0000000000210274
AUTHOR
Christian Webersik
showing 13 related works from this author
Here and now: perceptions of Indian Ocean islanders on the climate change and migration nexus
2017
Empirical studies exploring the links between climate change and migration are increasing. Often, perceptions are not fully explored from the people most affected by the climate change and migration nexus. This article contributes to filling this gap by eliciting and analyzing perceptions regarding climate change and migration from an understudied population labelled as being amongst those most immediately and directly affected by climate change: Indian Ocean islanders. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted in two case study communities in Maldives (Kaafu Guraidhoo with 17 interviews and Raa Dhuvafaaru with 18 interviews) and two case study communities in Lakshadweep, India …
Norway-Russia disaster diplomacy for Svalbard
2020
Abstract The Arctic is frequently framed as a region of disaster and conflict, as well as of opportunity and cooperation. Disaster diplomacy is one approach for examining how dealing with disasters might or might not affect conflict and cooperation, yet little work on Arctic disaster diplomacy has been completed, especially regarding specific bilateral relations. This paper contributes to filling in this gap by focusing on the post-USSR era to provide the first examination of the prospects and relevance of Norway-Russia disaster-related interaction for the Svalbard archipelago. As a discussion paper focusing on one case study, Norway-Russia disaster diplomacy is analysed in the context of S…
Long-term impacts of tropical storms and earthquakes on human population growth in Haiti and Dominican Republic
2010
AbstractThe two Caribbean states, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, have experienced similar natural forces since the 18th century, including hurricanes and earthquakes. Although, both countries seem to be two of the most prone of all Latin American and Caribbean countries to natural hazard events, historically, Haiti tends to be more vulnerable to natural forces. The purpose of this article is to understand to what extent geohazards shape demographic changes. Research findings of this study show that neither atmospheric nor seismic hazards that directly hit the territory of Haiti have significant impacts on population densities and growth rates. Quantitative evidence is provided, that betw…
Bargaining for the Spoils of War: Somalia’s Failing Path from War to Peace
2014
ABSTRACTFor more than 20 years, Somalia has experienced state failure. Today, radical political Islam and groups such as al-Shabab with links to al-Qaida are gaining ground. The current federal government is failing to provide public goods, such as security, education, and health, to the population it claims to represent. To date, more than a dozen peace negotiations to end this conflict have failed. The objective of this article is to shed light on why past peace processes have failed. The study of the Mbagathi peace process that preceded the United Nations–led Djibouti peace process can help to better understand the current political stalemate and conflict in Somalia. Moreover, some of th…
Methodology for the estimation of the increase in time loss due to future increase in tropical cyclone intensity in Japan
2009
Published version of an article from the journal: Climatic Change. The original publication is available at Spingerlink. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-009-9725-9 The present paper develops a methodology for estimating the risks and consequences of possible future increases in tropical cyclone intensities that would allow policy makers to relatively quickly evaluate the cost of different mitigation strategies. The methodology simulates future tropical cyclones by modifying the intensity of historical tropical cyclones between the years 1978 and 2007. It then uses a Monte Carlo Simulation to obtain the expected number of hours that a certain area can expect to be affected by winds of a giv…
Causality-based Social Media Analysis for Normal Users Credibility Assessment in a Political Crisis
2019
Information trustworthiness assessment on political social media discussions is crucial to maintain the order of society, especially during emergent situations. The polarity nature of political topics and the echo chamber effect by social media platforms allow for a deceptive and a dividing environment. During a political crisis, a vast amount of information is being propagated on social media, that leads up to a high level of polarization and deception by the beneficial parties. The traditional approaches to tackling misinformation on social media usually lack a comprehensive problem definition due to its complication. This paper proposes a probabilistic graphical model as a theoretical vi…
Living with climate change: avoiding conflict through adaptation in Malawi
2015
