In this concise book, the author presents the essentials every chemist needs to know about how to obtain reliable measurement results. Starting with the basics of metrology and the metrological infrastructure, all relevant topics - such as traceability, calibration, chemical reference materials, validation and uncertainty - are covered. In addition, key aspects of laboratory management, including quality management, inter-laboratory comparisons, proficiency testing, and accreditation, are addressed.

Originally published in 1974, this report dwells on the problems of meeting global energy demands and the time, effort and knowledge needed to research new energy methods. With rising costs, the uncertainty of supply from the Middle East and concern over the environmental impact of energy products, Energy and the Social Sciences outlines the intense need for well-designed research. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies.

Environmental Quality Management provides a quantitative analysis of regional residuals environmental quality management in the Lower Delaware Valley. Originally published in 1976, this study takes a management outlook to discuss new systems such as a non-linear aquatic eco-system model and reaches conclusions which have influenced research and management decisions about REQM across the world. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies.

The maintenance of the freedom of fishing in the face of the changing circumstances that were occurring at the time of this title's original publication in 1973 had produced several damaging consequences. It had led to considerable waste, in both biological and economic terms, and had been the source of increasing conflict. This waste can only be prevented by the adoption of management measures and by the removal of the condition of free and open access. This book explores various techniques for this, and will be of interest to students of environmental management.

Recent developments in air pollution modelling are explored as a series of contributions from researchers at the forefront of their field. This book on air pollution modelling and its application is focused on local, urban, regional and intercontinental modelling; data assimilation and air quality forecasting; model assessment and evaluation; aerosol transformation; the relationship between air quality and human health and the effects of climate change on air quality. It consists of a series of papers that were presented at the 30th NATO/SPS International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application held in San Francisco, U.S.A., May 18-22, 2009. It is intended as reference material for students and professors interested in air pollution modelling at the graduate level as well as researchers and professionals involved in developing and utilizing air pollution models.

Huge quantities of natural resources are illegally harvested and their proceeds laundered in the Asia-Pacific region, fostering corruption and undermining environmental governance. Most illegal exploitation and pollution occurs in countries with poor governance capacities, but much of the sale for profit and money laundering occurs in mature markets with well-developed governance capacities. Their asymmetrical enforcement capacities can complement each other.

This book explores ways to combat illegal fishing and logging in Asia-Pacific region by the use of cooperative legal measures, particularly anti-money laundering and confiscation of proceeds techniques. Contributors to this volume cover themes including: the nature of transnational environmental crime; patterns in laundering of illicit fish and forest products; networks for distribution of illicit products; weaknesses in current systems for assurance of the legality of products; and international legal cooperation to enforce anti-money laundering laws in relation to illicit products. In considering these topics the book explores how the innovative use of anti-money laundering measures and the seizure of criminal proceeds can as policy options to combat transnational fishery and forestry crimes.

The book will be of keen interest to scholars and students of environmental law and criminal law, and excellent use for practitioners in natural resources conservation law.

The global carbon markets are growing at a staggering rate. The growth prospects for business are enormous and the potential positive impacts for greenhouse gas emission reductions, climate policy options, renewable energy investment, development projects and efficiency gains are increasingly apparent. A unique part of the market in greenhouse gas emissions is the rapidly growing voluntary carbon market driven by companies, organizations and individuals committed to efficiency, profitability and rapid action on climate change. The second edition of this groundbreaking book draws together all the key information on international voluntary carbon markets with commentary from leading practitioners and business people. It covers all aspects of voluntary carbon markets around the world: what they are, how they work and, most critically, their business potential to help slow climate change. This new, fully revised second edition provides key updates on relevant trends, standards, suppliers, and growth in the marketplace, and is the indispensable guide for anyone seeking to understand voluntary carbon markets and capitalize on the opportunities they present for economic and environmental benefit. Second edition updates: * Contains updated data on credit prices, transaction volumes, major industry players, and other quantitative data through 2008, as well as revised analysis reflecting these shifts * Includes explanations of additional offset project type categories, providing prospective buyers and project developers with a more detailed understanding of the suite of offset projects available * Contains revised explanations and analyses by market experts of the key issues affecting the voluntary markets * Provides an updated 'glance into the future' of the voluntary carbon markets, reflecting market and policy trends that emerged through early 2008.

