Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 91 (2016) 1
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Physics and Chemistry of the Earth journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pce
Editorial
Appropriate technology and climate change adaptation
Climate change is emerging as the greatest significant environmental problem for the 21st Century and the most important global challenge faced by human kind. Based on evidence recognized by the international scientific community, climate change is already an unquestionable reality, whose first effects are beginning to be measured. Available climate projections and models can assist in anticipating potential far-reaching consequences for development processes. Climatic transformations will impact the environment, biodiversity and water resources, putting several productive processes at risk; and will represent a threat to public health and water availability in quantity and quality. Effects on the water cycle, in particular, determine the need to revise current water resources planning and management models, technology development and adaptation measures. However, despite the importance of the problem, not enough studies summarizing the current knowledge on the implications of climate change, the vulnerability conditions, and the needs for adaptation measures in the water resources sector are currently available in literature. Particularly, developing countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change due to their geographical location, lack of access to health, sanitation and/or other basic services by important segments of their population, absence of vulnerability studies in several sectors, or shortness of long and mid-term planning on their population or economic development. This special issue is devoted to the review of the main findings
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2016.02.001 1474-7065/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
related with the challenges of climate change in developing countries, the current consequences and main adaptation measures being developed locally. The issue includes some work on the behavioral aspects of climate change, main effect on the abiotic environments, jointly with some highlighted consequences of these changes in urban infrastructure, and the needs and pending tasks related. The effect of such significant changes in the surrounding ecosystems are not only affecting the capability of the different species to adapt to those changes but also jeopardizing human health. These questions have been also included. Finally, a wide amount of adaptation measures developed and tested at different scales and scenarios have been included as an example of the type of proposals that may serve to assist people in different places around the globe to most properly face uncertain and, in many cases, unknown effects in the water sector. ~ o-Gomez Erick R. Bandala*, Carlos Patin Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad de Las Americas, Puebla, Mexico *
Corresponding author. Current address: Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 755 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, 89119-7363 NV, USA. E-mail address:
[email protected] (E.R. Bandala).
