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The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a diversification by grape varieties may help wine producers reduce uncertainty in quantity and quality variations due to increasingly erratic climate conditions.

This study hand-collects granular quantity and quality data from wine harvest reports for vintages 2003 to 2017 for the Valais region in Switzerland. The data allows us to obtain detailed data on harvested kilograms/liters and Oechsle/Brix degrees. It is then merged with precise meteorological data over the same sample period. The authors use this data set to capture weather conditions and their impact on harvested quantities and quality. Finally, they build portfolios including different grape varieties to evaluate whether this reduces variations in quality and quantity over vintages.

The findings highlight that the weather varies relatively strongly over the sample period and that climate hazards such as hail, frost or ensuing vine diseases effectively occur. These strongly impact the harvested quantities but less the quality of the wine. The authors further show that planting different grape varieties allows for a significant reduction in the variation of harvested quantities over time and thus acts as a good solution against climate risk.

The effect of climate change on viticulture is becoming increasingly important and felt and bears real economic and social consequences. This study transposes portfolio diversification which is central to reducing risk in the finance industry, into the wine industry and shows that the same principle holds. The authors thus propose a novel idea on how to mitigate climate risk.

Fresh out of the two-century-old British legacy, Bangladesh, formerly known as East Pakistan from 1947 to 1971, was searching for a post-colonial architectural style. Colonial architecture in the region in general often imposed imported European elements, ignoring the preceding legacies of the Sultanate and the Mughals. The critical challenge was to find a balance between the prevailing high modernism in architecture and the local vernacular and climatic forces. The Pakistani government invited international architects to fill the gap left by a non-existent local architectural industry. Unfortunately, their work has rarely been properly analyzed. With selected case studies, this paper analyzes their work in an attempt to explore their contribution to creating a national architectural identity.

This study uses a case study approach with selected architectural projects from the period. It uses research tools such as systematic analysis of drawings, volumes and photographs and archival research.

The international architects took inspiration from the strong vernacular and climatic forces of the region. The resultant expressions of the two-decade-long search in their combined body of work are some of the finest examples of vernacular and climate-responsive architecture in the region. They transcended the regular international style and became context-specific and unique. The quest for East Pakistan's post-colonial architectural identity was partially met by the newly found identity through vernacular and climate-responsive adaptation in architecture.

This study explores how a unified vernacular and climate-responsive adaptations potentially shaped the post-colonial architectural identity of the region. No prior study exists on this issue for the time period.

Project complexity (PC) governs project success, but the project management literature primarily focuses on performance measures and rarely examines the complexity factors, especially for megaprojects. This paper aims to determine the most significant complexity factors for the railway megaprojects in India.

A mixed approach using the Delphi and best–worst method (BWM) helped to identify, validate and determine the most critical factors that require intervention to diminish variance from project performance.

The BWM resulted in stakeholder management, followed by organizational and technological complexity as significant complexity factors, and the varied interests of the stakeholder as the most important among the 40 subfactors.

The finding indicates the necessity for strategic, tactical and operational-level interventions to effectively manage the complexity affecting project efficiency because of the varied stakeholders. This paper will guide the project and general managers to prioritize their resources to handle complexity for effective project performance measured in terms of time, cost and quality and help them make strategic decisions. The research findings of this study are expected to help researchers and practitioners in better planning and smoother execution of projects. In addition, this study would help the researchers formulate policies and strategies for better handling of the projects.

This study adds significant value to the body of knowledge related to PC in megaprojects in developing countries. The result of the investigation underlined that nine complexity factors and seven unique subfactors, namely, the sustainable environment, timely availability of information, communication in both directions, interdepartmental dependency and coordination, design, statutory norms, site challenges, socioeconomic conditions, the tendency of staff to accept new technology and the frequent changes in the requirements of stakeholders are significant in railway megaprojects. The BWM is applied to rank the complexity factors and subfactors in the case area.

Using Nigeria, as a point of reference, this study aims to explore the applicability of climatic variables as analytically valid factors for conceptual cost estimation. This is in view of the vastness and topographical alignment of Nigeria's landmass, which makes it a country of extreme climatic variability from north to south. As construction costs in Nigeria, similarly, tend to show a north-south alignment, the study's objective is to establish cost-estimating relationships (CERs) between the variability of climatic elements and the variance in construction cost, to arouse interest in the concept.

