In 2013 several scientific activities have been devoted to mathematical researches for the study of planet Earth. The current volume presents a selection of the highly topical issues presented at the workshop "Mathematical Models and Methods for Planet Earth", held in Roma (Italy), in May 2013. The fields of interest span from impacts of dangerous asteroids to the safeguard from space debris, from climatic changes to monitoring geological events, from the study of tumor growth to sociological problems. In all these fields the mathematical studies play a relevant role as a tool for the analysis of specific topics and as an ingredient of multidisciplinary problems. To investigate these problems we will see many different mathematical tools at work: just to mention some, stochastic processes, PDE, normal forms, chaos theory.

Fertilizers have been used extensively around the globe since the Green Revolution, due to the high subsidies. However, extensive fertilizer use exacerbates soil degradation and causes yield stagnation, and as a result threatens food security and soil sustainability, especially in developing countries. This means that sustainable soil and environmental management are vital to provide food and nutritional security for present and future generations. This has led to the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) declaring 2015-2024 the International Decade of Soils. This book focuses on the impact of sustainable management of soil and environment on improving the functioning of soil-ecosystems and agronomic productivity, and also discusses food security, nutrient cycling, recent advances in INM technologies, eco-friendly cultivation, agricultural practices to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as conservation agriculture and its effects, and strategies for soil sustainability. Offering a comprehensive overview of management in the context of the sustainability of soil and the agroecosystems that it supports, it demonstrates the options available and provides insights into restoring soil health and matching soil nutrient supply with crop demand to ensure nutritional security in an eco-friendly environment.

Environmental Monitoring and Characterization is an integrated, hands-on resource for monitoring all aspects of the environment. Sample collection methods and relevant physical, chemical and biological processes necessary to characterize the environment are brought together in twenty chapters which cover: sample collection methods, monitoring terrestrial, aquatic and air environments, and relevant chemical, physical and biological processes and contaminants.
This book will serve as an authoritative reference for advanced students and environmental professionals.
* Examines the integration of physical, chemical, and biological processes
* Emphasizes field methods and real-time data acquisition, made more accessible with case studies, problems, calculations, and questions
* Includes four color illustrations throughout the text
* Brings together the concepts of environmental monitoring and site characterization

Constructed wetlands with horizontal sub-surface flow (HF CWs) have been used for wastewater treatment for more than four decades. HF CWs are used around the world for many types of wastewater, including municipal sewage, agricultural and industrial wastewaters, runoff waters, wastewaters containing endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and landfill leachate.

This book fills a gap in the literature by providing an extensive, worldwide overview of this treatment technology. Special attention is paid to assessing the use of this treatment technology in individual countries and treatment performance of various HF CWs with respect to major pollutants in different types of wastewater.

The book provides a broad base of knowledge, including:

• processes occurring in wetland soils and overlying water
• various types of constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment
• detailed information about design parameters, functioning, operation and maintenance, and costs of HF CWs
• evaluations of treatment efficiency of HF CWs under diverse conditions
• information on the global use of HF CWs for various types of wastewater

The inclusion of case studies from over 50 countries and more than 250 colour photos that illustrate the science makes this an invaluable text.

This book will be useful not only to wetland scientists, teachers, and engineers, but also to landscape planners, ecologists, wastewater-treatment designers and governmental decision-makers.

This is the first interdisciplinary book on the mobilization of nutrients and pollutants in the water phase due to hydrodynamic processes. Coverage includes the formation of aggregates in turbulent water; flocks and biofilms from organic reactions; and the formation of new surfaces for re-adsorption of dissolved pollutants. The book gathers papers resulting from an International Symposium on Sediment Dynamics and Pollutant Mobility in River Basins in Hamburg, Germany, March, 2006.

