This book examines the political and conceptual metamorphosis of China's oil industry from self-reliance to internationalization. Through the empirical case study of Daqing, the premiere oilfield of the People's Republic of China (PRC) for most of the postwar period and a symbol of industrialization as well as self-reliance, key historical developmental concepts and events are analyzed. Japan's role in stimulating the development of the China's oil industry will also be highlighted as the Japanese government and its business sectors emerged as a supplier of technology and equipment to the Chinese oil industry as well as China's first major oil customer in the early internationalization phase of the PRC's oil industry.

The relationship between the price of oil and the level of economic activity is a fundamental issue in macroeconomics. There is an ongoing debate in the literature about whether positive oil price shocks cause recessions in the United States (and other oil-importing countries), and although there exists a vast empirical literature that investigates the effects of oil price shocks, there are relatively few studies that investigate the direct effects of uncertainty about oil prices on the real economy. The book uses recent advances in macroeconomics and financial economics to investigate the effects of oil price shocks and uncertainty about the price of oil on the level of economic activity.

Once a prosperous region, the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river basin-inhabited by about a tenth of the world's population-is currently one of the poorest. Large-scale socioeconomic development is urgently needed to ensure the sustainability of the region, and the management of water resources is a crucial part of this. Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna Waters: Advances in Development and Management discusses water resource development and management issues related to the GBM river basin, including interactions, institutional set ups, and future perspectives. It also proposes several novel technologies, developed by the author, to help revolutionize the development of India's waters. Written by an authority in water resource management studies, the book addresses the need for a holistic, integrated, basin-wide approach to improve the quality of life for people living within the region. Pointing out that water does not recognize political boundaries, the text also discusses Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan as integral parts of the GBM basin. The author suggests that the unique geophysical and hydrologic characteristics of the basin present an opportunity for technologies that can increase the available water and hydroelectric potential in the region. The proposed advances can also help generate collaborative development between India and its neighboring countries. The book emphasizes the adoption of a societal-environmental systems management approach, which treats the physical and social-environmental systems as integral components, backed by participatory transparent modeling. It also argues that technology must be considered a key part of the system. A unique contribution to water resources engineering, this book provides readers with a case study of the development and management of the world's largest water system. It offers new perspectives and useful advice for other countries and regions developing river and irrigation plans and for policy makers involved in large-scale water resources engineering.

With water as one of the most critical resources of nature that is necessary for sustaining life for all living things, it has become very important for designing and using spatial informational techniques for understanding the root causes behind the degradation of our water resources. This volume discusses in detail a selection of geospatial approaches, tools, and techniques. The uses of geographical information science to measure and manage water resources are diverse. Satellite remote sensing provides essential data for mapping water resources, hydrology flux measurement, monitoring drought, and flood inundation. With an abundance of informative case studies, the chapters discuss the use of the satellite remote sensing and GIS-based systems for managing urban storm water; for flood and soil erosion management; for mapping groundwater zones; for crop production, including measuring soil moisture and aridity; for gauging the impact of climate change; for evaluating glacier change dynamics; for assessing the impact of urban growth on water resources; for measuring the degradation of rivers; and more. This peer-reviewed volume imparts important information on spatial information techniques that are used for understanding the root causes behind the degradation of our water resources. GIScience for the Sustainable Management of Water Resources will be a valuable resource for urban planners, environmentalists, policymakers, ecologists, researchers, academicians, students, and professionals in the fields of remote sensing, civil engineering, social science, computer science, and information technology.

Water conflicts in India have now percolated to every level. They are aggravated by the relative paucity of frameworks, policies and mechanisms to govern the use of water resources. Based on the premise that understanding and documenting different types of water conflict cases in all their complexity would contribute to informed public debate and facilitate their resolution, Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, a collaborative initiative of the WWF project 'Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment', documented a number of such case studies. One of its kind in India, this book brings together an impressive sixty-three case studies - summarized status of the conflicts, the issues involved and their current position - and gives us a glimpse into 'the million revolts' that are brewing around water. While recognizing that each conflict is a microcosm of wider conflicts, the editors have classified these cases into eight broad themes that try to capture the dominant aspect of the conflict. These are: contending water uses; dams and displacement; equity-access-allocations; micro-level conflicts; water quality; trans-boundary conflicts; privatization; sand excavation and mining. With a mix of academics and activists as contributors, the book makes an important contribution to a new discourse on water in general, and water conflicts and conflict resolution in particular.

