Landscape Evolution: Landforms, Ecosystems and Soils asks us to think holistically, to look for the interactions between the Earth's component surface systems, to consider how universal laws and historical and geographical contingency work together, and to ponder the implications of nonlinear dynamics in landscapes, ecosystems, and soils. Development, evolution, landforms, topography, soils, ecosystems, and hydrological systems are inextricably intertwined. While empirical studies increasingly incorporate these interactions, theories and conceptual frameworks addressing landforms, soils, and ecosystems are pursued largely independently. This is partly due to different academic disciplines, traditions, and lexicons involved, and partly due to the disparate time scales sometimes encountered. Landscape Evolution explicitly synthesizes and integrates these theories and threads of inquiry, arguing that all are guided by a general principle of efficiency selection. A key theme is that evolutionary trends are probabilistic, emergent outcomes of efficiency selection rather than purported goal functions. This interdisciplinary reference will be useful for academic and research scientists across the Earth sciences.

Threats to the Arctic discusses all the current threats to this fragile region, emphasizing the interconnections between many environmental impacts, as well as the teleconnections between events already emerging in the Arctic (ocean circulation changes, melting of sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets) and other parts of the world. The book's aim is to inform readers about the impending, sometimes irreversible changes coming to the Arctic. University students, environmental engineers, policymakers and sociologists with an interest in the role of the Arctic in global change will benefit from the book's unique perspective. As this remote, inhospitable part of the world that few people will ever visit provides amazing insights, we can no longer have an 'out of sight - out of mind' approach to the environmental upheavals taking place in the Arctic.

Fukushima Accident: 10 Years After evaluates the post-Fukushima accident situation with up-to-date information, emphasizing radionuclide impacts on the terrestrial and marine environments, and comparing them to the pre-Fukushima accident levels of radionuclides in the environment. This is based on scientific results, as well as knowledge gathered from literature to provide current information on the present status, summarize 10 years of data on the Fukushima accident, and describe the present situation in the local, regional, and global time and space scales. It provides data on radioactivity released into the atmosphere and the ocean, the distribution of radionuclides in the world atmosphere and oceans, and their impact on the total environment, including assessments of radiation doses in Japanese and world populations from consumption of terrestrial food and seafood. It goes on to describe future aspects of the radioactive contamination of these environments and the health implications. This book informs environmental scientists, academics, and researchers in environmental science and nuclear energy as well as postgraduate students in the field of environmental science, radioactivity, and nuclear energy, on the present situation of radioactive contamination of Japan and in the world.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) monitoring of the atmosphere is an interdisciplinary topic: a collaboration between geodetic and atmospheric communities. As such, this topic requires sufficient basic knowledge about both GNSS and the atmosphere. Global Navigation Satellite System Monitoring of the Atmosphere begins by introducing GNSS, its components, and signals. It then explains the basics of the atmosphere, starting from the ionosphere to the troposphere. The GNSS tropospheric monitoring is separated for application in numerical weather prediction and nowcasting. Further chapters focus on the application of GNSS for monitoring the climate as well as soil moisture. Finally, the book concludes by discussing GNSS processing along with introducing the latest developments and applications for using atmospheric data to provide precise real-time GNSS products.

Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges addresses the waste and by-product valorization of fruits and vegetables, beverages, nuts and seeds, dairy and seafood. The book focuses its coverage on bioactive recovery, health benefits, biofuel production and environment issues, as well as recent technological developments surrounding state of the art of food waste management and innovation. The book also presents tools for value chain analysis and explores future sustainability challenges. In addition, the book offers theoretical and experimental information used to investigate different aspects of the valorization of agri-food wastes and by-products. Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges will be a great resource for food researchers, including those working in food loss or waste, agricultural processing, and engineering, food scientists, technologists, agricultural engineers, and students and professionals working on sustainable food production and effective management of food loss, wastes and by-products.

Architecture is very multi-disciplinary, attracting many different professions. This is reflected in the contributions contained in this volume and that were originally presented at the 9th International Conference on Harmonisation between Architecture and Nature. The included works review the challenges and new opportunities of contemporary architecture as a result of advances in design and new building technologies, as well as the development of new materials. Many of the changes are motivated by a drive towards eco-architecture, trying to harmonise architectural products with nature. Another important issue is the adaptation of the architectural design to the natural environment, learning from nature and traditional construction techniques. Contemporary architecture is at the threshold of a new stage of evolution, deeply influenced by the advances in information and computer systems and the development of new materials and products, as well as construction processes that will drastically change the industry. Emphasis is placed on the minimum use of energy at each stage of the building process, the design by passive systems, life cycle assessment, resources optimisation and rehabilitation. Never before in history have architects and engineers had such a range of new processes and products open to them. In spite of that, the construction industry lags behind all others in taking advantage of a wide variety of new technologies. This is understandable, due to the inherent complexity and uniqueness of each architectural project. Advances in computer and information systems, including robotics, offers the possibility of developing new architectural forms, construction products and building technologies that are just now starting to emerge. Changes have also taken place in the way modern society works and lives, due to the impact of modern technologies. Patterns of work have been disrupted and changed, affecting transportation and the home environment. The demand is for a new type of habitat that can respond to the changes and the consequent requirements in terms of the urban environment. Such topics are dealt with as building technologies, design by passive systems, design with nature, cultural sensitivity, life cycle assessment, resources and rehabilitation and many others including case studies from many different places around the world.

Electrification: Accelerating the Energy Transition offers a widely applicable framework to delineate context-sensitive pathways by which this transition can be accelerated and lists the types of processes and structures that may hinder progress towards this goal. The framework draws insights from well-established literature, ranging from technological studies to socio-technical studies of energy transitions, on to strategic niche management approaches, (international) political economy approaches, and institutionalist literatures, while also adopting wider social theoretical ideas from structuration theory. Contributors discuss a multitude of case studies drawn from global examples of electrification projects. Brief case studies and text boxes help users further understand this domain and the technological, infrastructural and societal structures that may exercise significant powers.