Telegraph Best Books of 2021 'A wonderfully enthusiastic guide to how we can all learn how to understand the weather simply by looking and feeling, smelling and touching... scientifically rigorous and accessible' Observer 'Gooley marshals a riveting compendium of weather-reading skills . . . he has plenty of facts at his fingertips with which to excite' The Times The weather changes as we walk around a tree or turn down a street. There is a secret world of weather - one that we all live in, but very few see. Each day we pass dozens of small weather signs that reveal what the weather is doing all around us - and what is about to happen. The clues are easy to spot when you know how, but remain invisible to most people. In The Secret World of Weather you'll discover the simple rules that explain the weather signs. And you'll learn rare skills that enhance every minute you spend outdoors, whether you are in a town, on a beach or in a wilder spot. As the author of the international bestsellers The Walker's Guide and How to Read Water, Tristan Gooley knows how to de-code the phenomena and signs to look for. As he says, 'I want you to get to know these signs as I have, as characters. By studying their habits and behaviours, the signs come to life and the meaning reveals itself. From this flows an ability to read what is happening and what is about to happen.' This is the ultimate guide to exploring an undiscovered world, one that hides in front of our eyes. 'A sensitive study that combines theoretical physics with beautiful nature writing' Telegraph 'This breezy new book reveals how to read nature's very own weather forecast . . . full of fascinating trivia' Daily Mail

Water Policy Science and Politics: An Indian Perspective presents the importance of politics and science working together in policymaking in the water sector. Many countries around the developed and developing world, including India, are experiencing major water scarcity problems that will undoubtedly increase with the impacts of climate change. This book discusses specific topics in India's water, agriculture and energy sectors, focusing on scientific aspects, academic and political discourse, and policy issues. The author presents cases from the interrelated sectors of water resources, supplies, sanitation, and energy and climate, including controversial topics that illustrate how science and politics can work together.

First explored by naturalist William Bartram in the 1760s, the St. Johns River stretches 310 miles along Florida's east coast, making it the longest river in the state. The first "highway" through the once wild interior of Florida, the St. Johns may appear ordinary, but within its banks are some of the most fascinating natural phenomena and historic mysteries in the state. The river, no longer the commercial resource it once was, is now largely ignored by Florida's residents and visitors alike. In the first contemporary book about this American Heritage River, Bill Belleville describes his journey down the length of the St. Johns, kayaking, boating, hiking its riverbanks, diving its springs, and exploring its underwater caves. He rediscovers the natural Florida and establishes his connection with a place once loved for its untamed beauty. Belleville involves scientists, environmentalists, fishermen, cave divers, and folk historians in his journey, soliciting their companionship and their expertise. River of Lakes weaves together the biological, cultural, anthropological, archaeological, and ecological aspects of the St. Johns, capturing the essence of its remarkable history and intrinsic value as a natural wonder.

This book gathers high-quality research papers presented at the Seventh International Conference on Solid Waste Management, held at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad on December 15-17, 2017. The Conference, IconSWM 2017, is as an official side event of the high-level Intergovernmental Eighth Regional 3R Forum in Asia and the Pacific. As a pre-event, it also aims to generate scientific inputs to the policy consultations at the Eighth Regional 3R Forum co-organised by the UNCRD/UNDESA, MoEFCC India, MOUD India and MOEJ, Japan. At the IconSWM 2017, researchers from more than 30 countries presented their work on Solid Waste Management. Divided into three volumes, this book shares their papers, which address various issues related to innovation and implementation in sustainable waste management, segregation, collection and transportation of waste, treatment technologies, policies and strategies, energy recovery, life cycle analysis, climate change, and research and business opportunities.

Extensively revised, accessible, and up-to-date—the new edition of Tate’s classic soil microbiology text Now in its second edition, Soil Microbiology offers students a broad knowledge of the behavior and function of microbes in soil—all the essentials they will need in order to address the long-term stewardship of the earth’s soil resources. Designed for use as the core text for microbiology courses in the soil science curriculum, it explores the tremendous diversity of life found in soil ecosystems. With its amplified focus on the reclamation of contaminated and damaged soils, greenhouse gas production, and the sustainability of soil ecosystems, this book is an ideal resource for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as a useful reference for professionals in soil and environmental science. Soil Microbiology, Second Edition features:

• A focus on new advances as well as environmental science aspects of soil microbiology
• Completely new chapters on the biological diversity of soil ecosystems, soil remediation, and soil systems management
• A strong emphasis on research in real-world settings as well as theoretical concerns

This book presents a state-of-the-art analysis of energy efficiency as applied to mining processes. From ground fragmentation to mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, experts discuss the current state of knowledge and the nagging questions that call for further research. It offers an excellent resource for all mine managers and engineers who want to improve energy efficiency to boost both production efficiency and sustainability. It will also benefit graduate students and experienced researchers looking for a comprehensive review of the current state of knowledge concerning energy efficiency in the minerals industry.

