Professor Sangam Shrestha of the Water Engineering and Management program in the AIT School of Engineering and Technology collaborated with Dr. Linda Anne Stevenson of the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Prof. Rajib Shaw (Keio University, Japan) and Prof. Juan Pulhin (UPLB, Philippines) as the Managing Guest Editor of a recent Special Issue of the journal Environmental Research.
The July 2020 Special Issue on “Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation: Asian Perspective” is composed of fifteen original articles contributed by project leaders or members of projects supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research over the last 5 years.
The contributors to the issue were first invited to present their papers at the ‘International Symposium on Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation: Asian Perspective’ organized by APN and the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand on 16‒18 October 2019.
The articles consist of climate change projections, assessment of climate change impacts on health, water resources (including groundwater) and its security, assessment of the resiliency of micro business, community and government entities to climate change and human development, and a knowledge synthesis of APN climate change adaptation projects in Asia. The outputs of these articles are expected to support the formulation of adaptation policies to offset the negative impacts of climate change on natural and human systems, add value to the scientific literatures, and help shape local, regional and global agendas on climate change.
Asia is identified as one of the regions that will be hardest hit by climate variability and change that are projected to adversely affect many natural and human systems. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) notes that Asia’s large population, the frequency of natural disasters in the region, and unplanned urbanization, with population relocation to coastal cities, are some of the factors that make Asia especially vulnerable to climate risks.
Realizing these challenges, APN has been supporting various regional-based research and capacity building projects to enhance the interlinkages among science, policy and action for managing climate change risk in various sectors such as water, environment, and health, among others. To date, APN has supported more than 450 projects to various organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.
Related Links
Link to special issue: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/environmental-research/special-issue/10KXCRMVJ96
APN Press release: https://www.apn-gcr.org/2020/07/31/climate-change-impacts-vulnerability-and-adaptation-asian-perspective/
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Prof. Sangam Shrestha speaking at the international symposium for Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation: Asian Perspective at AIT in October 2019.