• Title/Summary/Keyword: UNEP

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The Honolulu Strategy and Its Implication to Marine Debris Management in Korea (호놀룰루 전략과 우리나라 해양쓰레기 관리를 위한 시사점)

  • Hong, Sunwook;Lee, Jongmyoung;Jang, Yong-Chang;Kang, Daeseok;Shim, Won Joon;Lee, Jongsu
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.143-150
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    • 2013
  • The Honolulu Strategy is a framework document to address marine debris issue globally. The Fifth International Marine Debris Conference held in March 2011 and organized by NOAA and UNEP catalyzed the development of the Holonulu Strategy. Goals of the Strategy are to reduce the amount and impact of land-based, sea-based, and accumulated marine debris. A set of strategies for each goal were provided for education and awareness, legislation, and alternative technologies. The Strategy also lists indicators that could be used to evaluate outcomes of strategies. The adoption of the Honolulu Strategy by the international community has led the international organizations such as GPA, IMO, and CBD to strengthen their responses to the marine debris issue. UN has also set up specific actions that will be implemented until 2025 through its resolutions on marine debris. Recent global developments related to the marine debris issue might lead to a change in the character of the international marine debris management from the current soft law regime to a mandatory one. The Honolulu Strategy could provide a guideline when the Korean government formulates the Second Basic Plan for Marine Debris Management, especially with its prevention-oriented approaches, utilization of scientific policy development tools, and adoption of evaluation system using performance indicators.

Review on the Regional Cooperative Activities for Marine Environmental Conservation in Northeast Asia: with Special Reference to the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) (동북아시아 해양환경보전을 위한 국제협력활동의 현황과 발전방향: 북서태평양보전실천계획(NOWPAP)을 중심으로)

  • Kang Chang-Gu;Kang Seong-Gil
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.30-43
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    • 2003
  • The geography, circulation pattern, and ecology show that the semi-closed seas of Northwest Pacific be managed as one complete system. Ongoing multilateral cooperative efforts relevant to marine environmental protection in the Northwest Pacific area, include the Working Group for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) established under the auspices of WNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commissions, the UNDP/GEF Programme on Prevention and Management of Marine Pollution in East Asian Seas (PEMSEA), the North Pacific Marine Science Organization(PICES), and the United Nations Environment Programme(WNEP)'s Northwest Pacific Action Plan(NOWPAP). The present report firstly describes the current situations on the existing regional cooperative regimes for marine environmental conservation in the Northwest Pacific region, with a special respect to the Northwest Pacific Action Plan(NOWPAP) which was adopted in 1994 by Japan, People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation. Then, problems of the existing regimes are also discussed, together with the suggestion of the possible solutions, focusing on NOWPAP. Suggestions include: 1) the Northeast Asian countries should understand the importance of legally-binding regional convention, and should build up any legally-binding instrument which can function as a big umbrella for real regional cooperation without prejudice to the rights of the States, 2) At present stage, it will be possible to make a regional convention flexible without prejudice to the sovereign right of the States or territorial issues; 3) taking into account that the region often faces many generic political problems that often inhibit the effective collective actions on environmental issues, the leadership from UNEP or other international organizations is required; 4) strong institutional and financial framework should be made, and 5) multilateral efforts to respond to the new marine environmental threats should be taken at the regional level in order to protect the coastal and marine environments in the Northwest Pacific.

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Assessing the resilience of urban water management to climate change

  • James A. Griffiths
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2023.05a
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    • pp.32-32
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    • 2023
  • Incidences of urban flood and extreme heat waves (due to the urban heat island effect) are expected to increase in New Zealand under future climate change (IPCC 2022; MfE 2020). Increasingly, the mitigation of such events will depend on the resilience of a range Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) used in Sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes (SUDS), or Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) (Jamei and Tapper 2019; Johnson et al 2021). Understanding the impact of changing precipitation and temperature regimes due climate change is therefore critical to the long-term resilience of such urban infrastructure and design. Cuthbert et al (2022) have assessed the trade-offs between the water retention and cooling benefits of different urban greening methods (such as WSUD) relative to global location and climate. Using the Budyko water-energy balance framework (Budyko 1974), they demonstrated that the potential for water infiltration and storage (thus flood mitigation) was greater where potential evaporation is high relative to precipitation. Similarly, they found that the potential for mitigation of drought conditions was greater in cooler environments. Subsequently, Jaramillo et al. (2022) have illustrated the locations worldwide that will deviate from their current Budyko curve characteristic under climate change scenarios, as the relationship between actual evapotranspiration (AET) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) changes relative to precipitation. Using the above approach we assess the impact of future climate change on the urban water-energy balance in three contrasting New Zealand cities (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill). The variation in Budyko curve characteristics is then used to describe expected changes in water storage and cooling potential in each urban area as a result of climate change. The implications of the results are then considered with respect to existing WSUD guidelines according to both the current and future climate in each location. It was concluded that calculation of Budyko curve deviation due to climate change could be calculated for any location and land-use type combination in New Zealand and could therefore be used to advance the general understanding of climate change impacts. Moreover, the approach could be used to better define the concept of urban infrastructure resilience and contribute to a better understanding of Budyko curve dynamics under climate change (questions raised by Berghuijs et al 2020)). Whilst this knowledge will assist in implementation of national climate change adaptation (MfE, 2022; UNEP, 2022) and improve climate resilience in urban areas in New Zealand, the approach could be repeated for any global location for which present and future mean precipitation and temperature conditions are known.

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