Northern

University of Southampton

Uni Southampton logoThe University of Southampton are the project lead for the DECCMA Consortium.  The Faculty of Environment and Engineering at the University of Southampton represents the largest and most diverse engineering and environmental science grouping in the UK.  Our expertise looks deep below the Earth’s crust, reaches into space and encompasses everything in-between. Our research groups are working on a variety of projects that are addressing some of the major issues facing the world, with investment from research councils, government and industry partners.  We work on multidisciplinary projects across the University, as well as with other academic and industrial partners.  Engineering and the Environment has built strong relationships with industry.  We share our knowledge, expertise and facilities with our partners to help them achieve their goals. We offer a wide range of solutions, from consultancy to long-term, leading-edge research projects.

Website: www.soton.ac.uk | Team members

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

BC3 logoBC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change is an excellence research centre created in 2008 as jointly promoted by the Basque Government and the University of the Basque Country, with the goal of contributing to knowledge on the causes and impacts of climate change, as well as drive advancements in high level research on these issues. Under the leadership of Prof. Anil Markandya, BC3 seeks to contribute to solve this great challenge from the Basque Country, summing up efforts with other centres in the world.  BC3 has four main research lines: Low Carbon, Climate and Natural Environment, Health and Climate, and Climate Policy.

Website: www.bc3research.org | Team members

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

FAOThe FAO was established in 1945 with a specific mandate to ensure food security for all people of the world.  Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy.  As a knowledge organisation, FAO creates and shares critical information about food, agriculture and natural resources in the form of global public goods.  FAO also has extensive experience in the development of indicators and tools to assess climate impacts on agriculture, based on a large variety of data sources.

Website: www.fao.org | Team members

Kulima Integrated Development Solutions

Kulima logoKulima Integrated Development Solutions is a South African climate change adaptation consultancy. We act as a boundary organisation, using gender-sensitive consultation and/or participatory processes to support effective communication channels between scientists, policy-makers, donors, practitioners and community members. Our ultimate aim is to ensure that adaptation is effectively supported and/or enabled. The methods through which we fulfil our role include research and analysis, scoping studies, screening activities for climate risk, institutional and policy analysis, developing strategy documents, guidebooks and toolkits, presentations, training courses and facilitation of conferences and workshops.

Website: www.kulima.com | Team members

MET Office

METlogoThe Met Office is a science-led organisation, focussing on weather forecasting and long-term climate prediction. They provide advice to underpin mitigation and adaptation policy formation and decision making, based on ground-breaking scientific achievements in the fields of weather and climate science.  The teams involved in the DECCMA project within the Met Office focus on developing models and techniques to produce regional climate information for climate change impacts and adaptation assessments, often with a focus on, and collaboration in, developing country regions.

Website: www.metoffice.gov.uk | Team members

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)

PML logoPlymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is an International Centre of Excellence in Marine Science & Technology and a Collaborative Centre of the UK Natural Environment Research Council.  PML carries out innovative fundamental, strategic and applied research in the marine environment from estuaries to the open ocean.  The mission of PML emphasises on integrated scientific understanding of the interactions between the marine environment and society in order to sustain coastal and upper ocean ecosystems and their services under conditions of global change.  Since 2002, PML has been operating as a company limited by guarantee with UK charity status.  In 2014 PML was the winner of the UK Charity award in the category of Environment and Conservation.  PML also operates a commercial branch, Plymouth Marine Applications© to commercialise aspects of its research and provide additional income to the charity.

Website: www.pml.ac.uk | Team members

University of Dundee

Dundee logoThe Graduate School of Natural Resources Law, Policy and Management, which is within the University of Dundee, was formed in 2006 to bring together Centres which already had a longstanding international reputation for graduate teaching, research and specialist expertise on natural resources issues.  Within the School, the Centres continue to grow and forge co-operative relationships in research and teaching across the areas of law, policy and management with a focus on the energy, water and mineral resources sectors.

Website: www.dundee.ac.uk | Team members

University of Exeter

Exeter logoGeography at Exeter University is part of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences.  The Environment and Sustainability Research Group within Geography undertakes interdisciplinary social and natural science research on the causes and consequences of environmental change and solutions for sustainability. The University is an academic partner of the UK Met Office and has made major contributions to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report across climate science, impacts, adaptation and mitigation.

