Month: September 2016
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Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Urbanisation II
This entry will deal with urbanisation is from the view of UN Habitat and all numbers come from them. 4 billion people (54% of people) live in urban areas. Of those 1 billion live in Informal Settlements (or slums) where basic services and tenure security are lacking. However, cities account for 80% of GDP. Urbanisation…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Urbanisation I
There is a claim that more 50% of humankind live in cities. This claim, however, is wrong. The reason is that a city and an urban environment is not the same and the correct description would be that more than 50% live in urban environments. This differentiation has a huge impact, Caracas, Mexico City and…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Water quality
Water has many exotic physical properties: surface tension, transparency in green and blue wavelengths (allows photosynthesis), protection from wavelengths shorter than UV light (high biodiversity). Surface water however looses lots of biodivserty (76% in freshwater, 39% in seawater). The physiological water cycle in humans consist of 5 litres of blood that transport sugars, amino acids…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 3: Water use case study
A case study about the Zambezi river basin. There a several big flood planes (wetlands each the size of Switzerland). It also includes Lake Malawi and there are 2 large dams (colonial heritage) for energy generation. Half of the basin is highland above 1000m, the other half falls towards the sea. Temperature is constant up…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 3: International Water Resources
Water resources are unevenly distributed. Less than 10 countries have 60% of the world’s available fresh water. Water stress appears when there is not enough renewable water to replace the withdrawal. Conventionally, 40% of withdrawal of the available yearly resources is considered to be the threshold for water stress. Climate change and population change increase…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 2: Climate Change II
Climate Change History: Emission trends are not disputed any more. However, they can be viewed in different lights. Either emissions include production emission (i.e. are counted at the end user), or emission are only counted where and when they happen (i.e. caunted locally when they happen). Policy-wise the focus increased beyond mitigation to include adaptation.…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 2: Climate Change I
The focus of the afternoon is Argument Analysis applied to environmental decisions, specifically Climate Change. Part 1 – Modelling: Understanding modelling by the example of the oblique throw in football: A target system describes what we want to achieve (e.g. getting the ball to a specific location). Based on the target system a conceptual model…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 2: Energy Transition II
Policy and Politics: Goals of public policy related to energy follow a balance between environmental impact, cost and supply security called the triple bottom line of energy policy. However, a fourth factor – industry competitiveness – is a strong factor. The Paris agreement was largely driven by the last from a energy perspective. Environmental impact…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 2: Energy Transition I
What is energy? A state of excitation of matter. At the highest excitation level it changes to waves. But this is too abstract for our use. Thermodynamics is about the transfer of energy. Energy cascades down to lower to lower level which in turns entropy (e.g. disorder rather than chaos). Fundamentally it is about how…
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Cornerstone Course – Day 1: Policy Example Cases
Scientist could help analysts creating policies with their knowledge. But how do they provide their input? How does it fit with the political landscape? Three case studies were in the spotlight to see dilemma of policy analysis. This is not an in-depth analysis of policy analysis, but rather an observation of policies and their consequences.…