The concept of 'good governance' is of increasing importance, and is used by international organizations to ensure reasonable conformity to high standards in states which participate in the global trading regime and other international activities. This book examines the concept of good governance and how it is applied in the states of the Gulf Co-operation Council. These states are particularly important because of their strategic location and massive oil wealth. Moreover, as monarchies, in most cases without powerful democratic representative bodies, and as Islamic countries, with a different outlook from countries of the West, Western standards of good governance may need to be modified in order for them to be implemented effectively.

The South Caucasus has established itself as a corridor for transporting energy from Azerbaijan to Georgia, Turkey, and on to Europe, symbolized by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. This new infrastructure has created an east-west "Eurasian bridge" in which transnational extra-regional actors, especially the European Union and international financial institutions, have played a critical role. This book offers an original exploration of integration in the energy and transport sectors amongst Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, and the capacity of this to fundamentally change relations between these countries. In the period studied, from the mid-1990s to 2008, integration in energy and transport did not result in broader political, security, and sociocultural integration in any significant way. The author sets his analysis in a theoretical framework, drawing on theories of integration, but also grounds it in the detailed, empirical knowledge that is the measure of true expertise.

The discussion on arsenic in the environment is complex and must grasp the importance of very many, mostly unrelated works on individual aspects. This volume represents one of the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary examinations into arsenic's behaviour in air, water, soils, sediments, plants and the human body. Based on state-of-the-art investigations into the global arsenic cycle, the related human toxicology and available remediation technologies, arsenic is assessed holistically in all the environmental compartments. Using the results of primary research, the authors offer concrete suggestions for risk reduction and management of environmental pollution that allow the reader to successfully tackle similar problems and find sustainable solutions. The book consists of three essential parts: Review of the current knowledge of arsenic behaviour in the environment (global biogeochemical cycles), toxicology, remediation techniques, immobilization technologies and environmental legislation Case studies for mining-related arsenic problems Discussion of mitigation and remediation technologies and approaches such as environmental education, hygiene training, backed by real experience and successful implementation in the study area In a highly coherent manner, the book makes use of 120 tables and figures, a large number of literature citations, and very detailed subject index (that encompasses references) to provide rapid and up-to-date access to all relevant information. Cross-references provide a great manoeuvrability between the chapters. The book delivers very insightful and hands-on approaches for graduate students and professionals working on arsenic questions not only in environmental science, but also in the fields of environmental engineering, medicine and social science.

Corporate Governance and the Nuclear Industry explores the UK nuclear Legacy - governance issues associated with the decommissioning of a range of early-generation civil nuclear facilities. This book traces how we got here and the risks that have been taken, whilst presenting new research and thinking that is required to manage our nuclear Legacy. The book addresses a new analytical approach using notions of governance to review key historic events. This approach analyses these events using concepts of stakeholder control, accountability and regulation. Using these concepts and undertaking a more detailed analysis of the Legacy's current governance arrangements; the conventional public sector-based solutions that attempt to harness private sector expertise, this book will contrast these with government responses to determine the degree of control over the Legacy and any possible control issues. Corporate Governance and the Nuclear Industry concludes that we need to recognise the legacy's problems as exceptional rather than prosaic, and suggests that this requires exceptional governance solutions rather than the current form that is clearly failing.

Any sustainable groundwater development programme requires knowledge of the prevailing flow system, extending from local to regional scale. This book of selected papers discusses integral groundwater management with scale flow issues and presents methods of defining, preventing, controlling and mitigating negative environmental impacts related to groundwater. It highlights specific issues such as trans-boundary groundwater flow, groundwater recharge, groundwater mining, and groundwater flow in thick aquifers, and stresses the importance of the sustainable development of groundwater and its social and economic implications. The book will interest groundwater researchers and professionals, students, government administrators and educators, providing new insights into the procedures and processes that are influenced by the scale of the groundwater flow system.

This book presents a critical analysis of the 'resource curse' doctrine and a review of the international evidence on oil and urban development to examine the role of oil on property development and rights in West Africa's new oil metropolis - Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. It seeks answers to the following questions: In what ways did the city come into existence? What changes to property rights are oil prospecting, explorations, and production introducing in the 21st century? How do the effects vary across different social classes and spectrums? To what extent are local and national institutions able to shape, restrain, and constrain trans-national oil-related accumulation and its effects on property in land, property in housing (residential, leisure, and commercial), and property in labour? How do these processes connect with the entire urban system in Ghana? This book shows how institutions of varying degrees of power interact to govern land, housing, and labour in the city, and analyses how efficient, sustainable, and equitable the outcomes of these interactions are. It is a comprehensive account of the tensions and contradictions in the main sectors of the urban economy, society, and environment in the booming Oil City and will be of interest to urban economists, development economists, real estate economists, Africanists and urbanists.