Time-series analysis is used to identify and quantify periodic features in datasets and has many applications across the geosciences, from analysing weather data, to solid-Earth geophysical modelling. This intuitive introduction provides a practical 'how-to' guide to basic Fourier theory, with a particular focus on Earth system applications. The book starts with a discussion of statistical correlation, before introducing Fourier series and building to the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and related periodogram techniques. The theory is illustrated with numerous worked examples using R datasets, from Milankovitch orbital-forcing cycles to tidal harmonics and exoplanet orbital periods. These examples highlight the key concepts and encourage readers to investigate more advanced time-series techniques. The book concludes with a consideration of statistical effect size and significance. This useful book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in the Earth system sciences who are looking for an accessible introduction to time-series analysis.

Satellite imagery and data are widely used in public health surveillance to provide early warning of disease outbreaks and for averting pandemics. Convergence of these technologies began in the 1970s and has gained wide acceptance in the 21st Century. Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance focuses on the expanding use of satellite sensor imagery and long-term spectral measurements for assessing and modelling Earth's environments in context of public health surveillance. It addresses vector-borne, air-borne, water-borne, and zoonotic diseases, and explores analytical methods for forecasting environmental conditions and their potential for consequent disease outbreaks. Infectious and contagious diseases are of particular interest in this volume because once parasite-vector-human host pathways are triggered by favourable biological circumstances, pandemic diseases can spread to global scale in a matter of hours. The chapters advance readers through three sets of material. Part I reviews the 1970-2012 history of satellite Earth-science surveillance technology that led to linking natural environments to human diseases, and more generally to public health applications. Part II describes specific infectious and contagious diseases and the threat of emerging and re-emerging diseases. Part III explores the kinds of satellite data, modelling, and electronic information systems being developed to expedite health intercessions and responses at local to regional and global scales of reference. Equally important are the extensive reference sections for chapters in Parts II and III. For readers interested in tracking the development of Earth-science technology, these constitute a thorough entree to both the health and environmental literature. The chapters are written jointly by experts in both the health and Earth-science technologies. Each chapter is accompanied by an extensive list of citations to provide background and validation of the current state-of-the-art for a variety of high-interest human diseases and associated health and well-being issues. The importance of day-to-day weather patterns, the impacts of severe weather events and longer-term climate cycles form the basis for developing information systems that meet goals and expectations of national and international health monitoring bodies. Environmental Tracking for Public Health Surveillance provides a state-of-the-art overview on how environmental tracking data from satellite, airborne, and ground-based sensors are being integrated into appropriate geophysical and spatial information system models to enhance public health surveillance and decision-making from local to global levels, and is intended primarily for a cross-disciplinary professional audience consisting of public health decision-makers, spatial data analysts, modelers, Earth observation specialists, and medical researchers.

Scientists and consultants need to estimate and map properties of the terrestrial environment. These include plant nutrients and parasites in soil, gaseous emissions from soil, pollutant metals and xenobiotics in waste and contaminated land, salt in groundwater and species abundances above ground. The scale varies from small experimental plots to catchments, and the land may be enclosed in fields or be open grassland, forest or desert. Those who sample the variables to obtain the necessary data need guidance on the design and analysis of sampling methods for their conclusions and recommendations to be valid.

This book provides that guidance, backed by sound rationale and statistical theory. It concentrates on design-based sampling for estimates of mean values of environmental properties, emphasizing replication and randomization. It starts with simple random sampling and then progresses to more efficient designs, such as spatially stratified random sampling, stratification by classes and cluster sampling. It includes a section on purposive sampling in classical soil survey, which is relevant to other environmental properties such as vegetation. It also describes the effects of bulking on errors and the use of ancillary information and regression to improve estimates. The authors draw the important distinction between design-based sampling for estimating means and model-based methods (geostatistics) for local spatial prediction and mapping, and focus on the latter. They describe designs suitable for computing variograms and prediction by kriging, as well as a staged approach, so that sampling is neither inadequate nor excessive, and designs adapt as knowledge is accumulated. Including numerous worked case studies of sampling in agriculture, ecology and environmental science, the book will be of immediate practical value.

The fate of much of the world's terrestrial biodiversity depends upon our ability to improve the management of forest ecosystems that have already been substantially modified by humans. Monitoring is an essential ingredient in meeting this challenge, allowing us to measure the impact of different human activities on biodiversity and identify more responsible ways of managing the environment. Nevertheless many biodiversity monitoring programs are criticised as being little more than 'tick the box' compliance exercises that waste precious resources and erode the credibility of science in the eyes of decision makers and conservation investors. The purpose of this book is to examine the factors that make biodiversity monitoring programs fail or succeed. The first two sections lay out the context and importance of biodiversity monitoring, and shed light on some of the key challenges that have confounded many efforts to date. The third and main section presents an operational framework for developing monitoring programs that have the potential to make a meaningful contribution to forest management. Discussion covers the scoping, design and implementation stages of a forest biodiversity monitoring program, including defining the purpose, goals and objectives of monitoring, indicator selection, and the process of data collection, analysis and interpretation. Underpinning the book is the belief that biodiversity monitoring should be viewed not as a stand-alone exercise in surveillance but rather as an explicit mechanism for learning about how to improve opportunities for conservation. To be successful in this task, monitoring needs to be grounded in clear goals and objectives, effective in generating reliable assessments of changes in biodiversity and realistic in light of real-world financial, logistical and social constraints.

