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Drought monitoring and early detection have improved greatly in recent decades through the development and refinement of numerous indices and indicators. However, a lack of guidance, based on user experience, exists as to which drought-monitoring tools are most appropriate in a given location. This review paper summarizes the results of targeted user engagement and the published literature to improve the understanding of drought across North America and to enhance the utility of drought-monitoring tools. Workshops and surveys were used to assess and make general conclusions about the perceived performance of drought indicators, indices and impact information used for monitoring drought in the five main Köppen climate types (Tropical, Temperate, Continental, Polar Tundra, Dry) found across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In Tropical, humid Temperate, and southerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more short-term (less than 6 months) in duration rather than long-term (more than 6 months). In Polar Tundra climates, Dry climates, Temperate climates with dry warm seasons, and northerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more long-term than short-term. In general, agricultural and hydrological droughts were considered to be the most important drought types. Drought impacts related to agriculture, water supply, ecosystem, and human health were rated to be of greatest importance. Users identified the most effective indices and indicators for monitoring drought across North America to be the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) (or another measure of precipitation anomaly), followed by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (or another satellite-observed vegetation index), temperature anomalies, crop status, soil moisture, streamflow, reservoir storage, water use (demand), and reported drought impacts. Users also noted the importance of indices that measure evapotranspiration, evaporative demand, and snow water content. Drought indices and indicators were generally thought to perform equally well across seasons in Tropical and colder Continental climates, but their performance was perceived to vary seasonally in Dry, Temperate, Polar Tundra, and warmer Continental climates, with improved performance during warm and wet times of the year. The drought indices and indicators, in general, were not perceived to perform equally well across geographies. This review paper provides guidance on when (time of year) and where (climate zone) the more popular drought indices and indicators should be used. The paper concludes by noting the importance of understanding how drought, its impacts, and its indicators are changing over time as the climate warms and by recommending ways to strengthen the use of indices and indicators in drought decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future climate change is expected to increase the risk and severity of wildland fires in tropical regions. Synoptic-scale fire weather conditions in Mexico were carefully analyzed using 20 years of satellite hotspot and rainfall data, hourly weather data, and various climate data. Fire analysis results showed that eighty-four percent of all fires in Mexico occurred south of 22° N. Southwest Mexico (SWM, N < 22°, 94–106° W) and Southeast Mexico (SEM, N < 22°, 86–94° W), account for 50% and 34% of all fires in Mexico. Synoptic-scale analysis results using hourly data showed that westerly wind sea breezes from the Pacific Ocean blow toward the coastal land areas of the SWM while easterly wind sea breezes from the Caribbean blow into the SEM. The most sensitive weather parameters were "relative humidity" for the SWM and "temperature" for the SEM. The fire-related indices selected were "precipitable water vapor anomaly" for the SWM and "temperature anomaly" for the SEM. The SWM fire index suggests that future fires will depend on dryness, while the SEM fire index suggests that future fires will depend on temperature trends. I do hope that this paper will improve local fire forecasts and help analyze future fire trends under global warming in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ciencia Ergo Sum is the property of Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico 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.)

Background: Climate variability influences the population dynamics of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the viruses that cause dengue, chikungunya and Zika. In recent years these diseases have grown considerably. Dengue is now the fastest-growing mosquito-transmitted disease worldwide, putting 40 per cent of the global population at risk. With no effective antiviral treatments or vaccines widely available, controlling mosquito population remains one of the most effective ways to prevent epidemics. This paper analyses the temporal and spatial dynamics of dengue in Mexico during 2000–2020 and that of chikungunya and Zika since they first appeared in the country in 2014 and 2015, respectively. This study aims to evaluate how seasonal climatological variability affects the potential risk of transmission of these mosquito-borne diseases. Mexico is among the world's most endemic countries in terms of dengue. Given its high incidence of other mosquito-borne diseases and its size and wide range of climates, it is a good case study. Methods: We estimate the recently proposed mosquito-borne viral suitability index P, which measures the transmission potential of mosquito-borne pathogens. This index mathematically models how humidity, temperature and precipitation affect the number of new infections generated by a single infected adult female mosquito in a host population. We estimate this suitability index across all Mexico, at small-area level, on a daily basis during 2000–2020. Results: We find that the index P predicted risk transmission is strongly correlated with the areas and seasons with a high incidence of dengue within the country. This correlation is also high enough for chikungunya and Zika in Mexico. We also show the index P is sensitive to seasonal climatological variability, including extreme weather shocks. Conclusions: The paper shows the dynamics of dengue, chikungunya and Zika in Mexico are strongly associated with seasonal climatological variability and the index P. This potential risk of transmission index, therefore, is a valuable tool for surveillance for mosquito-borne diseases, particularly in settings with varied climates and limited entomological capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructions of women in the Global South, as poor and rural, portray them as most vulnerable and passive to the effects of environmental degradation. This conception has been informing institutional responses to environmental change that incorporate a gender component. It is in this context that climate change interventions increasingly target women in the Global South, so it is important to evaluate their impact. This paper sets out to question why a gender agenda is being pushed alongside a climate agenda, what these projects look like in the communities and households where they are implemented, and the impacts of these projects on the lives of people that encounter them in Oaxaca, Mexico. Through reflexive storytelling, this paper aims to ground environmental governance around gender and climate change using feminist geography by calling attention to the everyday lives of people in Mexico involved in gender and climate change interventions. Using postcolonial insights and reflexive approaches, this paper highlights the agency of actors and fights against tendencies in climate and development work that homogenize gender, erasing the agency and autonomy of people outside of western spaces. Through reflexive