Website: www.exeter.ac.uk | Team members

Indian Bengal Delta State Level Stakeholder Workshop 2nd Round

indian bengal stakeholder workshop

Indian Bengal stakeholder workshop

The second State level Stakeholders’ Workshop in Indian Bengal Delta (IBD) was organized with active support from Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal on 10th November, 2016 in Kolkata.

With this workshop, the DECCMA India team tried a new strategy to ensure wholesome participation from government departments. The team approached the Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal, to send out invites for this workshop. A total of 19 Departments from the State Government Departments, and 4 Chambers of Commerce and 4 Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) were invited for the Meet through the office of the Principal Secretary, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal. This was beneficial as the number of senior government officials attending the workshop was more than the last workshop.

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The meeting was presided by the Principal Secretary, Mr. Arnab Ray, IAS, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal. In his inaugural speech, Mr. Ray mentioned about the West Bengal State Action Plan on Climate Change and how the Line Departments are trying to implement the plan collectively.

DECCMA’s initial findings were shared with all to give an idea how we are approaching towards our research goals. The different government departments and NGOs were invited to share their experiences relating to DECCMA’s key areas of climate change, vulnerability, migration and adaptation. While the issue of climate induced migration due to possible loss of livelihood came up a number of times, we learnt of successful adaptation instances to make alternative livelihoods, renewable energy, viable for all.

Garnering stakeholders’ opinions and feedback is crucial to DECCMA’s research as it opts for a stakeholder-driven approach. Stakeholders’ feedbacks were collected on Evaluation Criteria of Successful Adaptation and Barriers to Policy Implementation. The research team, comprising members from Jadavpur University and Centre for Environment and Development, helped the attendees by guiding how to fill the questionnaires and resolving any queries. Difficulties with the questionnaire and suggestions to simplify those were received from the stakeholders.

This stakeholder workshop gave us a day to exchange our experiences, findings, and learning to strentgthen our work.

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5th DECCMA Consortium Meeting in Ffort Raichak near Kolkata, India

5th DECCMA meeting Ffort Raichak

Modelling team discussion

Before travelling to India for the 5th DECCMA consortium meeting I was constantly checking the weather forecast for Kolkata. Being one of the DECCMA northern team members and never having been in India before the idea of 35oC and heavy rain made me feel a bit uncomfortable. However on our way from the airport to our 70 km away conference venue Ffort Raichak nobody was thinking about rain (there was none) nor temperature. All that counted was hoping that the “mariokart – style” bus driver would deliver us at the hotel in one piece (which he did).

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Luckily we had the rest of the day to recover from the trip before the meeting took off in full speed. After half a day of meetings amongst our seven work packages each of them presented an up-date to the plenary. This was continued on the second day and followed by country up-dates.

Key to the country presentations were what we like to call the “wow!” findings – significant findings that contribute to the knowledge base on climate change, migration and adaptation.

Key emerging findings from Ghana relate to attitudes to migration in the context of environmental stress. Living in an area identified for its prevalence of out-migration, 43% of the respondents would consider migrating as a positive option in response to environmental change in the future. This perception is informed by having seen and heard of the cases of other migrants. Knowing this has important policy implications as Ghana considers how to support adaptation in the Volta delta.

Findings from the Indian Bengal Delta (IBD) also illuminate our understanding of migration processes. What is apparent there is that there are clear hotspots where people prefer to migrate. Again this has important policy implications in terms of knowing where population is likely to grow (or diminish) due to migration.

In the Mahanadi Delta findings counter the common belief that floods are bad and need to be stopped. People from various villages actually consider low and moderate intensity flood to be “Blessings in Disguise”. This is because floods bring prosperity to agricultural households. This occurs in three ways: agricultural production is improved firstly because of the improvements in soil fertility; and secondly because the floods eliminate weeds; and floods also bring fish which serve as an extra source of protein.

In Bangladesh, research on the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) delta highlighted their finding that thrust force is a critical cause of damage to infrastructure during storm surges. They are also investigating the duration of storm surge-driven salinity. These results have practical implications for adaptation, because local authorities can make well informed decisions when building or renewing infrastructure such as roads, houses and cyclone shelters in the affected regions.

Beyond the findings from each delta, it was great to see that GBM and IBD have joined forces to learn from each other. The entire team is really looking forward to their next joint steps and what emerges when the delta is considered as a biophysical system without the political boundaries.

