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Allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergies are a burgeoning health challenge in the Asia-Pacific region. Compounding this, the region has become increasingly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. The region has weathered extreme precipitation, intense heat waves, and dust storms over the recent decades. While the effects of environmental and genetic factors on allergic diseases are well understood, prevailing gaps in understanding the complex interactions between climate change and these factors remain. We aim to provide insights into the various pathways by which climate change influences allergic diseases in the Asia-Pacific population. We outline practical steps that allergists can take to reduce the carbon footprint of their practice on both a systemic and patient-specific level. We recommend that allergists optimize disease control to reduce the resources required for each patient's care, which contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We encourage the responsible prescription of metered dose inhalers by promoting the switch to dry powder inhalers for certain patients, at each clinician's discretion. We also recommend the utilization of virtual consultations to reduce patient travel while ensuring that evidence-based guidelines for rational allergy management are closely adhered to. Finally, eliminating unnecessary testing and medications will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions in many areas of medical care., (© 2024 The Author(s). Pediatric Allergy and Immunology published by European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

One of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the current millennium is the need to mitigate climate change, and one of the most viable options to overcome this challenge is to invest in renewable energy. The study dynamically examines the links between renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, climate change, and economic growth in five emerging Asian countries during the period 1975-2020. Variables selected in the model have long-term cointegration, as explored by the Pedroni cointegration test and the Westerlund cointegration test. The long-term estimated parameters of the augmented mean group (AMG) method show that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces climate change, while non-renewable energy consumption significantly promotes climate change. The results also show that GDP, investment in transport infrastructure, and urbanization can significantly contribute to climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Moreover, the results validate the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis for emerging Asian economies. Country-specific analysis results using AMG estimates shows that renewable energy consumption reduces climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Non-renewable energy consumption and investment in transport infrastructure have had significant progressive impacts on climate change in all countries. Urbanization contributes significantly to climate change, with the exception of Japan, which does not have any significant impact on climate change. GDP contributes significantly to climate change in all countries; however, GDP2 has significant adverse effects on climate change in India, China, Japan, and Korea, validating the inverted U-shaped EKC assumption for all countries except Bangladesh. Moreover, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test confirmed a pairwise causal relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and GDP, supporting the feedback hypothesis. The results suggest that the best option for climate change mitigation in selected emerging Asian countries is to transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

While climate change is having serious impacts on agriculture and may require ongoing adaptation, short-run threats to global food security are also crucial for developing countries. We use dynamic and asymmetric panel autoregressive distributed lag estimators to investigate how the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity vary depending upon the short run and long run in Asia over the period of 1980-2016. The results confirmed that there is a long-run relationship between agricultural productivity and climate change variables; however, only CO 2 emissions could be linked to agricultural productivity in the short run. Moreover, while the direction of this effect is positive for the short run, it turns into negative in the long run confirming that carbon fertilization in the atmosphere can to some extent have a positive effect on agricultural productivity., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Avena sterilis L. (A. sterilis) and Avena ludoviciana Dur. (A. ludoviciana) are extremely invasive weeds with strong competitive ability and multiple transmission routes. Both species can invade a variety of dryland crops, including wheat, corn, and beans. Asia, as the world's major food-producing continent, will experience significant losses to agricultural production if it is invaded by these weeds on a large scale. This study used the MaxEnt model and ArcGIS to map the distribution of suitable habitats of the two species in Asia under climate change conditions. The constructed model comprised four levels, with a total of 25 index-level indicator factors used to evaluate the invasion risk of the two species. The results showed that the distribution of suitable habitats for both Avena species was highly dependent on precipitation and temperature. Under climate warming conditions, although overall the total suitable area is predicted to decrease compared to the current period, there are still moderately or highly suitable areas. Asian countries need to provide early warning for areas with significant increases in moderate and highly suitable zones for these two species of weeds under the background of climate change. If there is already an invaded area or if the suitability of the original area is increased, this should be closely monitored, and control measures should be taken to prevent further spread and deterioration., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This research investigates the intricate relationships between economic variables and how they affect South Asian nation's ability to develop sustainably. Given the growing concerns about climate change and global warming brought on by emissions of greenhouse gases, this study looks into the connection between emissions of CO 2 , green energy, industrialization, foreign direct investment, economic globalization, and financial development from 1995 to 2022. Second-generation panel techniques were employed in this study to look at the relationship between variables because of the potential of residual cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity. The empirical outcomes display that green energy, economic globalization, and financial development reduce CO 2 emissions by 1.839%, 1.223%, and 3.902% respectively. Industrialization and foreign direct investment degrade the environment by 4.302% and 1.893% respectively. A bidirectional causality link between green energy, industrialization, economic globalization, and CO 2 emissions was found by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H). Based on our findings, we recommend legislative support for renewable energy, cleaner technologies, and strict environmental regulations, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Encouraging FDI, sustainable practices, and financial development can drive economic growth while preserving the environment. As we approach COP28, this holistic approach to sustainable development becomes increasingly vital for South Asian countries to achieve their SDG targets and combat climate change., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Together with other elevated areas, the Mountains of Central Asia are significantly threatened by ongoing climate change. The presence of refuges during the glaciations makes the region extremely rich in species, especially endemic ones. However, the limited potential for colonisation of other habitats makes rocky-related species with 'island-like' distribution, particularly vulnerable to climate change. To understand the processes underlying species response to climate warming, we assessed differences in ecological niches and phylogenetic relationship of two geographically disjunctive alpine species belonging to the genus Sergia. The taxa are considered Tertiary relicts, endemic to the Tian Shan and Pamir-Alai Mountains. To illustrate range dynamics and differences in occupied niches of Sergia species, we used Ecological Niche Modelling of current and future distribution. Whereas, to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationship within and between Sergia and other related Campanulaceae species from the region we used molecular data (ITS, cpDNA, DArTseq-derived SNPs)., Results: The results reveal that the genus Sergia is a polyphyletic group, and its representatives differ geographically, ecologically and genetically. Both S. regelii and S. sewerzowii constitute a common clade with Asyneuma group, however, S. sewerzowii is more closely related to Campanula alberti (a species that has never previously been considered closely related to the genus Asyneuma or Sergia) than to S. regelii. Sergia sewerzowii is adapted to lower elevations with higher temperatures, while S. regelii prefers higher elevations with lower temperatures. The future distribution models demonstrate a dramatic loss of S. regelii range with a shift to suitable habitats in higher elevations, while the potential range of S. sewerzowii increases and shifts to the north., Conclusions: This study shows that S. regelii and S. sewerzowii have a long and independent evolution history. Sergia regelii and S. sewerzowii significantly differ in realised niches. These differences are mirrored in the response of the studied endemics to future climate warming. As suitable habitats shrink, rapid changes in distribution can lead to species' range loss, which is also directly related to declines in genetic variability. The outcomes of this paper will help to more precisely assess the impact of climate changes on rocky-related plant species found in this world's biodiversity hotspot., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The recent progress report of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2023 highlighted the extreme reactions of environmental degradation. This report also shows that the current efforts for achieving environmental sustainability (SDG 13) are inadequate and a comprehensive policy agenda is needed. However, the present literature has highlighted several determinants of environmental degradation but the influence of geopolitical risk on environmental quality (EQ) is relatively ignored. To fill this research gap and propose a inclusive policy structure for achieving the sustainable development goals. This study is the earliest attempt that delve into the effects o of geopolitical risk (GPR), financial development (FD), and renewable energy consumption (REC) on load capacity factor (LCF) under the framework of load capacity curve (LCC) hypothesis for selected Asian countries during 1990-2020. In this regard, we use several preliminary sensitivity tests to check the features and reliability of the dataset. Similarly, we use panel quantile regression for investigating long-run relationships. The factual results affirm the existence of the LCC hypothesis in selected Asian countries. Our findings also show that geopolitical risk reduces environmental quality whereas financial development and REC increase environmental quality. Drawing from the empirical findings, this study suggests a holistic policy approach for achieving the targets of SDG 13 (climate change)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The article presents a study on the climatic effects on monsoon intensification, ocean warming and steric sea level under the Representative Concentration Pathway 3 (RCP3) scenario which will peak global mean temperatures to about 1.5°C. The study employs the CLIMBER-3α model to examine the aspects of climate change under the RCP scenario. It reveals that the average monsoon rainfall in Asia and Africa increases with the land-ocean temperature differences.

