Effects of climate change in cities are evident and are expected to increase in the future, demanding adaptation. In order to share knowledge, raise awareness, and build capacity on climate adaptation, the first concept of a “ClimateCafé” has been utilized since 2012 in 25 events all over the world. In 8 years ClimateCafé grew into a field education concept involving different fields of science and practice for capacity building in climate change adaptation. This chapter describes the need, method, and results of ClimateCafés and provides tools for organizing a ClimateCafé in a context-specific case. Early ClimateCafés in the Philippines are compared with the ClimateCafé in Peru to elucidate the development of this movement, in which one of the participants of ClimateCafé Philippines 2016 became the co-organizer of ClimateCafé Peru in 2019. The described progress of ClimateCafés provides detailed information on the dynamic methodological aspects, holding different workshops. The workshops aim at generating context-specific data on climate adaptation by using tools and innovative data collection techniques addressing deep uncertainties that come with climate change adaptation. Results of the workshops show that context-specific, relevant, multidisciplinary data can be gathered in a short period of time with limited resources, which promotes the generation of ideas that can be used by local stakeholders in their local context. A ClimateCafé therefore stimulates accelerated climate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international and the local, from the public and private sector, to ensure we learn from each other and work together for a climate resilient future. The methodology of ClimateCafé is still maturing and the evaluation of the ClimateCafés over time leads to improvements which are applied during upcoming ClimateCafés, giving a clear direction for further development of this methodology for knowledge exchange, capacity building, and bridging the gap between disciplines within climate adaptation.
In Eastern Africa, increasing climate variability and changing socioeconomic conditions are exacerbating the frequency and intensity of drought disasters. Droughts pose a severe threat to food security in this region, which is characterized by a large dependency on smallholder rain-fed agriculture and a low level of technological development in the food production systems. Future drought risk will be determined by the adaptation choices made by farmers, yet few drought risk models … incorporate adaptive behavior in the estimation of drought risk. Here, we present an innovative dynamic drought risk adaptation model, ADOPT, to evaluate the factors that influence adaptation decisions and the subsequent adoption of measures, and how this affects drought risk for agricultural production. ADOPT combines socio-hydrological and agent-based modeling approaches by coupling the FAO crop model AquacropOS with a behavioral model capable of simulating different adaptive behavioral theories. In this paper, we compare the protection motivation theory, which describes bounded rationality, with a business-as-usual and an economic rational adaptive behavior. The inclusion of these scenarios serves to evaluate and compare the effect of different assumptions about adaptive behavior on the evolution of drought risk over time. Applied to a semi-arid case in Kenya, ADOPT is parameterized using field data collected from 250 households in the Kitui region and discussions with local decision-makers. The results show that estimations of drought risk and the need for emergency food aid can be improved using an agent-based approach: we show that ignoring individual household characteristics leads to an underestimation of food-aid needs. Moreover, we show that the bounded rational scenario is better able to reflect historic food security, poverty levels, and crop yields. Thus, we demonstrate that the reality of complex human adaptation decisions can best be described assuming bounded rational adaptive behavior; furthermore, an agent-based approach and the choice of adaptation theory matter when quantifying risk and estimating emergency aid needs.
MULTIFILE
According to a governmental decision, all (re)constructions in Dutch cities starting by 2020 have to be climate resilient. Part of this climate resilience is also adaptation to (extreme) heat. Although urban heat, its causes, consequences, and potential adaptation measures, have been extensively studied by scientists all over the world, the understanding of this problem among practitioners is still limited. Local governments are struggling with defining the urgency and finding the right arguments for adaptation to this aspect of climate change. Also questions asked by municipality officers often differ from those asked (and answered) by scientists. How do you define “heat stress”? What are the best adaptation measures for our city? How do we know we have reached “heat resilience”? Or; Shall we just do what they do in Italy?Project Heat Resilient Cities is a cooperation of two research institutes, 13 municipalities, and a water authority in Netherlands. The aim of this project is to bring the current knowledge of urban heat adaptation to practice and to fill in the research gabs. The research focuses on clear visualizations of problematic areas, applicable heat resilient measures in Dutch context, and design guidelines leading towards more heat resilient cities. In this presentation, we will present an overview of practical tools (maps, instruments measures, visualizations, guidelines) that cities could use put heat resilience into practice.