This book takes stock of micro irrigation systems (MIS), the technological intervention in India's agricultural and water management sectors, over the past couple of decades. Based on empirical research from the major agriculturally dynamic states, viz., Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the book provides a nuanced understanding and objective assessment of the implementation and adoption of MIS across these states. It addresses several of the questions related to adoption and impacts of MIS in India. On the adoption side, the key question that the book addresses is which segment of the farming community adopts MIS across states? The impacts analysed include those on physical, agronomic and economic aspects. At the macro level, the question being asked is about the future potential of MIS in terms of saving water from agriculture and making more water available for environment. The book also addresses the question of the positive/negative externalities and real social benefits and costs from the use of MIS, a major justification for heavy capital subsidies for its purchase by farmers. It also brings out certain critical concerns pertaining to MIS adoption, which need to be addressed through more empirical research based on longitudinal panel/ cross sectional data. The book would be of great use to researchers (agricultural water management, irrigation economics), students of water resource engineering, irrigation engineering and water resources management, as well as to policy makers and agricultural water management experts - national and international.

Physical Oceanography of the Dying Aral Sea describes the background, present crisis state, and possible future of this peculiar inland water body from the physical oceanographic standpoint. Based on a wide range of material, a large part of which was published in Russian and has not been previously available to the international reader, the book first provides an historical overview of this unique system, which possesses both lake and sea properties.

Next, the current physical state of the lake is described, partly based on original field research and model experiments, along with the remote sensing data, model results and analyses extracted from recent literature. Next, book attempts to forecast the forthcoming state of the Aral Sea and identify plausible future scenarios. Finally, the book discusses the Aral Sea dessication viewd as a part of the global perspective.

Providing the most comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of this exciting biomedical field, Handbook of Photomedicine gathers together a large team of international experts to give you a complete account of the application of light in healthcare and medical science. The book progresses logically from the history and fundamentals of photomedicine to diverse therapeutic applications of light, known collectively as phototherapies. It facilitates your understanding of human diseases caused by light, the rationale for photoprotection, and major applications of phototherapy in clinical practice. The handbook begins with a series of historical vignettes of pioneers from the last two centuries. It also presents the fundamentals of physics and biology as applied to photomedicine. It next examines conditions and diseases caused by light, including skin cancer, dermatoses, and immunosuppression. The remainder of the book focuses on the most important clinical therapeutic applications of different kinds of light that vary in both wavelength and intensity. The book discusses ultraviolet phototherapy for skin diseases and infections and presents the basic science of photodynamic therapy and its use in cancer therapy and other medical specialties. It then covers mechanistic studies and clinical applications of low-level laser (light) therapy as well as the use of high power or surgical laser therapy in specialties, such as dentistry and dermatology. The book concludes with a collection of miscellaneous types of phototherapy.

Water scarcity affects hydrologic resources, systems connectivity, biodiversity, water quality, and river ecosystem functioning. It has direct impacts on economic sectors that use and depend on water, such as agriculture, tourism, industry, energy and transport. The Mediterranean Basin is one of the regions in the world most vulnerable to climate changes, as well as one of the most impacted by human water demand. This volume provides an in-depth view of the water quality and quantity implications of water scarcity. It highlights its possible causes and describes the effects in regions under Mediterranean climate. The topics covered include climate effects, water resources (use, storage and new sources), water quality (chemical and microbiological), and the effects on ecosystems suffering from water scarcity. This book is addressed to scientists and students, but also to managers involved in the necessary decision making process to face future periods of drought.

This book describes the vast variety of xenobiotics, such as pesticides, antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes, agrochemicals and other pollutants, their interactions with the soil environment, and the currently available strategies and techniques for soil decontamination and bioremediation. Topics covered include: transport mechanisms of pollutants along the Himalayas; use of earthworms in biomonitoring; metagenomic strategies for assessing contaminated sites; xenobiotics in the food chain; phyto-chemical remediation; biodegradation by fungi; and the use of enzymes and potential microbes in biotransformation. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable guide for scientists in the fields of environmental ecology, soil and food sciences, agriculture, and applied microbiology.

