Browsing by Author "Bharucha, Zareen P."
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Item Open Access Ethno-environmental knowledge as a tool to combat indoor air pollution in low income countries: a case study from rural communities in Pakistan(2014-07-30) Nasir, Zaheer A.; Colbeck, Ian; Bharucha, Zareen P.; Cintra Campos, Luiza; Ali, ZulfiqarIt has recently been estimated that 4 million deaths each year are associated with air pollution originating from household solid fuel use. Interventions to reduce biomass fuel-related emissions can yield a diverse stream of benefits including improved public health, socio-economic development, reduced land degradation and climate change mitigation. This study investigates the use of indigenous knowledge to inform interventions to combat indoor air pollution at a rural site in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The results indicate that the majority of people using biomass fuel had knowledge of its ill health effects. A range of methods were utilised to reduce indoor smoke including cooking in open spaces, use of chimneys, better ventilation and use of dry fuel. Education and housing type showed a statistically significant relationship with awareness of methods to reduce indoor exposure to biomass smoke. These findings lend support to the notion that communities have indigenous knowledge and their own methods to reduce exposure to indoor smoke from biomass fuels; this knowledge can be used as tool to design and implement sustainable intervention strategies to reduce the risk of exposure to indoor air pollution. It is recommended that a community based intervention focusing on locally manufactured improved stoves and better designed cooking spaces would be a suitable intervention in this region.Item Open Access Knowledge priorities on climate change and water in the Upper Indus Basin: a horizon scanning exercise to identify the top 100 research questions in social and natural sciences(Wiley: American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2022-03-24) Orr, Andrew; Ahmad, Bashir; Alam, Undala; Appadurai, Arivudai Nambi; Bharucha, Zareen P.; Biemans, Hester; Bolch, Tobias; Chaulagain, Narayan P.; Dhaubanjar, Sanita; Dimri, A. P.; Dixon, Harry; Fowler, Hayley J.; Gioli, Giovanna; Halvorson, Sarah J.; Hussain, Abid; Jeelani, Ghulam; Kamal, Simi; Khalid, Imran S.; Liu, Shiyin; Lutz, Arthur; Mehra, Meeta K.; Miles, Evan; Momblanch, Andrea; et al.River systems originating from the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) are dominated by runoff from snow and glacier melt and summer monsoonal rainfall. These water resources are highly stressed as huge populations of people living in this region depend on them, including for agriculture, domestic use, and energy production. Projections suggest that the UIB region will be affected by considerable (yet poorly quantified) changes to the seasonality and composition of runoff in the future, which are likely to have considerable impacts on these supplies. Given how directly and indirectly communities and ecosystems are dependent on these resources and the growing pressure on them due to ever-increasing demands, the impacts of climate change pose considerable adaptation challenges. The strong linkages between hydroclimate, cryosphere, water resources, and human activities within the UIB suggest that a multi- and inter-disciplinary research approach integrating the social and natural/environmental sciences is critical for successful adaptation to ongoing and future hydrological and climate change. Here we use a horizon scanning technique to identify the Top 100 questions related to the most pressing knowledge gaps and research priorities in social and natural sciences on climate change and water in the UIB. These questions are on the margins of current thinking and investigation and are clustered into 14 themes, covering three overarching topics of “governance, policy, and sustainable solutions”, “socioeconomic processes and livelihoods”, and “integrated Earth System processes”. Raising awareness of these cutting-edge knowledge gaps and opportunities will hopefully encourage researchers, funding bodies, practitioners, and policy makers to address them.