research, I call attention to the ways that concepts operating in global contexts do not merely operate on 'third world women' but are imbricated in the performance of their every-day lives as they manage and negotiate global discourses around gender and climate change while transforming them so that they become meaningful to their every-day lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the main threats to biodiversity in the 21st century. However, the effects that it may have on different mammal species are unknown, making it difficult to implement conservation strategies. In this paper, we used species distribution models (SDM) to assess the effect of global climate change on the potential distribution of the 8 of the 9 marsupial species in Mexico, and analyzed their distribution in the current system of natural protected areas (NPAs). We used presence records for each species and bioclimatic variables from the present and the future (2050 and 2080) with 2 contrasting possible scenarios (representative concentration pathways RCP 4.5 and 8.5). We found that Tlacuatzin canescens would have the most stable potential range under any climate change scenario, while the remaining species (Caluromys derbianus, Chironectes minimus, Didelphis marsupialis, D. virginiana, Philander opossum, Marmosa mexicana , and Metachirus nudicaudatus) would undergo notable range losses in the future, though there would not only be losses—according to our SDMs, for all species there would be some range gain under the different climate scenarios, assuming the vegetation cover remained. The current system of NPAs in Mexico currently protects and under the 2 future scenarios would protect less than 20% of the potential range of marsupials, so a reevaluation of their areas beyond the NPAs is highly recommended for the long-term conservation of this group. Our results provide relevant information on the estimated effects of global climate change on marsupials, allowing us to design more effective methodologies for the protection of this portion of the mammalian fauna in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the measures taken by the Mexican Government in relation to the country’s climate change and its management to improve it.Design/methodology/approach Much of the information which has guided this review was sourced from official documents referred to the climate change initiatives in Mexico, especially technical reports and working papers. The selection of literature was considered based on its recency, academic importance and veracity. The studies selected mainly ranged from 2001 to 2017.Findings This review finds that further research is required to assess Mexico’s climate change efforts objectively, which will help to ascertain if the nation’s plans and commitment are as ambitious and strong as the country claims.Research limitations/implications Most of the literature considered in this review was sourced from official documents and has not been subject to extensive academic peer review to guarantee that national decision and policy making are based on reliable scientific knowledge.Originality/value Mexico is one of the first countries to introduce a law dedicated to climate change, and its inclusion of short-term climate pollutants in its National Climate Change Strategy makes it more ambitious than that of many other Latin American countries. However, literature on the subject is limited and fragmented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are facing a global water crisis exacerbated by hydro-climatic extremes related to climate change. Water scarcity is expected to increasingly affect indigenous and marginalized populations. Supporting the sovereignty of indigenous and rural populations to create water secure futures through place-based knowledge, local management, and Community-based Adaptation (CBA) measures may help tackle this crisis. Zapotec communities in Oaxaca, Mexico have self-organized for collective action to use Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) to address water scarcity, resulting in a perceived increase of groundwater availability. Treating groundwater as a common-pool resource (CPR) within a sociohydrological system, the objectives of this paper are two-fold: (1) to explore how MAR may be implemented as a CBA measure, and (2) to understand what factors triggered and/or enabled the widespread implementation of MAR by Zapotec indigenous communities in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca, Mexico. In doing so, we aim to get a better understanding of local processes while also furthering theories that relate to CBA, CPR, and sociohydrology. This paper was born from the desire of the Zapotec community members to share their experience and lessons learned so other drought-vulnerable communities might benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development and climate change mitigation policies, Dunlap and Fairhead argue, have instigated and renewed old conflicts over land and natural resources, deploying military techniques of counterinsurgency to achieve land control. Wind energy development, a popular tool of climate change mitigation policies, has consequently generated conflict in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (Istmo) region in Oaxaca, Mexico. Research is based on participant observation and 20 recorded interviews investigating the Fuerza y Energía Bíi Hioxo Wind Farm on the outskirts of Juchitán de Zaragoza. This paper details the repressive techniques employed by state, private and informal authorities against popular opposition to the construction of the Bíi Hioxo wind park on communal land. Providing background on Juchitán, social property and counterinsurgency in Southern Mexico, this paper analyzes the development of the Bíi Hioxo wind park. It further explores the emergence of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ counterinsurgency techniques used to pacify resistance against the wind park, enabling its completion next to the Lagoon Superior in October 2014. Discussing the ‘greening of counterinsurgency’, this contribution concludes that the Bíi Hioxo wind park has spawned social divisions and violent conflict, and intervened in the sensitive cultural fabric of Istmeño life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on 'chronic kidney disease of unknown origin' (CKDu), this paper revisits ethnographic preoccupations with 'thin' and 'thick' descriptions in the context of the unexplained emergence of this unruly disease. CKDu has recently emerged in impoverished sites across the Global South as a 'medical enigma' that defies easy description. Despite growing research efforts from various quarters, however, the search for specific causes using conventional forms of analysis has made little progress. Taking CKDu as a residual category and a contemporary case of society–environment–body entanglements (Latimer and Gomez, 2019; Latour, 2018), we engage Heather Love's descriptive turn as a provocation to examine what it is that is encountered in encounters with 'the enigma of CKDu'. In doing so, we highlight the role of thick and thin descriptions (cf. Love, 2013) in terms of the political relations they make differently visible. We argue both are critical to the 'art of noticing' (Tsing, 2015). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Climate change is a defining issue and grand challenge for the health sector in North America. Synthesizing evidence on climate change impacts, climate-health adaptation, and climate-health mitigation is crucial for health practitioners and decision-makers to effectively understand, prepare for, and respond to climate change impacts on human health. This protocol paper outlines our process to systematically conduct a literature review to investigate the climate-health evidence base in North America. Methods: A search string will be used to search CINAHL®, Web of Science™, Scopus®, Embase® via Ovid, and MEDLINE® via Ovid aggregator databases. Articles will be screened using inclusion/exclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. First, the inclusion/exclusion criteria will be applied to article titles and abstracts, and then to the full articles. Included articles will be analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Discussion: This protocol describes review methods that will be used to systematically and transparently create a database of articles published in academic journals that examine climate-health in North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the cultural meaning of subsistence farming is at least equally important as its function as a livelihood strategy in rural Mexico for at least two reasons. First, subsistence farming is more or less important during different stages of people's lives. Many young people, particularly men, intend to migrate to the USA for work and have little interest in farming, while older people keep up the tradition of farming the land they inherited from their ancestors. Second, in most cases only households who rely on external sources of income for their basic needs – including remittances – can afford keeping the tradition of subsistence farming and take the risk of crop failures. Poorer households, in contrast, tend to stop farming when revenues cannot be guaranteed, and they might also be unable to afford international migration. Drawing on qualitative empirical data collected in two rural communities in the Mexican state Zacatecas in 2008 and in 2018 these findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between more frequent and more severe droughts, related changes to the yield output of subsistence farming for rural dwellers, and outmigration to the USA in times of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Foro Internacional is the property of El Colegio de Mexico AC 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.)

Different parent rocks, climate, and relief control the provenance of beach sands on the coast of Mexico. This is the first paper to address the provenance problem of beach sands in south‐eastern Mexico considering a homogeneous climate and relative similarity in parental rocks but different relief. Two coastal areas are confined in this study: (a) the Western Gulf of Tehuantepec (WGT) and (b) the Eastern Gulf of Tehuantepec (EGT). The WGT beach sands are probably controlled by the denudation of orthogneisses, Eocene–Miocene basaltic–andesites–dacites–rhyolites from the Volcanic Belt of the Sierra Madre del Sur (VBSMS), and granites to diorites from the Coastal Plutonic Belt (CPB). The rocks exposed in the EGT are represented by orthogneisses and tonalite, granodiorite, and gabbro suites from the Palaeozoic–Mesozoic Chiapas Coastal Plutonic Belt (CHCPB). Quaternary andesites and dacites from the Tacaná Volcano are located in the eastern coastal area. The Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) and Plagioclase Index of Alteration (PIA) values indicate that the less weathered beach sands are in the WGT compared to the EGT coastal area. Plagioclase transport is preserved in a narrow coastal plain that contributes to a lower a weathering rate compared to the EGT sands deposited in a wider coastal plain. Geochemical analyses show that the WGT and EGT beach sands are admixtures of felsic, intermediate, metamorphic, and volcanic sources in their sands composition. Relief seems to play a major role in the composition of beach sand in both coastlines, since parental rocks are mostly similar in composition and climate remains homogeneous along the coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive water governance seeks to increase a social-ecological system’s adaptive capacity in the face of uncertainty and change. This is especially important in non-linear dryland systems that are already exposed to water scarcity and increasing degradation. Conservation of water ecosystem services is key for increasing adaptive capacity in drylands, however, how stakeholders perceive water ecosystem services greatly affects how they are managed, as well as the potential for adaptive water governance. This paper focuses on identifying the system’s potential for enabling adaptive water governance by analysing different stakeholder perceptions on water ecosystem services. It takes the Rio del Carmen watershed as a case study, offering important insights for an increasing number of water-scarce regions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in the watershed in order to unravel their perceptions and understand the governance context. We found disparities in how stakeholders perceive water ecosystem services have led to water overexploitation and several conflicts over water access. Our results indicate that stakeholder perceptions have a major influence on the system’s adaptability, as they shape the acquisition of water ecosystem services. Divergent stakeholder perceptions act as an important barrier to collaboration. Generating and sharing knowledge could facilitate the development of a common vision, allowing all actors to co-create information about water ecosystem services and the system state, engaging them in a participatory process, suitable for their context, and that will better support adaptive water governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: The notion of “sustainable development” has drawn attention to the precarious balance between populations and natural resources in terms of current and future needs. Approaches to the study of sustainability that focus on socio‐ecological systems may obscure the fact that what is sustainable at a broad scale may not be optimal for an entire population. Political ecology offers a complementary lens to investigate how relationships between humans and their environments unfold within historically situated structures of power. Archaeology provides a means to extend the historical gaze of political ecology to account for long‐term patterns of sustainability at multiple scales. This paper applies an archaeological approach to the historical political ecology of the northern Basin of Mexico. Specifically, it focuses on the people who settled in the wetland environment of Lake Xaltocan and their dynamic relationships with each other, land, and water over the last 2500 years. Over this time, local actors have adjusted to a variety of external constraints, from ecological change to political upheaval. A long‐term perspective reveals how politically‐situated actions transformed Lake Xaltocan physically and conceptually and how the sustainability of local regimes was unevenly determined by access to power rather than the husbanding of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pensamiento Jurídico is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia 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.)

