BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Household Adaptation Strategies to Climate Extremes and Population Consequences in Rural Areas in the Czech Republic
Robert Stojanov.
Dr. en Geografía Medioambiental. Global Change
Research Center, The Academy of Sciences. Rep. Checa.
Presentation deals with socio-economic aspects of climate change, especially extreme weather events impacts on society. We also explores societal responses for such events in the form of coping, adaptation strategies, including threat of maladaptation. We focus on household level and examine how do residents perceive selected environmental issues and what are the main adaptation strategies to the selected climate change impacts and manifestations, such as droughts, floods and other natural extremes.
Workshop on Economics of Energy Efficiency
The Universitat Rovira i Virgili and the Basque Centre for Climate Change have joined together to organize the Workshop on Economics of Energy Efficiency, which will be held in Reus (Spain) on 12 and 13 December 2013 and which will give participants the opportunity to learn more about the principal research outputs relating to this topic. The workshop is intended to provide a forum where researchers can debate and discuss all of the various micro and macroeconomic approaches that are currently being applied to the economics of energy efficiency. The workshop’s keynote speakers will be some of the most prominent international researchers working in this field.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Putting the break on belching ruminants: strategies to reduce methane emissions
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainDr. David R. Yáñez-Ruiz
Animal Nutrition Institute (CSIC)
David R. Yáñez-Ruiz, Veterinary and Animal Nutritionist, graduated from Veterinary School, Córdoba University (Spain) in 1997. Dr. Yanez-Ruiz completed his phD in 2003 at Estacion Experimental del Zaidin (EEZ, Granada, Spain, CSIC), on the use of olive industry by-products in sheep and goats feeding.
In 2003 he started a 4 years post-doctoral work at the Institute of Rural Sciences (University of Wales Aberystwyth, UWA, UK) in Prof. JamieNewbold´s group, a world leading scientist in the rumen ecology field. His work focused on the study of the processes of lipid bio-hydrogenation and H2 transfer in the rumen, mainly CH4 production. Together with Prof Newbold they started a research program thorugh a Marie Curie Grant on the effect of early life dietary interventions on function of the microbial population in laterlife, focusing in the effect on CH4. In 2007 Dr. Yanez-Ruiz was appointed as research scientist at EEZ (CSIC) in the Animal Nutrition Department as rumen ecologist. He is Associate Editor in the Journal ‘Animal Production Science’ (CSIRO, Austrlia) from 2008, a top class Journal in the Agriculture field. He is co-author of 3 invited reviews published between 2008 and 2010 and has published over 45 peer review papers in top quality journals. Dr. Yanez-Ruiz is coordinator of a FP7 European project: SMEthane: Technological platform to develop nutritional additives to reduce methane emissions from ruminants (www.smethane.eu ) and is involved in other ongoing Europan projects: SOLID (www.solidairy.eu ), Glonal Network and Rumen Stability (both from FACCE-JPI program).
BC3 Spring University of Ecosystem Services Modeling (2nd edition), 2014
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainThe Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) in collaboration with Conservation International, the University of Vermont and Earth Economics, is announcing the 2014 edition of the International Spring University on Ecosystem Services Modeling.
The International Spring University on Ecosystem Services (ES) Modeling is the second edition of an annual 2-week intensive course that aims to build a new generation of actors, in research, policy and management, who can profitably use ecosystem services models to address and solve sustainability problems.
DIPC-BC3 joint seminar: The molecular structure of ice grain boundaries and its role in the dynamics of polar ice sheets
Prof. Nobuhiko Azuma
Nagaoka University of Technology (Japan)
The polar ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica play a crucial role in the global climate system. Discharge of ice into the ocean by massive creep flow affects global sea level and the ocean/atmospheric circulation patterns that govern the climate of Earth. During the past two decades, several deep ice drilling projects have been conducted in Greenland and Antarctica, in order to investigate the physical and chemical properties of polar ice. From these investigations it transpires that molecular processes occurring within polycrystalline ice and at its grain boundaries play a decisive role in the dynamics of polar ice sheets, because they may determine the dominant deformation mechanisms of ice in situ. The fact that the creep of ice sheets occurs at extreme conditions (stresses lower than 100 kPa, temperatures down to −50ºC, strain rates about 10−12 s−1, and total shear strains exceeding 1000%) makes it very difficult to reproduce and clarify the mechanisms of polar ice deformation in laboratory. For these reasons, we decided to investigate the mechanics of ice sheets by understanding the microscopic behavior of water molecules within ice grains and at their boundaries. In this seminar I will talk about the physical properties of the grain boundaries of polar ice and their role in the dynamics of polar ice sheets. To this aim I present our recent experimental results of ultra-slow ice-creep tests by using a modified phase modulation homodyne interferometer and the results of creep tests with very fine polycrystalline ice obtained by a new method that exploits ice polymorphism.
