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This chapter presents the relationship between climate change and tourism, how they influence each other, as well as how the industry addresses this challenge. The tourism industry has recognized its contribution to global climate change and the need for addressing the problem by applying mitigation policies. Climate change is already defining new realities for consumers, business, and government decision-making. Therefore, adaptation measures are also required, especially in tourism that is highly sensitive to climate variability. The need of awareness as well as preparedness at local level has been highlighted by UNWTO, which is spearheading initiatives within the industry under the common framework of the UNFCCC.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation, and discuss how it is affected by climate change and tubewell density in rural China.

This study is based on a nine-province village survey and secondary climate data. A Tobit model (or censored regression model) was used to estimate the determinants of supply reliability of groundwater irrigation.

Results show that the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation was 89 percent on average in the past three years. The non-linear relationship in the econometric results revealed that the 30-year annual temperature significantly influenced the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation. When the temperature rises above the turning point (6.30°C), it shifts from a positive to a negative relationship with the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation. The 30-year annual temperature in eight of the nine provinces (i.e. except for Jilin Province) was higher than the turning point. If the temperature increases by 20°C in the future, other factors being constant, the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation will decline by 20 percent. However, if precipitation increases by 10 percent, the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation could improve by 3 percent, while reducing precipitation by 10 percent will lower the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation by 3 percent. Increasing the density of tubewells considerably improves the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation. However, although increasing the density of tubewells may yield enough groundwater for irrigation, this one-sided approach raises sustainability concerns.

Although increasing the density of tubewells may ensure that enough groundwater is available for irrigation, such a conclusion is one sided, and sustainability concerns should be raised in assessing this method of creating supply reliability.

This paper improves the understanding of the impact of climate variables on agriculture irrigation and water supply reliability in the micro scale, and provides a scientific basis for relevant policy making.

The problem of missing children draws much attention of both governmental and nongovernmental organizations in China due to huge numbers of the missing children. According to the records of Baby Back Home network (BBHNet), a professional website to search missing children in China, 1,666 missing children have been found via releasing information on BBHNet; however, there are still 30,561 families searching for their children and 24,603 missing children are searching for biological parents through this website and have not succeeded yet. What is the difference between successful and unsuccessful cases in the aspect of released information? Motivated by this question, our research proposes to determine the crucial information in the process of searching missing children. A logistic regression model was developed on the data summarized from 500 succeed cases and 500 cases which have not succeed yet from BBHNet for forecasting success rate of searching missing children. The model identifies that the differences in terms of released information, number of children, address, and natural geographical features are the three most crucial factors that cause differences in the result of searching. This research can be used as a guide for improving the success rate of searching missing children and provide reference for developing a missing children information-sharing platform.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the major challenges faced by Chinese international contractors (CICs) in the Malaysian construction industry.

An exploratory sequential mixed-methods research approach was adopted where following a detailed literature review and semi-structured interviews with local professionals, 20 prevalent challenges experienced by CICs are identified. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was used to elicit the views of 100 construction practitioners. Descriptive statistics were used to prioritise the challenges, while exploratory factor analysis was conducted to uncover the underlying factors.

The five most crucial challenges identified relate to: changes of regulation, cost control, contract clauses, language barrier and quality control. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four major underlying dimensions of these challenges, in connection to financial and government policy management, organisational performance management, supplier relationship management and cross-cultural management.

The challenges are considered primarily involving CICs in the context of Malaysia; further work can be extended to Western or other East Asian, such as Japanese and Korean, international contractors undertaking construction projects in Malaysia or selected developing countries around the region.

This study will benefit professionals involved with China-backed construction projects in countries sharing demographics and socio-economic characteristics akin to Malaysia. The outcome of the study is expected to facilitate project managers to devise proactive risk-mitigation measures to reduce the impact of these challenges and to improve project delivery.

The paper examined the challenges faced by CICs in the Malaysian context. This is a timely study, as China’s Belt and Road Initiative will provide considerable opportunities for Chinese companies in Malaysia.

The farmers used several information sources to gather information about the climatic variability and modern agricultural practices to cope with climate change. The choice of adaptation strategies and the successful implication of adaptation strategies depend on accurate, timely information on the climate variability and precise technical details of adaptation strategies. By keeping the importance of climate information and agricultural extension information in the center, this study aims to conduct a micro-level evaluation of farmers’ choice of climate information, agriculture extension services and agricultural credit sources. This study’s primary objective is to understand how the different sources of climate information and agricultural extension influence farm household adaptation decisions.

This study has been conducted in three subs agro-climatic zone of the Middle Gangetic Plain region, which falls in India’s Bihar state. This paper has randomly selected seven districts from these three subs agro-climatic zone to collect the data. The analysis of this study is based on survey data collected from 700 farm households. This study has used descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model to assess the sources of climate information, agricultural extension and credit sources and how these sources influence farm households’ adaptation decisions.

The result of this study shows farmers are using different traditional (sharing experience, newspaper and radio), information and communication technology (mobile and TV) and institutional arrangements (agricultural officer and meteorological department) in the study area. The study’s finding identifies different farm households’ different sources and how these options farming farmers’ adaptation decisions. The study further revealed that institutional factors such as extension services and access to information on climate change increase the probability of adopting knowledge-intensive adaptation strategies such as soil conservation, water conservation, crop insurance and planting horticulture and vegetables.