WATER RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT provides a detailed introduction to the full range of advanced, multidisciplinary techniques used in the study of water resources from understanding individual aquifers to the protection and management of water in a sustainable way, compatible with the preservation of the environment. Based on a masters course from UNESCO's International Hydrological Program, this textbook is accompanied by color figures and graphics, illustrating clearly the content of the text and showing real examples from the field. Each chapter also contains a list of exercises and practical activities as well as case studies.

Environmental applications have long been a core use of GIS. However, the effectiveness of GIS-based methods depends on the decision-making frameworks and contexts within which they are employed. GIS for Environmental Decision-Making takes an interdisciplinary look at the capacities of GIS to integrate, analyze, and display data on which decisions must be based. It provides a broad prospective on the current state of GIS for environmental decision-making and emphasizes the importance of matters related to data, analysis, and modeling tools, as well as stakeholder participation. The book is divided into three sections, which effectively relate to three key aspects of the decision-making process as supported by GIS: data required, tools being developed, and aspects of participation. The first section stresses the ability to integrate data from different sources as a defining characteristic of GIS and illustrates the benefits that this can bring in the context of deriving land-use and other information. The second section discusses a range of issues concerning the use of GIS for suitability mapping and strategic planning exercises, through illustrative examples. The last section of the book focuses on the use of GIS-based techniques to facilitate public participation in decision-making processes. In particular, it provides an overview of developments in this area, concentrating on how GIS, modeling, and 3D landscape visualization techniques are gradually achieving closer integration. Given the complex challenges presented by global environmental change, GIS for Environmental Decision-Making provides a clear illustration of how the use of GIS can make significant contributions to trans-disciplinary initiatives to address environmental problems.

Under the best of circumstances, preparing an environmental impact assessment (EIA) can be a complex and challenging task. Experience indicates that the scope and quality of such analyses varies widely throughout the U.S. as well as internationally. Written to help practitioners and decision-makers apply best professional practices in the development of EIAs, Environmental Impact Assessment: A Guide to Best Professional Practices provides an in depth, yet practical direction for developing a defensible analysis that meets best professional practices. The book describes preparation of five distinct types of assessments: Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) Preparing Greenhouse Emission Assessments Preparing Risk Assessments and Accident Analyses Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and Environmental Justice The International Environmental Impact Assessment Process Guiding Principles To date, there is significant variation and disagreement about how such analyses should be prepared. The author introduces best professional practices (BPP) for preparing such EIAs that is intended to meet decision-making and regulatory expectations. He supplies a comprehensive and balanced skill set of tools, techniques, concepts, principles, and practices for preparing these assessments. He also includes directions for developing a comprehensive Environmental Management Systems which can be used to monitor and implement final decisions for such analyses. While the book references the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), most of this guidance is generally applicable to any international EIA process consistent with NEPA. With thorough coverage of all aspects of assessments, the book presents a theoretical introduction to the subject as well as practical guidance. It delivers state-of-the-art tools, techniques, and approaches for resolving EIA problems.

Groundwater is sometimes called "the hidden asset" - awareness of its existence and its importance is not well known and as a consequence the measures which are required to protect and manage it in an environmental sustainable way are either not taken or are taken too late. Where pollution has occurred and measures are taken too late it may take decades, or longer, until the necessary restoration of quality is achieved.

This comprehensive text presents in the following sections:

Groundwater monitoring in the regulatory and international contextConceptual modelling and network designGroundwater pollutants and other pressuresGroundwater quality standards and trend assessmentCase studies for groundwater assessment and monitoring in the light of EU legislationGroundwater measurementsAssociating external stakeholders

The editors have collected state-of-the-art information on groundwater quality assessment monitoring from the international community, providing further stimulation to the work of all parties involved in the challenges this area creates to ensure sound quality assessment of groundwater.

This book provides hands-on conceptual, theoretical, and case study discussions on vulnerability and resilience in the global south. This book covers the core of adaptation strategies in developing countries context in an easy-to-follow theoretical and empirical examples. This book shares contemporary approaches on vulnerability, adaptation strategies, and resilience, which aim to assist its targeted audience (academics, policymakers, and practitioners) to understand and make informed decisions in a wide variety of real-world resilience situations.