The Términos Lagoon is a 2000-km 2 wide coastal lagoon linked to the largest river catchment in Mesoamerica. Economic development, together with its ecological importance, led the Mexican government to pronounce the Términos Lagoon and its surrounding wetlands as a Federal protected area for flora and fauna in 1994. It is characterized by small temperature fluctuations, but with two distinct seasons (wet and dry) that control the biological, geochemical, and physical processes and components. This paper presents a review of the available information about the Términos Lagoon. The review shows that the diversity of benthic communities is structured by the balance between marine and riverine inputs and that this structuration strongly influences the benthic metabolism and its coupling with the biogeochemistry of the water column. The paper also presents many specific drivers and recommendations for a long-term environmental survey strategy in the context of the expected Global Change in the Central American region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses gender differences in vulnerability and resilience to shocks, including climate change and climate variability, for Peru, Brazil and Mexico, which together account for more than half the population in Latin America. Vulnerability and resilience indicators are measured by a combination of the level of household incomes per capita and the degree of diversification of these incomes. Thus, households which simultaneously have incomes which are below the national poverty line and which are poorly diversified (Diversification Index below 0.5) are classified as highly vulnerable, whereas households which have highly diversified incomes above the poverty line are classified as highly resilient. The analysis shows that female headed households in all three countries tend to be less vulnerable and more resilient than male headed households, despite the fact that the former usually have lower education levels. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous work, the authors demonstrated how data from climate simulations can be utilized to estimate regional wind power densities. In particular, it was shown that the quality of wind power densities, estimated from the UPSCALE global dataset in offshore regions of Mexico, compared well with regional high resolution studies. Additionally, a link between surface temperature and moist air density in the estimates was presented. UPSCALE is an acronym for UK on PRACE (the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe)—weather-resolving Simulations of Climate for globAL Environmental risk. The UPSCALE experiment was performed in 2012 by NCAS (National Centre for Atmospheric Science)-Climate, at the University of Reading and the UK Met Office Hadley Centre. The study included a 25.6-year, five-member ensemble simulation of the HadGEM3 global atmosphere, at 25km resolution for present climate conditions. The initial conditions for the ensemble runs were taken from consecutive days of a test configuration. In the present paper, the emphasis is placed on the single climate run for a potential future climate scenario in the UPSCALE experiment dataset, using the Representation Concentrations Pathways (RCP) 8.5 climate change scenario. Firstly, some tests were performed to ensure that the results using only one instantiation of the current climate dataset are as robust as possible within the constraints of the available data. In order to achieve this, an artificial time series over a longer sampling period was created. Then, it was shown that these longer time series provided almost the same results than the short ones, thus leading to the argument that the short time series is sufficient to capture the climate. Finally, with the confidence that one instantiation is sufficient, the future climate dataset was analysed to provide, for the first time, a projection of future changes in wind power resources using the UPSCALE dataset. It is hoped that this, in turn, will provide some guidance for wind power developers and policy makers to prepare and adapt for climate change impacts on wind energy production. Although offshore locations around Mexico were used as a case study, the dataset is global and hence the methodology presented can be readily applied at any desired location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential effects of climate change on the habitat and human settlements in Mexico, through an analysis of three regions that are vulnerable to hydrometeorological hazards such as droughts, floods and hurricanes. Design/methodology/approach – The research process included fieldwork in the states of Oaxaca, Tabasco and Yucatán, and a historical study of hydrometeorological events in each region. The authors sought to identify a means of interpreting these events linked to climate variability, on the basis of the history of disasters, the environment and the habitat. The local climatic indications were compared to the IPCC’s global successes, to show that contradictions do not exist but that it is difficult to apply the IPCC’s findings at a local level, given the considerable margin of uncertainty. Findings – The indications of the effects of climate change make it possible to foresee that the most vulnerable populations will be the ones facing the strongest impact in the future. Practical implications – The research has direct implications on urban and housing policies, offering a roadmap to design climate change adaptation strategies; adaptive capacity not only requires political commitment. Social implications – It is also related to social and economic development and an “integral risk management” approach rather than a “civil protection” strategy. Originality/value – The main interest of this research is to show that a multidisciplinary approach is essential in order to understand the local implications of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon forestry has become a cornerstone of attempted climate change mitigation in developing countries. As such, dozens of projects have been developed to supply carbon offsets to both voluntary and regulated carbon markets. In this paper we shed further light on the effects of such projects on communities and households by studying the implementation of a carbon forestry project in four communities in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The project pays farmers to carry out a number of tree-planting activities depending on the local agro-ecological systems. We investigate how such activities have been promoted in and adopted by communities and we identify a series of community-based, institutional, resource management and asset-related factors that explain farmers’ willingness to participate in the projects. Our analysis highlights a number of shared motivations for joining the project but varied levels of understanding about the project rationale. We also show how community norms, access to land tenure, financial and physical assets differ among participants and non-participants which translates in increasing inequalities in access to income and to other development projects. However, we also demonstrate that project activities, as currently designed, motivate some farmers to participate because of the potential of the project to act as a mechanism to bridge existing social divides through cooperation in the project and therefore financially and politically benefit from participation. Overall, the paper demonstrates that the project contributes to transforming local livelihoods and institutions, unfortunately not always as originally designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have recognised a climate gap, wherein poor communities face disproportionate impacts of climate change. Others have noted that climate change and economic globalisation may mutually affect a region or social group, leading to double exposure. This paper investigates how current and changing patterns of neighbourhood demographics are associated with extreme heat in the border city of Juárez, Mexico. Many Juárez neighbourhoods are at-risk to triple exposures, in which residents suffer due to the conjoined effects of the global recession, drug war violence, and extreme heat. Due to impacts of the recession onmaquiladoraemployment and the explosion of drug violence (2008–2012), over 75% of neighbourhoods experienced decreasing population density between 2000 and 2010 and the average neighbourhood saw a 40% increase in the proportion of older adults. Neighbourhoods with greater drops in population density and increases in the proportion of older residents over the decade are at significantly higher risk to extreme heat, as are neighbourhoods