Obviously a lot more exciting things were passed on between the researchers, and good plans were made for the coming months. But in such a large and geographically dispersed consortium, such meetings allow an invaluable opportunity for team building. Those of us that are new can put faces to the names previously only known through email addresses, and for those who knew each other already the opportunity to touch base again reinvigorates enthusiasm going forward.

By the way while being in Ffort Raichak there was hardly any rain but still it was so hot and humid that one was soaked form the inside when taking more than 10 steps outside an acclimatised room. However me personally I had the pleasure of experiencing very serious rain when staying on in Kolkata for a few days after the meeting.

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Incorporating gender into the DECCMA Indian team’s research

The DECCMA India team organised a Gender Workshop on the 1st of June 2015, primarily to discuss DECCMA’s working paper on gender DECCMA’s approach to the incorporation of gender (Vincent, K. and Cull, T. 2015).

The workshop began with an introduction by Prof. Sugata Hazra where he highlighted the project objectives and how gender lies at its core. Following this, Ms. Anchita Ghatak, gender focal point for the DECCMA Indian team, discussed DECCMA’s approach to gender. She used power point presentations prepared by Kulima to initiate the discussion.

The presentation pointed out that while “sex” is the biological identifier, “gender” is a social construct. Gendering begins right from the birth of a child and it is almost as if society hands out a rulebook containing the dos and don’ts based on the sex of the child. This concept was further discussed by the team by sharing things which take place around us all the time and are intrinsic to our culture and way of life. We, therefore, take them as ‘natural’ and accept them unquestioningly. For instance, the gendering of toys for children has always been there but it seems that we take it for granted that that is how it is supposed to be.

We also talked about the fact that many thinkers and activists no longer make a distinction between nature and nurture. They are of the opinion that it is difficult to distinguish between what is biology and where socialisation begins. We also discussed the fact that gender identity is not necessarily fixed or static. While it is a fact that most people in the world subscribe to a gender identity of either male or female, they are many who choose other identities for themselves. Also, someone assigned ‘male’ (or female) at birth may not continue to ascribe to being male (or female) later in life. We need to develop an understanding of gender that goes beyond binaries and also appreciate new knowledge that says that we can see a spectrum of gender identities and an individual may be at different parts of the spectrum during their life. Also, it is important to understand that all people are also not necessarily heterosexual. Of course, a non binary understanding of gender necessarily explodes the idea of a solely heterosexual world.

Gender as a marker of identity works with other identifiers such as age, ethnicity, caste, religion, wealth, class and disability. Depending on where we are in our patriarchal society as a combination of these markers, we are privileged or oppressed. Compare a Brahmin, able bodied man in India with a Dalit girl with a disability. Different struggles to create an equal world do not aim at imposing sameness but strive for equality of opportunity for all – specific measures have to be put in place for oppressed / disadvantaged groups. Consequently, creation of a gender equal world often requires establishing equitable conditions. For example, we cannot expect girls to attend school if there are no toilets for them.

Patriarchy privileges males and a certain idea of maleness. The world gets divided into a ‘male’ world and a ‘female’ world – these are manifested differently in different cultures. The gender division of labour too, is almost always seen as ‘natural’, and women and girls are burdened with a disproportionate amount of domestic tasks.
The “public” and “private” domains have been starkly divided where women are trained to comply with the duties of the private world tending to household needs and carrying out reproductive activities. This demarcation has been so strong that it has been considered inappropriate for women to venture into tasks pertaining to the public domain. This has led to underdevelopment or lack of certain “simple” everyday skills in women. It is necessary for us to sharpen our gender lens to look beyond the norm.

When we look at Gender vis-Ă -vis Migration and Adaptation, we often find that women stay back to look after the elderly and children and perform reproductive activities. Migration also reinforces gender inequality where the woman who stays back may face exploitation and the ones who migrate may be subject to exploitation and violence. Remittances can also reinforce gender vulnerabilities and hierarchies where remittances sent by family members are handled by the remaining males of the family. Also, women sending remittances can challenge gender hierarchy but few acknowledge the source of earning.

Regarding gender and Adaptation, it was discussed that differential access to resources needed for adaptation gives rise to gender differences in vulnerability to climate change. We also discussed that access does not necessarily mean control. To access those resources required for carrying out household activities, women often have to toil more owing to the impacts of climate change on these resources like water, forest and land.

