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.

Originally published in 1977, this title provides an overview of regional residuals-environmental quality management (REQM). Edited by Blair T. Bower, this volume offers insights on the analytical problems faced in developing useful information for societal decisions on REQM. It is a valuable resource for policy makers and students interested in environmental issues.

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.

This book introduces flood inundation area and flood risks assessment based on a comprehensive monitoring system using remote sensing and geographic information system technologies. Taking the 2011 flood disaster of Ayutthaya in Thailand as an example, it presents a flood intrusion zone identification method based on remote sensing technology, spatial information technology and geographic information system for flood disaster monitoring and early warning system. It introduces the study area and data, vegetation index, improved support vector machine and flood intrusion zone identification method. It also analyzes the flood remote sensing parameters and waterborne diseases, method of risk assessment of waterborne disease outbreak, waterborne disease outbreak risk monitoring based on backpropagation neural network and its expert system. It not only promotes a new interdisciplinary approach both in public health and space information technology, but also greatly supports decision makers in disaster reduction.

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.

This book introduces key concepts in modeling and risk assessments of vapor intrusion, a process by which the subsurface volatile contaminants migrate into the building of concern. Soil vapor intrusion is the major exposure pathway for building occupants to chemicals from the subsurface, and its risk assessments determine the criteria of volatile contaminants in soil/groundwater in brownfield redevelopment. The chapters feature the recent advances in vapor intrusion studies and practices, including analytical and numerical modeling of vapor intrusion, statistical findings of United States Environmental Protection Agency's Vapor Intrusion Database and Petroleum Vapor Intrusion Databases, the challenges of preferential pathways, and the application of building pressure cycling methods, and field practices of vapor intrusion risk assessments at developed contaminated sites and in brownfield redevelopment. This volume also summarizes the advantages and limits of current applications in vapor intrusion risk assessment, laying the groundwork for future research of better understanding in risk characterization of soil vapor intrusion using models. Written by experts in this field, Vapor Intrusion Simulations and Risk Assessments will serve as an invaluable reference for researchers, regulators, and practitioners, who are interested in perceiving the basic knowledge and current advances in risk assessments of soil vapor intrusion.

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.

Weed management Decision Support Systems (DSS) are increasingly important computer-based tools for modern agriculture. Nowadays, extensive agriculture has become highly dependent on external inputs and both economic costs, as well the negative environmental impact of agricultural activities, demands knowledge-based technology for the optimization and protection of non-renewable resources. In this context, weed management strategies should aim to maximize economic profit by preserving and enhancing agricultural systems. Although previous contributions focusing on weed biology and weed management provide valuable insight on many aspects of weed species ecology and practical guides for weed control, no attempts have been made to highlight the forthcoming importance of DSS in weed management. This book is a first attempt to integrate `concepts and practice' providing a novel guide to the state-of-art of DSS and the future prospects which hopefully would be of interest to higher-level students, academics and professionals in related areas.

This book mainly deals with grassland digitalization and recognition through computer vision, which will make contributions to implement of grass auto recognition and data acquisition. Taking advantage of computer vision, it focuses on intrinsic feature extraction to realize the functions such as auto recognition of forage seeds and microscope images mosaic. The book presents a new approach for identification of grass seeds, with clear figures and detailed tables. It enlightens reader by solving the traditional problems of pratacultural science through the aid of computer science.

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.

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Data for Decision-Making. Tools to Support Decision-Making. Participation in Decision-Making.

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.