with lower population density and lower levels of education. In this context, triple exposures are associated with a climate gap that most endangers lower socio-economic status and increasingly older-aged populations remaining in neighbourhoods from which high proportions of residents have departed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mexico's government has introduced a Law on Climate Change that is unique worldwide; it establishes targets for greenhouse gases reductions at the same level of developed countries despite being an emerging country. This reform represents a crucial challenge for the electrical and transport sectors largely dependent on fossil energy since Mexico is the ninth-largest oil producer in the world. Local industry and academic sectors are called to lead the introduction of renewable energy sources, and particularly to enhance the share of energy from biomass in the local energy basket. Thus, this paper outlines the baseline on regulatory, energy, and carbon markets, and the scientific capacity to increase bioenergy utilization in Mexico. Furthermore, it opens a discussion about the steps forward with regard to sustainability and research needs, emphasizing some priorities and principles to develop a bioenergy system environmentally compatible in this country. © 2014 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts, Biorefining published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mexican Journal of Economics & Finance / Revista Mexicana de Economia y Finanzas is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas 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 article takes a holistic view of vulnerabilities within several communities in northern Mexico. The authors use a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection methods to capture different dimensions of vulnerability. Using the multidimensional vulnerability framework (MVI), they analyze socioeconomic indicators, including poverty rates, income inequality, access to essential services, and economic well-being in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Environmental factors such as water scarcity, pollution levels, and natural resource degradation are also included to understand the ecological challenges those communities face, and political factors, including governance structures and policies, determine their influence on vulnerability and resilience. The result indicates that the community prioritizes ecological indicators over social ones. However, in each community this is heterogeneous. In both cases, the ecological and social indicators selected allow for a multidisciplinary approach to vulnerability. By identifying and understanding these issues, policy makers, researchers, and community leaders can work collaboratively to design strategies to mitigate the impacts of these vulnerabilities. In addition, architects and urban planners can offer specific interventions to benefit these communities. This research contributes to the broader field of vulnerability studies by demonstrating the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and addressing the complex web of vulnerability faced by communities in northern Mexico and territories that share similar characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts on tourism are well documented, with most studies focusing on challenges facing ski or beach tourism. While non-ski, mountain tourism accounts for almost one fifth of tourism worldwide, there is a dearth of research on tourists' perceptions of climate change impacts and their effects on tourism demand in these areas. This study, conducted at the ecotourism destination of the Pueblos Mancomunados in the Sierra Norte Mountains of southern Mexico, helps to fill that gap by identifying important tourist decision factors and determining how tourists' decisions to visit may change under different climatic conditions. Using on-site intercept survey research methodology involving 188 tourists, we found that some climate change scenarios affect tourists' perceptions of the desirability of visiting nature-based tourism sites. Results indicate that community-based ecotourism businesses, such as the one that operates in the Pueblos Mancomunados, need to specifically plan for climate change impacts, as they may need to alter tourism offerings to sustain demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores continuities and changes in the damming of rivers in the global South. By the 2000s, the infrastructural promises of large dams seemed exhausted. Yet, currently dams are making a strong comeback with new justifications highlighting their capacity to produce low-carbon energy and climate-proofed waterscapes, while the harms they generate are being presented as fixable. Through cases from the Mekong (Laos and Cambodia), and the Grijalva (Mexico) River Basins, we problematize these claims. Despite changes in the aspirations and agencies that foster damming, obdurate dam materialities and the new profit-maximizing operation modes provoke violent continuities of infrastructural harms and hinder the repurposing of dams to serve climate combat. Neoliberalised dams even augment climate vulnerabilities, as the more volatile rivers increasingly exceed their ordering capacities. We also show how the new dam assemblages continue dispossessing riverine residents while divergently strengthening corporate and state powers and obscuring relations of responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation is an increasingly important topic addressed in the face of the current and expected future impacts by climate change that the social, economic and ecological systems are experiencing worldwide. Despite the advances reported in the literature, adaptation to climate change is still considered a challenge to move from planning to the practical implementation of successful interventions. In this regard, identifying international key barriers, exchanges of experiences and lessons learned may facilitate the progress of the coasts' sustainable and resilient future. The coast of Mexico is an excellent study area. High population densities occur along the coastal zone, whose main economic activity is related to primary and tertiary sectors. Additionally, a great diversity of coastal ecosystems exists, which are threatened by anthropogenic and hydrometeorological impacts. Under these circumstances, the population is becoming aware of the urgent need to adapt to the consequences of climate change. In this sense, this paper reviews research contributions concerning population perception to climate change and adaptation strategies in Mexico's coastal zone. The findings highlight critical institutional difficulties and social barriers that have impeded the effective implementation of adaptation strategies to climate change in Mexico and consider steps to address them. However, adaptation strategies that show the prevention culture of some coastal communities have been found and also results of successful projects carried out, especially on mangrove forest and coral reef restoration, which are of essential importance to consider to progress on the path of a successful adaptation to climate change in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinises claims made about the promise and efficacy of ecosystems-based adaptation (EBA), through an exploration of EBA-relevant interventions in two fieldsites in Mexico. Our data starts to fill important gaps in current global debates about EBA. We find evidence of the important contribution of interventions relevant to EBA objectives at a small scale and under very specific conditions. However, the viability of similar interventions is substantially reduced, and arguably rendered null, as an incentive for conservation in a more populous fieldsites. Furthermore, evidence