The Indian Ocean Nodule Field: Geology and Resource Potential, Second Edition, provides a view of the most recent studies along with classical theories starting from the 1960s. New concepts, hypotheses and critical appreciation of the state-of-the-art knowledge on nodule formation and resource management are featured in this new edition. The economy of the Indian Ocean has vast potential and yet it is one of the least studied oceans. Garnering economic advantage out of mineral resources from deep oceans has been a long cherished dream for the mining community. The availability of 5-metal rich polymetallic (manganese) nodules in specific areas of the Indian Ocean has lured researchers to discover more about their processes of formation, growth, distribution and enrichment.

Soil erosion is a complex process that depends on soil properties, ground slope, vegetation, and rainfall amount and intensity. Erosion can be significantly reduced through sustainable agricultural practices and sustainable nutrient management techniques that allow farmers to maintain healthy, productive soil for crops without degrading the environment. There is an urgent need to plan and make necessary amendments to restore soil quality. Amelioration Technology for Soil Sustainability is an essential research publication that provides a current and practical exploration of hydrophobic soil amelioration to improve soil sustainability and crop yield within the field of agriculture. Highlighting topics such as ecological systems, impact analysis, and agriculture, this book is ideal for soil scientists, agriculturalists, farmers, environmentalists, managers, policymakers, professionals, researchers, and students.

At the heart of this book is the generalized theoretical approach that is applied to investigate the geoelectrical structure of the Earth's mantle. It also analyzes the results of regional and global induction sounding of the Earth's mantle and compares them with the results obtained by other geophysical methods. The generalized theoretical approach employs the Induction Law as a basis for identifying extended relations between magnetic field components, including their plane divergence, impedances and spatial derivatives. The estimations of impedance values and spatial derivatives are performed using the theory of stochastic processes. The book also considers the external sources of magnetic fields used for sounding the Earths mantle from the modern theory perspective, as well as the problem of coincidence of magneto-variation and magnetotelluric methods. Further, it discusses secular variations in the Earth's resistance caused by non-induction sources, factors that are correlated with the number of earthquakes in the region and shifted in time with global indexes. It is a valuable resource for scientists applying deep induction soundings or interested in the structures of and processes in the Earth's interior.

"This book presents the reader with a fresh and unconventional approach to teaching crystallographic symmetry. Whereas traditional crystallography textbooks make a heavy use of algebra and rapidly become very technical, this book adopts in the first few chapters a 'pictorial' approach based on the symmetry diagrams of the International Tables for Crystallography. Readers are led step-by-step through simple 'frieze' and 'wallpaper' patterns, with many examples from the visual arts. At the end of chapter 3 they should be able to identify and analyse all these simple symmetries and apply to them the nomenclature and symbols of the International Tables. Mathematical formalism is introduced later on in the book, and by that time the reader will have gained a solid intuitive grasp of the subject matter. This book will provide graduate students, advanced undergraduate students and practitioners in physics, chemistry, earth sciences and structural biology with a solid foundation to master the International Tables of Crystallography, and to understand the relevant literature"--

This multivolume handbook is the most comprehensive and updated reference of advanced geospatial techniques for water resource and watershed management. It addresses complex solutions that appear in individual articles but require an exhaustive search for assimilation. By assembling these tremendous advances in an expertly curated resource and making it available in depth to professionals and the water research community worldwide, this successful vehicle will help readers in elevating the quality and variety of water research and solutions. A broad range of authors, specialties, sources, institutions, countries, and continents showcase exemplary approaches and capabilities for the 21st century.

This book discusses how aquatic microbial communities develop interactive metabolic coordination both within and between species to optimize their energetics. It explains that microbial community structuration often includes functional stratification among a multitude of organisms that variously exist either suspended in the water, lodged in sediments, or bound to one another as biofilms on solid surfaces. The authors describe techniques that can be used for preparing and distributing microbiologically safe drinking water, which presents the challenge of successfully removing the pathogenic members of the aquatic microbial community and then safely delivering that water to consumers. Drinking water distribution systems have their own microbial ecology, which we must both understand and control in order to maintain the safety of the water supply. Since studying aquatic microorganisms often entails identifying them, the book also discusses techniques for successfully isolating and cultivating bacteria. As such, it appeals to microbiologists, microbial ecologists and water quality scientists.

This unique volume offers an up-to-date overview of all the main aspects of groundwater in the Nile Delta and its fringes, as well as latest research findings. The themes covered include: * Nile Delta aquifer formation and its characteristics * The use of the groundwater in the Nile Delta and its implications * Sedimentology and hydrogeophysical characteristics * Groundwater investigations and aquifer characterization using current direct resistivity and induced polarization * Groundwater contamination and degradation * Saltwater intrusion and its control * Delineation of groundwater flow and seawater intrusion using various techniques, including one-dimensional subsurface temperature profiles, geoelectrical resistivity, and integrated subsurface thermal regime and hydrogeochemical data * Modeling of groundwater and of saltwater intrusion in the Nile Delta aquifer * Excessive pumping and groundwater quality assessment for irrigation and drinking purposes * Groundwater management for sustainability in the Nile Delta. The volume appeals to postgraduate students, researchers, scientists, professionals, decision makers and planners.