BC3 Seminars: Certezas e incertidumbres sobre el impacto de los extremos térmicos sobre la salud y de otros factores ambientales asociados a las altas temperaturas
Dr. Julio Díaz,
Instituto de Salud Carlos III
Es evidente que desde que se produjo la ola de calor del año 2003 en Europa se ha producido un gran avance en el conocimiento de cómo los extremos térmicos afectan a la salud de la población, pero aún sigue habiendo discrepancias en el seno científico que afectan a cuestiones tan básicas como la propia definición de ola de calor. Este mayor conocimiento ha traído en paralelo el planteamiento de cuestiones de gran importancia para el establecimiento de los Planes de Prevención como medida de adaptación ante estas temperaturas extremas: ¿Las temperaturas a las que se articulan los Planes de Prevención se mantienen constantes en el tiempo? ¿Cambian los impactos en salud como consecuencia de las variaciones sociodemográficas? Por otro lado, y para el caso del calor extremo, se está avanzando en el conocimiento de los impactos que otros factores ambientales, concomitantes con las altas temperaturas, pueden tener sobre la salud de la población como es el caso de las intrusiones de polvo sahariano o la advección de material particulado como consecuencia de la combustión de biomasa en los incendios forestales. Ante el cambio climático presente urge dar respuestas a estos interrogantes que se plantean y que van a ser claves a la hora de articular las medidas preventivas necesarias para minimizar los efectos que estos factores ambientales tienen sobre la salud de la población.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Direct and Indirect CO2 Emissions of Households: A Dynamic Consumption Model in an Input-Output Framework
Prof. Kurt Kratena
Austrian Institute of Economic Research – WIFO.
This seminar will deal with the total CO2 impact of households in an input-output model for Austria with endogenous private consumption. The consumption model describes the demand for different durables and nondurables, derived from intertemporal optimisation and has been estimated econometrically. Energy demand of households in addition to economic variables also depends on the energy-efficiency as well as the level of energy-using durables. Total CO2 emissions are the sum of direct emissions from households (heating, vehicle use) and indirect CO2 emissions of production for households.
Policies with incentives to switch towards a more energy-efficient durable stock have a direct impact on energy consumption, as well as on the demand for other nondurables and durables and therefore cause indirect energy and emission effects. An ambitious scrappage policy scheme for heating appliances with a doubling of durable stock turnover might induce significant short-run indirect CO2 emission increases.
BC3 Seminar: Remote sensing of trace gases from ground and space based instruments
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainDr. Leif Vogel
Earth Observation Science Group,Space Research Centre, University Leicester, UK
Remote sensing of the atmosphere is an invaluable tool to understand the earth’s atmosphere. The talk gives an introduction to state of the remote sensing in the ultraviolet to the short wave infrared spectral region. Many key players of atmospheric chemistry can be measured, which includes e.g. O3, NO2, SO2, HONO, HCHO, Halogen compounds, Glyoxal, CO, CO2 and CH4. Applications are discussed at the example of measurements of volcanic plumes, Arctic bromine explosion and Ozone depletion events, as well as observation of greenhouse gases from space.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Assessment climate change adaptation policies for surface water availability in Mediterranean Europe
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainProf. Luis Maria Garrote
Full Professor at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM)
Dept. of Civil Engineering; Hydraulic and Energy
Population growth, scarce water resources, climate change, environmental concerns and economic development are just a few of many factors that challenge water management in Southern Europe. Most climate models agree that Southern Europe will face a significant drying trend during the second half of the century, challenging water policy in the region to ensure future sustainability. In this seminar we discuss how much water demand might be met with future hydrologic regime from the policy perspective. We present a methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative policy options to ensure adequate supply to irrigation demands. The methodology is based on the application of the WAAPA (Water Availability and Adaptation Policy Assessment) model, which performs the simulation of water resources systems at the monthly time scale and allows the estimation of the demand-reliability curve in every subbasin of the river network. The model was applied to 47 River Basin Districts in Southern Europe to estimate water availability under different climate change projections and several adaptation policy scenarios. The target of adaptation policy was defined in terms of maintaining an acceptable reliability of water supply to irrigation demands in future time horizons. Several possible options, like reducing irrigation
demands, increasing the efficiency of water use or changing the allocation to environmental flows were analyzed and compared in quantitative terms. The results show significant regional disparities in effectiveness of the different adaptation policies across Europe
BC3 Seminars: How to write scientific articles?
BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change Sede Building 1, 1st floor, Scientific Park of the University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, SpainProf. Erik Dietzenbacher
Full Professor in Interindustry Economics at the University of Groningen
Erik Dietzenbacher (1958) obtained his MSc in Econometrics (1982) and his PhD in Economics (1991) from the University of Groningen. Currently he is Full Professor in Interindustry Economics at the University of Groningen. He is also Affiliate Research Professor at the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Guest Professor at the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS) in Beijing.
He was the project coordinator of “World Input-Output Database: Construction and Applications” (WIOD), a large-scale collaborative research project that was funded by the EU in its 7th Framework Programme, in which 11 international institutes participate, and which ran from 2009-2012. (All data can be downloaded for free at the WIOD website.)