The study has conducted a micro-level assessment of adaptation behavior at the local level to understand the factor influencing the adaptation decision. This study’s finding is useful in designing the appropriate policy framework for the farm household’s capacity building to enhance their technical skills and awareness toward the institutional arrangements.

This paper’s finding pointed out institutional arrangements’ requirement to improve adaptive capacity to make long-term strategic decisions to cope with climate change.

Although it is a widely accepted fact that climate change can negatively impact on tourism demand and affect the economies at the socio-economic level, empirical studies on the climate change tourism development nexus has been quite scant, especially for the case of island economies that are heavily dependent on tourism. This study aims to supplement the literature on climate change and tourism by empirically assessing the relationship between climate change and tourist arrivals for the case of 18 small island developing states over the period from 1989 to 2016.

This paper uses dynamic panel data techniques, namely, a panel vector autoregressive framework, which accounts for dynamic and endogeneity issues.

The results from the analysis confirm the existence of a significant relationship between climate change and tourism demand in both the long-run and short run. Further analysis shows a bi-directional causality between climatic change and tourism demand while the study also confirms the tourism led growth hypothesis.

This research supplements the literature on the tourism-environment link, especially for tourism dependent island economies.

Results from this study are important to policymakers who should spare no effort to mitigate the effect of adverse climatic change in the context of tourism development.

This study is built on a unique data set for a sample of island economies and interestingly adopts dynamic panel data analysis to account for dynamics and endogenity in the climate change-tourism development nexus.

The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the combined effects of canopy (leaf area index [LAI]) and root properties (root distribution function [Rdf] and root area index [RAI]) on a suction induced in soil-root composite under three different scenarios.

Richards equation coupled with sink term was solved using a commercial finite element package “HYDRUS” to investigate suction induced in soil-root composite.

Scenario 1 unveiled that soil-root composite induces 1 to 20 per cent higher suction than bare soil under the absence of transpiration. From Scenario 2, value of suction at depth of maximum RAI in case of linearly decreasing Rdf was found to be higher than that of other Rdfs. However, depth of suction influence zone (SIZ) for uniform Rdf and non-linear Rdf was found to be 10 and 11 per cent higher than that of linearly decreasing Rdf. Depth of evaporation dominant zone (EDZ) for uniformly decreasing Rdf and non-linear Rdf was found to be 1.08 to 3 times higher than that of linearly decreasing Rdf. From Scenario 3, influence of LAI on depth of SIZ is minimal. Depth of EDZ was found to decrease with the increase in LAI. Based on simple calculation on infinite slope stability, influence of variation in root and shoot properties was found to be significant on its factor of safety.

Numerical constitutive model has limitations that it does not consider aging of plant. This model is only applicable for a particular set of soil conditions. A long-term study is required in this field to further quantify parameters for improving calibration and modeling performance.

Following are the practical implication: consideration of vegetation properties into engineered design of green infrastructure (slopes in this case) and selection of vegetation with appropriate characteristics in design for enhancement of stability of green infrastructure.

Contents of this paper are original, and they have not been submitted to any other journal.

Many people as well as the government in Bangladesh perceive floods and cyclones as recurrent environmental hazards in the country. They also view that these two hazards are the main contributors to crop loss in the country. But, in reality, droughts afflict the country at least as frequently as do major floods and cyclones, averaging about once in 2.5 years (Adnan, 1993, p. 1; Erickson, 1993, p. 5; Hossain 1990, p. 33). In some years, droughts not only cause a greater damage to crops than floods or cyclones, but they also generally affect more farmers across a wider area (Paul, 1995). If not institutionally and economically tackled, the consequences tend to have a far-reaching effect on the given society, and the socioeconomic problems would assume a chronic pattern.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope of applications and benefits of sustainability accounting for the production and industrial use of biomass as an energy source and substitute for fossil‐fuel use. As environmental degradation and unacceptable social impacts not only increase from the production and use of fossil‐fuel based energy, but also from alternative energy sources, the monitoring, controlling and measuring of the (un‐)sustainability of alternative energy production and use emerges as an area in critical need of research.

The paper presents a review of the issues surrounding the accounting for the (un‐)sustainability of industrial biomass production and use, considering what biomass is, the current and forecast importance of industrial biomass, different approaches to its production, and the subsequent measurement and monitoring of its potential (un‐)sustainability.

The paper finds that it is insufficient to conclude in general terms, as is often done or assumed in policy documents and statements, that industrial production and use of biomass is sustainable (or unsustainable) and that accounting for biomass must recognise the broader ecological and social system of which the production and use form a part. A further finding of the paper is that from agricultural or industrial production of biomass through to consumption and industrial use of biomass, the accounting issues surrounding biomass production and use are essential to determining its (un‐)sustainability.

The paper provides an overview of the importance of and problems with the production of biomass for industrial use, and related sustainability issues. It discusses possibilities for and limitations of accounting to address these sustainability issues as well as the need for and the challenges in measuring the (un‐)sustainability of biomass production for industrial use and the accounting for sustainability improvements.