Abstract. In recent years, research on climate change and human security has received much attention among policy makers and academia alike. Communities in the Global South that rely on an intact resource base will especially be affected by predicted changes in temperature and precipitation. The objective of this article is to better understand under what conditions local communities can adapt to anticipated impacts of climate change and avoid conflict over the loss of resources. The empirical part of the paper answers the question to what extent local communities in the Chilwa Basin in Malawi have experienced climate change and how they are affected by it. Further, it assesses one of Malaw…
Vulnerability to climate change and adaptation strategies of local communities in Malawi: experiences of women fish-processing groups in the Lake Chi…
2016
Abstract. In recent years, research on climate change and human security has received much attention among policy makers and academia alike. Communities in the Global South that rely on an intact resource base and struggle with poverty, existing inequalities and historical injustices will especially be affected by predicted changes in temperature and precipitation. The objective of this article is to better understand under what conditions local communities can adapt to anticipated impacts of climate change. The empirical part of the paper answers the question as to what extent local women engaged in fish processing in the Chilwa Basin in Malawi have experienced climate change and how they …
Access to Learning Through Mobiles
2021
The common myth that mobile learning cannot propel in a rural setting is null and void. The influx of modern ICTs like mobile technologies can revolutionize information access among the less privileged in many African communities. Using the Actor-Network Theory as a methodological tool, the chapter explores opportunities of increasing knowledge access through mobiles, by understanding the networks involved in farmer's mobile learning practice, with reference to Uganda. The chapter reveals that mobile technologies offer affordable individual and group learning opportunities to smallholder farmers. Learning is a socially constructed activity, where farmers with access to ICTs like mobile phon…
Dissenting voices in a consenting village: lessons from implementation of free, prior and informed consent at a REDD+ pilot in Tanzania
2020
Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is a key institutional tool in meeting social safeguards. Its implementation ensures respect of the local people's rights in an intervention. This paper presents a case of FPIC implementation at a REDD+ pilot site. Data were obtained through key informant interviews and focus group discussions with proponents and village members of the Lindi REDD+ project. Findings indicate that the inclusive approach to FPIC by taking the consultations to the hamlet level did not deliver a flawless process. The consent decision was reached by a majority vote, not consensus. There was some dissent, prompting the early establishment of project implementation committees…
Towards an integrated approach to emergency management: interdisciplinary challenges for research and practice
2015
This article presents an interdisciplinary vision for large-scale integrated emergency management that has been inspired by the transition from platform centric to integrated operations in the oil and gas fields, which uses remote emergency control centres collaborating virtually with local responders. The article discusses some of the most salient research challenges for integrated emergency management, including the role of mobile technology, human-centred sensing, citizen participation and social media, and the socio-cultural determinants of disaster management. The purpose of this article is to frame an integrated emergency management approach that adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, …
Learning Automata-based Misinformation Mitigation via Hawkes Processes
2021
AbstractMitigating misinformation on social media is an unresolved challenge, particularly because of the complexity of information dissemination. To this end, Multivariate Hawkes Processes (MHP) have become a fundamental tool because they model social network dynamics, which facilitates execution and evaluation of mitigation policies. In this paper, we propose a novel light-weight intervention-based misinformation mitigation framework using decentralized Learning Automata (LA) to control the MHP. Each automaton is associated with a single user and learns to what degree that user should be involved in the mitigation strategy by interacting with a corresponding MHP, and performing a joint ra…
The economic impact of future increase in tropical cyclones in Japan
2009
Published version of an article from the journal:Natural Hazards. Also available from SpringerLink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-010-9522-9 This article estimates the non-first-order economic loss in Japan due to a future increase in tropical cyclones. One possible effect of global warming could be the increase in intensity of tropical cyclones. Using historical storm tracks between the years 1978 and 2007 and altering their intensities due to this potential increase in their intensity, this paper calculates the future potential regional GDP loss in a certain area that is affected by tropical cyclones. Most of the literature is concerned with physical damage and the loss of lives due to…