First published in 1993, this book traces and analyses the changing policies of American offshore oil companies concerning the exploration and development of the Outer Continental Shelf in the period from 1970 to 1976 - covering environmental legislation, the oil embargo, presidential initiatives, and proposed international laws. Where previous studies concerning the Outer Continental Shelf had only examined broad policy issues on an international level, this study focuses on those American offshore companies who were major actors in ocean affairs, especially in the exploration and development of the region.

This open access book presents papers displayed in the 2nd International Conference on Energy and Sustainable Futures (ICESF 2020), co-organised by the University of Hertfordshire and the University Alliance DTA in Energy. The research included in this book covers a wide range of topics in the areas of energy and sustainability including: * ICT and control of energy;* conventional energy sources;* energy governance;* materials in energy research;* renewable energy; and* energy storage. The book offers a holistic view of topics related to energy and sustainability, making it of interest to experts in the field, from industry and academia.

First published in 1986, this book challenges the notion that the miners' strike of 1984-5 was 'Scargill's Strike'. It shows some of the ways in which the strike, though nominally directed from above, was determined from below by multitudinous and often contradictory pressures - the lodge, the village and the home. The focus is essentially logical and gives particular attention to family economy, kin networks and intergenerational solidarity. At the same time it is concerned with the mentality of the strike - its ruling fears and passions. The first-hand testimonies that comprise the book attest to the attachment to 'traditional ways' as well as the potency of the influences corroding them.

The Fukushima disaster continues to appear in national newspapers when there is another leakage of radiation-contaminated water, evacuation designations are changed, or major compensation issues arise and so remains far from over. However, after five years, attention and research towards the disaster seems to have waned despite the extent and significance of the disaster that remains. The aftermath of Fukushima exposed a number of shortcomings in nuclear energy policy and disaster preparedness. This book gives an account of the municipal responses, citizen's responses, and coping attempts, before, during, and after the Fukushima crisis. It focuses on the background of the Fukushima disaster, from the Tohoku earthquake to diffusion on radioactive material and risk miscommunication. It explores the processes and politics of radiation contamination, and the conditions and challenges that the disaster evacuees have faced, reflecting on the evacuation process, evacuation zoning, and hope in a post-Fukushima environment. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of disaster management studies and nuclear policy.

China's rise in the global arena is undeniably altering the global status quo. Its rise is closely linked to and reflected in its rising dependence on imported oil, adroit soft power, economic prowess and corresponding impressive economic growth, its military modernization, and its strategic engagement of the world as an alternative model of political and economic development. As the status quo changes, the United States theoretically becomes less influential politically, economically, and militarily, because China is skillfully harnessing and strategically exercising the elements of national power to acquire scarce oil energy resources in the Near East, Western Hemisphere, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Chinese Energy Futures and Their Implications for the United States, by George Eberling, examines how Chinese oil energy specifically will shape future Sino-American relations under conditions of dependency and non-dependency, and whether competition or cooperation for scarce energy resources will result. Eberling uses both scenario analysis and the PRINCE method to examine three possible Chinese oil energy futures: Competitive Dependency, Competitive Surplus, and Cooperative Surplus. Chinese Energy Futures also discusses and evaluates the strategic implications of these scenarios with respect to the United States.

Groundwater allocation determines who is able to use groundwater resources, how, when and where. It directly affects the value (economic, ecological, socio-cultural) that individuals and society obtain from groundwater, today and in the future. Building on the 2015 OECD publication Water Resources Allocation: Sharing Risks and Opportunities, this report focuses on groundwater and how its allocation can be improved in terms of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness and social equity. Drawing on an analysis of groundwater's distinctive features and nine case studies of groundwater allocation in a range of countries, the report provides practical policy guidance for groundwater allocation in the form of a "health check". This health check can be used to assess the performance of current arrangements and manage the transition towards improved allocation.

This book is primarily based on data from the third analysis of domestic energy consumption, and it combines the conclusive summarizes from the previous two investigations. The book sets out to extend the spatial dimension of the research to a global one and discusses future development of domestic energy consumption from a global perspective. Additionally, the book seeks to discover general rules and diversity features via comparison, domestic vs. global. Future predictions via observations and summaries of history are provided for the reader in this volume as well. The studies in this volume not only provide a basic and supportive index for academic research, but also provide readers with a concrete sketch for people to understand energy use in their day-to-day lives, and it provides policy makers with fundamental, need-to-know data.