Adapting to Climate Change in Europe: Exploring Sustainable Pathways - From Local Measures to Wider Policies is a scientific synthesis of a four-year project on adaptation activities in Europe. It combines scientific assessments with real-world case descriptions to present specific tools and methods. This book aims at ensuring sustainable solutions in adaptation to climate change. The challenge of adaptation is still at an early stage; this book fills relevant gaps in current knowledge on climate adaptation, providing a crucial set of tools to support effective decision-making. It acts as a guide to practitioners and decision-makers along different steps of on-going adaptation processes. Adapting to Climate Change in Europe contains methods and tools for improving stakeholder's participation and analyzing costs and benefits of different adaptation measures. It is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, and experts and policymakers working in climate change and adaptation.

The research and review papers presented in this volume provide an overview of the main issues, findings, and open questions in cutting-edge research on the fields of modeling, optimization and dynamics and their applications to biology, economics, energy, finance, industry, physics and psychology. Given the scientific relevance of the innovative applications and emerging issues they address, the contributions to this volume, written by some of the world's leading experts in mathematics, economics and other applied sciences, will be seminal to future research developments and will spark future works and collaborations. The majority of the papers presented in this volume were written by participants of the 4th International Conference on Dynamics, Games and Science: Decision Models in a Complex Economy (DGS IV), held at the National Distance Education University (UNED) in Madrid, Spain in June 2016 and of the 8th Berkeley Bioeconomy Conference: The Future of Biofuels, held at the UC Berkeley Alumni House in April 2015.

This book explores ancient efforts to explain the scientific, philosophical, and spiritual aspects of water. From the ancient point of view, we investigate many questions including: How does water help shape the world? What is the nature of the ocean? What causes watery weather, including superstorms and snow? How does water affect health, as a vector of disease or of healing? What is the nature of deep-sea-creatures (including sea monsters)? What spiritual forces can protect those who must travel on water? This first complete study of water in the ancient imagination makes a major contribution to classics, geography, hydrology and the history of science alike. Water is an essential resource that affects every aspect of human life, and its metamorphic properties gave license to the ancient imagination to perceive watery phenomena as the product of visible and invisible forces. As such, it was a source of great curiosity for the Greeks and Romans who sought to control the natural world by understanding it, and who, despite technological limitations, asked interesting questions about the origins and characteristics of water and its influences on land, weather, and living creatures, both real and imagined.

This book pioneers a novel approach to investigate the effects of pressure on fission tracks, a geological problem that has remained unsolved for 60 years. While conventional techniques to study fission tracks were limited in precision, this book overcomes such issues by using state-of-the-art synchrotron-based x-ray scattering; a technique initially developed for applications in material science and biomedical research. The book provides an overview of the theory and application of small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) on cylindrical ion tracks, including in-situ SAXS on ion tracks with simultaneous increases in temperature and pressure. As such it demonstrates a degree of characterisation normally not achievable with in-situ techniques. Further, it compares SAXS with small angle neutron scattering (SANS). This book has led to a range of publications and attracted the interest of the geological and material science communities. Daniel Schauries has been awarded several prizes for this research, including the Graduate Student Award of the Materials Research Society.

As part of its efforts to improve fertilizer use and efficiency in West Africa, and following the recent adoption of the West African fertilizer recommendation action plan (RAP) by ECOWAS, this volume focuses on IFDC's technical lead with key partner institutions and experts to build on previous and current fertilizer recommendations for various crops and countries in West Africa for wider uptake by public policy makers and fertilizer industry actors.

Milan and Lombardy have played an important role in the Italian country since the Roman period. This importance is reflected also by the diffusion of stone architecture: a persisting trait of Milan architecture was the use of different stones in the same building. Milan lies in the middle of the alluvial plain of the Po, far from the stone quarries; some waterways were dug out in order to supply the building stones from the surrounding territories. The study of stone as building material was significant at the end of 19th century, but then it was largely neglected by both architects and geologists. So it is significant to suggest a study about the stones employed to build in Milan (Part One) in relationship with a petrographic study about the features of the stones quarried in the whole Lombard territory (Part Two). Part One contains a record of Milanese edifices, edifices marking the different historical periods. Each edifice is described in a "card" containing: the building history, the architect, the kind of stone employed and subdivided according to the different parts of the building, the shape of stone elements. Part Two contains the description of the features of the stones reported in the first part. They are metamorphic and magmatic rocks of the Alpine area; sedimentary rocks and loose materials of the Prealpine area; sedimentary rocks of the Apennine area; loose sediments of the Padania plain. Some stones, coming from other northern Italian regions, and used in Lombard architecture, are also described. Each stone is described in a "card" containing: commercial and historical names, petrographic classification, macroscopic features, mineralogical composition, microscopic features, geological setting, quarry sites, transport to yards, morphology of dressed elements and surface handworking, use in architecture in the whole Lombard territory and abroad, decay morphologies. A particular investigation is addressed to the stones used during the 20th century, a great part of them was never used before in Milan and in Lombardy.