The substantial known economic effect of changing in climate is upon on every sector especially on agriculture due to its sensitivity and size of the sector. Warming climate brings outstanding harm to agriculture in several nations because developed countries in low latitude already encounter the hot weather. This paper reviews numerous studies that evaluate the possible impact of warming climate to agriculture sector in Asia. There have been numerous studies examine how expected changes in climate are likely to effect on yield productivity in Asia. The findings in this paper is supported mainly from the fourth and fifth analysis report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), where the latest sixth assessment report is excluded out as it is currently preparing by the panel. There are two specific objectives is needed to review the possible impacts of changing climate on agricultural. Firstly, the paper will synthesize the likely impacts of climate change on China and India’s agricultural production especially for crops C3 and C4. Secondly, this paper also review the adaptive responses to change in climate that could potentially be made and promoted in the agricultural sector. Additionally, this paper discusses the overview of Asian agriculture and likely outcome if climates do warm by observing several scientific evidence on climate change. This paper done some projection by reviewing existing literatures which various research studies have been approaches to estimate the changes. The impact of climate change in agriculture sector in two countries is also describe. The countermeasure to be consider in response to warming climate will be the last section in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reality of global climate change demands novel approaches to science that are reflective of the scales at which changes are likely to occur, and of the new forms of knowledge required to positively influence policy to support vulnerable populations. We examine some of the opportunities and challenges presented by a collaborative, transdisciplinary research project on climate change adaptation in Africa and Asia that utilized a hotspot approach. A large-scale effort to develop appropriate baselines was a key challenge at the outset of the program, as was the need to develop innovative methodologies to enable researchers to work at appropriate spatial scales. Efforts to match research to the biophysical scales at which change occurs need to be aware of the mismatch that can develop between these regional scales and the governance scales at which decisions are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problems of Sustainable Development / Problemy Ekorozwoju is the property of Faculty of Environmental Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This Special Issue highlights the most recent socio-legal research related to the mitigation, if not the elimination, of the threat of anthropogenic disasters in Asia and beyond. The drafts of these papers were originally presented at the Presidential Session on "The Anthropocene and the Law in Asia" at the Fourth Asian Law and Society Association (ALSA) Conference held in the vibrant city of Osaka, Japan in December 2019. The timing of this particular session, the first of its kind to be held at an ALSA Conference, turned out to be somewhat prophetic, in that two anthropogenic catastrophes—the historic zoonotic pandemic and the cataclysmic wild bushfires—had just begun to strike in December in Wuhan, China and in New South Wales, Australia, respectively. The novel coronavirus pandemic would kill more than 1 million people in the following months, after infecting more than 40 million across the globe. The Australian wild bushfires killed and displaced more than 3 billion animals, becoming the worst wildfire ever recorded in the world. Since that last ALSA Conference in December 2019, multiple anthropogenic disasters have hit various regions in Asia and across the world. The papers in this Special Issue examine various impacts of anthropogenic disasters and propose innovative socio-legal strategies to mitigate them. Included are arguments for the proposal of new legal education curricula and innovative pedagogy on environmental law and the exploration of an international multidisciplinary teaching framework in reconsidering and reshaping human-centric legal education. Also proposed is the development of a robust Earth Jurisprudence based on the adoption of the Rights of Nature principles, while moving away from the Euro-American exploitive view of nature as commodified properties. Additionally proposed is the establishment of a land-based, topological jurisprudence that incorporates the nuanced narratives of indigenous voices in dealing with the threat of human-induced ecological and environmental disasters in the years ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a systematic literature review was conducted to synthesize understanding on farmers' perception on climate change. Farmers' perception of climate change is conceptualized as comprising of three dimensions—first, as farmers' "awareness"; second, "conceptual understanding"; and third, the "experience" of climate change. The review included 162 papers published during the period January 2000 to July 2019. The highest number of studies was conducted in Africa, followed by Asia. A large majority of farmers report being aware of climate change. However, only a few studies elicit the difference between climate variability and climate change from farmers. A negligible number of studies attempt to identify the role of agricultural activities in greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Furthermore, authors compare farmers' perception with meteorological evidence, which is more aligned in terms of change in "temperature" rather than "precipitation." The insights from the review provide guidance on conceptualization and operationalization of the variable "farmers' perception of climate change" for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coffee is one of the most important globally traded commodities and substantially contributes to the livelihoods of millions of smallholders worldwide. As a climate-sensitive perennial crop, coffee is likely to be highly susceptible to changes in climate. Using a systematic approach, we explore evidence from the published academic literature of the influence of climate change and variability, specifically drought, on coffee production. A number of mostly negative impacts were reported in the current literature, including declines in coffee yield, loss of coffee-optimal areas with significant impacts on major global coffee-producing countries and growth in the distribution of pest and disease that indirectly influence coffee cultivation. Current research also identified positive effects of climate change such as increases in coffee-producing niche, particularly in areas at higher altitudes; however, whether these gains might offset losses from other production areas requires further investigation. Other advantages include increases in pollination services and the beneficial effects of elevated carbon concentration, leading to potential yield improvements. Future priorities should focus on major coffee-growing regions projected to be adversely affected by climate change, with specific attention given to potential adaptation strategies tailored to particular farming conditions such as relocation of coffee plantations to more climatically suitable areas, irrigation and agroforestry. The majority of studies were based in the Americas and concentrated on Arabica coffee. A broader spread of research is therefore required, especially for the large growing regions in Asia and for Robusta coffee, to support sustainable production of the global coffee industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dryland ecosystems in the Great Lakes Region of Central Asia (GLRCA) are highly sensitive to climate change due to the climate of spring precipitation. Although shifts in vegetation phenology have been widely attributed to rising temperature, the effects of solar radiation and drought on phenology remain largely unknown. Understanding the mechanisms of vegetation phenology response to climatic factors is essential for assessing the impact of climate change on dryland ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the spatial and temporal variations of vegetation phenology across the GLRCA using a long-term series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and then examined the response of vegetation phenology to climate change within different climate zones by combining with climate data (surface temperature, soil moisture, short-wave radiation, and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI)). The results suggested that the start of growing season (SGS) and the end of growing season (EGS) were significantly earlier regionally by -0.143 days/year and -0.363 