Ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) encompasses a broad set of approaches to adapt to climate change. They all involve the management of ecosystems and their services to reduce the vulnerability of human communities to the impacts of climate change. The Convention on Biological Diversity defines EBA as "the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change".
EbA involves the conservation, sustainable management and restoration of ecosystems, such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, mangroves or coral reefs to reduce the harmful impacts of climate hazards including shifting patterns or levels of rainfall, changes in maximum and minimum temperatures, stronger storms, and increasingly variable climatic conditions. EbA measures can be implemented on their own or in combination with engineered approaches (such as the construction of water reservoirs or dykes), hybrid measures (such as artificial reefs) and approaches that strengthen the capacities of individuals and institutions to address climate risks (such as the introduction of early warning systems).
EbA is nested within the broader concept of nature-based solutions and complements and shares common elements with a wide variety of other approaches to building the resilience of social-ecological systems. These approaches include community-based adaptation, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, climate-smart agriculture, and green infrastructure, and often place emphasis on using participatory and inclusive processes and community/stakeholder engagement. The concept of EbA has been promoted through international fora, including the processes of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). A number of countries make explicit references to EbA in their strategies for adaptation to climate change and their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
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This course will cover the fundamental principles governing life and the living world. Topics will include the diversity of living organisms, cellular biology, genetics, evolution, and ecology. This c
The course provides an introduction of landscape and green space planning, with a focus on urban areas. The aim is to convey an understanding that the built and green environment in cities should be t
RHONEscape aims at realizing the necessary interdisciplinary educational background of the problematics affecting highly-corrected large rivers, by examining riverine ecological, hydrological and morp
Blue carbon is a term used in the climate change mitigation context that refers to "biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management." Most commonly, it refers to the role that tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrasses can play in carbon sequestration. Such ecosystems can contribute to climate change mitigation and also to ecosystem-based adaptation. When blue carbon ecosystems are degraded or lost they release carbon back to the atmosphere.
Climate resilience is defined as the "capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance". This is done by "responding or reorganising in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure (as well as biodiversity in case of ecosystems) while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation". The key focus of increasing climate resilience is to reduce the climate vulnerability that communities, states, and countries currently have with regards to the many effects of climate change.
A nationally determined contribution (NDC) or intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) is a non-binding national plan highlighting climate change mitigation, including climate-related targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions. These plans also include policies and measures governments aim to implement in response to climate change and as a contribution to achieve the global targets set out in the Paris Agreement. NDCs are the first greenhouse gas targets under the UNFCCC that apply equally to both developed and developing countries.
Explores the assessment and classification of streams using ecological indices and emphasizes the importance of protecting and restoring river systems.
Delves into adaptation to climate change, examining the AD-DICE model, trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation, and the limitations of representing adaptation.
In a global context marked by the urgency of climate change, tangible actions towards the ecological transition are top priorities for the built environment. This paper presents the results of the “Maillages fertiles” research project, which seizes the opp ...
Wrocław University of Science and Technology Publishing House2024
Social media is increasingly being employed to develop Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) indicators. The image-sharing platform Flickr has been one of the most popular sources of data. Most large-scale studies, however, tend to only use the number of image ...
2024
Allowing companies to damage ecosystems and pay for restoration is unsuitable as a governance mechanism in the current biodiversity crisis, and is highly unlikely to restore genetic and functional biosphere integrity, At the same time, restoring previously ...