Hydrology is a key influence on water security, environmental sustainability, agricultural production, energy, and transport, especially in unique environments such as arid regions and the tropics, where degradation issues on water and land can threaten the livelihoods of poor communities. With implications in urbanization, landscape architecture, and sanitation, enhancing the practice of water use, management, and planning is imperative for the sustainable development of these regions. Hydrology and Water Resources Management in Arid, Semi-Arid, and Tropical Region is an essential research publication that seeks to improve scientific understanding and sharing of data in hydrology and integrated water resources management of arid, semi-arid, and tropical regions in order to enhance water governance and alleviate reduction in the vulnerability of water resources systems to global changes. Featuring a wide range of topics such as hydrometeorology, sustainable development, and climate change, this book is ideal for researchers, technology developers, academicians, policymakers, government officials, and students.

Kenya is a thriving country in East Africa: its economy is largely based on the natural environment that frames the tourism sector, mainly through safaris and holidays on the coast. The natural environment also underpins the second largest industry: agriculture. Kenya s social, technological, and industrial developments are a reference for many neighboring countries. Kenya plays a leading role in Africa and attracts huge amounts of investments. Furthermore, the humanitarian community has made Nairobi its base for international headquarters and regional offices. This makes Kenya a possible model for development and investment in its widest sense.

This book aims at updating the holistic view on Kenya s natural environment and resources. It provides a sound scientific introduction to this country s physical and socioeconomic setting and its evolution through time and will appeal to a broad audience of students in Kenya and abroad as well as those working in the development and humanitarian sectors and to international donors looking for a scientific compendium on Kenya s environment. Its structure and references allow the reader to deepen his or her knowledge of every theme touched on in the book.
Combines different aspects of physical geography, water and soil resources and their management strategiesWritten by a blend of international and national experts Includes specific case studies"

"The Earth s Electric Field" provides you with an integrated and comprehensive picture of the generation of the terrestrial electric fields, their dynamics and how they couple/propagate through the medium. "The Earth s Electric Field" provides basic principles of terrestrial electric field related topics, but also a critical summary of electric field related observations and their significance to the various related phenomena in the atmosphere. For the first time, Kelley brings together information on this topic in a coherent way, making it easy to gain a broad overview of the critical processes in an efficient way. If you conduct research in atmospheric science, physics, atmospheric chemistry, space plasma physics, and solar terrestrial physics, you will find this book to be essential reading.
The only book on the physics of terrestrial electric fields and their generation mechanisms, propagation and dynamics-making it essential reading for scientists conducting research in upper atmospheric, ionospheric, magnetospheric and space weatherCovers the processes related to electric field generation and electric field coupling in the upper atmosphere along with providing new insights about electric fields generated by sources from sun to mudFocuses on real-world implications-covering topics such as space weather, earthquakes, the effect on power grids, and the effect on GPS and communication devices"

This book explores the current policy measures adopted by the EU in order to realize its Kyoto Protocol commitment and to prepare for further emission reductions after 2012. EU Climate Change Policy focuses on legal instruments, with emissions trading at the forefront of the policy package, accompanied by directives on energy taxation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Distinguished authors provide a commentary on each aspect of the policy measures, discussing both theoretical and practical aspects. Overall, it is concluded that whilst EU policy is very 'green', it needs to be developed further in a comprehensive and meaningful way. With discussions on the current state of affairs of EU climate change policy, and on the issues that may shape its future agenda, this book will be of great interest to academics, civil servants, students and stakeholders.

This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on soil health indicators. The first chapter describes indicators and frameworks for soil health currently in use. It evaluates the principles underpinning current approaches to monitoring soil quality/health and shows these principles have been applied in the development of a practical soil health toolkit for use by UK farmers. The second chapter reviews the range of physical, chemical and biological indicators of soil health and how they can be used in practice. It focusses on measuring soil health in organic vegetable cultivation and, in particular, ways of measuring the effects of adding organic amendments to improve soil health. The third chapter discusses key issues in soil organic carbon (SOM) modelling and the development of increasingly sophisticated, dynamic SOM models. It looks at the role of SOM models in improving soil health monitoring and developing decision support tools for farmers The final chapter reviews current challenges in collecting more systematic and reliable data on earthworm communities, including issues in identifying different earthworm groups. It includes a case study on developing a robust method for accurate measurement of earthworm communities in soil in assessing and improving soil health.

This monograph aims at presenting a unified approach to numerical modeling of tsunami as long waves based on finite difference methods for 1D, 2D and 3D generation processes, propagation, and runup. Many practical examples give insight into the relationship between long wave physics and numerical solutions and allow readers to quickly pursue and develop specific topics in greater depth. The aim of this book is to start from basics and then continue into applications. This approach should serve well the needs of researchers and students of physics, physical oceanography, ocean/civil engineers, computer science, and emergency management staff. Chapter 2 is particularly valuable as it fully describes the application of finite-difference methods to the study of long waves by demonstrating how physical properties of water waves, especially phase velocity, are connected to the chosen numerical algorithm. Basic notions of numerical methods, i.e. approximation of the relevant differential equations, stability of the numerical scheme, and computational errors are explained through application to long waves. Finite-difference methods are further developed in major chapters to deal with complex problems that arise in the study of recent tsunamis.