days/year, respectively. Because of changes in SGS and EGS, length of growing season (LGS) across the GLRCA was shortened at a rate of -0.442 days/yr, which was mainly attributed to advanced EGS. Additionally, SGS of vegetation was negatively correlated with surface temperature but positively correlated with soil moisture and SPEI. These results indicated that surface temperature was a major determinant of advanced spring phenology, while increased soil moisture and mitigated drought would delay spring phenology. The response of autumn phenology to surface temperature and short-wave radiation varied across different climate zones. In arid climate zone, autumn phenology was obviously advanced with the increase of surface temperature and short-wave radiation. In cold climate zone, higher surface temperature and short-wave radiation postponed autumn phenology. Meanwhile, the thermal growing season did not accurately characterize the actual vegetation growing season because GLRCA phenology was different from most of Northern Hemisphere., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Climate change is not something that has never happened before. However, it has recently been reported that climate change has affected living things such as humans, animals and plants. Among the animals that may be vulnerable to the effects of climate change are migratory bird species. Therefore, this review paper will emphasise the checklist of migratory bird species found to be affected by climate change. Data for bird migration species in Asia are obtained from the Birdlife Data Zone. At the same time, the data for Global land surface temperature (1910-2020) and Asia land surface temperature (1910-2020) were taken from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for Environmental information. These papers showed that climate warming could affect species differently, but there are still species from certain populations not affected at all. This paper also reviewed that approximately 169 species of migratory birds in Asia are affected by climate change and severe weather. Of the total, 5 species (2.96%) are critically endangered, 8 (4.73%) endangered, 21 (12.43%) vulnerable, 27 (15.98%) near threatened and 123 (63.91%) least concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high mountain regions of Asia contain more glacial ice than anywhere on the planet outside of the polar regions. Because of the large population living in the Indus watershed region who are reliant on melt from these glaciers for fresh water, understanding the factors that affect glacial melt along with the impacts of climate change on the region is important for managing these natural resources. While there are multiple climate data products (e.g., reanalysis and global climate models) available to study the impact of climate change on this region, each product will have a different amount of skill in projecting a given climate variable, such as precipitation. In this research, we develop a spatially varying mixture model to compare the distribution of precipitation in the High Mountain Asia region as produced by climate models with the corresponding distribution from in situ observations from the Asian Precipitation—Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation (APHRODITE) data product. Parameter estimation is carried out via a computationally efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. Each of the estimated climate distributions from each climate data product is then validated against APHRODITE using a spatially varying Kullback–Leibler divergence measure. Supplementary materials accompanying this paper appear online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is one of the pivotal aspects of socioeconomic advancement which is critically vulnerable to climatic extremes. Extreme precipitation and urbanization are largely interlinked. Estimating the extreme precipitation-induced urban area exposure is the fundamental aspect of urban risk assessment for precipitation-related floods. In this study, future urban area exposure to extreme precipitation and associated influential factors are investigated over South Asia under 1.5 °C, 2.0 °C, 3.0 °C, and 4.0 °C global warming thresholds. In this regard, we used newly released 20 up-to-date climate models outputs, and five Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) based urban land-use products under four combined scenarios of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and Representative Concentration Pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5) from the sixth phase of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). Extreme precipitation is characterized by adopting 20-, 50-, and 100-year return periods of annual maximum daily precipitation. Results reveal a massive urban area expansion over South Asia which is the utmost by 186.4% under SSP3-7.0 than the reference period (1995-2014). The variations in projected urban areas mainly occur in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region among scenarios. In relative terms, extreme precipitation frequency and associated urban area exposure are prospective to increase with continued global warming. The exposed urban area varies 4.5- to 7.4-fold higher under different warming thresholds than the reference period. The leading increase is estimated (7.4-fold) under 4.0 °C. Notably, for global warming targets set out by the Paris Agreement (1.5 °C, and 2.0 °C), exposed urban area is intended to be 10.2% higher under 2.0 °C than 1.5 °C. Spatially, the exposed urban area will be dominant in the southeast region relative to the reference period. Importantly, the interaction effect (simultaneous change in climate-urban land) is the principal contributor to the changes in urban area exposure to extreme precipitation over South Asia. However, this study's findings strongly support the accomplishment of the Paris Agreement target and provide a scientific basis for formulating urban land-use policy interventions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Agricultural production is under threat due to climate change in food insecure regions, especially in Asian countries. Various climate-driven extremes, i.e., drought, heat waves, erratic and intense rainfall patterns, storms, floods, and emerging insect pests have adversely affected the livelihood of the farmers. Future climatic predictions showed a significant increase in temperature, and erratic rainfall with higher intensity while variability exists in climatic patterns for climate extremes prediction. For mid-century (2040-2069), it is projected that there will be a rise of 2.8 °C in maximum temperature and a 2.2 °C in minimum temperature in Pakistan. To respond to the adverse effects of climate change scenarios, there is a need to optimize the climate-smart and resilient agricultural practices and technology for sustainable productivity. Therefore, a case study was carried out to quantify climate change effects on rice and wheat crops and to develop adaptation strategies for the rice-wheat cropping system during the mid-century (2040-2069) as these two crops have significant contributions to food production. For the quantification of adverse impacts of climate change in farmer fields, a multidisciplinary approach consisted of five climate models (GCMs), two crop models (DSSAT and APSIM) and an economic model [Trade-off Analysis, Minimum Data Model Approach (TOAMD)] was used in this case study. DSSAT predicted that there would be a yield reduction of 15.2% in rice and 14.1% in wheat and APSIM showed that there would be a yield reduction of 17.2% in rice and 12% in wheat. Adaptation technology, by modification in crop management like sowing time and density, nitrogen, and irrigation application have the potential to enhance the overall productivity and profitability of the rice-wheat cropping system under climate change scenarios. Moreover, this paper reviews current literature regarding adverse climate change impacts on agricultural productivity, associated main issues, challenges, and opportunities for sustainable productivity of agriculture to ensure food security in Asia. Flowing opportunities such as altering sowing time and planting density of crops, crop rotation with legumes, agroforestry, mixed livestock systems, climate resilient plants, livestock and fish breeds, farming of monogastric livestock, early warning systems and decision support systems, carbon sequestration, climate, water, energy, and soil smart technologies, and promotion of biodiversity have the potential to reduce the negative effects of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Experimental Technology & Management is the property of Experimental Technology & Management Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vegetation is highly sensitive to climate changes in arid regions. The relationship between vegetation and climate changes can be effectively characterized by vegetation phenology. However, few