Each tree ring contains an image of the time when the ring formed, projected onto the ring's size, structure, and composition. Tree rings thus are natural archives of past environments, and contain records of past climate. While dendrochronologists have investigated the impact of climate on tree-ring growth by empirical statistical methods, this volume presents a process-based model complementing previous approaches. Basic ideas concerning the biology of tree-ring growth and its control by environmental factors are treated, especially for conifers. The use of the model is illustrated by means of several examples from widely differing environments, and possible future directions for model development and application are discussed. The volume provides an improved mechanistic basis for the interpretation of tree rings as records of past climate. It advances process understanding of the large-scale environmental control of wood growth. As forests are the main carbon sink on land, the results are of great importance for all global change studies. "

Rural regions in Europe are evolving under powerful boundary conditions such as globalisation, socio-cultural transformations and climate change, which in turn increases natural hazards. The regional land use and the evolvement of landscapes is increasingly shaped trends and drivers like infrastructural, energy or housing needs, globalised agricultural markets, and consumption habits. To face these challenges and to balance competitiveness with social cohesion, the "InnoLand research and development network" induces and accompanies promising land use innovations at the landscape scale in 10 European rural regions. Based on a common conceptual approach among the InnoLand partners, the development and implementation of new competitive strategies is conducted as a science-practice dialogue with strong commitment to the regional policy design for rural development. With this book, the network partners provide an overview and a comparative analysis of selected experimental regional approaches and give examples for the successful tackling of future opportunities and threats.

This book focuses on essential theories, methods and techniques in the field of environmental and engineering geophysics that can contribute to resource detection and environmental protection. Geophysics has been playing an important role in exploring the earth, locating vital resources and promoting the development of society. This book covers a range of topics including the exploration of modern resources, such as ore deposits, coal mines, shale gas and geothermal power, and the monitoring of geological disasters, including the rock-soil body, ground deformation, mines, specific rock-soil engineering disasters, desertification of land and environmental abnormalities. This book not only offers a valuable resource for geophysical researchers; it also demonstrates how geophysics theories and methods can be practically implemented to protect our environment and promote the development of human society.

This book reflects the use of cyanobacteria for the bioremediation of wastewater through different mechanisms and pathways of transformation and transfer of hazardous substances from one medium to another. The application of microorganisms for bioremediation is determined by their ubiquity, small size, high rate of reproduction and large surface-to-volume cell ratio. Mechanisms of interaction of cyanobacteria with inorganic pollutants include biosorption, bioaccumulation with an opportunity to obtain metal nanoparticles both on the cell surface and inside the cells as well as chelation and inclusion of metals in the composition of certain organic structures. Data presented in the book provides specialists in the field with useful information for bioremediation technologies as well as for obtaining valuable preparations using cyanobacteria.

The critical situation in which our planet finds itself is no longer in doubt. Some things are already collapsing while others are beginning to do so, increasing the possibility of a global catastrophe that would mean the end of the world as we know it. As individuals, we are faced with a daily deluge of bad news about the worsening situation, preparing ourselves to live with years of deep uncertainty about the future of the planet and the species that inhabit it, including our own. How can we cope? How can we project ourselves beyond the present, think bigger and find ways not just to survive the collapse but to live it? In this book, the sequel to How Everything Can Collapse, the authors show that a change of course necessarily requires an inner journey and a radical rethinking of our vision of the world. Together these might enable us to remain standing during the coming storm, to develop a new awareness of ourselves and of the world and to imagine new ways of living in it. Perhaps then it will be possible to regenerate life from the ruins, creating new alliances in differing directions - with ourselves and our inner nature, between humans, with other living beings and with the earth on which we dwell.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

This book is a monograph reporting the major findings from a comprehensive study of a glacial flood plain in the Swiss Alps, based on an intensive research program conducted year-round over several years. Until recently, very little was known regarding the ecology of glacial streams. Previous studies typically focused on one or a few aspects and were limited to the summer period. Moreover, this is the first ecological study of a glacial flood plain with a dynamic, multi-thread channel network. Year-round sampling of a system with a complex channel network spawned unanticipated results and new insights into the ecology of glacial streams. The book begins with the landscape features, glacial history, and floodplain evolution of the Val Roseg. This is followed by chapters on channel typology, groundwater-surfacewater interactions, thermal heterogeneity, and nutrient dynamics. Chapters on the biota deal with terrestrial and aquatic flora, hyphomycete fungi, surface zoobenthos, and the interstitial fauna. Functional processes are addressed in chapters on organic matter dynamics, litter decomposition, nutrient limitation, and drift and colonization patterns. The final chapter provides a synthesis of our current understanding of the ecology of Val Roseg. Weare indebted to many individuals and organizations for assistance and support of the research program on the Val Roseg and the production of this book.

