The management of water resources is extremely important for survival. Depending on the climate, certain regions require different strategies to maintain sustainable hydrological systems. Hydrology and Best Practices for Managing Water Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands is a crucial scholarly resource that outlines current trends in water management and offers solutions for the future of this growing field. Highlighting pertinent topics such as hydrological processes modelling, satellite hydrology, water pollution, and climate resources, this publication is ideal for environmental engineers, academicians, graduate students, and researchers that are eager to discover more about the issues and processes currently shaping water management technology.

This book represents an important new contribution to the literature that presents practical and comprehensive solutions to mining activities. Its timely content has been prepared by several experts from around the world and its practical format addresses the major environmental predictive techniques required for the extraction and processing of metal resources. Packed with reviews and case studies, it covers current methods used to forecast environmental effects of metal mining.

In the modern world, industries and factories are rising exponentially. This has led to the mass cultivation of non-biodegradable products, like heavy metals, that have polluted the environment and become a major threat to plant growth, crop yield, and human health. Conventional remediation technologies are expensive and may not remove contaminates effectively. Therefore, it is important to develop economically practical and more effective methods to decontaminate soils. Nano-Phytoremediation Technologies for Groundwater Contaminates: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of the use of plants for remediating metal-contaminated soil and water. While highlighting topics including molecular mechanisms, nutrient interference, and fluoride accumulation, this book is ideally designed for environmental scientists, environmental engineers, agriculturalists, farmers, policymakers, government officials, research scholars, professors, and students studying in the fields of environmental engineering, biotechnology, nano-technology, bioscience, and environmental science.

All the cost data you need to keep your estimating accurate, competitive and profitable.Do you work on jobs between 50 and 50,000? - Then this book is for you.Specially written for contractors and small businesses carrying out small works, Spon's Estimating Cost Guide to Plumbing and Heating contains accurate information on thousands of rates each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.The first book to include typical project costs for: rainwater goods installations bathrooms external waste systems central heating systems hot and cold water systems.

Introduction to Environmental Engineering is designed for use in an introductory sophomore-level environmental engineering course with sufficient depth for use in more advanced courses. This book is written to be used in one of the first environmental engineering courses encountered by the student. As such, it provides the fundamental science and engineering principles that instructors in advanced courses may assume are common knowledge for an advanced undergraduate. This title will be available in Connect with the MHeBook, but does not include SmartBook at this time.

The potential application areas for polymer composites are vast. While techniques and methodologies for composites design are relatively well established, the knowledge and understanding of post-design issues lag far behind. This leads to designs and eventually composites with disappointing properties and unnecessarily high cost, thus impeding a wider industrial acceptance of polymer composites. Manufacturing of Polymer Composites completely covers pre- and post-design issues. While the book enables students to become fully comfortable with composites as a possible materials choice, it also provides sufficient knowledge about manufacturing-related issues to permit them to avoid common pitfalls and unmanufacturable designs. The book is a fully comprehensive text covering all commercially significant materials and manufacturing techniques while at the same time discussing areas of research and development that are nearing commercial reality.

Specifically written for contractors and small businesses carrying out small works, this second edition of Spon's Estimating Cost Guide to Small Groundworks, Landscaping Work and Gardening contains accurate information on thousands of rates, each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.This is the first book to focus on this range of external work, including garden maintenance work on blocks of flats and individual houses, schools and sports fields, garden makeovers, laying patios and paths, small land drainage schemes on farmland, and small-scale local authority maintenance work.

Although world-class firms like GE and Motorola have relied on Six Sigma to build their performance cultures, these processes are all too often left out of human resources (HR) functions. This lack of Six Sigma principles is even more surprising because preventing errors and improving productivity are so critical to the people management processes of hiring, retention, appraisal, and development.From the history and evolution of the Total Quality movement to initiatives for introducing a Six Sigma continuous process improvement strategy in your HR department, Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma introduces a new way to envision your role within the organization. It explains how this powerful methodology works and supplies a roadmap to help you find and eliminate waste in your HR processes.Describing exactly what HR excellence means, the book outlines dozens of proven approaches as well as a hierarchy of the exact steps required to achieve it. It illustrates the Six Sigma methodology from the creation of a project to its successful completion. At each stage, it describes the specific tools currently available and provides examples of organizations that have used Six Sigma within HR to improve their organizations.The text presents proven approaches that can help you solve and even eliminate people management problems altogether. Filled with real-world examples, it demonstrates how to implement six sigma into the transformational side of your organization. It also includes a listing of additional resources to help you along your Six Sigma journey.Explaining how to build a new business model for your HR organization, the book supplies the new perspective and broad view you will need to discover and recommend game-changing alternatives to traditional HR approaches in your organization.

All the cost data you need to keep your estimating accurate, competitive and profitable. Do you work on jobs between 50 and 50,000? Then this book is for you. Specially written for contractors, quantity surveyors and clients carrying out small works, this book contains accurate information on thousands of rates each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.More than just a price book, it gives easy-to-read professional advice on setting up and running a business.