studies have examined the vegetation phenology and productivity changes in arid Central Asia (ACA). The vegetation phenological information of ACA was extracted using MODIS NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data, and the dynamics of vegetation phenological changes under spatiotemporal variations were quantitatively assessed. Moreover, the impacts of climate change on vegetation phenology and net primary productivity were analyzed by combining meteorological data with that of MODIS NPP (Net Primary Productivity) during the same period. The results demonstrated that the start of the season (SOS) of vegetation in the study was concentrated from mid-February to mid-April, while the end of the season (EOS) was concentrated from early October to mid-December. The length of growing season (LOS) ranged from 6 to 10 months. The SOS of vegetation was gradually postponed at a rate of 0.16 d·year -1 . The EOS advanced at a rate of 0.69 d·year -1 . The LOS was gradually shortened at a rate of 0.89 d·year -1 . For each per 1000 m increase in elevation, the SOS of vegetation was postponed by 12.40 d; the EOS advanced by 0.40 d, and the LOS was shortened by 11.70 d. For the impacts of climate changes on vegetation phenology and NPP, the SOS of vegetation phenology negatively correlated with temperature but positively correlated with precipitation and NPP. The EOS and LOS positively correlated with temperature but negatively with precipitation and NPP. Results indicated that the SOS was not moved ahead but was delayed, while the EOS advanced rather than being postponed under climate change. These results can offer new insights on the phenological response to climate change in arid regions and on non-systematic changes in phenology under global warming., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) is one of the most important climate systems during boreal winter. It has a large meridional extent and provides a vital bridge between the mid-to-high latitudes and the tropics. This paper reviews the latest research on the climate variability of the EAWM, with particular emphasis on the associated processes of extratropical-tropical interaction. Some new results have been achieved in understanding the variation of the EAWM on interdecadal, interannual, and intraseasonal time scales, such as the interdecadal strengthening in the early 21st century, the unstable impact of El Niño-South Oscillation (ENSO) on the EAWM, and the intraseasonal strong cold events in East Asia. In addition, understanding of the extratropical-tropical interactions related to the EAWM has improved in several aspects, including the impacts of the EAWM on ENSO-related climate effects, and the variation of regional Hadley circulation over the western Pacific and its climate impacts in the Asia-Australia region. Moreover, recent work has systematically evaluated the capacity of climate models to simulate the EAWM, including its climatology, interannual to interdecadal variations, and its relationship with ENSO. Finally, some scientific issues regarding our understanding of the EAWM are proposed for future investigation., (© 2021 New York Academy of Sciences.)

The projections of mean temperature, precipitation (P), and potential evapotranspiration (PET) reflect the probabilities of long-term changes of hydrologic processes and induced extreme events. In this paper, we investigated the future changes in some pivotal climatic variables (mean temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration) under 1.5 °C, 2.0 °C, and 3.0 °C specific warming levels (SWLs) across the Indus River Basin of South Asia. The seven global climate models output under seven different emission scenarios (SSP1-1.9, SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, SSP4-3.4, SSP4-6.0, and SSP5-8.5) from the latest Sixth phase of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) are used for this purpose. The Penman-Monteith approach is applied to estimate PET, and the water balance equation is for reflecting water surplus/deficit. Results indicate that except for precipitation, the greater increases in temperature and PET are inclined to happen with continued global warming. The highest increase in temperature is accounted for 14.6% (2.4 °C), and the enhanced PET is estimated at 5.2% higher than the reference period (1995-2014) under 3.0 °C SWL. While the precipitation is projected to increase by the highest 4.8% for 2.0 °C warming level. The differences in regional climate for an additional 0.5 °C (2.0-1.5 °C) and 1.0 °C (3.0-2.0 °C) of warming, the temperature is projected to increase by 0.4 °C and 0.9 °C in the entire IRB respectively. The highest increase in mean temperature (5.1%) and PET (2.4%) in the IRB are predicted to intensify for an additional 1.0 °C than that of 0.5 °C of warming, but precipitation is intended to decrease by 0.4%. Spatially, the increase in temperature, precipitation, and PET are dominated towards high elevation in the upper basin (north) under all the SWLs. The increased variability in climatological parameters across IRB depicts an evident occurrence of both wet events (upper basin) as well as dry events (lower basin) with the increase in global average temperature rise. However, these findings provide an insightful basis for water resource management as well as initiating mitigation and adaptation measures in the IRB related to water surplus (floods) and water deficit (droughts)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Changing weather patterns, increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazards, and rising sea levels associated with global climate change have the potential to threaten cultural heritage sites worldwide. This is especially the case for maritime heritage sites located in the low-lying coastal and delta regions of Asia. Maritime heritage can reflect both highly localized cultural products based on the coupling of people and maritime environments and the historic footprints of complex maritime networks that connect people, ideas, and material over vast distances, creating unique cultural spheres. Furthermore, maritime heritage sites potentially serve as or contain records of how past societies have been impacted by and adapted to past environmental stress. Therefore, their degradation threatens local/regional/global cultural patrimony as well as evidence of human resilience and fragility in the face of environmental change. This makes a strong case for urgent preservation. However, the possible damage caused by climate change and the scale of vulnerable maritime heritage pose seemingly insurmountable challenges. In this paper, we present the ways in which maritime heritage sites across Asia are vulnerable to environmental stresses, such as changing sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, and storm surges. Our objective is to draw upon our experience documenting endangered cultural heritage across South and Southeast Asia to illustrate that there are unique conceptual and practical characteristics of maritime heritage that complicate effective management and conservation efforts on the scale required to prevent massive loss by climate change. We conclude by stressing the need to reconceptualize debates about the custody and stewardship of maritime heritage and the urgency of employing a wide range of innovative preservation solutions to ensure maritime patrimony is not lost to the rising tides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variability and dynamics of the Asian monsoon (AM, hereafter indicates both of the summer and winter monsoons.) at orbital and millennial timescales has attracted wide interest. Chinese loess deposits, covering an area of ~500 × 103 km2 and with a thickness of several tens to more than three hundred meters, is an ideal continental archive to reconstruct AM variations during the Quaternary epoch. Over the past thirty years, since the earliest paper published in an international journal that linked the Asian monsoon and Chinese loess deposits, many studies have been undertaken focusing on this research topic. These results have greatly deepened our understanding of the variations of the AM climate and their driving mechanisms during the past ~2.6 Myr. In this paper, we emphasize recent progress on the AM variability and dynamics revealed by Chinese loess records; in particular, we discuss the reliability and precision of the timescale and the monsoon proxy indicators for the loess-paleosol sequences, which are two fundamental aspects for understanding AM behavior. We analyze what we know and discuss what we do not know about the AM. We refine the timescale for the typical loess-paleosol sequence in the central Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP), which can be used as a new timescale to study palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental changes in the monsoonal Asia. We conclude that low-latitude insolation changes induced by precession, and