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AbstractExtreme weather events have become a dominant feature of the narrative surrounding changes in global climate with large impacts on ecosystem stability, functioning and resilience; however, understanding of their risk of co‐occurrence at the regional scale is lacking. Based on the UK Met Office’s long‐term temperature and rainfall records, we present the first evidence demonstrating significant increases in the magnitude, direction of change and spatial co‐localisation of extreme weather events since 1961. Combining this new understanding with land‐use data sets allowed us to assess the likely consequences on future agricultural production and conservation priority areas. All land‐uses are impacted by the increasing risk of at least one extreme event and conservation areas were identified as the hotspots of risk for the co‐occurrence of multiple event types. Our findings provide a basis to regionally guide land‐use optimisation, land management practices and regulatory actions preserving ecosystem services against multiple climate threats.

Abstract Discounting the future is essential to inform long-term decisions, but the future of humanity is being put in jeopardy by using the same discount rate for all capital types. Different types of capital assets (built, human, social, natural) have inherently different characteristics and contribute differently to the production of all goods and services. They will behave and depreciate differently and will thus require different discount rates and different approaches to discounting. Here, we estimate the net present value (NPV) of global ES recognizing that ecosystem services are the product of the interaction of the four different types of capital that each have different characteristics. We combine a range of different discount rates for each of the 4 types of capital according to their relative contributions to the production and value of each of 17 global ecosystem services. We estimate that the NPV of global ES ranges from $5.7 to $9.1 × 1015 (quadrillion 2011$USD). For comparison, the NPV of global GDP estimated in the same way would be about $2.9 to $4.8 × 1015. This more nuanced approach to discounting can improve information for long-term project appraisal and decision making and help build a more sustainable and desirable future.

Urban regions are well known to be warmer than the outlying surrounding regions: this phenomenon is termed an urban Heat Island (UHI). Depending upon its severity, an UHI can influence human health, the condition of urban vegetation, as well as air and water quality leading to a general decline in the living conditions of the affected urban environments and residents. Some studies have shown that prevailing weather conditions, like wind patterns, can influence UHI magnitudes. These studies suggest that wind speeds may be inversely related to UHI magnitude. However, long-term and high frequency weather and temperature measurements are exceedingly rare, so the exact nature of the relationship between wind speeds and directions as well as UHI magnitudes remain unknown. In order to address this problem, this study investigates howUHImagnitudes in five Australian cities affect wind speed and wind direction. The results of this study revealed that urban–non-urban temperature differences are most pronounced under calm weather conditions. The UHI intensity weakened as wind velocity increased: strong significant negative correlations were found between the mean UHI intensity and mean wind speed magnitudes. The results show that the greatest UHI intensities are recorded when wind is weak (less than 2 ms-1), while the lowest magnitudes are found when wind speeds exceed 6 ms-1. Further, the results show that the critical wind speed value, above which the strength of the UHI is considerably minimized, is around 4-5 ms-1. In addition, the study shows that wind direction in each city is a critical driver factor that determines the intensity of the UHI effect. When winds originate from dry environments, they favour high UHI intensities at all wind speeds, while the winds from the ocean side of coastal cities tend to cool urban regions, reducing UHI intensities or even promoting the urban cool island formation.

Abstract The global consumption of natural gas is expected to increase at an average of 1.6% over the next 5 years from 3.7 trillion cubic meter (tcm) used in 2017. Although the current use of gas in power generation is dominant followed by industry, residential and other sectors during 2011-2017, the global industry is expected to be the main driver for gas consumption followed by power generation, residential and commercial and other sectors by 2023. Many countries including Bangladesh use natural gas primarily for power generation. Among the main reason was energy security, availability of smooth supply of own relatively cheaper natural gas. As the demand for power has increased and the country could not extract indigenous discovered coal due to complex mine water management and agricultural land rehabilitation, its indigenous fuel supply restricted utilizing installed capacity of power generation, impeding industrial growth and development. This paper reviews the status of natural gas in Bangladesh and the engagements of local and international oil companies in natural gas exploration. The paper highlights the need for transboundary gas importation and associated infrastructure to support its development activities. It is recommended that the indigenous and transboundary gas to be managed efficiently and a long-term strategy for sustained supply of fuel from multiple sources to be formulated to maximise the energy security and achieving Bangladesh Vision 2041.

A field exercise was performed on a high-energy beach east of the Sunday's River in Algoa Bay on the east coast of the Republic of South Africa in the latter half of April 1983. Recorded data include nearly continuous wave data at 7 stations within the breaker zone with simultaneous waverider recordings in a water depth of 10 m, suspended sediment data gathered by means of 'bamboo' poles and instantaneous bottle samplers, daily topographical measurements of the beach and inshore area, data on rip current intensity and spacing for a 10 km coastal strip, more than 3 000 bottom sediment sample analyses and visual observations of wave height and longshore current velocity at hourly intervals through the recording period. Analysis of the data has been completed and interpretation and correlation of various measured phenomena are underway. A second exercise was performed in August 1984, when the emphasis was on nearshore circulation patterns.