On 21 November 2007 the grand and elegant Delegates Hall of the Hungarian Parliament was the scene of the opening of a conference to discuss some of the most pressing issues of the day, those related to our unending thirst for energy, its environmental consequences, and the challenges that these bear on security. Over the next 3 days scientists, parliamentarians and their guests confronted, challenged, teased and cajoled each other in a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) entitled "Energy and Environmental Challenges to Security," affirming that knowledge and public service hold the keys to solving our greatest challenges. The magnitude of the security challenge was confirmed while this volume was being prepared. In mid-2008, the International Energy Agency issued a report concluding that US$45 trillion would be needed over the next half century to prevent energy shortages and greenhouse gas emissions from undermining global economic growth. But lest such large numbers cause us all to shrug, this volume brings attention to some of the more manageable aspects of the environment and energy security challenge - from addressing conflict resources such as illegal timber that contribute to corruption and regional instability, to means and mechanisms to enable the diversification of energy supplies, to environmental risk reduction strategies for particular installations. The participants in the Hungarian Parliament building were atypical for a NATO Advanced Research Workshop.

The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Nature / Insects

This book discusses water resources management in Romania from a hydrological perspective, presenting the latest research developments and state-of-the-art knowledge that can be applied to efficiently solve a variety of problems in integrated water resources management. It focuses on a wide range of water resources issues - from hydrology and water quantity, quality and supply to flood protection, hydrological hazards and ecosystems, and includes case studies from various watersheds in Romania. As such, the book appeals to researchers, practitioners and graduates as well as to anybody interested in water resources management.

The long-term development of public green spaces such as parks, public gardens, and recreation grounds in London during the twentieth century is a curiously neglected subject, despite the fact that various kinds of green spaces cover huge areas in cities in the UK today. This book explores how and why public green spaces have been created and used in London, and what actors have been involved in their evolution, during the course of the twentieth century. Building on case studies of the contemporary boroughs of Camden and Southwark and making use of a wealth of archival material, the author takes us through the planning and creation stages, to the intended (and actual) uses and ongoing management of the spaces. By highlighting the rise and fall of municipal authorities and the impact of neo-liberalism after the 1970s, the book also deepens our understanding of how London has been governed, planned and ruled during the twentieth century. It makes a crucial contribution to academic as well as political discourse on the history and present role of green space in sustainable cities.

A growing proportion of the world's population is dependent on Seawater Desalination as a source of fresh water for both potable and civil use. One of the main drawbacks of conventional desalination technologies is the substantial energy requirement, which is facing cost increases in the global energy market. "Seawater Desalination" presents an overview of conventional and non-conventional technologies, with a particular focus on the coupling of renewable energies with desalination processes.

The first section of this book presents, in a technical but reader-friendly way, an overview of currently-used desalination processes, from thermal to membrane processes, highlighting the relevant technical features, advantages and disadvantages, and development potential. It also gives a rapid insight into the economic aspects of fresh water production from seawater.

The second section of the book presents novel processes which use Renewable Energies for fresh water production. From the first solar still evaporators, which artificially reproduced the natural cycle of water, technology has progressed to develop complex systems to harness energy from the sun, wind, tides, waves, etc. and then to use this energy to power conventional or novel desalination processes. Most of these processes are still at a preliminary stage of development, but some are already being cited as examples in remote areas, where they are proving to be valuable in solving the problems of water scarcity.

A rapid growth in these technologies is foreseen in the coming years. This book provides a unique foundation, within the context of present and future sustainability, for professionals, technicians, managers, and private and public institutions operating in the area of fresh water supply.

A panel of respected air pollution control educators and practicing professionals critically survey the both principles and practices underlying control processes, and illustrate these with a host of detailed design examples for practicing engineers. The authors discuss the performance, potential, and limitations of the major control processes-including fabric filtration, cyclones, electrostatic precipitation, wet and dry scrubbing, and condensation-as a basis for intelligent planning of abatement systems, . Additional chapters critically examine flare processes, thermal oxidation, catalytic oxidation, gas-phase activated carbon adsorption, and gas-phase biofiltration. The contributors detail the Best Available Technologies (BAT) for air pollution control and provide cost data, examples, theoretical explanations, and engineering methods for the design, installation, and operation of air pollution process equipment. Methods of practical design calculation are illustrated by numerous numerical calculations.

Leading pollution control educators and practicing professionals describe how various combinations of different cutting-edge process systems can be arranged to solve air, noise, and thermal pollution problems. Each chapter discusses in detail a variety of process combinations, along with technical and economic evaluations, and presents explanations of the principles behind the designs, as well as numerous variant designs useful to practicing engineers. The emphasis throughout is on developing the necessary engineering solutions from fundamental principles of chemistry, physics, and mathematics.
The authors also include extensive references, cost data, design methods, guidance on the installation and operation of various air pollution control process equipment and systems, and Best Available Technologies (BAT) for air thermal and noise pollution control.