suggests that other adaptation options risked being overlooked if the context were viewed solely through the lens of EBA. We conclude that EBA needs to: a) engage with and address the trade-offs which characterised earlier attempts to integrate conservation and development, and; b) acknowledge the implications for its objectives of a globally predominant, neoliberal political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Simple Summary: Tropical mountains are rather interesting ecosystems that exhibit a diverse array of features of an ecological niche that shapes the geographic distribution of species and their co-occurrence patterns. Both historical and contemporary factors significantly influence species and lineages diversification and distribution on mountains. We studied the Peromyscus mexicanus rodent group, distributed across mountains in Guatemala-Chiapas and Central America. We aimed to describe the phylogeography, demography, current distribution, and potential range changes due to future climate change. Based on a framework of genetic (mitochondrial and nuclear sequences) and ecological niche modeling methods, we show that lineages with particular ecological features and distribution on lowlands and highlands have distinctive demographic histories associated with glacial and interglacial cycles during the Pleistocene–Holocene. Additionally, the distribution range of some lineages will potentially be significantly reduced by future climate change. This information is crucial for management and conservation purposes for these lineages in particular, but also as a cautionary tale for potential climate change impacts on a variety of mountain taxa. Mountains harbor a significant number of the World's biodiversity, both on tropical and temperate regions. Notably, one crucial gap in conservation is the consideration of historical and contemporary patterns influencing differential distribution in small mammal mountain species and how climate change will affect their distribution and survival. The mice Peromyscus mexicanus species group is distributed across mountains in Guatemala-Chiapas and Central America, which experienced significant effects of glacial and interglacial cycles. We determined phylogeographic and demographic patterns of lowlands and highlands mountain lineages, revealing that the radiation of modern P. mexicanus lineages occurred during the Pleistocene (ca. 2.6 mya) along Nuclear Central America. In concert with climatic cycles and the distribution of habitats, lowland and highland lineages showed recent population size increase and decrease, respectively. We also estimated the current and future distribution ranges for six lineages, finding marked area size increase for two lineages for which vegetation type and distribution would facilitate migrating towards higher elevations. Contrastingly, three lineages showed range size decrease; their ecological requirements make them highly susceptible to future habitat loss. Our findings are clear evidence of the negative impacts of future climate change, while our ability to manage and conserve these vulnerable ecosystems and mountain species is contingent on our understanding of the implications of climate change on the distribution, ecology, and genetics of wildlife populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the philanthropic sector in climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation is gaining renewed attention as new pledges to dramatically increase funding for nature‐based climate solutions mount. Despite their significant role in the conservation space, philanthropies are relatively understudied as donors; in particular, the lack of accountability and transparency in philanthropy have made them a "black box", including in conservation‐related efforts. Based on extensive document and database review alongside interviews with philanthropic grant‐makers and recipients, this article seeks to analyze the conservation‐related efforts of the Ford Foundation—a long‐standing philanthropic actor in international sustainable development. Specifically, we examine how Ford Foundation practices in Mexico and Central America have shifted since 2000 to center Indigenous Peoples and local communities, both in terms of thematic focus and strategic approach. In explaining how Ford Foundation grant‐makers themselves understand the process of change, and their lessons from this process, this article highlights the ongoing challenges to and possible methods for centering inclusive, territorial approaches to produce more effective, lasting conservation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some key challenges the Mexican government may face when implementing climate change adaptation initiatives in coastal lagoon communities in the Mexican state of Tabasco, in the Gulf of Mexico. I discuss some challenges state initiatives of this type may encounter considering the existence of local contentious political issues among various actors - fishers and the state-owned oil industry - that are at the core of the emergence of coastal environmental changes in the study site. A close analysis of local political, economic and environmental processes in coastal lagoon communities illustrates the existence of contentious issues among powerful actors over territory and its resources. It is in the context of these local, on the ground, issues that I argue that climate change adaptation interventions become highly political. I also argue that climate change policy analysis must be done in light of past and failed state interventions in Tabasco that have had a negative impact on ecosystems and fishers' livelihoods. My analysis of climate change adaptation initiatives and fishers' views on their local environmental problems is based on political ecology approaches to environmental narratives and critical literature on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a significant correlation between energy subsidies in Mexico and some dimensions of sustainable development. In this sense are analyzed the CO2 emissions, subsidies per capita energy sector, the annual growth rate of gdp, electricity consumption per capita and the production of equivalent fossil fuel energy. This research has been between the 2004-2010 period in the recent history of that country. Finally the results are studied and also are established different recommendations related to energy policy and even are presented some possible future research lines in this entire topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This systematic review of literature purposes to explore the impact of climate change on Mexico's water resources, exploring the impacts and efforts to address the problem as well as their effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: The researcher relied on several tools to obtain scholarly articles. The primary approach was using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The Journal Impact Factor was an important consideration for the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The work also excluded all journals predating 2009. The work emphasized using journal articles. However, it consulted textbooks and documents from the government and water conservation sources. Contextually the sources with the highest Journal Impact Factor index were selected, paying heed to their relevance to the topic under investigation. Fifty sources out of seventy were included in the systematic review. Findings: Mexico's already strained water resources have been negatively impacted by climate change, behooving the Mexican government to implement various mitigative strategies. However, scholars reported mixed results on the effectiveness of the various policies and programs implemented by the Mexican government. Key impediments to sustainable implementations entailed the political