Macro to Micro Viewpoint of Climate Change - Linking Karnataka to Global Issue
Author(s)
Sunil Nautiyal
ABSTRACT
A numerous studies have been done on climate change at regional, national and global levels. Several climate models have predicted the global scenarios for climate in different parts of the world. However, the significance and practical implementation of such models at local level yet to be validated. This is because those national or global models do not consider micro variables such as such as environmental resources for example ‘land availability, local climatic conditions, socioeconomic factors such as ‘labour and capital’, policy aspects such as ‘subsidies, nature conservation strategies’ and competition for labor and capital in relation of ‘national economy’. India, with a huge diversity in land, topography, climate and socioeconomic conditions, divided into 15 agro-ecological zones. Further, to help develop location specific research and development strategies at the micro level, a total of 127 sub-zones (agro-climatic sub regions) have been identified in India. Therefore, research on climate change and its impact only at the regional or national level may not be a sound approach to provide solutions for adaptation to climate change at micro level. Thus the micro-level research needs to be undertaken that might help us understand climate change impacts on the landscape i.e. biodiversity, health, natural resource management, land use and land cover development, adaptation and the development of socio-ecological systems. The concepts presented in this article should provide the basis for a discussion on decision-making issues among multidisciplinary experts with regard to climate change and sustainable development within complex environments.
A numerous studies have been done on climate change at regional, national and global levels. Several climate models have predicted the global scenarios for climate in different parts of the world. However, the significance and practical implementation of such models at local level yet to be validated. This is because those national or global models do not consider micro variables such as such as environmental resources for example ‘land availability, local climatic conditions, socioeconomic factors such as ‘labour and capital’, policy aspects such as ‘subsidies, nature conservation strategies’ and competition for labor and capital in relation of ‘national economy’. India, with a huge diversity in land, topography, climate and socioeconomic conditions, divided into 15 agro-ecological zones. Further, to help develop location specific research and development strategies at the micro level, a total of 127 sub-zones (agro-climatic sub regions) have been identified in India. Therefore, research on climate change and its impact only at the regional or national level may not be a sound approach to provide solutions for adaptation to climate change at micro level. Thus the micro-level research needs to be undertaken that might help us understand climate change impacts on the landscape i.e. biodiversity, health, natural resource management, land use and land cover development, adaptation and the development of socio-ecological systems. The concepts presented in this article should provide the basis for a discussion on decision-making issues among multidisciplinary experts with regard to climate change and sustainable development within complex environments.
KEYWORDS
Climate Change; Adaptation and Mitigation; Local Level Case Studies; Agro-Climatic Zones; India
Climate Change; Adaptation and Mitigation; Local Level Case Studies; Agro-Climatic Zones; India
Cite this paper
nullS. Nautiyal, "Macro to Micro Viewpoint of Climate Change - Linking Karnataka to Global Issue," Natural Resources, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2011, pp. 22-27. doi: 10.4236/nr.2011.21004.
nullS. Nautiyal, "Macro to Micro Viewpoint of Climate Change - Linking Karnataka to Global Issue," Natural Resources, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2011, pp. 22-27. doi: 10.4236/nr.2011.21004.
References
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[1] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Third Assessment Report, Cambridge Report, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2001. [2] IPCC, “Climate Change: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability,” Working Group II Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report, WHO and UNEP, Geneva, 2007. [3] M. Spence, “Climate Change, Mitigation, and Developing Country Growth, Commission on Growth and Development,” Working Paper 64, 2009. [4] R. C. Agarwal and S. Kumar, “India Official Statistics on Climate Change-Data Needs and Availability,” In: S. Nautiyal and B. P. Nayak, Eds., Climate Change: Data Requirement and Avail-ability, ISEC-CSO, MoSPI, 2009, pp. 38-51. [5] Earth Nego-tiations Bulletin (ENB), Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Vol. 12, No. 459, 22 De-cember, 2009. [6] J. J. McCarthy, O. F. Canziani, N. A. Leary, D. J. Dokken and K. S. White, “Climate Change: Im-pacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability,” Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2001. [7] R. J. T. Klein, R. J. Nicholls and N. Mimura, “Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change: Can the IPCC Technical Guidelines be applied?” Mitigation and Adap-tation Strategies for Global Change, Vol. 4, 2004, pp. 239-252. doi:10.1023/A:1009681207419 [8] R. Warren, N. Arnell, R. Nicholls, P. Levy and J. Price, “Understanding the Regional Impacts of Climate Change,” Research report prepared for the Stern Review, Tyndall Centre Working Paper 90, Norwich: Tyndall Centre, 2006. http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/twp90.pdf [9] N. Stern, “Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, London: Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Cabinet Of-fice,” 2006. http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm [10] H. Haberl, V. Winiwarter, K. Andersson, R. U. Ayres, C. Boone, A. Castillo, G. Cunfer, M. Fischer-Kowalski, W. R. Freuden-burg, E. Furman, R. Kaufmann, F. Krausmann, E. Langthaler, H. Lotze-Campen, M. Mirtl, C. L. Redman, A. Reenberg, A. Wardell, B. Warr and H. Zechmeister, “From LTER to LTSER: Conceptualizing the Socioeconomic Dimension of Long-Term Socioecological Research, Ecology and Society, Vol. 11, 2006. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/art13/ [11] X. He, J. Zhou, X. Zhang and K. Tang, “Soil Erosion Response to Climate Change and Human Activity during the Quaternary on the Loess Plateau, China,” Regional Environmental Change, Vol. 6, 2006, pp. 62-70. doi:10.1007/s10113-005-0004-7 [12] H. M. Fuessel, “Vulner-ability: A Generally Applicable Conceptual Framework for Climate Change Research,” Global Environmental Change, Vol. 17, 2007, pp. 155-167. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.05.002 [13] K. Halsn?s, J. Verhagen, Development based climate change adaptation and mitigation-conceptual issues and lessons learned in studies in developing countries, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Vol 12, 2007, pp. 665-684. doi:10.1007/s11027-007-9093-6 [14] U. Hellden, A coupled human-environment model for desertification simulation and impact studies, Global and Planetary Change, Vol. 64, 2008, pp. 158-168. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2008.09.004 [15] Y. Li, D. Chen, F. Barker-Reid, R. Eckard, Simulation of N2O emissions from rain-fed wheat and the impact of climate variation in southeast-ern Australia, Plant and Soil, Vol. 309, 2008, pp. 239-251. doi:10.1007/s11104-008-9672-7 [16] S. Bauer and I. Scholz, “Adaptation to Climate Change in Southern Africa: New Boundaries for Sustainable Devel-opment?” Climate and Development, Vol. 2, 2010, pp. 83-93. doi:10.3763/cdev.2010.0040 [17] C. Arndt, K. Strzepeck, F. Tarp, J. Thurlow, C. Fant and L. Wright, “Adapting to Climate Change: An Integrated Biophysical and Economic Assessment for Mozam-bique,” Sustainability Science, 2010. doi:10.1007/s11625-010-0118-9 (online first). [18] S. Vavrus, W. F. Ruddiman and J. E. Kutzbach, “Climate Model Tests of the Anthropogenic Influence on Green-house-Induced Climate Change: the role of Early Human Agriculture, Industrialization, and Vegetation Feed-backs,” Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 27, 2008, pp. 1410-1425. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.04.011 [19] E. Archer, E. Mukhala, S. Walker, M. Dilley and K. Ma-samvu, “Sustaining Agricultural Production and Food Se-curity in Southern Africa: An Improved Role for Climate Prediction?” Climate Change, Vol. 83, 2007, pp. 287-300. doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9192-5 [20] S. Torresan, A. Critto, M. D. Valle, N. Harvey and A. Marcomini, “Assessing Coastal Vulnerability to Climate Change: Comparing Segmentation at Global and Re-gional Scales,” Sustainability Science, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2008, pp. 45-65. [21] P. Olsson, C. Folke and F. Berkes, “Adaptive Comanagement for Building Resilience in Socio-Ecological Systems, Environmental Management, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2004, pp. 75-90. doi:10.1007/s00267-003-0101-7 [22] J. K. Willis, D. P. Chambers and R. S. Nerem, “Assessing the Globally Averaged Sea Level Budget on Seasonal to Interannual Timescales,” Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113, No. C6, 2008, C06015. doi:10.1029/2007JC004517 [23] W. Easterling, “Adapting North American Agriculture to Climate Change in Review,” Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 80, No. 1, 1996, pp. 1-54. doi:10.1016/0168-1923(95)02315-1 [24] B. Smit and J. Smithers, “Sustainable Agriculture: Interpretations, Analyses and Prospects,” Canadian Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1994, pp. 499-524. [25] J. Ikerd, “Understanding and Managing the Multi-Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture,” Southern Regional Sustainable agriculture professional devel-opment program, SARE Regional Training Consortium, Gainesville, FL, January, 1997. [26] FAO, “World Agriculture towards 2015/2030: An FAO Perspective,” Food and Agricul-ture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, 2003. [27] National Agricultural Research Project (NARP), “De-lineation of Agroclimatic Zones of India,” 2009. http://imdagrimet.org/a170.htm, Viewed on 23 December [28] A. Sharma, “Enabling Agriculture,” eAgriculture India, Vol. 1-2, 2007, pp. 17-24. [29] S. Nautiyal and H. Kaechele, “Conservation of Crop Diversity for Sustainable Landscape Development in the Mountains of the Indian Himalayan Re-gion,” Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 18, No. 5, 2007, pp. 514-530. doi:10.1108/14777830710778283 [30] S. Nautiyal, K. S. Rao, H. Kaechele and P. Zander, “Conceptual Model Development for Landscape Management in the Moun-tains of the Indian Himalayan Region: An Approach for Sus-tainable Socio-Ecological Development,” Landscape Online, Vol. 18, 2010, pp. 1-19. [31] F. Pischke, M. Cashmore, “Deci-sion-Oriented Environmental Assessment: An Empirical Study of Its Theory and Methods,” Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 26, No. 7, 2006, pp. 643-662. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2006.06.004 [32] S. Nautiyal, R. K. Maik-huri, K. S. Rao and K. G. Saxena, “Ecosystem Function of Cold Desert Villages of the Indian Central Himalaya, India,” Envi-ronmental Conservation for Sustainable Livelihoods in the Cold Desert Region of Asia, 2010, (in press). [33] S. Nautiyal and H. Kaechele, “Natural Resource Management in a Pro-tected Area of Indian Himalaya: A Modeling Approach for Anthropogenic Interactions on Ecosystems,” Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Vol. 153, No. 1-4, 2009, pp. 253-271. doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0353-z [34] P. Tittonell, M. T. van Wijk, M. C. Rufino, J. A. Vrugt and K. E. Giller, “Analysing Trade-offs in Resource and Labour Allocation by Smallholder Farmers Using Inverse Modelling Techniques: A Case-Study from Kakamega district, Western Kenya,” Agricultural Systems, Vol. 95, No. 1-3, 2007, pp. 76-95. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2007.04.002 [35] S. Nautiyal, H. Kaechele, K. S. Rao, R. K. Maikhuri and K. G. Saxena, “Energy Use and Economic Analysis of Traditional VS Introduced Crops Culti-vation in Mountains of Indian Himalaya: A Case Study,” En-ergy, Vol. 32, No. 12, 2007, pp. 2321-2335. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2007.07.011 [36] Directorate of Eco-nomics and Statistics (DES), Government of Karnataka, 2010. http://des.kar.nic.in/indexie.html, Viewed on 12 March [37] S. Nautiyal, “Changing Climate and Impacts at Micro Level: Data Requirements and Gaps,” In: S. Nautiyal and B. P. Nayak, Eds., Climate Change: Data Requirement and Availability, ISEC & MoSPI Publication, 2009, pp. 150-161. [38] S. Nautiyal, B. P. Nayak, Climate Change: Data Requirement and Availability”. ISEC and MoSPI publication. 2009, p. 188.