global ice volume, temperature at high-latitudes, as well as sea-level changes forced variations of the AM at orbital time scales. High-latitude cooling events and low-latitude hydroclimate process at millennial time scales, such as climate changes associated with Heinrich events and Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles in Northern Atlantic and Greenland, have also modulated AM variability. We suggest that high-latitude forcing of AM variations occurs through ocean and atmospheric circulation linkages, although the roles of atmospheric CO 2 , ocean and vegetation feedbacks need further investigation. In future study, high-resolution independent dating, novel proxy indices and transient numerical simulations are still basic tools to understand the loess deposition and AM variations that require considerably more work. Issues such as reliable spatial comparison and regional linkages of records (dependent on precise and accurate numerical chronologies), and quantitative reconstruction of the AM variations, should be given priority in the study the past climate change in Asia, and low-latitude hydroclimate process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interface between Climate Changes and Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) has been standing out in the sustainable development agenda since the early 1990's. Since then, studies show that climate changes have negative effects on the FNS, aggravated by poverty and social inequality. The purpose of this paper is to perform a review evidencing the relationships between climate changes and FNS. The research was carried out in PubMed using the descriptors "climate change and food security" on the headline, selecting only papers in Portuguese, Spanish, and English languages, and with a direct relation to the themes. The main impacts of climate changes on the FNS were related to the access, production, nutritional quality, and volatility of food prices. The studies also indicated mitigation/adaptation strategies to the effects of climate changes on the FNS, as well as a geographic panorama of the publications with fields of study in Africa and Asia, continents marked by social inequality and poverty. Climate changes affect the dimensions of FNS, especially in poorer populations in situation of social inequality. The relevance of the themes raises concern on the urgency of higher investments in public policies, studies, and research on the subject around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Climate change has altered global hydrological cycles mainly due to changes in temperature and precipitation, which may exacerbate the global and regional water shortage issues, especially in the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R). Methods: In this paper, we assessed water supply, demand, and stress under three climate change scenarios in the major countries along the Belt and Road. We ensembled ten Global Climate Model (GCM) runoff data and downscaled it to a finer resolution of 0.1 × 0.1 by the random forest model. Results: Our results showed that the GCM runoff was highly correlated with the FAO renewable water resources and thus could be used to estimate water supply. Climate change would increase water supply by 4.85%, 5.18%, 8.16% and water demand by 1.45%, 1.68%, 2.36% under RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios by 2050s, respectively. As a result, climate change will, in general, have little impact on water stress in the B&R countries as a whole. However, climate change will make future water resources more unevenly distributed among the B&R countries and regions, exacerbating water stress in some countries, especially in Central Asia and West Asia. Our results are informative for water resource managers and policymakers in the B&R countries to make sustainable water management strategies under future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous economic growth and the rise in energy consumption are linked with environmental pollution. Demand for health care expenditure increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is interesting in modeling the nexus between public and private health expenditure, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth. To this end, the present study analyzed the nexus between public and private health care expenditure, economic growth, and environmental pollution for 36 Asian countries for the period 1991–2017. FMOLS, GMM, and quantile regression analysis confirm the EKC hypothesis in Asia. Besides, FMOLS and quantile regressions reached the reducing effects of government and private health expenditures on CO2 emissions. While quantile regression results show that public and private health expenditures can mitigate CO2 emissions; however, these results differ for various levels of CO2. Findings of quantile regression show a significant impact of both public and private health expenditures in reducing CO2 at the 50th and 75th quantiles but results are insignificant for the 25th quantile. Overall, the paper concludes that both government and private health sectors' expenditures caused CO2 emissions to decrease in Asia and that the negative impact of the private health sector on CO2 emissions is greater than that of the government health sector. The concluding remark is that the higher the health spending, the higher the environmental quality will be in Asia. Hence, the health administrators need to increase public and private health expenditures with an effective cost-service and energy-efficient management approach to reach sustainable health services and a sustainable environment in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical nature of a seaport is a connection point. In addition to the effect on port operations, a port disruption will be a strain on trade flows and the various parties concerned. Climate change, oil spill, security, social and political instability are increasing concerns over the years which would lead to higher risks. With significant growing trade volume in Asia, there is a pressing need for comprehensive studies to prepare ports for disruptions. This paper aims to analyse and categorise the disruptions that have occurred in Asian ports and estimate the likelihood of recurrence based on the data since the year 1900. Results reveal a rising trend of disruptive events. Natural disasters and labour strikes are the two main causes of port disruptions, while natural disasters lead to the highest severity in terms of cargo tons affected. Mitigation strategies proposed in terms of both preventive and reactive measures are specifically designed to reduce the likelihood and severity of the various types of port disruptions. The paper provides recommendations on risk mitigation for relevant parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countering climate challenges requires genuine multi-layered approaches in cooperation with various stakeholders. Spanning 20 years, the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) has been facilitating the research community to provide regional and grassroots results and solutions, while acting as a mechanism to encourage science-policy-stakeholder dialogue. This paper outlines the relevance of APN projects to IPCC policymaking by laying out knowledge products and lessons learned from the projects. It also narrates how regional research and capacity building assist in responding to the increasing urgency across climate change and the SDGs. A synthesis of project-generated knowledge was garnered from research and capacity development studies conducted under the auspices of APN to identify their scope and level of policy relevance. A combined typology and solution scanning with Likert scale as relevance rating was employed to categorize contribution against key themes of the IPCC sixth assessment report. Findings suggest 115 distinct and relevant projects completed mostly in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Temperate East Asia, with many of them asserting community-based adaptation and mitigation surrounding issues on ecosystems and biodiversity, extreme weather events, water-food-energy nexus, sustainable waste management, and climate education. Findings also show 163 knowledge products in which majority of them (66.87%) were peer-reviewed journal articles, 11.04% were reports, 7.98% were policy briefs, 6.75% were guidelines and tools, 4.91% were books and 2.45% were perspectives and opinions. With the evolving synergies between global climate targets and the SDGs, it is recommended that APN solidify its role in science-policy partnerships and networking by creating improved interlinkages for disseminating knowledge gaps filled and in replicating lessons learned and best practices found in APN knowledge products. In addition to science-policy dialogues and output synthesis, a regular review of APN research and capacity development outcomes will help in realizing these important aspects toward