University of Lapland

About: University of Lapland is a education organization based out in Rovaniemi, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Arctic & Indigenous. The organization has 665 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 39129 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Rovaniemi & Lapin yliopisto.

Space-Based Observations for Understanding Changes in the Arctic-Boreal Zone

Abstract: Observations taken over the last few decades indicate that dramatic changes are occurring in the ArcticBoreal Zone (ABZ), which are having significant impacts on ABZ inhabitants, infrastructure, flora and fauna, and economies. While suitable for detecting overall change, the current capability is inadequate for systematic monitoring and for improving processbased and largescale understanding of the integrated components of the ABZ, which includes the cryosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Such knowledge will lead to improvements in Earth system models, enabling more accurate prediction of future changes and development of informed adaptation and mitigation strategies. In Duncan et al. (2020), we review the strengths and limitations of current spacebased observational capabilities for several important ABZ components and make recommendations for improving upon these current capabilities. We recommend an interdisciplinary and stepwise approach to develop a comprehensive ABZ Observing Network (ABZON), beginning with an initial focus on observing networks designed to gain processbased understanding for individual ABZ components and systems that can then serve as the building blocks for a comprehensive ABZON.

‘Social license to operate’: a relevant term in Northern European mining?

Abstract: The concept of social license to operate (SLO) is increasingly being used throughout the world to describe a specific aspect of company–community relations in resource-extractive projects, in particular how different actors interact to resolve, or not, the social and economic impacts on local communities and other stakeholders. This article will tease out the main elements of the SLO concept and examine the degree to which both actors (mining companies and communities), verbally and in action, respond toward one another. Based on previous empirical studies of scholars in the field, we have applied an analytical framework of SLO to empirically test whether or not it can provide greater insight into the motivations both behind a community's acceptance of or opposition to a company's project, as well as the extent to which a company is willing to appease the public in order to gain their acceptance. The framework combines a set of normative criteria the company must meet as a precondition to gaining SLO, wit...

Analytical framework to evaluate the level of integration of climate adaptation and mitigation in cities

Abstract: Reduction of carbon emissions and climate-resilience in cities are becoming important objectives to be achieved in order to ensure sustainable urban development pathways. Traditionally, cities have treated climate mitigation and adaptation strategies in isolation, without addressing their potential synergies, conflicts or trade-offs. Recent studies have shown that this can lead to inefficiencies in urban planning, conflicting policy objectives and lost opportunities for synergistic actions. However, in the last few years, we have observed that cities are increasingly moving towards addressing both mitigation and adaptation in urban planning. Cities need to pay particular attention and understand the rationale of both policy objectives whilst considering the integration of the two policies in urban planning and decision-making. This study presents an analytical framework to evaluate the level of integration of climate mitigation and adaptation in cities’ local climate action plans. We tested this framework in nine selected major cities, representatives from all inhabited continents, which are frontrunners in climate action both in their regions and globally. We applied the framework in order to evaluate the level of mitigation and adaptation integration in cities’ CCAPs and further explored the different types of mitigation—adaptation interrelationships that have been considered. A scoring system was also devised in order to allow comparing and ranking of the different CCAPs for their level of integration of adaptation and mitigation. The paper draws good practices to support cities in developing climate change action plans in an integrated way.

Semiempirical and process‐based global sea level projections

Abstract: We review the two main approaches to estimating sea level rise over the coming century: physically plausible models of reduced complexity that exploit statistical relationships between sea level and climate forcing, and more complex physics-based models of the separate elements of the sea level budget. Previously, estimates of future sea level rise from semiempirical models were considerably larger than those from process-based models. However, we show that the most recent estimates of sea level rise by 2100 using both methods have converged, but largely through increased contributions and uncertainties in process-based model estimates of ice sheets mass loss. Hence, we focus in this paper on ice sheet flow as this has the largest potential to contribute to sea level rise. Progress has been made in ice dynamics, ice stream flow, grounding line migration, and integration of ice sheet models with high-resolution climate models. Calving physics remains an important and difficult modeling issue. Mountain glaciers, numbering hundreds of thousands, must be modeled by extensive statistical extrapolation from a much smaller calibration data set. Rugged topography creates problems in process-based mass balance simulations forced by regional climate models with resolutions 10–100 times larger than the glaciers. Semiempirical models balance increasing numbers of parameters with the choice of noise model for the observations to avoid overfitting the highly autocorrelated sea level data. All models face difficulty in separating out non-climate-driven sea level rise (e.g., groundwater extraction) and long-term disequilibria in the present-day cryosphere-sea level system.

Is adventure tourism a coherent concept? A review of research approaches on adventure tourism

Abstract: The boundaries between adventurous activities and tourism are blurring as evidenced in the diffuse usage of concepts, such as, wilderness, safari, nature guiding, adventurous and adventure with regard to tourism This blurring is also reflected in research associated with adventure tourism In our paper, we ask, how is adventure tourism defined and categorized in tourism and associated literature? Our study involved a literature review, including development of a systematic methodology for creating a comprehensive list of articles The first amount of references that resulted from the literature review totalled 2119 This number highlights that adventure tourism has been widely studied However, those studies have been dispersed among different disciplines and journals Based on our literature review, we argue that the term ‘adventure tourism’ as used in tourism research is more like a category than an analytical concept Hence, we conclude that a reconceptualization of adventure tourism is required