Deploying correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, significant associations/relationships between meteorological variables and building cost for selected locations, following a North-South transect of the major climatic zones, are sought, to explain climate-induced construction cost variance. Validation of the regression model was carried out using variance analysis and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error of a different dataset.

Climatic indices of atmospheric moisture exhibited strong direct and partial correlations with construction costs, while sunshine hours and temperature were inversely correlated. The study further establishes statistically significant CERs between climatic variables and building cost in Nigeria, which accounted for 47.9% of the variance in construction cost across the climatic zones.

The study outcome provides a statistically valid platform for the development of more elaborate analytical costing models, for prototype buildings to be cited in disparate climatic settings.

This study establishes the statistical validity of climatic variables in constituting CERs for predicting construction costs in disparate climatic settings.

This paper explores the indigenous climate knowledge (ICK) of the Gwadar fishing community in Pakistan. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the accuracy of ICK and how climatic change brings changes to it and the social lives of local fishers.

Qualitative research methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews and oral histories, were used to collect the data.

Finding from this long fieldwork shows that this fishing community has a harmonious relationship with nature and local ecology. Their knowledge of local ecology enables them to have equal access to natural resources, sustainable resource management, disaster risk reduction and strong social organization on the coast of Gwadar. Recently their deep relationship with local ecology and sociocultural organization has been disturbed due to huge climate changes caused by human manipulation of the environment. Their ability to foresee climatic events has been reduced. They are finding it impossible to estimate fish availability due to massive climate changes. Local communities are losing their traditional livelihoods and socioeconomic autonomy as a result of growing climate change. Climatic change adds to the existing poverty situation and increases political instability in the region.

The study suggests using the fishermen’s valuable indigenous knowledge of local ecology, climate and its ties to local traditions, culture and resource management for a scientific understanding of climate change and marine resource management in Gwadar, Pakistan.

This is an ethnographic study based on a long term field work. Fishing community is passing through catastrophic climatic changes in the region. This community has been ignored by both government and researchers to record their problems and bring them to academia and media. Therefore, this study will help them raise their voices.

Despite worldwide climate change and the problems caused by using fossil fuels, energy consumption in the world keeps rising every year. The areas with extremely cold or scorching climates are large, and significant amounts of energy are getting used in these areas for heating, cooling, and ventilation. The general purpose of this study is to investigate the possible relationship between the climatic characteristics of the Esfahak, a village located in the hot desert region of Iran, and the physical characteristics of its built environment.

The method of this research is qualitative and somewhat descriptive-analytical. In this regard, the architectural features of Esfahak village are compared with the principles mentioned in the Mahoney tables to determine the degree of compliance of the architecture of this village with the climatic condition.

The results show that design principles have been used in all indicators discussed in the Mahoney tables. By applying these principles, not only did the acute weather conditions not prevent the initial settlement in the village location, they have not caused inhabitants to leave the site over time as well.

The impacts of bioclimatic design strategies on thermal comfort in hot desert regions are seldom studied. This research provides evidence-based and informed design recommendations that can help building designers and city authorities integrate bioclimatic design strategies at the earliest conceptual design phases in hot desert climates.

Given the distinct and unique climates in these countries, research conducted in other parts of the world may not be directly applicable. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct research tailored to the specific climatic conditions of Australia and New Zealand to ensure accuracy and relevance.

Given population growth, urban expansions and predicted climate change, researchers should provide a deeper understanding of microclimatic conditions and outdoor thermal comfort in Australia and New Zealand. The study’s objectives can be classified into three categories: (1) to analyze previous research works on urban microclimate and outdoor thermal comfort in Australia and New Zealand; (2) to highlight the gaps in urban microclimate studies and (3) to provide a summary of recommendations for the neglected but critical aspects of urban microclimate.

The findings of this study indicate that, despite the various climate challenges in these countries, there has been limited investigation. According to the selected papers, Melbourne has the highest number of microclimatic studies among various cities. It is a significant area for past researchers to examine people’s thermal perceptions in residential areas during the summer through field measurements and surveys. An obvious gap in previous research is investigating the impacts of various urban contexts on microclimatic conditions through software simulations over the course of a year and considering the predicted future climate changes in these countries.