This book addresses the improvement and dissemination of knowledge on methods, policies and technologies for increasing the sustainability of development by de-coupling growth from natural resources and replacing them with knowledge-based economy, taking into account its economic, environmental and social pillars, as well as methods for assessing and measuring sustainability of development, regarding water and environment. This book gathers scholar and experts in related fields. All attendees from a vast range of companies, universities and government institutions acquire advanced technical knowledge and are introduced to new fields through discussions that focus on their own specialties as well as a variety of interdisciplinary areas. The authors hope most of scholars can find what they really need in this book.

The fate of much of the world's terrestrial biodiversity depends upon our ability to improve the management of forest ecosystems that have already been substantially modified by humans. Monitoring is an essential ingredient in meeting this challenge, allowing us to measure the impact of different human activities on biodiversity and identify more responsible ways of managing the environment. Nevertheless many biodiversity monitoring programs are criticised as being little more than 'tick the box' compliance exercises that waste precious resources and erode the credibility of science in the eyes of decision makers and conservation investors. The purpose of this book is to examine the factors that make biodiversity monitoring programs fail or succeed. The first two sections lay out the context and importance of biodiversity monitoring, and shed light on some of the key challenges that have confounded many efforts to date. The third and main section presents an operational framework for developing monitoring programs that have the potential to make a meaningful contribution to forest management. Discussion covers the scoping, design and implementation stages of a forest biodiversity monitoring program, including defining the purpose, goals and objectives of monitoring, indicator selection, and the process of data collection, analysis and interpretation. Underpinning the book is the belief that biodiversity monitoring should be viewed not as a stand-alone exercise in surveillance but rather as an explicit mechanism for learning about how to improve opportunities for conservation. To be successful in this task, monitoring needs to be grounded in clear goals and objectives, effective in generating reliable assessments of changes in biodiversity and realistic in light of real-world financial, logistical and social constraints.

This book explains to governments, decision makers and disaster professionals the potential uses of recent technologies for disaster monitoring and risk reduction based on the knowledge and experience of prominent experts/researchers in the relevant fields. It discusses the application of recent technological developments for emerging disaster risks in today's societies and deliberates on the various aspects of disaster risk reduction strategies, especially through sustainable community resilience and responses. This book consists of selected invited papers on disaster management, which focus on community resilience and responses towards disaster risk reduction based on experiences, and closely examines the coordinated research activities involving all stakeholders, especially the communities at risk. Many regions of the world and aspects of disaster risk and its management are covered. It is described how recent technologies will support better understanding and action to reduce the number and impact of disasters in future. The principal audience for this book is researchers, urban planners, policy makers, as well as students.

The subject of tropical cyclones in Southern Africa, also known as hurricanes or typhoons in other regions of the world, has been growing over the past few decades. However, there is still limited literature on foundational and fundamental topics on the matter. To this end, this book addresses this gap, citing some examples from both historic and recent tropical cyclones. The book presents meteorological and climatic aspects of tropical cyclones, including reviews on forecasting, warning message dissemination and public response aspects of early warning systems with a focus on the Tropical Cyclones Idai and Kenneth. Fundamentals in disaster risk reduction (DRR) are also discussed moving from the provisions of the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015), to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030). Climate change issues are central to the publication, as well as the role of information and communication technologies in DRR and management. The book also tackles some challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of regional legal and institutional frameworks on DRR. The book comes as part of a series with three volumes. The other volumes include "Cyclones in Southern Africa Vol. 1: Interfacing the Catastrophic Impact of Cyclone Idai with SDGs in Zimbabwe" and "Cyclones in Southern Africa Vol 3: Implications for the Sustainable Development Goals". To this end, this book is suitable as a read for several professionals and disciplines such as tourism and hospitality studies, economics, sustainable development, development studies, environmental sciences, arts, geography, life sciences, politics, planning and public health.

The book reviews the current state of knowledge on the chemical and physical processes occurring in the environmental media (i) the atmosphere, (ii) the aqueous phase and (iii) soil and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the chemical mechanisms (both explicit and condensed) currently available to simulate the multimedia environmental chemistry of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter in these media. Contributions examine how well this knowledge has been incorporated into different types of CT models and appraise the current status and significant issues in the development and usage of the models. Model simulations of some real world chemical perturbations to the Earth system are presented which appraise the performance of the models in relation to "real world" observations. Serious caveats in our understanding of chemical processes and their simulation in the various compartments of the Earth system are highlighted and areas are identified that need urgent improvement, in particular with respect to environmental security.