Science and politics are closely connected in today's global environmental issues. This book focuses on these links in relation to climate change, the threats to wildlife species, and natural hazards and disasters. Close study of these links of these reveals the need for more effective international cooperation and the limits of global governance.

TIle work described in this report was presented at the Advanced Research Workshop, "Environmental Aspects of Converting CW Facilities to Peaceful Purposes and Derivative Technologies in Modeling, Medicine and Monitoring." TIle ARW was jointly sponsored by NATO and the International Science and Technology Center (lSTC), Moscow. The workshop was held at the AC Laboratory, Spiez, Switzerland, in April, 1999. The editors and directors would like to thank the NATO Science Committee and the ISTC for their generous support and encouragement in making this event possible. We wish to give a special to Dr. Bernhard Brunner and his colleagues at the AC Laboratory, Spiez, for their more than generous support. In addition, we would like to thank tlle following individuals for their contributions to a fruitful discussion: Mr. Armando Alcaraz (LLNL), Dr. Aniello Amendolo (lIASA), , Mr. Randall Beatty (ISTC), Mr. Timothy Blades (ECBC), Dr. R. V. Borovic (RCTHRB), Dr. K Brainina (SRlOCT), Dr. Bernhard Brunner, (AC Lab.), Dr. T. Chvetsova-Chilovskaya (SRlOCT), Mr. John Compton (ISTC), Dr. Jolm F. Cooper (LLNL), Dr. William Cullen (U.Brit.Col.), Dr. Evgeny Fokin (SRlOCT), Dr. Alfred Frey (AC Lab.) , Dr. V. G. Gorsky (SRlOCT), Dr. Jiri Kadlcak (MTIP), Ms. Larisa Konnilkina (ISTC), Dr. V. K. Kurochkin (SRlOCT), Dr. Ronald F. Lelunan (ISTC, LLNL), Dr. Y. N. Mamontov (SRlOCT), Dr. V. Mejevov (TRINITI), Dr. I. V. Moskalenko (KRC), Dr. Dieter Nietzold (lSTC), Dr. Daan Noort (TNO), Mr. Shinichiro Ogura (ISTC), Dr. V. S Poliakov (SRlOCT), Dr. A. Putilov (Min.

Geomatics, the handling and processing of information and data about the Earth, is one geoscience discipline that has seen major changes in the last decade, as mapping and observation systems become ever more sensitive and sophisticated. This book is a unique and in-depth survey of the field, which has a central role to play in tackling a host of environmental issues faced by society. Covering all three strands of geomatics - applications, information technology and surveying - the chapters cover the history and background of the subject, the technology employed both to collect and disseminate data, and the varied applications to which geomatics can be put, including urban planning, assessment of biodiversity, disaster management and land administration. Relevant professionals, as well as students in a variety of disciplines such as geography and surveying, will find this book required reading.
This rapidly developing field uses increasingly complex and accurate systems. Today, technology enables us to capture geo-data in full 3D as well as to disseminate it via the Web at the speed of light. We are able to continuously image the world from space at resolutions of up to 50 cm. Airborne LiDAR (laser surveying) sensors can be combined with digital camera technology to produce geometrically correct images of the Earth's surface, while integrating these with large-scale topographic maps and terrestrial as well as aerial images to produce 3D cityscapes that computer users can explore from their desktops.

Poor land management has degraded vast amounts of land, reduced our ability to produce enough food, and is a major threat to rural livelihoods in many developing countries. This book provides a thorough analysis of the multifaceted impacts of land use on soils. Abundantly illustrated with full-color images, it brings together renowned academics and policy experts to analyze the patterns, driving factors and proximate causes, and the socioeconomic impacts of soil degradation.

Volume 2: Risk Analysis. This 3-volume reference presents the latest findings in impact assessment of recycled hazardous waste materials on surface and ground waters. Topics covered include chemodynamics, toxicology, modeling and information systems. The book serves as a practical guide for the monitoring, design, management, or conduct of environmental impact assessment. Each volume contains the table of contents of all volumes.