This paper aims to review existing studies in these countries, provide a foundation for future research, identify research gaps and highlight areas requiring further investigation.

Global climate change characterized by an increase in temperature has become the focus of attention all over the world. China is a sensitive and significant area of global climate change. This paper specifically aims to examine the association between agricultural productivity and the climate change by using China’s provincial agricultural input–output data from 2000 to 2019 and the climatic data of the ground meteorological stations.

The authors used the three-stage spatial Durbin model (SDM) model and entropy method for analysis of collected data; further, the authors also empirically tested the climate change marginal effect on agricultural productivity by using ordinary least square and SDM approaches.

The results revealed that climate change has a significant negative effect on agricultural productivity, which showed significance in robustness tests, including index replacement, quantile regression and tail reduction. The results of this study also indicated that by subdividing the climatic factors, annual precipitation had no significant impact on the growth of agricultural productivity; further, other climatic variables, including wind speed and temperature, had a substantial adverse effect on agricultural productivity. The heterogeneity test showed that climatic changes ominously hinder agricultural productivity growth only in the western region of China, and in the eastern and central regions, climate change had no effect.

The findings of this study highlight the importance of various social connections of farm households in designing policies to improve their responses to climate change and expand land productivity in different regions. The study also provides a hypothetical approach to prioritize developing regions that need proper attention to improve crop productivity.

The paper explores the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity by using the climatic data of China. Empirical evidence previously missing in the body of knowledge will support governments and researchers to establish a mechanism to improve climate change mitigation tools in China.

This research aims to investigate the influence of building design on the thermal comfort of occupants of naturally ventilated hospital (NVH) wards to identify the aspects with the most significant influence on the thermal comfort of hospital buildings during the hot-dry season in the hot-humid tropics of Southeast Nigeria.

Field measurements, physical observations and a questionnaire survey of 60 occupants of the wards of the Joint Presbyterian Hospital, Uburu in Ebonyi State, Nigeria were undertaken. The data were analysed using Humphreys' neutral temperature formula, descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis.

The results revealed that the neutral temperature for the wards ranges from 26.2 °C to 29.9 °C, the thermal condition in the wards was not comfortable because it failed to meet the ASHRAE Standard 55 as only 65% of the occupants said the thermal condition was acceptable. The number and sizes of windows, building orientation, the presence of high-level windows and higher headroom significantly influenced the occupants' thermal comfort vote.

This research is valuable in estimating comfort temperature and identifying aspects that require attention in enhancing the capacity of NVH wards to effectively meet the thermal comfort needs of occupants in the hot-humid tropics of Southeast Nigeria and other regions that share similar climatic conditions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of this nature that provides valuable feedback for building design professionals on the performance of existing hospital buildings in meeting users' thermal comfort needs in the hot-dry season of the hot-humid tropics in Southeast Nigeria.

This paper aims to explore the efficiency of natural ventilation in the bedrooms of typical two-storeyed row houses with newly reconfigured design that incorporate rooftop wind catchers and side windows to create cross ventilation.

A CFD program was used to assess average air velocity coefficient (Cv) in 32 airflow cases. Parameters include location of openings with respect to wind direction, inlet-to-outlet area ratio (IOR) and opening-to-floor area ratio (OFR).

The results reveal that indoor air velocities in the cases of air entering wind catchers are generally higher than those in the cases of air entering side windows while air velocities at the openings are the opposite. The IOR of 1:2 provides best results in terms of both velocities of the indoor air and velocities at the openings. Increasing the OFR from 20% to 50% generally improves indoor air velocities and airflow rates.

This study proved that the new solution of combining one-sided wind catchers and side windows can effectively solve the problem of ventilation uniquely existing in the conditions of typical row houses by catching prevailing wind from two opposite directions into multiple rooms. The results are given as non-dimensional air velocities, which can be interpreted with any climatic data, and therefore can be applied to row houses in any locations and climatic conditions. The findings can create a new and efficient design of row houses that benefits building industry.