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Climate change and solar geoengineering have different implications for drought. Climate change can “speed up” the hydrological cycle, but it causesgreater evapotranspiration than the historical climate because of higher temperatures. Solar geoengineering (stratospheric aerosol injection), on the other hand, tends to “slow down” the hydrological cycle while reducing potential evapotranspiration. There are two common definitions of drought that take this into account; rainfall-only (SPI) and potential-evapotranspiration (SPEI). In different regions of Africa, this can result in different versions of droughts for each scenario, with drier rainfall (SPI) droughts under geoengineering and drier potential-evapotranspiration (SPEI) droughts under climate change. However, the societal implications of these different types of drought are not clear. We present a systematic review of all papers comparing the relationship between real-world outcomes (streamflow, vegetation, and agricultural yields) with these two definitions of drought in Africa. We also correlate the two drought definitions (SPI and SPEI) with historical vegetation conditions across the continent. We find that potential-evapotranspiration-droughts (SPEI) tend to be more closely related with vegetation conditions, while rainfall-droughts (SPI) tend to be more closely related with streamflows across Africa. In many regions, adaptation plans are likely to be affected differently by these two drought types. In parts of East Africa and coastal West Africa, geoengineering could exacerbate both types of drought, which has implications for current investments in water infrastructure. The reverse is true in parts of Southern Africa. In the Sahel, sectors more sensitive to rainfall-drought (SPI), such as reservoir management, could see reduced water availability under solar geoengineering, while sectors more sensitive to potential-evapotranspiration-drought (SPEI), such as rainfed agriculture, could see increased water availability under solar geoengineering. Given that the implications of climate change and solar geoengineering futures are different in different regions and also for different sectors, we recommend that deliberations on solar geoengineering include the widest possible representation of stakeholders.

Cultivating a more dynamic relationship between science and policy is essential for responding to complex social challenges such as sustainability. One approach to doing so is to "span the boundaries" between science and decision making and create a more comprehensive and inclusive knowledge exchange process. The exact definition and role of boundary spanning, however, can be nebulous. Indeed, boundary spanning often gets conflated and confused with other approaches to connecting science and policy, such as science communication, applied science, and advocacy, which can hinder progress in the field of boundary spanning. To help overcome this, in this perspective, we present the outcomes from a recent workshop of boundary-spanning practitioners gathered to (1) articulate a definition of what it means to work at this interface ("boundary spanning") and the types of activities it encompasses; (2) present a value proposition of these efforts to build better relationships between science and policy; and (3) identify opportunities to more effectively mainstream boundary-spanning activities. Drawing on our collective experiences, we suggest that boundary spanning has the potential to increase the efficiency by which useful research is produced, foster the capacity to absorb new evidence and perspectives into sustainability decision-making, enhance research relevance for societal challenges, and open new policy windows. We provide examples from our work that illustrate this potential. By offering these propositions for the value of boundary spanning, we hope to encourage a more robust discussion of how to achieve evidence-informed decision-making for sustainability.

As atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, temperature and humidity will increase further, causing potentially dire increases in human heat stress. On physiological and biophysical grounds, exposure to higher levels of humidity should worsen heat stress by decreasing sweat evaporation. However, population-scale epidemiological studies of heat exposure and response often do not detect associations between high levels of humidity and heat-related mortality or morbidity. These divergent, disciplinary views regarding the role of humidity in heat-related health risks limit confidence in selecting which interventions are effective in reducing health impacts and in projecting future heat-related health risks.Via our multidisciplinary perspective we seek to a) reconcile the competing realities concerning the role of humidity in heat-related health impacts and b) help ensure robust projections of heat-related health risks with climate change. These objectives are critical pathways to identify and communicate effective approaches to cope with present and future heat challenges.We hypothesize six key reasons epidemiological studies have found little impact of humidity on heat-health outcomes: a) At high temperatures, there may be limited influence of humidity on the health conditions that cause most heat-related deaths (i.e., cardiovascular collapse); b) epidemiological data sets have limited spatial extent, a bias toward extratropical (i.e., cooler and less humid), high-income nations, and tend to exist in places where temporal variations in temperature and humidity are positively correlated; c) analyses focus on older, vulnerable populations with sweating, and thus evaporative, impairments that may be further aggravated by dehydration; d) extremely high levels of temperature and humidity (seldom seen in the historical record) are necessary for humidity to substantially impact heat strain of sedentary individuals; e) relationships between temperature and humidity are improperly considered when interpreting epidemiological model results; and f) sub-daily meteorological phenomena, such as rain, occur at high temperatures and humidity, and may bias epidemiological studies based on daily data. Future research must robustly test these hypotheses to advance methods for more accurate incorporation of humidity in estimating heat-related health outcomes under present and projected future climates. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11807.

The governance of climate adaptation involves the collective efforts of multiple societal actors to address problems, or to reap the benefits, associated with impacts of climate change. Governing involves the creation of institutions, rules and organizations, and the selection of normative principles to guide problem solution and institution building. We argue that actors involved in governing climate change adaptation, as climate change governance regimes evolve, inevitably must engage in making choices, for instance on problem definitions, jurisdictional levels, on modes of governance and policy instruments, and on the timing of interventions. Yet little is known about how and why these choices are made in practice, and how such choices affect the outcomes of our efforts to govern adaptation. In this introduction we review the current state of evidence and the specific contribution of the articles published in this Special Feature, which are aimed at bringing greater clarity in these matters, and thereby informing both governance theory and practice. Collectively, the contributing papers suggest that the way issues are defined has important consequences for the support for governance interventions, and their effectiveness. The articles suggest that currently the emphasis in adaptation governance is on the local and regional levels, while underscoring the benefits of interventions and governance at higher jurisdictional levels in terms of visioning and scaling-up effective approaches. The articles suggest that there is a central role of government agencies in leading governance interventions to address spillover effects, to provide public goods, and to promote the long-term perspectives for planning. They highlight the issue of justice in the governance of adaptation showing how governance measures have wide distributional consequences, including the potential to amplify existing inequalities, access to resources, or generating new injustices through distribution of risks. For several of these findings, future research directions are suggested.

Mass transport phenomenon was first recognized by Stokes in 1847 using a Lagrangian description. Later, a basic theory for the mass transport in water waves in viscous fluid and of finite depth was derived by Longuet-Higgins in 1953. Theoretical solutions of mass transport in progressive waves of permanent type are subjected to the definitions of wave celerity in deriving the various finite amplitude wave theories. As it has been generally acknowledged that the Stokes wave theory can not yield a correct prediction of mass transport in the shallow depths, some new theories have been developed. Recently the authors(1974 § 1977) have derived a new finite amplitude wave theory in shallow water for quasi- Stokes and cnoidal waves by the so-called reductive perturbation method, in which the mass transport is formulated both in Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions. On the experimental verification, Russell and 0sorio(1957) investigated and compared Longuet-Higgins' solution with experimental data of Lagrangian mass transport velocity obtained in a normal closed wave tank of finite length. Since then, many investigations, and nearly all of them, have employed the finite length of wave tank in carrying out their experiments. However, no experiment has yet been attempted at verifying the Stokes drift in progressive waves of permanent type in a wave tank of infinite length. It is not realistic nor economical in constructing such an infinitely long flume to investigate experimentally the mass transport velocity in progressive waves. Instead of using such an ideal wave tank, a new one incorporated with natural water re-circulation was equipped to carry out experiments by the authors(1978). It was confirmed from these experiments that mass transport in progressive waves of permanent type exists in the Same direction of wave propagation throughout the depth, and agrees with both the Stokes drift and the authors' new formulations, within the test range of experiments.