Nico Barawid

Increasingly, various sectors are affected by climate change and need to find ways to adapt with much public guidance and support. This paper examines the adaptation process of a sector that started it some time ago – Swiss Alpine tourism. It identifies barriers that may be relevant for all sectors, all along the successive phases of the adaptation process. It additionally identifies the barriers which are most important and how these can be overcome. In order to do this we use an online survey… Show more

Increasingly, various sectors are affected by climate change and need to find ways to adapt with much public guidance and support. This paper examines the adaptation process of a sector that started it some time ago – Swiss Alpine tourism. It identifies barriers that may be relevant for all sectors, all along the successive phases of the adaptation process. It additionally identifies the barriers which are most important and how these can be overcome. In order to do this we use an online survey directed to Swiss tourism stakeholders. Our results indicate that both economic and social feasibility barriers are important impediments to the adjustment process, whereas the acceptability among inhabitants and the willingness to act of stakeholders appear less critical. These barriers can be overcome and adaptation facilitated with more and especially better information about the regional consequences of climate change and feasible adaptation measures, by some top-down leadership and coordination, and by providing financial support. Show less

Water reclamation and reuse practices are recently receiving growing attention due to increasing water scarcity, concerns about the effect of wastewater discharges on receiving water, and availability of high-performing and cost-effective water reuse technologies. However, incorporation of water reuse schemes into water/wastewater infrastructure systems is a complex decision making process, involving various economical, technological, and environmental criteria. System dynamics (SD) allows… Show more

Water reclamation and reuse practices are recently receiving growing attention due to increasing water scarcity, concerns about the effect of wastewater discharges on receiving water, and availability of high-performing and cost-effective water reuse technologies. However, incorporation of water reuse schemes into water/wastewater infrastructure systems is a complex decision making process, involving various economical, technological, and environmental criteria. System dynamics (SD) allows modeling of complex systems and provides information about the temporal and feedback behavior of the system. In this sense, a SD model of the existing water/wastewater system in Kalamazoo-Michigan, an urban area in the Great Lakes region, was created with the hypothetical incorporation of water reuse. The model simulates and optimizes the overall water system cost (including water, wastewater and water reuse components), accounting for future scenarios of population, economic growth and climate change. Results indicate significant levels of water reuse after an infrastructure build delay. The model also indicates that a decision to implement water reuse yields remarkably lower water withdrawals and lower water treatment costs even in a location with a relatively abundant water supply like Kalamazoo. This study emphasizes the fact that a true understanding of the practice of water reuse cannot be achieved without taking regional and climatic parameters into account. Show less