Franziska Wolf

Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg + Universität Hamburg · Forschungs- und Transferzentrum FTZ-ALS + Institut für Geographie (UHH)

The entire cascade of scenario generation, global and regional climate modeling, as well as concrete measures towards climate adaptation are subject to uncertainties. An exact prediction of how the climate will change in the coming years, and how it will affect land use, is not possible. There is thus a perceived need to identify ways via which unc...

As transition areas between aquatic ecosystems and the adjacent terrestrial ones, riparian regions are highly exposed to coastal climate hazards. This article describes how climate change and extreme weather impact vulnerable riparian communities and settlements. The analysis is done by reviewing past research and empirical case studies from ripari...

Sustainability reports are regarded as important tools in offering information about the environmental, social, economic, and institutional performance of an institution, and in demonstrating a commitment to matters related to sustainable development. But even though sustainability reporting has been used by a variety of higher education institutio...

Riparian communities in developing countries such as Bangladesh, whose livelihoods depend especially on fisheries and other subsistence activities, are under considerable pressure due to climate change. Therefore, there is a need to better understand how the dynamics of riparian communities are influenced by climate change and how its impacts can b...

Motivation Communities across the global south use their rich indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) to predict weather events and climate hazards. ILK may assist efforts to address climate change challenges in Africa and make subsequent decisions regarding climate adaptation. Purpose The article documents evidence of the ILK's potential in reducing...

Tourism resembles an indispensable source for financing national development and securing local livelihoods in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with their sun-sea-sand tourism. Related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions counteract sectoral development as climate impacts have begun to severely reduce the attractiveness of destinations. This is vali...

Many climate change responses focus on form rather than substance. As a result, they invariably look at the consequences but ignore the drivers of climate change. Since past approaches towards climate change adaptation have had limited success, the most effective and sustainable way to minimize future climate change impacts on humanity is through t...

The development of electro-mobility is one of the centerpieces of European country attempts to reduce carbon emissions and increase the quality of life in cities. The goals of reducing emissions from the transport sector and phasing out fossil-fueled vehicles in (urban) transport by 2050 present unrivaled opportunities to foster electro-mobility. T...

Climate Resilient Trajectories are routes to development progress that take into account aspects of climate change adaptation and mitigation in a sustainability context, offering a way to explicitly consider impacts of development and climate change choices on different sectors, scales, and socio-economic effects. Due to their scope and relevance,...

Small Island States (SIDS) are among the nations most exposed to climate change (CC) and are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability. Their unique nature means there is a need for more studies focused on the limits to CC adaptation on such fragile nations, particularly regarding their problems and constraints. This paper addressed a perceiv...

Tourism-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a central driver of anthropogenic climate change. At the same time, climate change has both direct and indirect impacts on tourism, varying from damages of tourist assets due to extreme weather events, to losses of biodiversity. Small island developing states (SIDS) heavily depend on international...

The Urban Heat Islands (UHI) effect is a microclimatic phenomenon that especially affects urban areas. It is associated with significant temperature increases in the local microclimate, and may amplify heat waves. Due to their intensity, UHI causes not only thermal discomfort, but also reductions in the levels of life quality. This paper reviews th...

Small Island States (SIDS) are among the nations most exposed to climate change (CC) and are characterised by a high degree of vulnerability. Their special nature means there is a need for more studies focused on the limits to CC adaptation on such fragile nations, particularly in respect of their problems and constraints. This paper addressed a pe...

Zusammenfassung Der nachfolgende Beitrag beschreibt, wie Digitalisierung internationale Initiativen im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit unterstützen kann. Hierfür werden ausgewählte Ansätze erörtert, die an der Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg umgesetzt werden. Sie machen den Nutzen der Digitalisierung erlebbar und zeigen damit verbundene Cha...

Zugang zu interaktiven Weiterbildungsangeboten skaliert mit offenen digitalen Lernarrangements effektiv auch für große Lerngruppen in geographischer Entfernung. Die Entwicklung digitaler Lehrmittel (z.B. Video) erfordert jedoch lange vor Kursbeginn, wenn konkrete Teilnehmerdaten und Lernbedarfe noch ungewiss sind, umfangreiche Investitionen in Pers...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were conceived at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 (Rio + 20), and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. They are part of a larger framework, namely the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since then, many countries r...

Pastoralist communities all over Africa have been facing a variety of social and economic problems, as well as climate risks and hazards for many years. They have also been suffering from climate change and extremes events, along with a variety of weather and climate threats, which pose many challenges to herders. On the one hand, pastoralist commu...

Climate policies are essential to mitigate climate change and to develop successful adaptation processes. However, there is a paucity of international studies that analyse the status of climate change policies. This paper reports on research undertaken in a sample of 13 highly diverse countries, in regards to their geography, socioeconomic developm...

The lack of access to modern energy services, sometimes also referred to as energy poverty, is a significant global development challenge. This paper provides an analysis of energy access in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), sheds light on current challenges and provides insights on opportunities to improve access to modern energy services in...