Data-Driven Modeling: Using MATLAB(r) in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering provides a systematic account of major concepts and methodologies for data-driven models and presents a unified framework that makes the subject more accessible to and applicable for researchers and practitioners. It integrates important theories and applications of data-driven models and uses them to deal with a wide range of problems in the field of water resources and environmental engineering such as hydrological forecasting, flood analysis, water quality monitoring, regionalizing climatic data, and general function approximation.
The book presentsthe statistical-based models including basic statistical analysis, nonparametric and logistic regression methods, time series analysis and modeling, and support vector machines. It also deals with the analysis and modeling based on artificial intelligence techniques including static and dynamic neural networks, statistical neural networks, fuzzy inference systems, and fuzzy regression. The book also discusses hybrid models as well as multi-model data fusion to wrap up the covered models and techniques.
The source files of relatively simple and advanced programs demonstrating how to use the models are presented together with practical advice on how to best apply them. The programs, which have been developed using the MATLAB(r) unified platform, can be found on extras.springer.com.
The main audience of this book includes graduate students in water resources engineering, environmental engineering, agricultural engineering, and natural resources engineering. This book may be adapted for use as a senior undergraduate and graduate textbook by focusing on selected topics. Alternatively, it may also be used as a valuable resource book for practicing engineers, consulting engineers, scientists and others involved in water resources and environmental engineering. "

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.

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.

Environmental Modeling and Health Risk Analysis (ACTS/RISK) The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with an integrated perspective on several ?elds. First, it discusses the ?elds of environmental modeling in general and multimedia (the term "multimedia" is used throughout the text to indicate that environmental transformation and transport processes are discussed in association with three environmental media: air, groundwater and surface water pathways) environmental transformation and transport processes in particular; it also provides a detailed description of numerous mechanistic models that are used in these ?elds. Second, this book presents a review of the topics of exposure and health risk analysis. The Analytical Contaminant Transport Analysis System (ACTS) and Health RISK Analysis (RISK) software tools are an integral part of the book and provide computational platforms for all the models discussed herein. The most recent versions of these two software tools can be downloaded from the publisher's web site. The author recommends registering the software on the web download page so that users can receive updates about newer versions of the software.

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.

In the face of increasingly serious resource and environmental challenges, the world has already accepted low-carbon development as the main way forward for future city construction. Chinese cities have encountered many problems during their development, including land constraints, energy shortages, traffic congestion and air pollution. For this reason, the national meeting of the Central Work Conference on Urbanization made the strategic decision to take a new approach to urbanization and indicated that in future the key features of urbanization in China will be low-carbon development and harmony between the environment and resources. This book discusses the "low-carbon city" as the new pattern of Chinese urbanization. This represents a major change and takes "intensive land use," "intelligent," "green" and "low carbon" as its key words. Low carbon will become an important future development direction for Chinese urbanization development. In the twenty-first Century in response to the global climate change, countries have started a wave of low-carbon city construction. But in China, there are still many disputes and misunderstandings surrounding the issue. Due to a lack of research, low-carbon city construction in China is still in the early stages, and while there have been successes, there have also been failures. There are complex and diverse challenges in applying low-carbon development methods in the context of today's Chinese cities. The construction of low-carbon cities requires efficient government, the technological innovation of enterprises, and professional scholars, but also efforts on the part of the public to change their daily activities. Based on the above considerations, the collection brings together experts from urban planning and design, clean-energy systems, low-carbon transportation, new types of city infrastructure and smart cities etc., in the hope of forming some solutions for Chinese low-carbon city development.