wider policy impact., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In recent times, there has been increase in climate change protest across the globe. However, whether decrease in emissions is connected with climate change protest or not is yet to be documented in the literature. Consequently, the aim of this study is to fill this gap by examining ex-post detection of how climate change protests and its interconnectedness with CO2 emissions. Using the Bai and Perron (1998) structural break test, we estimate the number of breaks as well as the date of such structural breaks in CO2 emissions series for 41 countries. Our aim is to match the date of the climate change protests to those of the structural breaks. We observe that climate change protests are fairly consistent with the dates of breaks in Europe and Asia, but not in BRICS economies or US, Canada and other countries. Therefore, this method allows us to solve a gap in the energy industry related to the modelling and correct allocation of positive shocks in CO2 emissions to climate change protests., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The westerly jet (WJ) is an important component of atmospheric circulation, which is characterized by prominent seasonal variations in intensity and position. However, the response of the WJ over Asia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is still not clear. Using general circulation model experiments, the seasonal behaviors of the WJ over central Asia and Japan are analyzed in this paper. The results show that, compared to the present day (PD), the WJ presents a complicated response during the LGM, both in intensity and position. Over central Asia, it becomes weaker in both summer and winter. But over Japan, it is enhanced in summer but becomes diminished in winter. In terms of position, the WJ over central Asia shifts southward in both summer and winter, whereas the WJ over Japan moves southward in summer but does not change obviously relative to PD in winter. Such WJ changes are well explained by meridional temperature gradients in high troposphere, which is closely linked to seasonal thermal anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). Despite cooler LGM conditions, the anomalous warming center over the TP becomes stronger in summer. Derived from the heat budget equation, the stronger heating center is mainly caused by the weaker adiabatic cooling generated from ascending motion over the area south of the TP. In winter, the cooling over the TP is also strengthened, mostly owing to the subsidence-induced weaker adiabatic heating. Due to the importance of the WJ, the potential role of TP thermal effects should be a focus when explaining the East Asian climate change during the LGM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has become a global pandemic and threatens public health systems worldwide. Virus transmission can be influenced by several factors, one of which is climatic conditions. Temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and solar radiation play an important role in the transmission of infectious diseases and are variables that can determine the resistance of the SARS virus. This paper aimed to critically assess and provide evidence-based on the impact of climate variables on COVID-19 cases in Asia based on current knowledge to form the basis of guidelines for health care and prevention efforts. This systematic review used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The articles were searched from ProQuest, Scopus, PubMed, and Springerlink databases. The reviewers had screened 2.784 abstracts, 103 full-text publications, and ultimately included 11 systematic reviews. The review found a consistently positive relationship between climate variables and COVID-19. Average temperature, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and humidity (r = 0.83, 0.94, 0.93, 0.30) were significantly correlated with COVID-19 cases. Temperature, maximum humidity, and population density (adjusted R2 = 0.53, p<0.05), can be used as references in planning interventions during potential future pandemics. Linear regression framework, high humidity, and high temperature (p<0.05) significantly reduce the transmission of COVID-19. This systematic review shows that climate plays a role in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia is facing serious environmental challenges including urban air pollution and the effects of global climate change. As a major source of greenhouse gases, what happens in Asia will play a crucial role in determining the extent to which the world warms over coming decades. This paper reviews key environmental challenges faced by the region and the growing opportunities for a transition to a cleaner economy powered by zero‐emission energy sources. Economic mechanisms – including emissions pricing, reverse auctions, and renewable portfolio standards with green certificate schemes – have the potential to underpin a much greener development model for the Asian Century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth in Asia has increased in the past three decades and has heightened energy demand, resulting in rising greenhouse gas emissions and severe air pollution. To tackle these issues, fuel switching and the deployment of renewables are essential. In the present paper, we discuss the environmental regulations, mainly carbon pricing, implemented in Asia and discuss their achievements. Empirical studies using microdata have shown that carbon pricing in Asia can reduce carbon emissions by promoting energy efficiency. At the macro level, we observe some evidence of fuel switching from coal to natural gas among major emitters. However, more carbon pricing is necessary in Asia if we aim for the decarbonization of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a view of the major facts and figures related to infectious diseases with a focus on food-borne and water-borne diseases and their link with environmental factors and climate change. The global burden of food-borne diseases for 31 selected hazards was estimated by the World Health Organization at 33 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2010 with 40% of this burden concentrated among children under 5 years of age. The highest burden per population of food-borne diseases is found in Africa, followed by Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean sub-regions. Unsafe water used for the cleaning and processing of food is a key risk factors contributing to food-borne diseases. The role of quality and quantity of water to the general burden of infectious diseases deserves attention, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, as its effects go beyond the food chain. Water-related infectious diseases are a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, and climate change effects will exacerbate the challenges for the public health sector for both food-borne and water-borne diseases. Selected case studies from Africa and Asia show that (i) climate change extreme events, such as floods, may exacerbate the risks for infectious diseases spreading through water systems, and (ii) improvements related to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene could result in a significant reduction of intestinal parasitic infections among school-aged children. There is a need to better anticipate the impacts of climate change on infectious diseases and fostering multi-stakeholder engagement and multi-sectoral collaborations for integrated interventions at schools, community and household levels. The paper calls for giving priority to improving the environmental conditions affecting food-borne and water-borne infectious diseases under climate change., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Meat consumption is a major contributor to global warming. Given the worldwide growing demand of meat, and the severe impact of meat production on the planet, reducing animal protein consumption is a matter of food security and public health. Changing consumer food behavior is a challenge. Taste preferences, culinary traditions and social norms factor into food choices. Since behavioral change cannot occur without the subject's positive attitude based on reasons and motivations, a total of 34 papers on consumer attitudes and behavior towards meat consumption in relation to environmental concerns were examined. The results show that consumers aware of the meat impact on the planet, willing to stop or significantly reduce meat consumption for environmental reasons, and who have already changed their meat intake for ecological concerns are a small minority. However, environmental motives are already appealing significant proportions of Westerners to adopt certain meat curtailment strategies. Those who limit meat intake for environmental reasons are typically female, young, simply meat-reducer (not vegan/vegetarian), ecology-oriented, and would more likely live in Europe and Asia than in the U.S.

