ozone and sulfur oxides levels over California during the ARCTAS-CARB period
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Vol. 11. N° 7. Huang M.; Carmichael Gregory R.; Spak S.N.; et al. - Copernicus GmbH, 2011Chronic high surface ozone (O3) levels and the increasing sulfur oxides (SOx = SO2+SO4) ambient concentrations over South Coast (SC) and other areas of California (CA) are affected by both local emissions and long-range transport. In this paper, multi-scale tracer, full-chemistry and adjoint simulations using the STEM atmospheric chemistry model are conducted to assess the contribution of local emission sourcesto SC O3 and to evaluate the impacts of transported sulfur and local emissions on the SC sulfur budgetduring the ARCTAS-CARB experiment period in 2008. Sensitivity simulations quantify c ...
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Evaluation of urban surface parameterizations in the WRF model using measurements during the Texas Air Quality Study 2006 field campaign
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Vol. 11. N° 5. Lee S.-H.; Kim S.-W.; Angevine W.M.; et al. - Copernicus GmbH, 2011The performance of different urban surface parameterizations in the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) in simulating urban boundary layer (UBL) was investigated using extensive measurements during the Texas Air Quality Study 2006 field campaign. The extensive field measurements collected on surface (meteorological, wind profiler, energy balance flux) sites, a research aircraft, and a research vessel characterized 3-dimensional atmospheric boundary layer structures over the Houston-Galveston Bay area, providing a unique opportunity for the evaluation of the physical parameterizations. The m ...
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Ozone production in remote oceanic and industrial areas derived from ship based measurements of peroxy radicals during TexAQS 2006
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Vol. 11. N° 3. Sommariva R.; Brown S.S.; Roberts J.M.; et al. - Copernicus GmbH, 2011During the Texas Air Quality Study II (TexAQS 2006) campaign, a PEroxy Radical Chemical Amplifier (PERCA) was deployed on the NOAA research vessel R/V Brown to measure total peroxy radicals (HO2+Σ RO2). Day-time mixing ratios of HO2+Σ RO2 between 25 and 110 ppt were observed throughout the study area – the Houston/Galveston region and the Gulf coast of the US – and analyzed in relation to measurements of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOC) and photolysis rates to assess radical sources and sinks in the region.
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HFC-152a and HFC-134a emission estimates and characterization of CFCs, CFC replacements, and other halogenated solvents measured during the 2008 ARCTAS campaign (CARB phase) over the South Coast Air Basin of California
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Vol. 11. N° 3. Barletta B.; Nissenson P.; Meinardi S.; et al. - Copernicus GmbH, 2011This work presents results from the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) study. Whole air samples were obtained on board research flights that flew over California during June 2008 and analyzed for selected volatile organic compounds, including several halogenated species. Samples collected over the South Coast Air Basin of California (SoCAB), which includes much of Los Angeles (LA) County, were compared with samples from inflow air masses over the Pacific Ocean. The levels of many halocarbon species were enhanced significantly over t ...
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Investigations of aerosol impacts on hurricanes: virtual seeding flights
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Vol. 11. N° 3. Carrio G.G.; Cotton William R. - Copernicus GmbH, 2011This paper examines the feasibility of mitigating the intensity of hurricanes by enhancing the CCN concentrations in the outer rainband region. Increasing CCN concentrations would cause a reduced collision and coalescence, resulting in more supercooled liquid water to be transported aloft which then freezes and enhances convection via enhanced latent heat of freezing. The intensified convection would condense more water ultimately enhancing precipitation in the outer rainbands. Enhanced evaporative cooling from the increased precipitation in the outer rainbands would produce stronger and more ...
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IWR Report, 2011-R-08. Flood risk management approaches : as being practiced in Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States
The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat, the United Kingdom Environment Agency, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers agreed in 2009 to develop a document to explore risk-informed approaches as being practiced and developed primarily in those four countries. This document, the result of that collaboration, reflects contributions from agencies within the four participating nations but is not an official position of any government or international organization. It is organized around a conceptual framework developed to encomp ...
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Climate: observations, projections and impacts
The Met.Office, 2011Understanding the potential impacts of climate change is essential for informing both adaptation strategies and actions to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.
But assessing the impacts is scientifically challenging and has, until now, been fragmented. To date, only a limited amount of information about past climate change and its future impacts has been available at national level, while approaches to the science itself have varied between countries.
In April 2011, we were asked by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to begi ...
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White Paper | Science and Impacts Program. Extreme Weather and Climate Change : understanding the Link, Managing the Risk
Typically, climate change is described in terms of average changes in temperature or precipitation, but most of the social and economic costs associated with climate change will result from shifts in the frequency and severity of extreme events.[1] This fact is illustrated by a large number of costly weather disasters in 2010, which tied 2005 as the warmest year globally since 1880.[2] Incidentally, both years were noted for exceptionally damaging weather events, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the deadly Russian heat wave in 2010. Other remarkable events of 2010 include Pakistan’s bigge ...
15th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality
The focus of this report is the nearshore zone, the vital ecological link between watersheds, tributaries, wetlands, groundwater, and offshore waters of the Great Lakes. Most people live in the nearshore and get their drinking water from this zone. The nearshore also supports critical habitat for fish, invertebrate and wildlife populations. Beach losings, nuisance algal growth, the establishment of alien invasive species, and habitat loss are just some of the troublesome developments in the nearshore that act as harbingers of future changes in offshore waters. A revised Agreement should be ...
National Security Implications of Climate Change for U.S. Naval Forces
In response to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the National Research Council appointed a committee operating under the auspices of the Naval Studies Board to study the national security implications of climate change for U.S. naval forces. In conducting his study, the committee found that even the most moderate current trends in climate, if continued, will present new national security challenges for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. While the timing, degree, and consequences of future climate change impacts remain uncertain, many changes are already underway in regions around ...
15e Rapport biennal sur la qualité de l'eau dans les Grands Lacs
Dans son 15e Rapport biennal sur la qualité de l'eau dans les Grands Lacs, la Commission formule 32 recommandations d'actions à mettre en ouvre par les autorités fédérales, étatiques, provinciales et locales. Les recommandations soulignent, en particulier, le besoin pour les États-Unis et le Canada d'approuver une version réviséé de l'Accord relatif à la qualité de l'eau dans les Grands Lacs qui traite des menaces pouvant peser sur la qualité de l'eau, afin d'en prévenir ou d'en réduire l'impact sur la santé humaine et la santé écologique.
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International Cloud Atlas: Manual on the Observation of Clouds and Other Meteors (2017)