Everyone has the right to participate in society to the best of their ability. This right also applies to people with a visual impairment, in combination with a severe or profound intellectual and possibly motor disability (VISPIMD). However, due to their limitations, for their participation these people are often highly dependent on those around them, such as family members andhealthcare professionals. They determine how people with VISPIMD participate and to what extent. To optimize this support, they must have a good understanding of what people with disabilities can still do with their remaining vision.It is currently difficult to gain insight into the visual abilities of people with disabilities, especially those with VISPIMD. As a professional said, "Everything we can think of or develop to assess the functional vision of this vulnerable group will help improve our understanding and thus our ability to support them. Now, we are more or less guessing about what they can see.Moreover, what little we know about their vision is hard to communicate to other professionals”. Therefore, there is a need for methods that can provide insight into the functional vision of people with VISPIMD, in order to predict their options in daily life situations. This is crucial knowledge to ensure that these people can participate in society to their fullest extent.What makes it so difficult to get this insight at the moment? Visual impairments can be caused by a range of eye or brain disorders and can manifest in various ways. While we understand fairly well how low vision affects a person's abilities on relatively simple visual tasks, it is much more difficult to predict this in more complex dynamic everyday situations such asfinding your way or moving around during daily activities. This is because, among other things, conventional ophthalmic tests provide little information about what people can do with their remaining vision in everyday life (i.e., their functional vision).An additional problem in assessing vision in people with intellectual disabilities is that many conventional tests are difficult to perform or are too fatiguing, resulting in either no or the wrong information. In addition to their visual impairment, there is also a very serious intellectual disability (possibly combined with a motor impairment), which makes it even more complex to assesstheir functional vision. Due to the interplay between their visual, intellectual, and motor disabilities, it is almost impossible to determine whether persons are unable to perform an activity because they do not see it, do not notice it, do not understand it, cannot communicate about it, or are not able to move their head towards the stimulus due to motor disabilities.Although an expert professional can make a reasonable estimate of the functional possibilities through long-term and careful observation, the time and correct measurement data are usually lacking to find out the required information. So far, it is insufficiently clear what people with VZEVMB provoke to see and what they see exactly.Our goal with this project is to improve the understanding of the visual capabilities of people with VISPIMD. This then makes it possible to also improve the support for participation of the target group. We want to achieve this goal by developing and, in pilot form, testing a new combination of measurement and analysis methods - primarily based on eye movement registration -to determine the functional vision of people with VISPIMD. Our goal is to systematically determine what someone is responding to (“what”), where it may be (“where”), and how much time that response will take (“when”). When developing methods, we take the possibilities and preferences of the person in question as a starting point in relation to the technological possibilities.Because existing technological methods were originally developed for a different purpose, this partly requires adaptation to the possibilities of the target group.The concrete end product of our pilot will be a manual with an overview of available technological methods (as well as the methods themselves) for assessing functional vision, linked to the specific characteristics of the target group in the cognitive, motor area: 'Given that a client has this (estimated) combination of limitations (cognitive, motor and attention, time in whichsomeone can concentrate), the order of assessments is as follows:' followed by a description of the methods. We will also report on our findings in a workshop for professionals, a Dutch-language article and at least two scientific articles. This project is executed in the line: “I am seen; with all my strengths and limitations”. During the project, we closely collaborate with relevant stakeholders, i.e. the professionals with specific expertise working with the target group, family members of the persons with VISPIMD, and persons experiencing a visual impairment (‘experience experts’).
Uit de ongevallenstatistieken blijkt dat ouderen verhoudingsgewijs vaker betrokken zijn bij verkeersongevallen en vaker de veroorzaker van een ongeval zijn. Ze worden daarom als risicogroep in het verkeer aangeduid. Diverse eerder uitgevoerde onderzoeken verwachten dat rijhulpsystemen, de zogenoemde ‘Advanced Driver Assistance Systems’ (ADAS) het verhoogde ongevalsrisico van de oudere autobestuurder kan verlagen. Toch blijkt uit voorgaand onderzoek dat deze ADAS, die generiek ontwikkeld worden voor een universele gebruiker, juist bij oudere automobilist nog niet goed aanslaan en de potentie van een doelgroepgerichte ADAS voor ouderen niet optimaal benut wordt. De technische mogelijkheden om ouderen te ondersteunen bestaan al, maar het ontbreekt op dit moment nog aan praktische toepassingen. In BRAVO staat een doelgroepgerichte ADAS voor ouderen centraal en zullen de marktmogelijkheden samen met de mkb-partners onderzocht worden. Dit onderzoek vraagt om een multidisciplinaire benadering van zowel de problematiek, de huidige markt als de behoeften van de consument/doelgroep. BRAVO zal resulteren in een businesscase die scenario’s bevat waarin een doelgroepgerichte ADAS voor ouderen kan worden toegepast. Daarnaast zal dit verkennende onderzoek nieuwe inzichten geven die zullen leiden tot nieuwe (en grotere) onderzoeken naar het effect en de impact van een doelgroepgerichte ADAS voor ouderen. Met BRAVO wordt een eerste stap gezet naar de ontwikkeling van een doelgroepgerichte ADAS die kan bijdragen aan de verkeersveiligheid en het zelfstandige mobiliteitsbelang van de oudere bestuurder.
Wet and healthy peatlands have a strong natural potential to save carbon and, due to their waterbuffering capacity, play an important role in managing periods of excessive rains or droughts. Yet, inNWE regions large areas of peatlands are drained for peat mining, agriculture or forestry, whichmakes them CO2 emission sources rather than sinks. By restoring the capacity to buffer carbon andwater, BUFFER+ partners aim at climate change adaptation and mitigation in NWE regions, while atthe same time restore biodiversity and create new revenue streams.BUFFER+ involves 21 partners and 7 Associated Organisations from regions