Campaign cities share ideas for protecting world’s ancient sites
Photo credit
By Dizery Salim
Geneva, 4 January 2011 – Byblos, with its ancient port dating back 5,000 years, is dotted by Phoenician, Roman and medieval ruins along the waterfront that municipal authorities now fear are in danger from sea storms.
“Heavy waves hit the heart of the harbour directly, damaging it,” explained Lisa Abou Khaled, from the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Disaster Risk Management Unit.
When Byblos city official Tony Sfeir met counterparts from Venice at the Third Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in May – convened by the UN disaster risk reduction office, UNISDR – he realized that the two cities faced the same dangers and obstacles.
Like Byblos, Venice is a UNESCO World Heritage site, has a local economy related to tourism and to port activity, and share similar water-related risks. At the time of the Global Platform, Venice had just been recognized by UNISDR as a role model city for cultural heritage protection for its defence system against tidal floods.
Renowned for its beauty, Venice is frequently flooded because unstable inlets open the lagoon to excess water when the mean sea level rises higher than 80 centimetres. Six times in the past 10 years, the water rose exceptionally high – over 140 centimeters – carrying silt and moisture, which experts say are putting the physical survival of the city at risk.
In June 2011, Mayor Ziad Hawat decided to invite the Italian delegation for a two-day workshop to find ways to protect Byblos’ historical sites along the waterfront.
Showing posts with label climate change agency india. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change agency india. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Climate change 'to increase malaria' in Indian Himalayas
Climate change 'to increase malaria' in Indian Himalayas
11 August 2011 | EN
Climate change may affect mosquitoes' range and behaviour
Flickr/wildxplorer
[NEW DELHI] Climate change is likely to spreadmalaria to new areas in the Indian Himalayas, and lengthen the periods in which the infection is spread in a number of districts, according to projections from malaria researchers in India.
But the country's east coast could see fewer malaria cases by 2030, because of rising temperatures which affect mosquitoes' activity, they said.
The projections by the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Delhi, published in a special issue of Current Science on climate change yesterday (10 August), indicate that malaria could spread to districts in three states it is currently absent from — Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir — during the next 20 years.
In the eastern Himalayas, in north-eastern India, the window of malaria transmission would increase from 7–9 to 10–12 months in length. The region is humid and wet, with mild winters, which makes it "highly conducive for mosquito breeding, survival and transmission" of vector-borne diseases.
But India's east coast would have reduced transmission, because of an increase in temperature, and the western regions would see a minimal impact, the analysis showed.
The study is one of several by the Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment programme at the Ministry of Environment and Forests. It used the regional climate modelling system developed by the Hadley Centre, United Kingdom, to analyse temperature and relative humidity scenarios across India, and mapped districts to show 'transmission windows' during which infection is spread.
The researchers said higher temperatures increased the rate at which malaria-carrying mosquitoes digested their blood meal and laid eggs.
But, the report cautions, this climate assessment needs to be integrated with socio-economic factors, as transmission is also driven by crop practices,water availability, urbanisation, and interventions such as bednets and insecticide sprays.
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