Degrees of Change – 5.1 Glossary
5.1 Glossary
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Adaptation
Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli and their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. There are various types of adaptation, including anticipatory, autonomous, and planned adaptation. [1]*
(Adaptive) capacity
The whole of capabilities, resources and institutions of a country, region, community or group to implement effective adaptation measures. [2]*
Adaptive management
Management that is responsive to, or even anticipatory of, changing functions of natural and human systems, evolving management purposes, and changing contextual conditions. This management approach acknowledges uncertainty, designing and implementing actions that are deliberately experimental and focused on learning from the effects of management. It emphasizes monitoring and participatory approaches as well.
Albedo
A value representing a body’s ability to reflect solar radiation. It is quantified as the proportion of solar radiation of all wavelengths reflected by a body or surface to the amount directed upon it. Bodies with a high level of albedo, such as fresh snow (~95% albedo) will reflect most solar radiation; whereas darker surfaces, such as dark, wet soil (~5% albedo) will absorb most solar radiation.[3]*
Capture fishery
Activity involving the capture of wild fish (or other marine species), which leads to harvesting.
Climate
Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as the average weather or, more rigorously, as the statistical description of mean values and variability of variables such as surface temperature, precipitation, and wind over a period of time ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. Climate in a wider sense describes the state of the climate system.[1]*
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and persistent change in an area’s average climate conditions or their extremes. [4]
Climate variability
Seasonal variations and multi-year cycles (for example, El Niño Southern Oscillation) that produce warm, cool, wet, or dry periods across different regions are a natural part of climate variability. [4] Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability). [5]
Disaster
Social phenomenon resulting from the intersection of a hazard with a vulnerability that exceeds or overwhelms the ability to cope and may cause harm to the safety, health, welfare, property or environment of people.[6]
Ecosystem
The interactive system formed from all living organisms and their physical and chemical environment within a given area. Ecosystems cover a hierarchy of spatial scales.[1]*
Ecosystem approach (Ecosystem-based management)
A strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. It applies appropriate scientific methodologies focused on the essential structure, processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment, and recognizes that humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of many ecosystems. [1]
Ecozone
Ecologically-distinct zones with characteristic plant and animal life and physical features.
Emergency
A present or imminent event that requires prompt coordination of actions concerning persons or property to protect the health, safety or welfare of people, or to limit damage to property or the environment. [6]
Evapotranspiration
The combined process of water evaporation from the Earth’s surface and transpiration from vegetation. [1]
Extreme weather event
An event that is rare within its statistical reference distribution at a particular place. Definitions of “rare” vary, but an extreme weather event would normally be as rare as, or rarer than, the 10th or 90th percentile. By definition, the characteristics of what is called ‘extreme weather’ may vary from place to place.[1]*
Feedback
When the result of an initial process triggers changes in a second process that in turn influences the initial one. A positive feedback intensifies the original process, and a negative feedback reduces it.[1]*
Global warming
The observed increase in average temperature near the Earth’s surface and in the lowest layer of the atmosphere. In common usage, “global warming” often refers to the warming that has occurred as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities. Global warming is a type of climate change: it can also lead to other changes in climate conditions, such as changes in precipitation patterns. [4]
Governance
The process whereby societies or organizations make important decisions, determine whom they involve, and how they render account.[7]
Habitat
The locality or natural home in which a particular plant, animal, or group of closely associated organisms lives. [1]
Heating Degree Day (HDD)
A measure to estimate the amount of energy (oil, natural gas, etc.) required for home and commercial heating or cooling. Taking the mean temperature for a day and comparing the figure to base temperature (usually 18°C), the figure provides a heating requirement estimate based on the difference from the base value.[8]*
Hydrology
The local physical geography that mediates the movement, distribution, and quality of water throughout the earth, including both the hydrologic cycle and water resources.[9]*
Incentives
Incentives broadly refer to mechanisms that encourage or discourage certain types of behaviour. Incentives can include relevant information, price signals, regulations, and financial rewards or penalties. Provision of or access to these incentives can be design or unintentional.
Infrastructure
The physical foundation of a society, community or enterprise. Infrastructure comprises assets, installations or systems used to provide goods or services.[10]
Institutions
Rules and norms that guide how people within societies live, work, and interact. Formal institutions are codified rules, such as the constitution, organized markets, or property rights. Informal institutions are rules governed by social or behavioural norms of a family, community or society.[11]
Livelihood
The ways and means of ‘making a living’, a livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. [12]*
(Natural) Hazard
An event or physical condition (e.g., floods, forest fires, landslides) that is a potential cause of fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, agricultural loss, environmental damage, business interruption, or other types of harm or loss. The magnitude of the phenomenon, the probability of its occurrence, and the extent and severity of its impact can vary, although in many cases may be anticipated or estimated. [13]*
Permafrost
Ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least two consecutive years.[5]
Renewable supply (of freshwater)
Water that is fully replaced in any given year through rain and snow that falls on continents and islands and flows through rivers and streams to the sea.[14]
Resilience
The ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the same capacity for self-organization and the same capacity to adapt to stress and change.[1]
Risk
A combination of the likelihood (probability of occurrence) and the consequences of an adverse event (e.g. climate-related hazard).[15] In line with the multi-dimensional character of climate change, the framing of risk considers these three questions: What can happen? How likely is it to happen? If it does happen, what are the consequences? Thus, risk from the impacts of climate change is an expectation that involves a threat or hazard (climate change as a source of or contributor to adverse outcomes), adverse outcomes (losses or harm to conditions that Canadians value such as healthy communities and ecosystems), and uncertainty of occurrence and outcomes (the likelihood of adverse outcome actually materializing).