Developing a gender lens enables us to challenge patriarchy and develop a commitment to justice and equality. The project activities need to demonstrate inclusiveness as well as a commitment to address inequalities of caste, gender, religion, class, ableism, age and others. It is important to remember that gender is a cross cutting issue and issues of gender have to be addressed within all parameters of identity. An empowering vision needs to be developed which we would want to implement and we expect, as part of Research into Use, the research findings will enable a nuanced understanding of empowerment options and lead to suggestions for gender sensitive adaptation proposals.

The DECCMA Work Package structure was also discussed during the Workshop. Work Packages 1, 3 and 6 incorporate gender right from the data collection processes and ensuring equal participation of men, women and others at stakeholder events and household surveys will lead to a gender equitable process. Work Packages 2 and 4 rely on secondary data which is already sex-disaggregated. Under WP4, exploration of the effect of women’s micro-credit self-help groups on women and the economy can be assessed. Since Work Package 5 includes outputs from all the other WPs, gender is already included.

The workshop closed with the prospect of having a next one where the researchers will develop a plan about addressing gender in the work tasks of their different work packages.

Summary: DECCMA Northern Team Meeting

northern team meeting

Northern team meeting

Even with the abundance of technological advances and communication options, the DECCMA team recognises and highly values extended time for face-to-face meetings. In May the DECCMA Northern team, a sub-set of the wider consortia, led by the University of Southampton met in Bilbao, Spain for three days. The Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), a sub-contractor of Southampton, hosted the meeting in their offices in central Bilbao. As well as BC3 and University of Southampton team members, the meeting was attended by partners from the University of Exeter, University of Dundee, Plymouth Marine Laboratories (PML) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The Northern Team meet every six months, in-between six monthly whole consortium meetings which involve the full project team with partners from Bangladesh, India and Ghana present. The objectives for Northern Team in Bilbao were to examine research progress by work package, review communications and team building across the consortium, discuss project outreach and publication plans and crucially, consider the basis for a coherent and well-structured Research into Use (RiU) strategy for the project.
Stakeholder mapping for the study sites were reviewed with discussions focusing on how the project can encourage stakeholders with a low interest but high potential influence to become more engaged with the project. Analysis of governance policy and acts has started, with a broad collation of available literature for the delta study sites; next steps will involve analysing policies for a better understanding of how internal movements of people may or may not be encouraged. Corresponding stakeholder workshops have been held in study sites to supplement this work.

GIS experts and biophysical environmental modellers have been collecting data on climate hazards (flooding, salinity levels etc) from study sites to construct first pass hazard vulnerability maps for the project study sites. The overlaying of these hazard vulnerability maps with separate migration maps produced from demographic analysis of census data by the projects migration work package will be the basis for sampling for the project’s household survey. These linkages were discussed by socio-economic and bio-physical experts alike to start the process of developing a robust and comprehensive sampling strategy.

DECCMA’s household survey will provide valuable insight into the drivers of migration and the decision process that drives community and family level adaptation choices. The design of this survey was discussed across all work packages to ensure that the questions are carefully crafted so that results feed into the areas that the project requires. One set of deliverables within the project is to provide criteria for evaluating the success of adaptation and migration in deltas, leading to the development of a rule-set for each. The process of defining ‘success’ was discussed in breakout sessions, starting with the identification of key criteria and indicators used to score them.

DECCMA will combine a section of project results into a policy-relevant integrated assessment tool, enabling scenarios to be run through the model, producing plausible and possible future states for a range of thematic areas. The conceptualisation of the factors that contribute the integrated tool have been formalised in a draft framework, which was circulated around the project for comment in early 2015. A revised draft framework was discussed at this meeting, along with a potential basis for the integrated assessment tool, the Delta Dynamic Interactive Emulator Model (DIEM) used in the ESPA Deltas project. Furthermore, an iterative learning loop of policy interaction and scenario development was tabled for discussion. This loop will take simulations that the integrated assessment tool produces back to stakeholders for discussion, to see if how they rate the plausible future that was generated under their initial scenarios, and to discuss what policy decisions they might lead to that result.

A large portion of the workshop was dedicated to discussing the development and articulation of a clear RiU strategy for the project. The team reviewed components that should be included in the strategy and identified where across the project they were already developed and need combining into one document. A precise ‘two-pager’ was developed to summarise the project’s impact aims, methods and activities that will be involved in achieving these goals and required resourcing. This will be developed into a full RiU strategy.

The workshop closed with planning for the upcoming DECCMA Whole Consortium Workshop in Ghana in July, the next occasion where representatives of the entire DECCMA project from Bangladesh, India, Ghana and the UK meet.