and social contexts surrounding the conservation policies in Mexico. Originality/value: Numerous articles have explored the impact of climate change on Mexico's water resources, but many focus on a specific aspect. This work took a holistic approach, synthesizing multiple impacts and providing a sociological perspective on the effects, mitigation efforts, and implementation challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing and reducing the impacts of climate change depends on efficient actions from all societal scales. Yet, the household component is often missing from climate research, debate, and policies. This is problematic because households have been found to significantly contribute to of global greenhouse gas emissions and therefore have the potential to be part of a solution to climate change by mitigating climate change. This study seeks to understand which factors drive household-level mitigation actions. We conducted a household survey in Nuevo Leon, located in northeastern Mexico, to explore the extent to which climate change perceptions and the sociodemographic characteristics of households influence their reported mitigation performances and their perceived mitigation efforts. Results from linear regression analyses and generalized linear models revealed that sociodemographic characteristics are key drivers of the households' perceived mitigation efforts and reported mitigation performances and. We also found that climate change perceptions drive a household's efforts to mitigate climate change. These results could partly explain why despite the efforts households take to mitigate climate change, achieving an effective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is challenging without further access to resources such as education and financial support. If governments intend to realize substantial reductions in future emission pathways, then household-level mitigation should be addressed with proper support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Mexico, one hundred of the 188 most important aquifers dedicated to agriculture and human consumption are over-exploited and 32 are affected by seawater intrusion in coastal areas. Considering that Mexico relies on groundwater, it is vital to develop a portfolio of alternatives to recover aquifers and examine policies and programs regarding reclaimed water and stormwater. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) may be useful for increasing water availability and adapting to climate change in semi-arid regions of Mexico. In this paper, we present an overview of water recharge projects that have been conducted in Mexico in the last 50 years, their methods for recharge, water sources, geographical distribution, and the main results obtained in each project. We found three types of MAR efforts: (1) exploratory and suitability studies for MAR, (2) pilot projects, and (3) MAR facilities that currently operate. This study includes the examination of the legal framework for MAR to identify some challenges and opportunities that Mexican regulation contains in this regard. We find that beyond the technical issues that MAR projects normally address, the regulatory framework is a barrier to increasing MAR facilities in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of research investigates how changes in weather shape individual choices about migration, yet highly variable results continue to challenge our understanding of the weather-migration nexus. We use a data-driven approach to identify which weather variables best predicted migration decisions of 54,986 individuals originating in Mexico between 1989 and 2016. Using supervised machine learning, we fit random forests to model migration choices based on individual, household, and community attributes in training data (three-fourths of the sample) from the Mexican Migration Project. We aggregated 36 annual weather variables at the community level and applied k-fold cross-validation to evaluate which models best predicted migration decisions. The top performing models were then applied to the test data (one-fourth of our sample). Three weather variables consistently out-performed others across models: minimum temperature during day, maximum temperature at night, and 'growing degree days' – the number of days with optimal growth temperatures for corn (the major crop for most communities). Our results demonstrate that weather is related to individual choices about migration and illustrate the utility of using principled variable selection which revealed that both customized (growing degree days for a particular crop) and generic (max-min temperatures) metrics can be predictive of migration behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study quantifies the impacts of climate change on yields and the corresponding economic losses in six relevant crops that account for 65% of the harvested area in Mexico and are highly relevant in terms of consumption and economic value. The results show that crop yields could decrease considerably during this century, especially in the rainfed management system. Under a high-emission scenario, large reductions in yields are expected by the end of this century for both rainfed and irrigated management systems of maize (42%, 31.4%), rice (51.4%, 41.3%), sorghum (41.1%, 36.6%), soybean (59.1%, 44.9%), wheat (23.3%, 20.0%), and rainfed sugarcane (11.7%). At the national level, the present value of losses in the selected crops amounts to $37,934 million dollars, which represents about twice the current total national agricultural production of Mexico. Rainfed agriculture represents about 69% of these losses and reductions in maize yields account for almost 70% of the total losses. States such as Veracruz, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, and Jalisco represent half of the total economic losses. However, about 16% of the aggregated losses occur in states with high levels of poverty and subsistence farming like Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero. Climate change will significantly increase the risks that already vulnerable subsistence farmers’ face in the present. Although ambitious mitigation efforts can reduce the estimated impacts in most of the crops, residual damages are considerable, and the prompt implementation adaptation strategies is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal dunes are sensitive indicators of climate change: it is expected that higher precipitation and warmer temperature will promote vegetation growth and sand stabilization. Alternatively, dunes may become active during severe droughts, which would reduce plant cover and increase sand mobility. Consequently, it is relevant to explore community shifts and self-organization processes to better understand how coastal dunes vegetation will respond to these projected changes. Primary succession allows the exploration of community assembly and reorganization processes. We focused on three environmental variables (bare sand, temperature, and precipitation) and five successional groups (facilitators, colonizers, sand binders, nucleators, and competitors). For 25 years (from 1991 to 2016), species turnover was monitored in 150 permanent plots (4 × 4 m) placed on an initially mobile dune system located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The spatiotemporal dynamics observed during primary succession were consistent with the facilitation nucleation model. As late colonizers grew and expanded, psammophytes became locally extinct. The spatial patterns revealed that ecological succession did not occur evenly on the dunes. In addition, the increased mean yearly temperature during the last decades seemed to be associated with the accelerated increment in plant cover and species richness, which had not been registered before