Unprecedented challenges in urban management of water, waste and climate change-amplified by urbanisation and economic growth-are growing in Asia. In this circumstance, cities need to be aware of threats and opportunities to improve their capacity in addressing these challenges. This paper identifies priorities, barriers and enablers of these capacities. Through the City Blueprint ® Approach-an integrated baseline assessment of the urban water cycle-11 Asian cities are assessed. Three cities are selected for an in-depth governance capacity analysis of their challenges with a focus on floods. Solid waste collection and treatment and access to improved drinking water and sanitation can be considered priorities, especially in cities with considerable slum populations. These people are also disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate-related hazards. The high variation of water management performance among Asian cities shows high potential for city-to-city learning by sharing best practices in water technology and governance. Combining interventions, i.e., by exploring co-benefits with other sectors (e.g., transport and energy) will increase efficiency, improve resilience, and lower the cost. Although governance capacities varied among cities, management of available information, monitoring and evaluation showed to be reoccurring points for improvement. Cities are also expected to increase implementation capacities using better policy, stricter compliance and preparedness next to promoting community involvement. Consequently, the city transformation process can be more concrete, efficient and inclusive.

This paper considers how to make pro-poor climate change adaptation more effective in the city of Chittagong. Drawing on discussions with residents in informal settlements and interviews with staff from government agencies, NGOs and donors, it shows the lack of connection between the formal institutional structure for disaster preparedness and the groups most at risk from extreme weather disasters and their community level actions. There is no clear definition of roles among local government agencies with regard to climate change adaptation. Although there is a donor-funded programme to reduce poverty and disaster risks, this is not being implemented in the settlements most at risk from landslides. Neither are there any measures underway to address the needs of the residents in these high risk settlements, in part because of the financial weakness of local government. Nor is there much support for this from national government – since national climate change adaptation policy does not consider urban adaptation and strengthening urban government capacity to reduce the vulnerability of the extreme poor as a priority. NGOs undertake programmes for community-based disaster risk reduction but their scale and scope are limited by not being integrated into local government. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the possible influence of external forcings on observed changes in precipitation extremes in the mid-to-high latitudes of Asia during 1958–2012 and attempts to identify particular extreme precipitation indices on which there are better chances to detect the influence of external forcings. We compare a recently compiled dataset of observed extreme indices with those from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) simulations using an optimal fingerprinting method. We consider six indices that characterize different aspects of extreme precipitation, including annual maximum amount of precipitation falling in 1 day (Rx1day) or 5 days (Rx5day), the total amount of precipitation from the top 5% or top 1% daily amount on wet days, and the fraction of the annual total precipitation from these events. For single-signal analysis, the fingerprints of external forcings including anthropogenic agents are robustly detected in most studied extreme indices over all Asia and for midlatitude Asia but not for high-latitude Asia. For two-signal analysis, anthropogenic influence is detectable in these indices over Asia at 5% or slightly less than 5% significance level, whereas natural influence is not detectable. In high-latitude Asia, anthropogenic influence is detected only in a fractional index, representing a stark contrast to the midlatitude and full Asia results. We find relatively smaller internal variability and thus higher signal-to-noise ratio in the fractional indices when compared with the other ones. Our results point to the need for studying precipitation extreme indices that are less affected by internal variability while still representing the relevant nature of precipitation extremes to improve the possibility of detecting a forced signal if one is present in the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production, transport and deposition of aeolian dust from land to sea closely interact with regional environment and global climate. This Special Issue addresses transport of aeolian dust from the Asian inland to the Loess Plateau and North Pacific Ocean and their possible links to oceanic ecosystem, global climate and even human activity, over various timescales. The papers in this volume are multidisciplinary in nature and include sedimentology, mineralogy, geochemistry, environmental magnetism and climate modelling on multi-timescales from interannual, glacial–interglacial to tectonic timescales. Based on modern observation, geological records and modelling, this Special Issue offers new insights especially into aeolian provenance, dynamics controls on dust production, a novel marine aeolian proxy, as well as long-term aeolian input to the marginal basins of NE Asia and its influence on oceanic productivity. This issue provides a good example for future comprehensive studies of source-to-sink processes of Asian dust from land to sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews recent advances regarding land–atmosphere–ocean coupling associated with the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its climatic impacts. Thermal forcing over the TP interacts strongly with that over the Iranian Plateau, forming a coupled heating system that elevates the tropopause, generates a monsoonal meridional circulation over South Asia and creates conditions of large-scale ascent favorable for Asian summer monsoon development. TP heating leads to intensification and westward extension (northward movement) of the South Asian High (Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone), and exerts strong impacts on upstream climate variations from North Atlantic to West Asia. It also affects oceanic circulation and buoyancy fields via atmospheric stationary wave trains and air–sea interaction processes, contributing to formation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The TP thermal state and atmospheric–oceanic conditions are highly interactive and Asian summer monsoon variability is controlled synergistically by internal TP variability and external forcing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy–water–land nexus represents a critical leverage future policies must draw upon to reduce trade-offs between sustainable development objectives. Yet, existing long-term planning tools do not provide the scope or level of integration across the nexus to unravel important development constraints. Moreover, existing tools and data are not always made openly available or are implemented across disparate modeling platforms that can be difficult to link directly with modern scientific computing tools and databases. In this paper, we present the NExus Solutions Tool (NEST): a new open modeling platform that integrates multi-scale energy–water–land resource optimization with distributed hydrological modeling. The new approach provides insights into the vulnerability of water, energy and land resources to future socioeconomic and climatic change and how multi-sectoral policies, technological solutions and investments can improve the resilience and sustainability of transformation pathways while avoiding counterproductive interactions among sectors. NEST can be applied at different spatial and temporal resolutions, and is designed specifically to tap into the growing body of open-access geospatial data available through national inventories and the Earth system modeling