1. Climate Change Adaptation and Electricity Infrastructure
2. Hong Kong Business Primer on Climate Change Adaptation
3. A Stronger, More Resilient New York City
4. Health Belief Model (HBM) and Adaptive Behaviours
5. Cause-Specific Hospital Admissions on Hot Days
6. Conference on Sustainable Development and Business in Asia
Climate Change Adaptation and Electricity Infrastructure
The paper sets out the scientific case for legal and technology adaptation responses in the electricity infrastructure sector in the face climate extremes and disasters. It proposes the adoption of the Smart Grid as one of the technological adaptation measures and relies on the experience of the Queensland flood disasters in Australia in 2010 to provide some generic examples of how governments and utilities might respond to protect electricity infrastructure.
Climate Change Adaptation and Electricity Infrastructure, Rosemary Lyster and Rebekah Byrne, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13/23, Sydney Law School, the University of Sydney, April 2013 [263 KB, PDF]
Hong Kong Business Primer on Climate Change Adaptation
This report illustrates what Hong Kong business might expect from climate change, with a focus on six key industries: property, construction, financial services, manufacturing/supply chain, power generation and transport. It uncovers reasons for the current inaction, including lack of climate impact awareness, confusion between mitigation and adaptation, low risk prioritization, short-term focus and lack of forward planning. The report then elucidates sector-specific actions that can be taken to increase business resilience.
The New Normal: A Hong Kong Business Primer on Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change Business Forum (CCBF), Hong Kong, July 2013 [6.47 MB, PDF]
A Stronger, More Resilient New York City
The underlying goal of this report is resiliency. That is, to adapt New York City (NYC) to the impacts of climate change and to seek to ensure that when nature overwhelms city’s defenses from time to time, NYC is able to recover more quickly. The report contains actionable recommendations both for rebuilding the communities impacted by Sandy and increasing the resilience of infrastructure and buildings citywide.
A Stronger, More Resilient New York, NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, USA, June 2011
Health Belief Model (HBM) and Adaptive Behaviours
The study examines the usefulness of the constructs of HBM (health belief model) in predicting the adoption of healthy behaviours during heat waves. It identifies the factors that predict risk perception to heat waves and assesses participants’ knowledge related to heat waves. The study argues that the health belief model could be useful to guide the design and implementation of interventions to promote adaptive behaviours during heat waves.
Heat Waves and Climate Change: Applying the Health Belief Model to Identify Predictors of Risk Perception and Adaptive Behaviours in Adelaide, Australia, Derick A. Akompab et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Open Access, vol. 10, 2013 [248 KB, PDF]
Cause-Specific Hospital Admissions on Hot Days
The paper analyzes hospital admissions in Sydney, Australia on unusually hot days for major disease groups and their subcategories. On a hot day, admissions increase in the broad categories of respiratory (RD), cardiovascular (CVD), mental (MD) diseases, and for diabetes (DIA), dehydration (DEH) and the ‘effects of heat and light’ (HEAT). The paper hypothesizes that when hospital admissions on hot days are aggregated into a large group (e.g., all CVDs) this may mask potential heat-morbidity relationships that occur for more specific outcomes.
Cause-Specific Hospital Admissions on Hot Days in Sydney, Australia, Pavla Vaneckova and Hilary Bambrick, PLOS ONE, Vol. 8, No. 2, February 2013 [377 KB, PDF]
Conference on Sustainable Development and Business in Asia
Building on the success from the last year, the 2013 Conference on Sustainable Development and Business in Asia, to be held in Bangkok-Thailand in November 2013, offers a platform for scholarly and applied conversations among a wide variety of stakeholders concerned with the continual challenge of advancing the sustainable development and business agenda: people, planet, and growth.
Conference on Sustainable Development and Business in Asia, Oxford University-Department of International Development (UK), Dominican University of California-School of Business & Management (USA), University of Illinois at Chicago-Institute for Environmental Science and Policy (USA), and International Management Institute (India) Bangkok, Thailand, 4-6 November 2013
For further information, please contact the editor, Saleem Janjua: daptnet@rmit.edu.au
Professor Darryn McEvoy, Program Leader, RMIT University Climate Change Adaptation Programme
Professor Peter Hayes, Co-founder and Executive Director of Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability
Dr. Saleem Janjua, Editor, AdaptNet
AdaptNet is a free fortnightly report produced by RMIT University Global Cities Research Institute’s Climate Change Adaptation Programme, Melbourne, Australia. It is published in partnership with the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability.