Project and disaster risk management under climate change

Is awareness of climate change a predictor of eco-anxiety? Research within the scope of nursing students

The agricultural sector is the main source of rural households’ food and revenue in Niger, and it contributes approximately 43% to the national GDP. However, there are several constraints to the sector’s development, including negative impacts of climate change. To mitigate these impacts, farmers implement a range of technical strategies. The extent of farmer’s awareness and perceptions of climate change impacts influences these strategies and hence farmers’ level of adaptation. This study was undertaken to assess farmers’ awareness and perceptions of climate change impacts in Aguie Department, Niger Republic. Descriptive statistics and a regression model were used for data analysis. The results from a descriptive analysis show that the majority of respondents (84.4%) were aware of climate risks, but had differing perceptions of climate change impacts on production and annual revenue. A regression test revealed that climate-related information is highly significant in determining farmers’ awareness of climate change impacts. Most of the respondents reported negative impacts from climate change, and the majority, therefore, adjusted their farming system, albeit at different levels. A probit analysis shows that awareness, perception, education, crop production, soil fertility and annual revenue are highly influential on farmers’ climate change impacts adaptation. This research highlights farmer awareness and perceptions as key factors in the climate change impacts adaptation debate. The findings reveal that effective adaptation to climate change impacts is highly dependent on the extent of community awareness and how farmers perceive the impacts of climate change. The study highlights that institutions targeting households’ livelihood improvement and making decisions concerning climate change adaptation need to focus on media outreach in local languages, improving locally adapted extension services, and developing water use efficiency measures such as improved irrigation for effective and long-term adaptation.

Background Climate change (CC) is a global public health problem. In Rwanda, it is estimated that 28% of neonatal death is attributable to CC, yet little is known about healthcare providers’ awareness of neonatal health risks. ObjectiveTo assess nurses’ and midwives’ awareness of CC and perceptions of potential neonatal health risks associated with CC at selected hospitals in Rwanda. Methods A cross-sectional survey was performed at four selected hospitals. A random sampling technique was used to select 184 of 340 nurses and midwives working in neonatology, pediatrics, and maternity departments. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were done. ResultsThe majority of participants were females (62.1%), nurses (60.5%), advanced diploma holders (55.4%). The majority (60.4%) had low level awareness of CC, and only 2.8% obtained CC information at nursing school. The majority (61.02%) had low perception of potential CC’ related potential neonatal health risks. High education level, working in neonatology and longer working experience were found to be associated with high level awareness of CC and high perceptions of potential neonatal health risks associated with CC (p<0.05). Conclusion There was a low level awareness of CC awareness and low perceptions of potential neonatal health risks among nurses and midwives. Offering in-service training and integrating CC’ health risks in the nursing curricula could motivate climate action among Rwandan nurses and midwives. Rwanda J Med Health Sci 2020;3(2):261-272

A major challenge in Information Systems and Information Technology is to improve the ability to conceptualize, design, develop and deliver information systems that meet customer requirements. Project management is often adopted to create solutions that work and meet customer needs. The principles of project management as defined by the Project Management Institute, can improve project success rates. Researchers in the project management need to help practitioners understanding the impact of different principles on the success of IS development. This study undertakes a survey of project management experts on the state of practice and research to examine the need for improving project management, and suggest areas that can be improved. Research may be the most effective means of defining opportunities for enhancing project success rates by tapping the wealth of literature and complementing it with the expertise of project management practitioners. INTRODUCTION Software development applications require frequent changes and updates in order to support enterprise systems. These frequent changes to IS/IT comprise a large volume of software development efforts. These efforts, undertaken as projects, are generally complex and take place in a dynamic environment where business conditions and technologies change frequently during the life of the project (Chen, et. al., 2004). The factors of project success include user involvement and project size, management and planning (Schmidt, et al., 2001). A fully operational project management system in enterprise offers the best opportunity for project success through the implementation of methods and tools for planning, organizing, and managing team-based activities to accomplish specific directives (Jurison, 1999). Project management is widely adopted in Corporate America embraces project management to implement system changes (Muriithi & Crawford, 2003; Park & Pena-Mora, 2003; Yilmaz & Phillips, 2007), which are even considered as too significant to outsource (Fish & Seydel, 2006) or having high risk of leading to undesirable consequences (Wei & Peach, 2006). However, many projects fail, even when performed using project management techniques. Such project failure reduces the capability of technology components. The 2004 Chaos report by the Standish Group found that only 28% of IT projects were successful, down from 34% in earlier report; The proportion of IT projects canceled before completion increased to 18% (from 15%), and a further 51% of IT projects were considered challenged as they are seriously late, over budget and missing expected features (The Standish Group, 2004; The Standish Group, 2007). Possible causes for these findings are the size and expense of large projects, a return to traditional development practices on large projects (Boddy, 1993), the absence of user involvement (Turner & Cochrane, 1993; Akbulut & Motwani, 2005), and lack of executive support (Munns & Bjeirmi, 1996). Thus, scope management is regarded as a key area of successful project management in practice (Hayes, 2004). Although some project failures are because of technical reasons, most are directly related to the failure of stakeholders to embrace the principles of good project management (Jurison, 1999). As part of the project management process, project teams must understand the standards to which their projects are being held in order to ensure that project performance is emphasized appropriately (Crawford, 2005). The Field Guide to Project Management (Cleland, 2004) suggests that project management should be an easy sell to organizations because it enhances business performance and increases revenue. An organization can manage project effectively by identifying its goals in applying project management principles (Aladwani, 2002). For most organizations, these goals are to apply a proven practice, optimize resources, serve customer needs and save time and money (Turner & Cochrane, 1993). …

While climate change threatens global food security, health, and nutrition outcomes, Africa is more vulnerable because its economies largely depend on rain-fed agriculture. Thus, there is need for agricultural producers in Africa to employ robust adaptive measures that withstand the risks of climate change. However, the success of adaptation measures to climate change primarily depends on the communities’ knowledge or awareness of climate change and its risks. Nonetheless, existing empirical research is still limited to illuminate farmers’ awareness of the climate change problem. This study employs a Bayesian hierarchical logistic model, estimated using Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) methods, to empirically determine drivers of smallholder farmers’ awareness of climate change and its risks to agriculture in Zambia. The results suggest that on average, 77% of farmers in Zambia are aware of climate change and its risks to agriculture. We find socio-demographics, climate change information sources, climate change adaptive factors, and climate change impact-related shocks as predictors of the expression of climate change awareness. We suggest that farmers should be given all the necessary information about climate change and its risks to agriculture. Most importantly, the drivers identified can assist policymakers to provide the effective extension and advisory services that would enhance the understanding of climate change among farmers in synergy with appropriate farm-level climate-smart agricultural practices.

CO2 emissions have caused significant climate changes, emerging as one of the most pressing environmental threats. The change in average global temperatures and forecasted dependance on fossil fuels in the energy mix require attention to technologies like Carbon Storage and Capture. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies offer the potential to mitigate the detrimental effects on climate by reducing carbon emissions. It is done by capturing carbon dioxide and storing it in places like underground formations. This avoids the release to atmosphere, thus lowering the emissions. However, the successful implementation of CCS projects is not without its challenges. These projects often encounter a combination of technical uncertainties, financial hurdles, regulatory constraints, and social acceptance challenges (S. Yasemil, 2023). This paper investigates these challenges from a project and strategic management standpoint, through an analysis of available literature and case studies both from developed and developing countries. The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing a strategic and project management perspective on the challenges faced by CCS projects. While previous studies have focused on the technical and environmental aspects of CCS, this research highlights the importance of integrating project management principles with technical and policy considerations. The paper goes on to highlight the importance of the common challenges faced in CCS projects and the effects of these factors on project success. It further highlights how robust project management ensures achievement of strategic objectives. Furthermore, it goes on to identify a ‘Sweet Zone’ which should be targeted for proper planning and management of CCS projects.

Several studies have reported farmers’ perceptions of climate change, but there is inadequate knowledge available on the farm households’ climate change awareness (CCA) in Pakistan. This study was undertaken to assess farmers’ CCA. For this purpose, the study collected the data from southern and central Punjab, Pakistan, through a purposively multistage random sampling technique. Binary logit and odds ratio were used to analyse the data. The analysis of the study shows that the majority of respondents were aware of climate change but had differing perceptions of climate change. This research showed that 70.8% of farmers are aware of climate change and reported their awareness level on winter and summer rainfall and temperature, the growing season length (GSL) of crops, the sea level rise, and the causes of climate changes and conceptual understanding of it while persistently denying climate change. However, many farmers did not perceive decreasing winter (48%) and summer (31.2%) precipitation, the majority of the farmers could not perceive in the GSL of summer (63.2%) and winter (64.4%) crops, while few did not notice increased winter (36.4%) and summer (33.6%) temperature, respectively. Financial and non-financial factors such as education (1.16), experience (1.07), distance to markets (1.07), non-agricultural income (2.83), access to agricultural credit (0.29) and marketing of produce (6.10), access to extension services (3.87) and the number of adaptation strategies (1.30) were pointedly related to farm households’ CCA. These odds values in the parenthesis show that the likelihood of CCA increases/decreases as these determinants increase. Moreover, the results of the study show that CCA is a significant predictor of adaptation to climate change. Main adaptation strategies opted for by farmers include changing crop variety and type, changing planting dates, tree plantation, increasing/changing fertilizer, soil and water conservation, off-farm income and diversification. Further, the study finds that some farmers did not perceive climate change as it takes time to be visible, but they are aware of climate change. Therefore, there is a need to reshape the households’ perception of climate change and enhance farmers’ CCA through existing extension services.

Climate change poses significant risks to human health, particularly exacerbating conditions for individuals with chronic diseases. This study aimed to examine differences in climate change awareness, risk appraisal, pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), and climate change worry between individuals with and without chronic diseases, and to investigate their interrelationships. A cross-sectional survey design was employed, using convenience sampling. Participants included 405 Israeli adults (146 with chronic diseases, and 259 without) who completed validated self-report questionnaires assessing climate change awareness, risk appraisal, PEBs, and worry. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multivariate analysis of covariance, using SPSS version 29. Moderated serial mediation analysis was conducted using Hayes' PROCESS macro (model 92) with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Participants with chronic diseases reported significantly higher levels of climate change awareness, F(1, 400)=5.88, p = .016; risk appraisal, F(1, 400)=12.68, p < .001; PEBs, F(1, 400)=4.00, p = .046; and worry, F(1, 400)=6.81, p = .009, than did participants without chronic diseases. The moderated serial mediation model was significant (effect = 0.02, SE = 0.01, 95%CI [0.001, 0.04]), explaining 44% of the variance in climate change worry. Awareness positively predicted risk appraisal (B = 0.33, p < .001), which in turn predicted both PEBs (B = 0.23, p < .001) and worry (B = 0.29, p < .001). The indirect pathway from awareness to worry via PEBs was significant only among participants with chronic diseases (B = 0.04, SE = 0.02, 95%CI [0.01, 0.10]). Similarly, the complete serial mediation path-from awareness to risk appraisal, to PEBs, and finally to worry-was significant for participants with chronic diseases (B = 0.02, SE = 0.01, 95%CI [0.01, 0.05]) but not for participants without chronic diseases. The results emphasize the need for targeted communication strategies and policy initiatives that address the specific vulnerabilities and behaviors of chronically ill populations. Future research should utilize longitudinal approaches and objective assessments to deepen our understanding of these dynamics and inform effective interventions.

Global climate change affects all aspects of human society, especially agricultural and animal husbandry production. Northwest China has been detrimentally affected by the climatic variations due to its high exposure to extreme climatic events. A number of studies have reported agro-pastoralists’ perceptions and adaptation responses to climate change, but the current knowledge of agro-pastoralists’ perceptions of climate change in China are insufficient. To fill this research gap, this study aims to investigate the perception level of agro-pastoralists in Northwest China on climate change and related factors. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire based on household surveys of 554 study participants in four counties in Gansu Province, China. Raw data were collected using stratified random sampling. A probit model was used to analyze the respondents' understanding of climate change and its related socio-economic and demographic variables. Our results show that the majority of respondents were aware (70%) of the changes in temperature and precipitation. Socioeconomic and demographic variables such as gender, farming experience, education level, cultivated land size, agricultural income, livestock, village cadre experience, access to weather information of agro-pastoralists are pertinently related to agro-pastoralists’ awareness of climate change. Farming experience, education level, household size, grassland size, agricultural income, association membership, village cadre experience has a high impact on agro-pastoralists' adaptation to climate change. The results of this study will help guide government agencies and decision makers, and help arid and semi-arid areas to build sustainable adaptation measures under the framework of climate change. The study recommends institutions targeting households’ livelihood improvement and making decisions concerning climate change adaptation need to focus on mass media and information technology, improving locally adapted extension services, improved irrigation, expand loan channels.

Can scholars speak about the reality of climate change? By this I mean, can we fairly say that we know that anthropogenic climate change is real? Or is reality—and the very idea of knowing—something that needs to be continually qualified, by scare quotes or otherwise? Fifteen years ago this issue—broadly applied—erupted as a schism between social scientists who insisted on recognition of the social dimensions of scientific knowledge, and natural scientists who took such claims as an affront not just to their status and dignity, but to their ontology as well. [1] The question of how well anthropogenic knowledge maps onto anthro-independent phenomena is scarcely new: philosophers from Plato to Kant famously grappled with it. In the 20th century Pierre Duhen and W.V.O. Quine, working from very different perspectives, stressed that empirical evidence never uniquely defines theoretical possibility; our theories are always, to one degree or another, under-determined by our evidence. [2] In my own work, I have explored the opposite problem: that no one theory accounts for all the evidence that we have, so scientists pick and choose, focusing on the data that they find most important, convincing, and compelling. [3] Given this long history, the relation of our knowledge to the world it claims to describe could hardly be resolved here. Moreover, the history of science is a chronicle of epistemic frailty: both facts and theories have toppled in the face of new evidence and new interpretations of old evidence. From this, philosophers make a “pessimistic meta-induction”: since previously well-established scientific knowledge has been shown to be wrong, incomplete, partial or false, what does this say about our current knowledge? We must conclude that at least some of it will be rejected in the future as having been mistaken. [4] None of this undermines the existence of an anthro-independent world—it does not force us to take an ontologically anti-realist position. Nor does it undermine our claims to know things, in the ordinary sense of knowing that we use everyday. It does force us to be realistic about the claims of any individual or group to know nature in a culturally unmediated Climatic Change (2013) 119:559–560 DOI 10.1007/s10584-013-0779-3

The Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka publishes the results of research in all aspects of Science and Technology. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/. 2021 Impact Factor: 0.682The JNSF provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Disasters in developing nations are typically caused by frequent and intense climate changes, which contribute to the socio-economic vulnerabilities of such nations. It is important to be strategic in the management of disasters in such regions in order to minimize their impact on thriving communities. There is therefore the need for effective disaster response that allows for access, analysis, and integration of information from varied sources. This Chapter presents architecture for managing knowledge on disaster in Sub-Saharan African nations. This architecture captures the critical contextual variables using process view of knowledge management to assist citizens who are less knowledgeable about disaster management to understand the various forms of knowledge on disaster response while developing extensive knowledge and building capability necessary to address disaster response and management. It also addresses issues with building IT expertise on disaster response in developing nations. More importantly, the architecture facilitates the creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application of knowledge on disaster response and management especially for ordinary citizens. The architecture also helps overcome issues with lack of collaboration and coordination across disaster response and management agencies.

Governance plays a critical role at the intersection of disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change (CC). As CC increases the frequency and intensity of disasters, so DRM policies must consider the potential impacts of CC and integrate climate resilience measures. Over the past decade, extreme wildfires in wildland–urban interface (WUI) areas have left devastating effects for local economies, local development, environmental protection, and the continuity of government operations worldwide, prompting all actors to work in the same direction to face its changing context. This systematic review of the literature aims to analyze the research trends on wildfire risk governance in WUI areas during 2021–2024 and to identify the key risk governance determinants, thereby offering a robust foundation to guide technical discussions and support decision-making processes in local development planning, land use regulation, and DRM. The study is based on the application of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) declaration to allow the identification, selection, analysis, and systematization of 68 articles from the Scopus database through three bibliographic search equations, which were then categorized using the software of text mining and natural language processing NLP software (VantagePoint 15.2) to identify four key pillars that structure extreme wildfire risk governance: political management, development planning, disaster risk management, and resilience management. Within this framework, ten governance determinants are highlighted, encompassing aspects such as regulatory frameworks, institutional coordination, information systems, technical capacities, community engagement, risk perception, financial resources, accountability mechanisms, adaptive planning, and cross-sectoral integration. These findings provide a conceptual basis for strengthening governance approaches in the face of increasing wildfire risk.

Introduction. Setting the stage. Project management centres on avoinding problems. The invisible project manager. Project management is an emerging profession. Getting the words in the right order. Introduction to project management. What is project management? What is project planning? How do you project plan? Nine steps to a successful project. The scope of the project and its objectives. Defining the project. Changes to the project. Establishing key dates. Evaluation of potential risks. The cost/time/quality triangle. The spectrum of projects. The need for planning. Project planning. The bar chart versus network analysis. Network analysis - a primer. Activity-on-arrow plans. The precedence convention. Choosing the tasks. Drawing up the plan. A fly on the wall. Resource management. Resource definition. Resource allocation. Resource aggregation. Resource aggravation. Resource levelling. Resource smoothing. Resource hierarchies. Resource calendars. Money management. Progress monitoring and control. Concepts. Cost monitoring. Reporting. Computers and other boxes with many buttons. PERT - a potted history. Hardware and software. Types of software. Some words of advice. Advanced critical-path topics. Work breakdown structure and organizational breakdown structure. Merging plans, boiler plating, or task processing. Hammocks. Calendars. Constraint dates. Negative floats. Subprojects. Claims. The people issues. The role of the project manager. The classification of people. Decision making. Motivation. Choosing project-planning software. Hardware. Software criteria. Major software suppliers. Risk management. Qualitative risk. Quantitative risk. Case study: The british library. Contingency and insurance. Terminology Definitions. Alternative definitions. Further reading. Index.

The relationship between environmental literacy and climate change awareness of nurses working in pediatric clinics.