Torsten Welle

Naturwald Akadmie · Science and Research

O livro pretende contribuir com estratégias para aumentar a resiliência do setor Saúde e das comunidades em face das mudanças climáticas e seus impactos. A obra mostra que mudanças ambientais e climáticas interagem entre si, abordando como a complexa relação entre saúde e ambiente vem sendo cada vez mais discutida. Apesar de avanços na saúde e cons...

The knowledge of tree species distribution at a national scale provides benefits for forest management practices and decision making for site-adapted tree species selection. An accurate assignment of tree species in relation to their location allows conclusions about potential resilience or vulnerability to biotic and abiotic factors. Identifying a...

The reply by Bolte et al. (2020) that claims to evaluate objectively the debate between Schulze et al. (2020a) and Welle et al. (2020) goes astray. They conclude that we failed “in revealing both formal citation and methodological failures of Schulze et al. (2020a)“ and argue that “the low representativity of the Hainich National Park for set‐aside...

The urgent need for effective solutions to climate change accelerates and upscales the debate on the ongoing role of forest ecosystems and the impact of forest‐based bioenergy on carbon sequestration. Numerous studies have already questioned the mitigation effectiveness of this option (e.g., Hudiburg et al. 2011, Agostini et al. 2014, Leturcq 2014,...

Es ist ein Paradoxon unserer Zeit: Klimaschutz gefährdet Wälder. Dabei sind Waldökosysteme für das lokale, regionale und globale Klima von größter Bedeutung. Doch in den letzten Jahrhunderten hat die Menschheit die Wälder rücksichtslos dezimiert, zerschnitten, umgestaltet und ausgebeutet. Nunmehr hat der menschengemachte Klimawandel begonnen, Wälde...

Der Wissenschaftliche Beirat für Waldpolitik des Bundeslandwirtschaftsministeriums (WBW) hat eine Stellungnahme zum Eckpunkte-Papier „Waldstrategie 2050“ der Bundesregierung vorgelegt, welche die Diagnostik und v.a. die vorgeschlagenen Strategien zum Umgang mit der Waldkrise in Deutschland konkretisiert. In dem vorliegenden Dokument erfolgt eine kr...

(In German) Die Annahme, dass die Nutzung des Waldes und der Holzverbrauch einen Beitrag zum Klimaschutz darstellen, ist weit verbreitet und auch in der aktuellen Diskussion zur Waldkrise in aller Munde. Inzwischen wird sogar im Namen des Klimaschutzes offensiv gegen Wald-Schutzgebiete argumentiert. Natürliche Wälder und Naturschützer werden regelr...

Überblick über den zustand der Naturnähe der in Deutschland vorkommenden Waldökosysteme

The three-dimensional (3D) morphology of individual trees is critical for light interception, growth, stability and interactions with the local environment. Forest management intensity is a key driver of tree morphology, but how the long-term abandonment of silvicultural measures impacts trunk and crown morphological traits is not fully understood....

Vulnerability defined as the predisposition to be negatively affected, often decide whether hazards and extreme natural events can lead to disasters or severe suffering or not. The WorldRiskIndex (WRI) is an approach to assess exposure, vulnerability and risk patterns at the global scale and it is based on national scale resolution data. The new re...

The concept of vulnerability is essential when aiming to understand the societal construction of disasters. However, definitions and concepts vary between different research fields and disciplines. The concept of vulnerability can explain why similar hazards and extreme events, such as severe earthquakes, storms or floods, can have quite different...

Coastal urban regions in low-lying areas in developing countries are often hotspots of climate change related risks and therefore the analysis of different characteristics of vulnerability, resilience and transformation is an important prerequisite for planning and decision making. Even though the concepts of resilience and transformation have been...

The importance of critical infrastructures and strategic planning in the context of extreme events, climate change and urbanization has been underscored recently in international policy frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (UNISDR (United Nations/International Strat...

The following paper presents an approach to measure the vulnerability of urban megacities with a comparative approach across cities in the Global North and South. The assessment of city vulnerability is key in order to inform risk management and adaptation strategies that are needed to build resilience against extreme events, natural hazards or con...

Extreme events do not necessarily trigger extreme impacts. Exposure and vulnerability levels often decide whether hazards and extreme events lead to disasters or severe suffering or not. Measuring and assessing different levels of exposure, vulnerability and risk is therefore crucial in order to inform decision making and to provide guidance for de...