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) established by the General Assembly in 1955 assesses the levels and effects of exposure to ionizing radiation on human health and the environment. This is the second of four volumes of scientific annexes that provides the supporting scientific deliberations for the UNSCEAR 2020/2021 report to the United Nations General Assembly. Annex B "Levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station: implications of information published since the UNSCEAR 2013 Report" summarizes all relevant scientific information (peer reviewed literature and monitoring data) available up to the end of 2019. These data relate to the levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The aim of the report is to provide a summary of all scientific information and an appraisal of the implications of this information for the UNSCEAR 2013 Report.

There is a growing realization that human intent and activity are not easily separated from natural forces in the shaping of landscapes. The pervasive Western dichotomy of culture and nature has proved to be a poor basis for scientific research and long-term environmental management. Humans have been major factors in environmental change for thousands of years using fire, intensive hunting and a wide range of agricultural strategies to transform most ecosystems on the earth long before the Industrial Revolution. All these activites contribute to the making of cultural landscapes which incorporate elements generally classified in two groups: tangible empirical evidence of human behavior, and intangible, symbolic meanings.

This book investigates the newly emerging scope of interests and project agendas to investigate and preserve cultural landscapes. It presents the historic, archaeological, ethnographic, and environmental traditions of cultural landscape study and the attempts to reconstruct and analyze the complex processes of cultural changes through prehistoric and historic times.

The "guiding light" of the book is that the fullest understanding of a cultural landscape will materialize through interdisciplinary cooperation, which should involve an ecological approach with historical ecology as the guiding tool, applied archaeology, and environmental planning. The book addresses issues of interest to policymakers-makers and planners and those who investigate cultural landscapes.

Analyzing the self-sufficient Danish island of Samso, this book explains sustainability through a bio-geophysical understanding of how to best use society's limited resources to achieve true sustainability. The method used derives from the thermodynamic function of exergy. By analyzing exergy flows and establishing a system for evaluating the energy and the materials used in a society, the author creates a platform for monitoring certain indicators of sustainability. These indicators inform readers about the actions that must be taken and the time frames for achieving sustainability goals. The exergy-based approach is an important tool for carrying out such an analysis because it Focuses on several key thermodynamic concepts and the usefulness of exergy analysis for evaluating sustainability Explains sustainability by implementing thermodynamic laws to societal consumption and the use of resources Discusses new methods that integrate energy and material fluxes and evaluates them against each other Provides direct indicators for finding the largest problems/obstacles and deciding where measures should be taken Includes instructions on how to establish an accounting system for evaluating the energy and the materials used in a society This book is aimed for professionals, researchers, and students working on nature conservation and environmental management projects related to sustainability.

The central questions of this book are how technologies decline, how societies deal with technologies in decline, and how governance may be explicitly oriented towards parting with 'undesirable' technology. Surprisingly, these questions are fairly novel. Thus far, the dominant interest in historical, economic, sociological and political studies of technology has been to understand how novelty emerges, how innovation can open up new opportunities and how such processes may be supported. This innovation bias reflects how in the last centuries modern societies have embraced technology as a vehicle of progress. It is timely, however, to broaden the social study of technology and society: next to considering the rise of technologies, their fall should be addressed, too. Dealing with technologies in decline is an important challenge or our times, as socio-technical systems are increasingly part of the problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequalities and geo-political tensions. This volume presents empirical studies of technologies in decline, as well as conceptual clarifications and theoretical deepening. Technologies in Decline presents an emerging research agenda for the study of technological decline, emphasising the need for a plurality of perspectives. Given that destabilisation and discontinuation are seen as a way to accelerate sustainability transitions, this book will be of interest to academics, students and policy makers researching and working in the areas of sustainability science and policy, economic geography, innovation studies, and science and technology studies.

Originally published in 1980, this book presents a comparative analysis of British and Norwegian oil policies, focusing on the interdependence and bargaining relationship between governments and oil companies, as well as the policy choices, concerns and constraints for the two governments. The perspective is largely that of a government planner, whose main concerns are the long-term and complex interests of the state, orderly development as well as social and political stability.

This book, originally published in 1981, discusses the various welfare effects - including ai, debt, trade and labour flows - of the rise in oil prices and revenues which took place in the 1970s. These complex effects and the negotiating stances of the developing countries are all examined an dinvestigated, drawing upon a wide range of sources and material for the more quantitative parts. Throughout, however, the treatment is non-mathematical and is written in clear English accessible not only to bankers and polititians, but also students of economics, international relationjs and area studies.