Pathways to Demographic Adaptation
Pathways to Demographic Adaptation

Author: Josefina Syssner

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-01-09

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 3030340465

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This book builds on case studies in depopulating and shrinking areas in Northern Europe. While most contemporary literature on shrinkage focuses on these issues from a planning standpoint, this book uniquely applies a policy perspective when approaching the material. The book assesses the potential of demographic adaptation policies to manage depopulation, that is, policy programs aiming at managing depopulation through adaptation, rather than through growth policies intended to foster population growth. In 6 chapters, the book acts as an up-to-date resource on demographic adaptation for master and Ph.D. students, researchers, and practitioners working in local and regional development, governance, and planning. Chapter 1 gives an overview of recent demographic trends in Northern Europe and introduces the theoretical differences between growth policy and adaptation policy. Chapter 2 accounts for the policy concept and introduces a framework for how local adaptation policies could be systematically analysed. Chapter 3 suggests that the Nordic welfare states exhibit two characteristics that prove to be relevant when discussing the consequences and policy implications of demographic decline, i.e. an extremely sparse population structure and an ambitious welfare assignment that in many respects has been devolved to the local level of government. Chapter 4 suggests that whether shrinkage constitutes a problem or not depends upon the interpretations of those in power, but also upon political, economic and geographic conditions Chapter 5 seeks to understand why local level policymakers avoid developing strategies for how to handle long-term population decline. Chapter 6 summarizes the points of the previous chapters, and concludes that local governments in shrinking areas ought to develop local adaptation policies. These policies, however, also need to be subjected to critical analysis, and the chapter introduces a model for how local adaptation policy priorities could be assessed in a more structured manner.

The Demography of Adaptation to Climate Change
The Demography of Adaptation to Climate Change

Author: George Martine

Publisher: UN

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780897140010

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A flurry of extreme weather events, together with projections that grow more somber with every new scientific advance, have dramatically highlighted the need to respond more effectively to the threats already upon humankind. In the midst of a rapidly expanding global adaptation agenda, it is of primary importance to get adaptation and its constituent parts right, in order to generate the most appropriate and effective interventions. Adapting to episodes after they occur is no longer sufficient; we increasingly need to anticipate and reduce the suffering and the enormously damaging impacts of potential coming events. This book addresses a major gap in adaptation efforts to date by pointing to the vital role that an understanding of population dynamics and an extensive use of demographic data have in developing pre-emptive and effective adaptation policies and practices. Politics and an oversimplified understanding of demographic dynamics have long kept population issues out of serious discussions in the framework of climate negotiations. Within adaptation actions, however, this is beginning to change, and this volume is intended to provide a framework for taking that change forward, towards better, more evidence-based adaptation. It provides key concepts linking demography and adaptation, data foundations and techniques for analyzing climate vulnerability, as well as case studies where these concepts and analyses illuminate who is vulnerable and how to help build their resilience.

Animal Social Networks
Animal Social Networks

Author: Dr. Jens Krause

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0199679053

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This book demonstrates the application of network theory to the social organization of animals.

Genetics of Adaptation
Genetics of Adaptation

Author: Rodney Mauricio

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2005-07-20

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1402038364

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An enduring controversy in evolutionary biology is the genetic basis of adaptation. Darwin emphasized "many slight differences" as the ultimate source of variation to be acted upon by natural selection. In the early 1900’s, this view was opposed by "Mendelian geneticists", who emphasized the importance of "macromutations" in evolution. The Modern Synthesis resolved this controversy, concluding that mutations in genes of very small effect were responsible for adaptive evolution. A decade ago, Allen Orr and Jerry Coyne reexamined the evidence for this neo-Darwinian view and found that both the theoretical and empirical basis for it were weak. Orr and Coyne encouraged evolutionary biologists to reexamine this neglected question: what is the genetic basis of adaptive evolution? In this volume, a new generation of biologists have taken up this challenge. Using advances in both molecular genetic and statistical techniques, evolutionary geneticists have made considerable progress in this emerging field. In this volume, a diversity of examples from plant and animal studies provides valuable information for those interested in the genetics and evolution of complex traits.

