Drought communications constitute an important source of learning about climate risks and responses that can assist adaptation decision-making amongst those whose livelihoods are threatened by drought. This paper applies Protection Motivation Theory to explore associations between drought communications and attitudes towards drought risk and adaptation amongst farmers in Northern Thailand. The analysis reveals links between drought communications, farmers’ adaptation appraisal, and their adaptation decisions, whilst links with risk appraisal are minimal. The results highlight positive feedbacks between adaptation experience and appraisal and reveal a weak negative relationship between risk appraisal and adaptation appraisal. The findings imply benefits to framing drought communications in terms of the efficacy and attainability of suitable adaptations, rather than simply highlighting drought risks or providing drought warnings, to best enable farmers to build drought resilience.

This study conducted field measurements to explore the effects of street spatial structure on micrometeorological condition and air quality on both hot and cool days in Taipei City. Six street canyons with an aspect ratio of one, but varied in street orientation, street width, sky view factor, and number of planting strips, were selected for observations. In this case study, it was observed that, as well as the meso-scale phenomena, the local and micro-scale (street canyon structure) had influences on street air temperature, mean radiant temperature, and wind velocity. However, the local and micro-scales only had minor effects on relative humidity for both hot and cool days. Shade effect on temperature by street trees was observed; this effect could cause 2 degrees drop on mean radiant temperature and about 0.5 degree drop on air temperature. Our analyses and field measurements also revealed that, in some cases, concentrations of PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ were found to be correlated with local street canopy structure; however, in some cases, the meso-scale process was found to be the dominant factor. We also found that concentrations of CO and O₃ were inversely correlated in the street canyon. The findings of this study provide introductory scientific data and guidelines for urban street designers to improve thermal comfort and air quality.

Internally displaced people (IDPs) who fled conflict zones in Donetsk and Luhansk beginning in 2013 relocated to other cities in Ukraine. Their Russian-language preference can be quantitatively and qualitatively observed and measured in the urban textual environment, or linguistic landscape (LL) of Kyiv, the bilingual Ukrainian capital. This study examines the LL at a city-wide scale, leveraging Google Street View imagery with deep learning text detection, recognition, and script identification, alongside geospatial tools for large-scale analysis. The approach enables systematic, reproducible mapping of machine-detectable public-facing signage along road networks, supporting analysis of spatial and temporal associations between population relocation and LL change. Analyses at the administrative and road network levels reveal differing language preferences between primary and residential roads. Results indicate clustering of the Russian keyword ‘аренда’ (rent) near IDP relocation sites during the relocation period and an observable increase in Ukrainian-language preference after the implementation of the 2019 language policy.