Das L3EAP-Konsortium produzierte und führte im Jahr 2016 einen sechswöchigen offenen Online-Kurs zum Thema „Sustainable Energy for SIDS“ mit rund 1100 Teilnehmern gemeinsam mit der Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU, www.hoou.de) durch. Ziel war es, eine heterogene internationale Teilnehmergruppe mit theoretischen Konzepten, methodischen Ansätzen...

Human resources resemble a crucial bottleneck in certain parts of the world, as a lack of qualified human resources can hinder the introduction of renewable and energy efficient technologies, as well as the wider application of appropriate technology and, even more importantly, maintenance of those technologies. Concerning capacity building, for ex...

There is a paucity of studies on natural gas-based energy production in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) even though technological improvements today are likely to make the application of natural gas more and more feasible. The development of natural gas in some of the regions of the Pacific, Africa, Indian Ocean and Caribbean attracts nearby...

Energy-related training is crucial for SIDS, because energy access, security and efficiency are needed to achieve sustainable development goals and reduce energy poverty. Online learning enables innovative formats of practice-centered trainings which address local needs, and help overcome geographic constraints, by efficiently reaching learners on...

Energy-related training is much needed for SIDS to achieve sustainable development goals and reduce energy poverty. Online learning enables innovative formats of practice-centered trainings that address local needs and help overcome geographic constraints by efficiently reaching learners on remote islands. To justify high course production costs, c...

Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) are isolated and surrounded by ocean. The generation and use of energy resources are two very important aspects for the development of SIDS. Unfortunately, most of SIDS do not use their potential in respect of energy resources, and they as a result have to depend on the import of fossil fuels in order to meet...

Small Islands Developing States (SIDS), but also other developing countries especially in the Global South, still face distinctive challenges to ensure sustainable livelihoods for their current population as well as future generations. These include the access to and the production as well as provision affordable of energy. Despite a large potentia...

This paper addresses the opportunities for integrating the topics of energy access, energy security and energy efficiency into higher education in the context of Small Island Developing States. In particular, it highlights the need for appropriate lifelong learning schemes that involves capacity-building for higher education institutions (HEI) to b...

Efforts towards the promotion of sustainable mobility across Europe need to be supported by technological, political and strategic decisions. In the field of technology, the quest for sustainable mobility can be greatly be supported by the use of electric vehicles. Apart from the well-known benefits related to the reduction of CO2 emissions, electr...

From 2011 to 2014, the CALESA project was a research-for-development project which coupled integrated climate risk analyses, crop growth simulation modelling and field-based research both on-station and on-the-ground with participatory research with farmers. It comprised research-oriented activities for knowledge and technology creation, and develo...

Despite the importance of and the need for using internet-based approaches to promote information and raise awareness on climate change, there is a paucity of initiatives which may foster this cause on a long-term basis. This article presents the concept, approaches, methods, experiences and results from an online climate change conference series l...

Despite the importance of and the need for using internet-based approaches to promote information and raise awareness on climate change, there is a paucity of initiatives which may foster this cause on a long-term basis. This article presents the concept, approaches, methods, experiences and results from an online climate change conference series l...

Due to its geo-political characteristics and social and economic features, the Latin American region is considered as being among the most vulnerable ones, as far as climate change is concerned. The combination of two further important elements, namely limited access to technologies and restricted adaptation capacity, may help to explain why the re...

The book addresses the perceived need for a publication with looks at both, climate smart technologies and the integration of renewable energy and energy efficiency in mitigation and adaptation responses. Based on a set of papers submitted as part of the fifth on-line climate conference (CLIMATE 2012) and a major conference on renewable energy on i...

Based on experiences gained in the frame of a networking scheme that involves universities from Latin America and Europe, this article addresses international technology transfer (ITT) of climate technology through networks bridging current knowledge and technology gaps between academia, businesses, authorities, and civil society. It is argued that...

As many crops are sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation, agriculture is especially vulnerable to climate events. This may prove critical in tropical regions where most agriculture is in rain-fed systems and climate change may have a potentially large influence on productivity. By adversely affecting food and water resources, climate...

The impacts of climate change on agriculture in Africa are significant and call for concrete measures that allow a better understanding of these problems, as well as the identification of the means to address them. One of the means to tackle them is by using analogue locations, i.e. locations that have the climatic characteristics today that are ex...

In Africa as well as in other developing countries, small communities are often the most severely impacted, yet often the least equipped to cope with the effects of climate variability and climate change. Even though the question of what exactly constitutes a successful adaptation to climate change is still unanswered and calls for further research...

As presented at the 5th BALTEX Conference in 2007, this paper introduces the main outcomes of the project "Developing Policies & Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region" (ASTRA) and discusses the results obtained from the project especially in respect of the role of policies in fostering mitigation and adaptation strategies...

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

The use of non-traditional methods of environmental education can greatly support attempts to foster awareness on environmental issues on the one hand and catalyze personal action towards sustainable development on the other. Yet, there are some issues that need to be considered in order to allow non-traditional methods to be implemented. This pape...

Climate change ignores national borders. Neighboring countries experience similar challenges, for example in the area of coastal protection, or when coping with extreme weather events. To shoulder the complex task of adapting to climate change, joint societal efforts are needed. Public bodies as well as private actors - from European to local level...