The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century
The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2003-02-01

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 0309133181

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The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty
Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty

Author: Vincent A. W. J. Marchau

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 3030052524

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This open access book focuses on both the theory and practice associated with the tools and approaches for decisionmaking in the face of deep uncertainty. It explores approaches and tools supporting the design of strategic plans under deep uncertainty, and their testing in the real world, including barriers and enablers for their use in practice. The book broadens traditional approaches and tools to include the analysis of actors and networks related to the problem at hand. It also shows how lessons learned in the application process can be used to improve the approaches and tools used in the design process. The book offers guidance in identifying and applying appropriate approaches and tools to design plans, as well as advice on implementing these plans in the real world. For decisionmakers and practitioners, the book includes realistic examples and practical guidelines that should help them understand what decisionmaking under deep uncertainty is and how it may be of assistance to them. Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty: From Theory to Practice is divided into four parts. Part I presents five approaches for designing strategic plans under deep uncertainty: Robust Decision Making, Dynamic Adaptive Planning, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, Info-Gap Decision Theory, and Engineering Options Analysis. Each approach is worked out in terms of its theoretical foundations, methodological steps to follow when using the approach, latest methodological insights, and challenges for improvement. In Part II, applications of each of these approaches are presented. Based on recent case studies, the practical implications of applying each approach are discussed in depth. Part III focuses on using the approaches and tools in real-world contexts, based on insights from real-world cases. Part IV contains conclusions and a synthesis of the lessons that can be drawn for designing, applying, and implementing strategic plans under deep uncertainty, as well as recommendations for future work. The publication of this book has been funded by the Radboud University, the RAND Corporation, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares.

Flexibility in Engineering Design
Flexibility in Engineering Design

Author: Richard De Neufville

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2011-08-12

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0262297337

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A guide to using the power of design flexibility to improve the performance of complex technological projects, for designers, managers, users, and analysts. Project teams can improve results by recognizing that the future is inevitably uncertain and that by creating flexible designs they can adapt to eventualities. This approach enables them to take advantage of new opportunities and avoid harmful losses. Designers of complex, long-lasting projects—such as communication networks, power plants, or hospitals—must learn to abandon fixed specifications and narrow forecasts. They need to avoid the “flaw of averages,” the conceptual pitfall that traps so many designs in underperformance. Failure to allow for changing circumstances risks leaving significant value untapped. This book is a guide for creating and implementing value-enhancing flexibility in design. It will be an essential resource for all participants in the development and operation of technological systems: designers, managers, financial analysts, investors, regulators, and academics. The book provides a high-level overview of why flexibility in design is needed to deliver significantly increased value. It describes in detail methods to identify, select, and implement useful flexibility. The book is unique in that it explicitly recognizes that future outcomes are uncertain. It thus presents forecasting, analysis, and evaluation tools especially suited to this reality. Appendixes provide expanded explanations of concepts and analytic tools.

Communities in Action
Communities in Action

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 0309452961

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In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Aging and the Macroeconomy
Aging and the Macroeconomy

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2013-01-10

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0309261961

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The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. In the coming decades, people aged 65 and over will make up an increasingly large percentage of the population: The ratio of people aged 65+ to people aged 20-64 will rise by 80%. This shift is happening for two reasons: people are living longer, and many couples are choosing to have fewer children and to have those children somewhat later in life. The resulting demographic shift will present the nation with economic challenges, both to absorb the costs and to leverage the benefits of an aging population. Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population presents the fundamental factors driving the aging of the U.S. population, as well as its societal implications and likely long-term macroeconomic effects in a global context. The report finds that, while population aging does not pose an insurmountable challenge to the nation, it is imperative that sensible policies are implemented soon to allow companies and households to respond. It offers four practical approaches for preparing resources to support the future consumption of households and for adapting to the new economic landscape.

Pathways to Demographic Adaptation
Pathways to Demographic Adaptation

Author: Josefina Syssner

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 93

ISBN-13: 9783030340476

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This book builds on case studies in depopulating and shrinking areas in Northern Europe. While most contemporary literature on shrinkage focuses on these issues from a planning standpoint, this book uniquely applies a policy perspective when approaching the material. The book assesses the potential of demographic adaptation policies to manage depopulation, that is, policy programs aiming at managing depopulation through adaptation, rather than through growth policies intended to foster population growth. In 6 chapters, the book acts as an up-to-date resource on demographic adaptation for master and Ph.D. students, researchers, and practitioners working in local and regional development, governance, and planning. Chapter 1 gives an overview of recent demographic trends in Northern Europe and introduces the theoretical differences between growth policy and adaptation policy. Chapter 2 accounts for the policy concept and introduces a framework for how local adaptation policies could be systematically analysed. Chapter 3 suggests that the Nordic welfare states exhibit two characteristics that prove to be relevant when discussing the consequences and policy implications of demographic decline, i.e. an extremely sparse population structure and an ambitious welfare assignment that in many respects has been devolved to the local level of government. Chapter 4 suggests that whether shrinkage constitutes a problem or not depends upon the interpretations of those in power, but also upon political, economic and geographic conditions Chapter 5 seeks to understand why local level policymakers avoid developing strategies for how to handle long-term population decline. Chapter 6 summarizes the points of the previous chapters, and concludes that local governments in shrinking areas ought to develop local adaptation policies. These policies, however, also need to be subjected to critical analysis, and the chapter introduces a model for how local adaptation policy priorities could be assessed in a more structured manner.