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Chapter
Four : Adaptations
To
address the impacts of climate changes on Taiwan, in addition
to related studies on greenhouse gases, adaptation strategies
are being considered to lessen the level of impacts from
climate change. Long-term strategies for adapting to climate
change (e.g., standards for flood prevention designs) should
be reviewed immediately. As for the short-term (e.g., management
and allocation), flexibility should be added with the changing
environment, giving gradual revisions. Considering the results
of related studies and policies, the relevant government
agencies have devised the following adaptation strategies:
4.1
Sea-level Rise
Like
other island countries, Taiwan will increasingly face serious
coastal erosion. The following adaptation strategies will
be taken:
1. Complete impact assessment of sea-level rise in the entire
Taiwan region: delimit potentially flooded areas, affected
population, and socioeconomic impacts, according to local
terrain, nearby industries, population and culture, for
strategy and prevention reference.
2. Coastal zone protection and establishing new tidal prevention
and drainage system: establish and draw up new design standards
for coastal embankment, tide and flood prevention, and drainage
systems, and draft new prevention methods and carry out
flood modeling analysis in order to respond to future conditions
to protect life and property in coastal regions.
3. Reducing impacts from sea-level rise: land-use restriction
in coastal areas, control of building in low-lying areas,
industry transformation assistance, wetland protection,
flood protection, and sand dune protection.
4. Preservation of coastal wetlands and ecosystems: using
transplantation, coffer dam or other artificial means to
protect rare coastal ecosystems.
5. Control of large-scale coastal developments: re-evaluate
plans for coastal industrial parks and integrate sea-level
rise as an element of environmental assessment of large
coastal projects.
6. Obtaining experiences from international cooperation:
actively participate in international cooperation projects.
7. Transitional assistance and planning for non-recoverable
industries: for flooded areas not able to be recovered by
preventive strategies, assist residents in relocation and
job change, in order to minimize socioeconomic impacts.
8. Defining flood plain areas and implementation of flood
insurance systems: establish different levels of flood areas,
prevent reckless development, and implement flood insurance
system.
9. Establishing monitoring systems: including sea-level
monitoring system, coast and coastal structure monitoring
system, expand subsidence monitoring system, and enhance
establishment of coastal database.
4.2
Water Resources
In
order to reduce the level of impacts of climate change on
water resources in Taiwan, suitable adaptation strategies
consist of three major areas: water resource conservation,
development, use and management; strengthening flood control
and rescue; and drought prevention and emergency response.
1. Water resource conservation, development, use and management
(1) Development of surface water as primary, given consideration
to the base flow of river ecology, and development of groundwater
as supplementary, with increased development of other water
resources.
(2) Actively developing and overall allocating water resources.
(3) Establishing management of water rights and collecting
water right tariffs, and developing the standard for water
measurement equipment in order to put into practice the
user-pay principle.
(4) Strengthening water utilization management, raising
water utilization efficiency, and overall allocation of
waster resource.
(5) Reinforcing the management and conservation of watersheds,
conservation of water sources, and maintaining natural ecological
function of water systems.
(6) Promoting modernization of hydrological monitoring,
developing groundwater observation network, and establishing
the principles for groundwater use and protection.
(7) Promoting research and development of water resource
technologies in order to meet the technological needs for
water supply, water conservation, diversion dam, flood control,
coastal protection, groundwater conservation, and subsidence
prevention.
2. Strengthening flood prevention and rescue
(1) Construction of flood prevention structures: conduct
river and sea embankment and regional drainage projects.
(2) Strengthening maintenance management: reinforce river
management plans, establish safety inspection system for
water structures, integrated protection plans for small
and medium dams.
(3) Establishment of disaster prevention and response mechanism.
(4) Research in disaster prevention technology: focussing
research on flood prevention and rescue database, typhoon
disaster potential analysis, and flood forecast network.
(5) Non-engineering flood control measures: strengthening
review of land-use planning for flood plains, promoting
flood insurance system, and establishing flood warning system.
(6) Integrated flood control measures for reservoirs: strengthening
water conservation, increasing surface permeation, decrease
flood peak flow, and considering ecological protection and
environmental landscape.
3. Drought prevention and emergency response
(1) Establishing drought prevention and response systems
(2) Promoting related work on prevention and response: enhance
reservoir protection and groundwater control and monitoring,
research water conservation technologies for industries,
develop alternative water resource technologies, develop
new water resources, protect water quality, regularly publish
water supply and demand conditions, and promote education
on water resource protection and conservation. Special emergency
response measures for droughts include: regularly publish
drought information, stop fallow irrigation, and make artificial
rain.