community. A case study analysis of the Indus River basin in south Asia demonstrates the capability of the model to capture important interlinkages across system transformation pathways towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, including the intersections between local and regional transboundary policies and incremental investment costs from rapidly increasing regional consumption projected over the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topic 3 of the Model Inter-Comparison Study for Asia (MICS-Asia) Phase III examines how online coupled air quality models perform in simulating wintertime haze events in the North China Plain region and evaluates the importance of aerosol radiative feedbacks. This paper discusses the estimates of aerosol radiative forcing, aerosol feedbacks, and possible causes for the differences among the participating models. Over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, the ensemble mean of estimated aerosol direct radiative forcing (ADRF) at the top of atmosphere, inside the atmosphere, and at the surface are -1.1 , 7.7, and -8.8 W m -2 during January 2010, respectively. Subdivisions of direct and indirect aerosol radiative forcing confirm the dominant role of direct forcing. During severe haze days (17–19 January 2010), the averaged reduction in near-surface temperature for the BTH region can reach 0.3–1.6 ∘ C. The responses of wind speeds at 10 m (WS10) inferred from different models show consistent declines in eastern China. For the BTH region, aerosol–radiation feedback-induced daytime changes in PM 2.5 concentrations during severe haze days range from 6.0 to 12.9 µ g m -3 (<6 %). Sensitivity simulations indicate the important effect of aerosol mixing states on the estimates of ADRF and aerosol feedbacks. Besides, black carbon (BC) exhibits a large contribution to atmospheric heating and feedbacks although it accounts for a small share of mass concentration of PM 2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How farmers perceive climate change is linked to whether they are responding and adapting to it. However, often this perception does not correspond with what actually happens. Based on a search of empirical studies carried out in Africa and Asia, this paper analyzes two factors that can influence farmers' perception regarding climate change: expected utility maximization and availability heuristic. While expected utility maximization refers to an expected change in farmers' well-being, the availability heuristic is a mental shortcut based on the memory of occurrence of events. Generally, empirical studies show that farmers' perceptions are aligning with meteorological records regarding an increase in temperature. However, while there are no significant variations in rainfall trends, farmers perceive a reduction in rainfall in the last few years. The recent increase in drought frequency and severity may cause this divergence, because it affects farmers' well-being, and extreme droughts have a central position in peoples' memory. In this context, our findings suggest that farmers' perceptions are influenced by economic and psychological issues. Policymakers, extension workers and developers of climate projects need to pay attention to farm and farmers' characteristics in order to develop mitigation and/or adaptation practices regarding climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the adaptation strategies of developing countries and the possible adaptation options available for Southeast Asia. Adaptation refers to the actions taken by individuals, communities, or governments in response to climate change, to reduce the adverse impacts or to take advantage of opportunities offered by such changes. Adaptation strategies have hardly been considered by many Southeast Asian countries in as recently as two or three years ago. The cost of adaptation and the funding available is also discussed, with the possibility of using institutions for risk sharing (disaster management) and risk transfer (insurance and derivatives) as measures to adapt. A regional outlook for adaptation for Southeast Asia concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory paper aims to synthesize the findings on on-farm trees research with the integration of traditional silvicultural knowledge on multipurpose trees for the design of small scale forestry practices in Africa and Asia. The science, socio-economics and governance aspects of traditional tree based management systems have been documented through the different papers. The findings provide a synopsis of on- farm tree management in Africa and Asia. The synthesis shows that there are still important knowledge gaps such as the ownership of land and trees, gender, the motivation to invest on farm trees, income and livelihood strategies and ecological issues of on farm trees in the context of climate change adaptation and sustainable development goals. There is a general consensus that successful implementation of community involvement in natural resource management in Africa and Asia will only be realized by implementing enabling policies on land tenure, devolution for full empowerment visa viz planning, beneficiation and sharing of benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian summer monsoon precipitation is projected to increase under greenhouse warming with strong intraseasonal variation. Using a 35-member CESM Large Ensemble and 30 CMIP6 models, this study reveals that in July and August, maximum rainfall changes in East Asia take place in the midlatitudes, influencing regions encompassing North and Northeast China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. The intensified precipitation is attributed to the combined effect of the thermodynamic and dynamic components. The former stems from the enriched low-level moisture, which peaks in continental East Asia in July and August, under global warming. The dynamic effect is due to the enhanced upward motion, associated with the enhanced southerlies throughout the troposphere over midlatitude East Asia. The southerlies also act to intensify the low-level monsoonal circulation, strengthening moisture transport from the tropical ocean to the midlatitudes. In addition to the mean-state changes, the precipitation interannual variability in this region also intensifies, partly due to the enhanced low-level moisture and partly associated with enhanced large-scale circulation anomalies, such as the northwestern Pacific anticyclone. The enhanced background precipitation, along with the intensified interannual variability, may lead to more rainy summers in a warmer climate, with instances where historically extreme precipitation events become more frequent, posing challenges for water resource management and agriculture in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation is a key component of climate policy, yet we have limited and fragmented understanding of if and how adaptation is currently taking place. In this paper, we document and characterize the current status of adaptation in 47 vulnerable 'hotspot' nations in Asia and Africa, based on a systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature, as well as policy documents, to extract evidence of adaptation initiatives. In total, 100 peer-reviewed articles, 161 grey literature documents, and 27 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change National Communications were reviewed, constituting 760 adaptation initiatives. Results indicate a significant increase in reported adaptations since 2006. Adaptations are primarily being reported from African and low-income countries, particularly those nations receiving adaptation funds, involve a combination of groundwork and more concrete adaptations to reduce vulnerability, and are primarily being driven by national governments, NGOs, and international institutions, with minimal involvement of lower levels of government or collaboration across nations. Gaps in our knowledge of adaptation policy and practice are particularly notable in North Africa and Central Asia, and there is limited evidence of adaptation initiatives being targeted at vulnerable populations including socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, children, indigenous peoples, and the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]