This title meets a great demand for training in spatial analysis tools accessible to a wide audience. Landscape ecology continues to grow as an exciting discipline with much to offer for solving pressing and emerging problems in environmental science. Much of the strength of landscape ecology lies in its ability to address challenges over large areas, over spatial and temporal scales at which decision-making often occurs. As the world tackles issues related to sustainability and global change, the need for this broad perspective has only increased. Furthermore, spatial data and spatial analysis (core methods in landscape ecology) are critical for analyzing land-cover changes world-wide. While spatial dynamics have long been fundamental to terrestrial conservation strategies, land management and reserve design, mapping and spatial themes are increasingly recognized as important for ecosystem management in aquatic, coastal and marine systems. This second edition is purposefully more applied and international in its examples, approaches, perspectives and contributors. It includes new advances in quantifying landscape structure and connectivity (such as graph theory), as well as labs that incorporate the latest scientific understanding of ecosystem services, resilience, social-ecological landscapes, and even seascapes. Of course, as before, the exercises emphasize easy-to-use, widely available software. http://sarahgergel.net/lel/learning-landscape-ecology/

This book proposes the concept of urban multiple habitats and then analyzes its corresponding classification, function and potential supply capability. It provides an analysis framework for studying the relationship between urban biodiversity and built environment, and for considering the loss of urban habitats caused by high-density development. It argues that urban biodiversity is a key indicator for assessing urban ecosystem services. On this basis, the book then presents a case study mainly focusing on wild birds in Shanghai, as urban wild birds and their species could be viewed as an essential indicator for evaluating healthy ecosystem of contemporary cities. Based on the empirical findings, the book proposes an assessment model for urban biodiversity performance and a range of principles, strategies and key indicators regarding the optimization of urban planning and design practice to enhance urban biodiversity performance.

This book reviews the economic potential of various natural resources found in the Egyptian deserts that could help fill the food gap in Egypt, e.g., the date palm, olives, and domestic animals. Bearing in mind that the entire country is subject to arid or hyperarid climatic conditions, only a small portion (3% of total area) is agriculturally productive in comparison, the dominant deserts. These aspects, combined with a growing population (ca. 100 million citizens) and water resources scarcity, have produced severe adverse effects on natural resource utilization. This book presents innovative methods for addressing desert soil's key problems (soil erosion, salinity, pollution, decreased fertility, minerals, and weed and pest control). Its goal is to help authorities reclaim the desert and optimally utilize the minerals and the available natural resources to support the sustainability agenda 2030. Besides, it offers researchers guidance on remaining gaps and future research directions. Lastly and importantly, it provides essential information on investment opportunities in desert cultivation, such as the fields of food, fodder, and medicinal plants.

There is evidence that the world has been witnessing more intense tropical cyclones. Accompanying these tropical cyclones are heightened levels of devastation that witness the loss of human life and wildlife, destruction of natural resources and property and the disruption of major economic and social activities. To this end, there is a growing demand for publications focusing on tropical cyclones at various levels that include regional, national and local levels, especially from Africa. One sub-region that has been witnessing the harsh realities of the increasing intensity of tropical cyclones in southern Africa. However, within this region, countries are usually impacted at varying degrees of damage. Among the countries that usually encounter the harshness of these tropical cyclones are the Comoros, Botswana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Reunion, the Seychelles, South Africa and Zimbabwe. From the history books, the following tropical cyclones made landfall and hit southern Africa: Eline (2000), Favio (2007), Dineo (2017), Idai (2019), Kenneth (2019), Eliose (2021), and Chalane (2020). Although all these tropical cyclones had negative impacts, it is undoubtedly Tropical Cyclone Idai that shocked the world with its devastation mainly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in March 2019. Key infrastructure was destroyed, livelihoods were lost, and the environment was degraded. Thousands of people died, many more were injured, many remain unaccounted for and others remained homeless as of the time of finalising this book in February 2021. This book, therefore focuses on the devastating impacts of Tropical Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe. The book interfaces Tropical Cyclone Idai's impacts with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and some of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This linkage was deliberate given that there is still time remaining until 2030, and the world has generally agreed to move into the future along the pathways of sustainable development and sustainability. The book adds to the first comprehensive profiling of the impacts of tropical cyclones on southern African economies, particularly that of Zimbabwe. It also comes up as the first in a three-volume series. The other volumes to look out for are Cyclones in Southern Africa Vol 2: Foundational and Fundamental Topics; and Cyclones in Southern Africa Vol 3: Implications for the Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, this book is suitable as a read for several professionals and disciplines such as tourism and hospitality studies, economics, sustainable development, development studies, environmental sciences, arts, geography, life sciences, politics, planning and public health.