Task 6 Global Warming (a133921)
- 1. FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING KKKH 4284 SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING TASK 6 : GLOBAL WARMING LECTURER: PROF. IR. DR. RIZA ATIQ ABDULLAH BIN O.K. RAHMAT DR. MUHAMAD NAZRI BIN BORHAN DR. NORLIZA BINTI MOHD AKHIR NAME : NOR IZHAM BIN NOHANAZI MATRIC NO. : A133921 DEPARTMENT : JKAS/4
- 2. PROBLEM : Supposed you are living in a coastal city. The city administrator has noticed that the mean sea level has been rising for the past 50 years. The raising is small but over a long period of time it may cause problems in the city centre as the level of that part of the city is quite low. If you are hired as a consultant, write a plan of action on what can be done to reduce or mitigate the problems. Your report must include Mitigation and Adaptation measures. Introduction Global warming is the term used to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate. Even though it is an ongoing debate, it is proved by the scientists that the planet is warming. The 29th century is experiencing a continued increase of Earth’s mean atmospheric temperature by about 1.4 degrees and about two thirds of it occurring since 1980. This is global warming is affecting the nature’s balance and has a huge impact on life like continued heat waves, and sudden occurrence of storms and floods. Don’t we see time to time the epidemics that are devastating to human life and the flooding of the farm lands that puts economy in a deep hole? Scientific evidence indicates that since 1950, the world’s climate has been warming, primarily as a result of emissions from non-stop burning of fossil fuels and the razing of tropical forests. Since the industrial revolution till this day, there is a constant emission of the carbon into the atmosphere, everything we do we leave carbon footprints. It is a man made cause of the global warming. The global emissions jumped 3 percent in 2011 and jump another 2.6 percent in 2012, researchers reported. Solutions In order to plan the action on what can be done to reduce or mitigate the problems, first of all the impacts of the global warming to the town must be identified. As the city is just nearby the coastal area and there is a significant increment on the mean sea level, the impacts to the city might be severe. Moreover due to the most of the part of city is quite low, shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and water pollution affect man-made infrastructure and coastal ecosystems might be occur in the future. The impacts of climate change are likely to worsen many problems that coastal areas already face.
- 3. The major problems faced by the town are as follow Natural protections against damaging storm surges are increasingly threatened. Barrier islands, beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes, mangrove stands, and mud and sand flats retreat in land as sea level rises, unless there are obstructions along the retreat path. If they cannot move, these natural protections are washed over or drowned. High tides and storm surges riding on ever-higher seas are more dangerous to people and coastal infrastructure. Many shorelines have sea walls, jetties, and other artificial defenses to protect roads, buildings, and other vital coastal resources. In these areas, sea-level rise increases erosion of stranded beaches, wetlands, and engineered structures MITIGATION Mitigation of global warming involves taking actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance sinks aimed at minimize the impact of global warming to the coastal city and reducing the extent of global warming. The mitigations lie on our daily activities and needs. We must tackle in these issues as these are the main contributor for greenhouse gases which lead to global warming. The scopes including the energy efficiency, transportation, forest management and the most important thing is sustainable development. i. Ensuring Sustainable Development The countries of the world from the most to the least developed vary dramatically in their contributions to the problem of climate change and in their responsibilities and capacities to confront it. A successful global compact on climate change must include financial assistance from richer countries to poorer countries to help make the transition to low- carbon development pathways and to help adapt to the impacts of climate change. i. Greening Transportation The transportation sector's emissions have increased at a faster rate than any other energy- using sector over the past decade. A variety of solutions are at hand, including improving
- 4. efficiency in all modes of transport, switching to low-carbon fuels, and reducing vehicle miles travelled through smart growth and more efficient mass transportation systems. ii. Boosting Energy Efficiency The energy used to power, heat, and cool our homes, businesses, and industries is the single largest contributor to global warming. Energy efficiency technologies allow us to use less energy to get the same or higher level of production, service, and comfort. This approach has vast potential to save both energy and money, and can be deployed quickly. iii. Reviving Up Renewables Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and bioenergy are available around the world. Multiple studies have shown that renewable energy has the technical potential to meet the vast majority of our energy needs. Renewable technlogies can be deployed quickly, are increasingly cost-effective, and create jobs while reducing pollution. iv. Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Electricity Dramatically reducing our use of fossil fuels especially carbon-intensive coal is essential to tackle climate change. There are many ways to begin this process. Key action steps include: not building any new coal-burning power plants, initiating a phased shutdown of coal plants starting with the oldest and dirtiest, and capturing and storing carbon emissions from power plants. While it may sound like science fiction, the technology exists to store carbon emissions underground. The technology has not been deployed on a large scale or proven to be safe and permanent, but it has been demonstrated in other contexts such as oil and natural gas recovery. Demonstration projects to test the viability and costs of this technology for power plant emissions are worth pursuing. v. Developing and Deploying New Low-Carbon and Zero-Carbon Technologies Research into and development of the next generation of low-carbon technologies will be critical to deep mid-century reductions in global emissions. Current research on battery technology, new materials for solar cells, harnessing energy from novel sources like bacteria and algae, and other innovative areas could provide important break throughs.
- 5. vi. Managing Forests and Agriculture Forestation can be of great help in this regard. Planting more trees and reducing timber cuts worldwide will help restore the imbalance. Taken together, tropical deforestation and emissions from agriculture represent nearly 30 percent of the world's heat-trapping emissions. We can fight global warming by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and by making our food production practices more sustainable. ADAPTATION Adaptations is the action or process of adapting or being adapted. Thus, the adaption shall be the strategy to cater the risk of sea level rising to a critical level. i. Expanded rainwater harvesting; water storage and conservation techniques; water re- use; desalination; water-use and irrigation efficiency. ii. Adjustment of planting dates and crop variety; crop relocation; improved land management, e.g. erosion control and soil protection through tree planting Relocation; seawalls and storm surge barriers; dune reinforcement; land acquisition and creation of marshlands/wetlands as buffer against sea level rise and flooding; protection of existing natural barriers. iii. Heat-health action plans; emergency medical services; improved climate-sensitive disease surveillance and control; safe water and improved sanitation. iv. Diversification of tourism attractions and revenues; shifting ski slopes to higher altitudes and glaciers; artificial snow-making. v. Ralignment/relocation; design standards and planning for roads, rail and other infrastructure to cope with warming and drainage. vi. Strengthening of overhead transmission and distribution infrastructure; underground cabling for utilities; energy efficiency; use of renewable sources; reduced dependence on single sources of energy.
- 6. CONCLUSION Climate change mitigation and adaptation will need to be dealt and involves complex interaction of citizens, governmental, non-governmental organisations and businesses. Although there is some uncertainty around when we will experience various climate changes, planners can today anticipate their trajectories and begin thinking ahead about how to prevent catastrophic impacts.