Smaller settlements are growing faster than megacities — and they need more protection from extreme events, write Joern Birkmann and colleagues.

The DRIB Index- Disaster Risk Indicators in Brazil - provides a tool to help assess, visualise and communicate different levels of exposure, vulnerability and risk in Brazil. The index may sensitise public and political decision-makers towards the important topic of disaster risk and climate change adaptation. This article aims to explore the feasi...

[Book Abstract] Cities on a Finite Planet: Transformative responses to climate change shows how cities can combine high quality living conditions, resilience to climate change, disaster risk reduction and contributions to mitigation/low carbon development. It also covers the current and potential contribution of cities to avoiding dangerous climate...

Study presented to the German Federal Ministry of Science and Education

The demand for information and understanding on natural hazard related risk on a global scale has grown in recent years. Such information is crucial for stakeholders who are working in the field of disaster risk reduction, spatial planning and (re-)insurance. This article provides a new approach to assess risk and vulnerability towards natural haza...

Preventing and reducing loss and damage due to extreme events is an important topic for the international community, especially in the context of climate change negotiations and disaster risk reduction. The paper outlines the latest state-of-the-art approaches to assess loss and damage and the risk of loss and damage. Against this background, a mor...

The MOVE framework was used in order to assess vulnerability toward heat waves, floods, and earthquakes in an urban area. It focused mainly on the social dimension of vulnerability for the smallest administrative unit within the City of Cologne (city quarters) with respect to heat waves and floods using specifically designed indicators. Reference i...

This chapter is based on a paper published in Natural Hazards dealing with the MOVE framework; see in detail Birkmann et al., 2013.

More than three-quarters of the European population live in urban areas and this proportion is increasing, leading, in some cases, to increased vulnerability of cities to environmental hazards. The health impacts of heat waves are aggravated in cities due to the high density of buildings, the fragmentation of green areas and the higher concentratio...

Most scientific assessments for climate change adaptation and risk reduction are based on scenarios for climatic change. Scenarios for socio-economic development, particularly in terms of vulnerability and adaptive capacity, are largely lacking. This paper focuses on the utility of socio-economic scenarios for vulnerability, risk and adaptation res...

The paper deals with the development of a general as well as integrative and holistic framework to systematize and assess vulnerability, risk and adaptation. The framework is a thinking tool meant as a heuristic that outlines key factors and different dimensions that need to be addressed when assessing vulnerability in the context of natural hazard...

Most scientific assessments for climate change adaptation and risk reduction are based on scenarios for climatic change. Scenarios for socio-economic development, particularly in terms of vulnerability and adaptive capacity, are largely lacking. This paper focuses on the utility of socio-economic scenarios for vulnerability, risk and adaptation res...

The development of appropriate risk and vulnerability reduction strategies to cope with tsunami risks is a major challenge for countries, regions, and cities exposed to potential tsunamis. European coastal cities such as Cadiz are exposed to tsunami risks. However, most official risk reduction strategies as well as the local population are not awar...

Tsunamis can represent a significant risk to the population and cause huge economic damage in many costal regions. In order to be able to identify risk hot spots and implement targeted risk reduction measures, decision makers need to have a clear picture of the risk situation in their countries or regions. This work reviews existing approaches for...

Author(s) Charlotte Vinchon (BRGM), Martha-Liliana Carreño (CIMNE), Diana Maria Contreras-Mojica (Z-GIS), Stefan Kienberger (Z_GIS), Stefan Schneiderbauer (EURAC), David Alexander (GRF), Alex H. Barbat (CIMNE), Omar D. Cardona (CIMNE), Bernd Decker (RC), Unni Eidsvig (NGI), Maria Papathoma-Köhle (UNIVIE), Roberto Miniati (UNIFI), Sylvia Pratzler-Wa...

The development of appropriate risk and vulnerability reduction strategies to cope with tsunami risks is a major challenge for countries, regions, and cities exposed to potential tsunamis. European coastal cities such as Cadiz are exposed to tsunami risks. However, most official risk reduction strategies as well as the local population are not awar...

The climate change and natural hazard communities have developed the notion of vulnerability and associated methods for its assessment in parallel, with only limited interaction. What are the underlying reasons for this diversity; is there advantage in greater synergy? If yes, what are the pathways through which greater integration could be fostere...