A digital elevation model (DEM) is a digital representation of ground surface topography or terrain. It is also widely known as a digital terrain model (DTM). A DEM can be represented as a raster (a grid of squares) or as a vector based triangular irregular network (TIN). DEMs are commonly built using remote sensing techniques, but they may also be built from land surveying. DEMs are used often in geographic information systems, and are the most common basis for digitally-produced relief maps. The terrain surface can be described as compromising of two different elements; random and systematic. The random (stochastic) elements are the continuous surfaces with continuously varying relief. It would take an endless number of points to describe exactly the random terrain shapes, but these can be described in practice with a network of point. It is usual to use a network that creates sloping triangles or regular quadrants. This book examines how the methods and data sources used to generate DEMs and calculate land surface parameters have changed over the past 25 years. The primary goal is to describe the state-of-the-art for a typical digital terrain modeling workflow that starts with data capture, continues with data preprocessing and DEM generation, and concludes with the calculation of one or more primary and secondary land surface parameters. Taken as a whole, this book covers the basic theory behind the methods, the instrumentation, analysis and interpretation that are embedded in the modern digital terrain modeling workflow, the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods that the terrain analyst must choose among, typical applications of the results emanating from these terrain modeling workflows, and future directions. This book is intended for researchers and practitioners who wish to use DEMs, land surface parameters, land surface objects and landforms in environmental projects. The book will also be valuable as a reference text for environmental scientists who are specialists in related fields and wish to integrate these kinds of digital terrain workflows and outputs into their own specialized work environments.

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.

Evaluating traditional and recent analytical methods according to speed, sensitivity, and cost-efficiency, this reference supports specialists in the selection of effective analytical techniques and equipment for the study of soils, soil contaminants, and environmental samples. Updated and revised, this Third Edition illustrates the advantages, limitations, range, and challenges of the major analytical approaches utilized in modern research laboratories. It includes new chapters and expanded discussions of the measurement of organic pollutants in the environment and gas fluxes between the land surface and atmosphere, and an extensive range of environmental materials.

The book is a collection of the lectures delivered during the 7th International Summer School on Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ISSAOS) titled "Integrated Ground-Based Observing Systems Applications for Climate, Meteorology, and Civil Protection". Its aim is to contribute to the scientific understanding of basic concepts and applications of integrated ground-based observing systems. The first part describes the most common instrumentations showing their strengths and limitations. Furthermore, strategic plans for the deployment of an observation site are discussed along with an overview of techniques for integrating heterogeneous data. The second part introduces cutting-edge applications, including assimilation in numerical weather prediction, climate benchmarking, air quality monitoring and meteo/hydrological warnings.

Determination of metals is a major part of the work of environmental testing laboratories. EPA and DEP methodology releases provide information only for selected areas of metals sampling and analysis, and their language makes them unsuitable for teaching and training purposes. Environmental Sampling and Analysis for Metals is a comprehensive and easy-to-read text for laboratory technicians and analytical chemists who need a guide for analyzing metals in environmental samples and a reference for analytical and quality control procedures.

The book provides both theoretical and practical applications in metals analysis of environmental samples and incorporates the latest in analytical techniques, instrumentation, and regulations. Topics include sample collection, preservation, step-by-step analytical procedures, complete QA/QC requirements, data validation, and more. It also provides an overview of the occurrence, source, and fate of metallic substances in the environment, as well as their control by regulations and standards. Furthermore, the authors provide guidelines to help you prepare and understand reports. The analytical methods presented in Environmental Sampling and Analysis for Metals will be useful to anyone who produces, uses, or evaluates analytical data, and will be a valuable tool in environmental education and training programs.

With the increasing concern over rural livelihoods and the food security of poor communities in developing countries, it is vital that land quality is maintained. Yet, land degradation is widespread and is lowering the productive capacity of the land in these countries. This practical handbook presents simple, non-technical indicators for assessing land degradation in the field. Based on the perspective of the farmer, the methods selected lend meaning to real farming situations, helping the field professional to understand not only the impact of degradation but also the benefits to be gained from reversing it. The handbook shows how to calculate indicators such as those of soil loss, explains the interpretation of results and in particular how combinations of different indicators can give conclusive evidence of the severity of land degradation. The focus of the book is firmly on understanding the farmer's interaction with the land, and how environmental protection, food security and the well-being of rural land users may be assured. With detailed figures, photographs, worked examples and sample forms based on assessment techniques validated by field professionals in Africa, Asia and Latin America, this will be an essential training manual will be invaluable for field-workers in NGOs and in governmental and educational institutions. It will also be of interest to researchers and academics in development, environment and agriculture.