Risk management
A systematic approach to setting the best course of action under uncertainty, by applying management policies, procedures and practices to the tasks of analyzing, evaluating, controlling and communicating about risk issues.[16]
Stakeholder
A person or an organization that has a legitimate interest in a project or entity, or would be affected by a particular action or policy.[1]
Subpopulation
A geographically or otherwise distinct group within a wildlife species that has little demographic or genetic exchange with other such groups (COSEWIC refers to it as “population”).[17]
Thermosyphons
Self-powered refrigeration devices that are used to help keep permafrost cool and eliminate thaw settlement.[18]*
Tipping Point
A critical threshold at which a tiny perturbation can qualitatively alter the state of development of a system, resulting in, for example, dramatically altered ecosystems, financial markets, and widespread disease within a population.[19]*
Urban Heat-Island Effect
The relative warmth of a city compared with surrounding rural areas, associated with changes in runoff, the concrete jungle effects on heat retention, changes in surface albedo, changes in pollution and aerosols, and so on.[1]
Vulnerability
Vulnerability to climate change is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability to climate change is a function of the character, magnitude and rate of climate variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity and its adaptive capacity.[1]*
Watershed
An area of land that intercepts and drains precipitation through a particular river system or group of river systems.[20]
Weather
State of the atmosphere at a given time and place with regard to temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, cloudiness and precipitation. The term is mainly used to describe conditions over short periods of time.[21]
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Glossary References
1 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Appendix I: glossary. In M.L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden & C.E. Hanson (Eds), Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (p. 869–883). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-app.pdf As cited in: Lemmen, D.S., Warren, F.J., and Lacroix, J., & Bush, E. (Eds) (2008). From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007 - Chapter 11: Glossary (p. 442-448). Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
2 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Appendix A.2: glossary. In Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (p. 869-883). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessmentreport/ ar4/syr/ar4_syr_appendix.pdf. As cited in Lemmen, D.S., Warren, F.J., and Lacroix, J., & Bush, E. (Eds) (2008). From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007 - Chapter 11: Glossary (p. 442-448). Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
3 Dagmar Budikova (Lead Author); Mryka Hall-Beyer and Galal Hassan Galal Hussein (Topic Editor); (2010). Albedo. In Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth November 21, 2006; <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Albedo>
4 US Global Change Research Program (2009). Climate literacy: The essential principles of climate science. Second version.
5 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2007. Annex I: glossary. In Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller, eds. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis (Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), pp. 941–954. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/annex1sglossary-a-d.html As cited in Lemmen, D.S., F.J. Warren, J. Lacroix, and E. Bush, eds. 2008. “Chapter 11: Glossary,” From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007, 442–448. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
6 Public Safety Canada. Emergency Management Framework. http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/emfrmwrk-eng.aspx#a06 .
7 Institute on Governance. What is Governance? http://www.iog.ca/page.asp?pageID=3&htmlarea=home
8 National Climate Data and Information Archive. Degree-Days. from http://climat.meteo.gc.ca/climate_normals/climate_info_e.html
9 Universities Council on Water. (ND).Hydrology: The Study of Water and Water Problems A Challenge for Today and Tomorrow. Retrieved from http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/hydrology.html
10 Natural Resources Canada (2008). Critical Infrastructure Information
11 The Resilience Alliance (2007). Assessing and Managing Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems: A Practitioner’s Workbook, volume 1, version 1.0; The Resilience Alliance. http://www.resalliance.org/3871.php As cited in: Lemmen, D.S., Warren, F.J., and Lacroix, J., and Bush, E. (Eds) (2008). From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007 - Chapter 11: Glossary (p. 442-448). Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
12 Carney, D. (1998). Sustainable rural livelihoods: what contribution can we make? London, Department for International Development.
13 PLANAT, the Swiss National Platform for Natural Hazards. http://www.planat.ch/index.php?userhash=135534382&l=e&navID=4
14 World Resources Institute. ( 2003). World Resources 2002–2004: Decisions for the Earth: Balance, voice, and power. Retrieved from http://archive.wri.org/governance/pubs_pdf.cfm?PubID=3764
15 United Nations Development Programme. (2005). Adaptation Policy Frameworks for Climate Change. United Nations Development Programme. http://www.undp.org/gef/undpgef_publications/publications/apf%20annexes %20a&b.pdf As cited in Lemmen, D.S., F.J. Warren, J. Lacroix, & E. Bush, eds. (2008). “Chapter 11: Glossary,” From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007, 442–448. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
16 Canadian Standards Association (1997). Risk Management: Guidelines for Decision-makers, Canadian Standards Association, CAN/CSAQ850-97. As cited in: Lemmen, D.S., Warren, F.J., Lacroix, J., & Bush, E. (Eds) (2008). From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007 - Chapter 11: Glossary (p. 442–448). Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
17 IUCN. (2001). IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1. IUCN Species Survival Commission. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, 30 pp.
18 University of Alaska, Fairbanks. (Date?). Mechanical Engineering. Thermosyphons. Retrieved from http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/cem/me/news/thompson_drive_thermosyphons.xml
19 Lenton, T.M. et al.( 2007). Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105( 6): 1786–1793
20 NRTEE. (2010). Glossary, in Changing Currents: Water Sustainability and the Future of Canada’s Natural Resource Sectors.
21 Environment Canada. (2008). Glossary.: http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&xml=7EBE5C5A-D48B-4162-A3E1-A636EFA7AA01#glossaryw As cited in: Lemmen, D.S., Warren, F.J., and Lacroix, J., a&nd Bush, E. (Eds) (2008). From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007 - Chapter 11: Glossary (p. 442_448). Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada.
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