(3) Devising future development goals and response measures:
establish central to local drought prevention and relief
system, strengthen research on drought warning system, promote
education on water resource and watershed protection, and
review coordination problems among existing policies and
regulations.
4.3
Industries
The
most direct impacts of climate change on Taiwan's industries
include agriculture, fisheries, and others. The adaptation
strategies are described as follows.
1. Adaptation strategies for agriculture and livestock industries
include:
(1) Depiction of weather pattern as a result of climate
change; planning and protection of agricultural production
regions.
(2) Promoting rational fertilization methods and the use
of slow-rate fertilizer.
(3) Nurturing growth of species adaptive to new environments.
(4) Early prevention of possible new plant diseases and
weeds.
(5) Drafting response measures to agriculture and livestock
production affected by disastrous weather and new climate.
(6) Improving animal housing and feeding management, as
well as research on technology of processing animal excrements.
2.
Adaptation strategies for fisheries include:
(1) Collect and analyze the amount of emissions from fishing
boats, in order to promote emissions control and incentives
for fishing boats to install energy efficient motors in
compliance with environmental standards. At the same time,
buy back old fishing boats and implement boat reduction
strategy.
(2) Study the effects of climate change on the ecology of
migratory fish and establish database for international
use.
(3) Analyze the impacts of climate change on fisheries to
adopt measures to assist the industry.
(4) Provide assistance in the use of sea cages for cultivation
in order to reduce the area of inland fish ponds, reduce
reliance on water and land resources, and mitigate subsidence.
4.4
Public Health
Climate
change could increase the growth, distribution and density
of disease vectors. In order to prevent the interminable
aftermath, adaptation strategies to control diseases should
be drafted early. The strategies should include :
1. Comprehensive survey of all types of disease vectors
and monitoring their density and growth in all regions,
in order to understand the results of climate change and
the temporal and spatial distribution of disease vectors.
2. Strengthening quarantine, case reporting, and examination
of pathogens. Enhancing study on distribution of disease
vectors in order to provide measures for disease prevention
and control.
3. Timely publication of the monitoring results of disease
vector densities in order to provide warnings to public
health officials, physicians and the public, to eliminate
disease vectors early and prevent cross-border introduction
of pathogens.
4. Early detection of cross-border disease cases and infections
without symptoms, to block invasion of pathogens that could
lead to disease outbreaks.
5. Strengthening hygiene education and environmental hygiene
improvement in order to diminish propagation of disease
vectors.
6. Establishment of investigative teams at all levels of
government to conduct unscheduled inspections and publicize
the results in order to encourage the public to voluntarily
eliminate sources of disease vectors.
7. Promoting international exchange of information and control
technology of disease vectors.
4.5
Ecological Systems
Forest
is the largest ecosystem in Taiwan and has the greatest
impact on the overall ecosystem. Future adaptation strategies
for forest ecosystem include:
1. Administrative and managerial organizations of national
forests would establish teams to implement management plans
for forest ecosystems, with watershed or forest region as
management units, planning according to land capacity within
management area, and developing sustainable management systems
based on ecology.
2. Establish mixed forest to increase biological diversity
of species, accommodate species at the early stages of succession,
and maintain adequate amount of dead standing and fell tree
in the forests, increase biological diversity at the ecosystem
level, and maintain normal flux and elemental cycles of
ecosystems.
3. Establish permanent plots for forests island-wide and
long-term ecological monitoring stations in order to obtain
continuous data on landscape, forest distribution and growth.
4. Give adequate adjustment to the way forest areas are
divided, establish forest land classification system, area
management according to different management goals, and
ensure sustainable development of forest ecosystems.
5. Strengthen conservation of ecosystems along the banks
of streams, reservoirs and other water bodies in the forest
area and management aquatic ecosystems in order to ensure
biological diversity.
6. Preserve forest productivity functions by delimiting
at least 400,000 hectares for sustainable forestry management.
7. Establish channels for public participation in forest
management policy and solicit public opinions and approval
from various types of landowners in order to integrate societal
needs into national forest programs.
Furthermore, research would be conducted in fields related
to climate change, and regional climate monitoring, assessment
and modeling would be enhanced in coordination with relevant
researchers. Such can be advanced by adaptation strategies
to climate change, thus minimizing the level of impacts.
In the future, more emphasis should be placed on integrated
research, such as the impact of forest type change on flow
rate, impact of agricultural water use on water resource
allocation and adaptation measures. The research should
be advanced following the path of international research.
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