in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate projections predict an increase in future climate variability. To ensure economically, socially and environmentally responsible transportation planning, it is necessary to consider future weather variations driven by climate change. Despite growing evidence that considering climatic changes is an imperative for resilient future infrastructure, management agencies rarely incorporate climate change into decision-making processes. One reason is the lack of tangible information and tools to help predict and plan for future conditions. This paper presents the impacts and cost of climate change on the road infrastructure of Mexico. Climate change is projected to require an extra national expenditure on road maintenance that ranges from $1.5 to 5 billion USD by 2050. The Infrastructure Planning Support System (IPSS) , a tool developed by the authors, is used to quantify impacts of climate change for this study. The results reinforce the need to incorporate forward-looking planning to reduce vulnerability by increase road infrastructure resilience to the future weather changes and provide quantified information for decision makers to consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, several mitigation strategies for the industrial sector are needed to achieve global mitigation scenarios that include: carbon intensity, energy intensity, material intensity, product-service intensity, and the global demand for services. Under this contextual, this paper presents a decomposition analysis of energy related carbon dioxide emissions from the steel produced to manufacture new automobiles. The novelty of this analysis is that it links energy related carbon dioxide emissions from service demand to material production, breaking changes in demand for services measured as passenger-kilometers driven by new automobiles either for replacement or for new demand; steel content in new automobiles (material intensity); production process (structure); final energy intensity; and carbon intensity. The study boundaries include direct and indirect steel imports (contained in automobile imports). This analysis is applied to the Mexican case from 1993 to 2011. The results show that an increase in the pass-km followed by the growth in the vehicle size is the most important factors influencing carbon dioxide emissions. The rise of fuels with higher carbon contents in countries that export vehicles and steel to Mexico is also an important variable that had increased emissions. A projection for CO 2 emissions for 2025 was developed to understand the significance of the different variables in the reduction of CO 2 emissions related to the steel production for new automobiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests possible evidence of climate change in Mexico at the watershed level, based solely on historical data. The official Mexican climate dataset was used to find the best set of stations for each watershed. Maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall in ten watersheds are analyzed from 1970 to 2009. Maximum temperature trends show a significant increment in most of these watersheds. Furthermore, Daily Temperature Range (DTR) exhibits a positive trend (increments), thus implying an increase in temperature extremes. This study also shows that the difference between maximum and minimum monthly temperature trends is negatively correlated with monthly precipitation trends. As a result, land-use and land-cover changes could be the main drivers of climate change in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few events have had an impact as the global crisis caused by COVID-19. However, prior to the pandemic, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries already had severe problems in terms of inequality, environmental degradation, and dysfunctional political systems. Added to this are the growing challenges that climate change poses for this highly vulnerable region. This historic turning point represents a new call to consider future studies to re-imagine and reinvent alternative futures for the LAC region. For this paper, we conducted an in-depth qualitative futures study to identify how Latin American and Caribbean countries could build long-term resilience, focusing on adaptability to climate change risks, considering existing sustainable development challenges and the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic, environmental, and social aspects. This study's findings provide recommendations for policymakers and decision-makers to achieve sustainable futures for LAC. Finally, it reflects on the value of collective action for a future-proof region. • Latin America and the Caribbean have long experienced inequality, environmental degradation, and dysfunctional political institutions. • Climate change poses growing economic, social, political, technological, and environmental challenges for this highly vulnerable region. • Latin American and Caribbean countries can address sustainable development challenges by focusing on adaptiveness to climate change risks. • A future-proof region requires collaborative and orchestrated action from governments, academics, businesses, and civil society. • Regenerative and inclusive futures for Latin America and the Caribbean require aligning dissimilar efforts toward common sustainable goals. • Futures studies have the potential to identify how Latin American and Caribbean countries can build long-term resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency of extreme weather events, such as severe floods, storms, hurricanes, and droughts, seems to have increased in recent years. The analysis of trends and other changes in the distribution of these phenomena uses the extreme value theory. This study proposes the use of the Weibull distribution for the evaluation of extreme events in precipitation. A correct assessment of probabilities of extreme precipitation events and their changes is important for stakeholders, particularly in agriculture, infrastructure, tourism, and insurance. This paper provides a simple approach in showing the trends in extreme precipitation in the western part of Mexico. The methodology has an additional virtue as it enables the calculation of probabilities of change in extreme events. With this, it is feasible to develop new methodologies for better understanding of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico is one of the richest countries in amphibian species (420 spp.), with a high level of endemism (69%). The order Anura represents the most diverse and widespread of the three extant amphibian orders (257 spp.). The anurofauna of Mexico's tropical dry forest ecosystem host a high proportion of the species and endemism registered in the country. In terms of conservation, both dry forests and amphibians are at risk due to climate change because it is expected that as the temperature becomes higher and precipitation decreases, this vegetation type may experience water stress. We applied the MaxEnt algorithm to estimate the potential current and future (year 2070) geographic distribution patterns of 95 endemic Mexican anuran species inhabiting the country's tropical dry forests by considering two representative concentration pathway scenarios (RCP4.5/RCP8.5) and analyzed the potential distributional pattern changes. The results indicated that overall, species would experience enough of a significant warming effect to cause a reduction in the original distribution area, with 44% of species losing an average of 50% of their original range (9 spp. in threatened category); additionally, 22% of the species in the dry forest ecosystem will experience an average increase of almost 50% in their original area, two species will lose more than 80% of their range, and one will disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]