1. Enables first year mechanical engineering students to gain a core foundational knowledge in all key areas 2. Provides worked examples of exam-style questions 3. Includes chapters by leading experts experienced in teaching first year students in all disciplines of mechanical engineering 4. Gives a thorough grounding in the following core engineering topics: thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, dynamics, electricals and electronics, and materials science

The fourth International Symposium of the International Society for Environmental Biotechnology was held on the campus of Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, on June 20-25, 1998, with an attendance of several hundred people. This meeting included technical presentations of state-of-the-art research which were integrated with tutorials and workshops by practising technologists in the broad field of environmental biotechnology. The meeting was designed to be, in every respect, truly global. For example, presentations were heard from technical workers in Southeast Asia, Iran, China, many countries in Europe, India, and the United States. By having these selected presenters, as well as experienced tutors with focused workshops, all participants benefited from this interactive symposium, and from an informal exchange of ideas, discussions of technical problems, and exploration of new applications. Environmental biotechnology is an emerging field of scientific and technological investigations that is truly global. Furthermore, popular recognition is high for the environmental problems being faced and solved by biotechnology methods. The papers in this book cover the following topics: (i) Metals: Mine Drainage, Removal, Toxicity; (ii) Waste Treatment/Monitoring; (iii) Integrated Systems; (iv) Bioremediation: In situ/Reactors/Basic Studies; (v) Water Quality; (vi) Biodegradation; (vii) Local/National/International Issues.

Across European cities the use of urban space is controversial and subject to diverging interests. On the one hand citizens are increasingly aware of the necessity for self-organising to reclaim green spaces. On the other hand local authorities have started to involve citizens in the governance of urban green spaces. While an increased level of citizen participation and conducive conditions for citizens' self-organisation are a desirable development per se, the risk of functionalising civil society actors by the local authority for neoliberal city development must be kept in mind. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in 29 European cities from all four European geographic regions, this book examines the governance of urban green spaces and urban food production, focusing on the contribution of citizen-driven activities. Over the course of the book, Schicklinski identifies best practice examples of successful collaboration between citizens and local government. The book concludes with policy recommendations with great practical value for local governance in European cities in times of the growth-turn. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars, and policy-makers with an interest in environmental governance, urban geography, and sustainable development.

In 1969, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established the C- mittee on Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS). The subject of air pollution was from the start one of the priority problems under study within the framework of various pilot studies undertaken by this committee. The organization of a periodic conference dealing with air pollution modelling and its application has become one of the main activities within the pilot study relating to air pollution. The first five international conferences were organized by the United States as the pilot country, the second five by the Federal Republic of Germany, the third five by Belgium, the fourth four by The Netherlands, the next five by Denmark and the last five by Portugal. This volume contains the abstracts of papers and posters presented at the 29th NATO/CCMS International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and Its Application, held in Aveiro, Portugal, during September 24 28, 2007. This ITM was organized by the University of Aveiro, Portugal (Pilot Country and Host Organization). The key topics distinguished at this ITM included: Local and urban scale modelling; Regional and intercontinental modelling; Data assimilation and air quality forecasting; Model assessment and verification; Aerosols in the atmosphere; Interactions between climate change and air quality; Air quality and human health."

In this concise, engaging, and provocative work, Richard Porter introduces readers to the economic tools that can be applied to problems involved in handling a diverse range of waste products from business and households. Emphasizing the impossibility of achieving a zero-risk environment, Porter focuses on the choices that apply in real world decisions about waste. Acknowledging that effective waste policy integrates knowledge from several disciplines, Porter focuses on the use of economic analysis to reveal the costs of different policies and therefore how much can be done to meet goals to protect human health and the environment. With abundant examples, he considers subjects such as landfills, incineration, and illegal disposal. He discusses the international trade in waste, the costs and benefits of recycling, and special topics such as hazardous materials, Superfund, and nuclear waste. While making clear his belief that not every form of waste presents the same amount of risk, Porter stresses the need for open-minded approaches to developing new policies. For students, policymakers, and general readers, he provides insight and accessibility to a subject that others might leave out-of-sight, out-of-mind, or buried under an impenetrable prose of statistics and jargon.

The adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997 was a major achievement in the endeavour to tackle the problem of global climate change at the dawn of the 21st century. After many years of involvement in the negotiation process, the book's two internationally recognised authors now offer the international community a first hand and inside perspective of the debate on the Kyoto Protocol. The book provides a comprehensive scholarly analysis of the history and content of the Protocol itself as well as of the economic, political and legal implications of its implementation. It also presents a perspective for the further development of the climate regime. These important features make this book an indispensable working tool for policy makers, negotiators, academics and all those actively involved and interested in climate change issues in both the developed and developing world.