John Wesley Powell, U.S. scientist and geographer, put it best when he said that a watershed is: ...that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross sectorial boundaries (e.g. county, state/province, and country). No matter where you are, you are in a watershed! World-wide, watersheds supply drinking water, provide r- reation and respite, and sustain life. Watersheds are rich in natural capital, producing goods (agriculture and fisheries products) and services (industry and technology) for broad geographic areas. In many countries, at the base of watersheds where tributaries empty into large water-bodies (e.g. estuaries, seas, oceans) are centers of society and are typically densely populated areas. These areas serve as concentrated centers of the socio-economic system. They also are centers of domestic and international trade, tourism, and c- merce as well as the center of governments (capitals) where local, regional and national legislatures are located. As we all live in a watershed, our individual actions can directly affect it. The cumulative effects of all the individual actions of everyone within a watershed may be, and often are devastating to the quality of water resources and affect the health of living things including humans. Therefore, watershed systems are highly subject to threat to human security and peace.

This book provides a timely and insightful analysis of the expansion of biofuels production and use in recent years. Drawing on interviews with key policy insiders, Ackrill and Kay show how biofuels policies have been motivated by concerns over climate change, energy security and rural development.

In 1969 the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) established the Committee on Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS). The subject of air pol- tion was from the start, one of the priority problems under study within the fra- work of various pilot studies undertaken by this committee. The organization of a periodic conference dealing with air pollution modeling 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 next four by The Netherlands; and the next five by Denmark; and with this one, the last three by Portugal. th This volume contains the papers and posters presented at the 27 NATO/CCMS International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application held in Banff, Canada, 24-29 October 2004. The key topics at this ITM included: Role of Atmospheric Models in Air Pollution Policy and Abatement Strategies; Integrated Regional Modeling; Effects of Climate Change on Air Quality; Aerosols as Atmospheric Contaminants; New Developments; and Model Assessment and Verification. 104 participants from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia attended th the 27 ITM. The conference was jointly organized by the University of Aveiro, Portugal (Pilot Country) and by The University of Calgary, Canada (Host Country). A total of 74 oral and 22 poster papers were presented during the conference.

Written for a broad audience this book offers a comprehensive account of early warning systems for hydro meteorological disasters such as floods and storms, and for geological disasters such as earthquakes. One major theme is the increasingly important role in early warning systems played by the rapidly evolving fields of space and information technology. The authors, all experts in their respective fields, offer a comprehensive and in-depth insight into the current and future perspectives for early warning systems. The text is aimed at decision-makers in the political arena, scientists, engineers and those responsible for public communication and dissemination of warnings.

One key uncertainty in predictions of future climate is caused by the lack of knowledge of transport processes in the air-water interface; this poses the main transfer resistance between oceans and atmosphere. This book reviews recent progress in the domains of experimental process studies as well as computer stimulation. It represents an early approach of merging insights gained in both fields and broadens our understanding of air-water gas and heat exchange.

In this thesis, a new lidar (light detection and ranging) ceilometer capable of monitoring cloud base and sensitive to boundary layer aerosols is introduced. The key to this novelty lies in its divided-lens design that addresses a classical lidar problem of balancing transmitter-receiver overlap and signal-to-noise ratio, along with a method for characterizing overlap in the laboratory. Enhanced sensitivity in the near-range of the instrument is achieved without compromising signal-to-noise in a design that is straightforward to manufacture for broad deployment. The instrument, its optical characterization, and its performance in the field are described. The prototype instrument described here has since formed the basis of a commercial sensor for monitoring clouds and aerosols. High-resolution, continuous observations of clouds and aerosols are needed to reduce the large uncertainties in our current understanding of their influence on climate that have been highlighted by the International Panel on Climate Change. And as international health organizations indicate growing public health threats over the coming decades resulting from poor air quality, extensive aerosol monitoring is required to assess personal exposure to and the health impacts of anthropogenic particulates. Ground-based optical remote sensing measurements made by well-characterized instruments, such as that described in these pages, are critical to this.

In the present authors attempted to have a clear insight into the interworking of geotectonic, geomorphic, hydrologic and anthropogenic factors leading to landslide in the Shiv khola Watershed, the most worst affected region of Darjiling Himalaya. This book includes the parameters responsible for landslide events in mountainous areas. It provides knowledge and understanding to the local people, planners, and policy makers about the causes and consequences of landslides as well as provides a suitable method to mitigate the landslips. The book deals with the role of land, water and soil in landslide phenomena. These three attributes have been described in terms of critical rainfall, critical slope, critical height and changes and development of drainage network in landslides. Mitigations and site-specific management options are evaluated considering the roles of local govt., community and other organizations in both pre-slide and post-slide periods. Various scientific methods have been used to assess the landslides that will bring about tremendous help to researchers in the field. In particular, Researchers in Mountain Geomorphology and Geological and Geographical Society will get tremendous help from some topics such as 1-D slope stability model, SCS Curve Number Technique, Assessment of morphological parameters, application of RS & GIS, Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process. Semi-quantitative approach is followed for understanding spatial distribution of cohesion, friction angle slope, lithology and lineaments, drainage, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover types etc. This book also reveals some techniques and models for initiating slope instability.

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.

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.

This volume represents the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Sustainability in Energy and Buildings, SEB'10, held in the City of Brighton and Hove in the United Kingdom, and organised by KES International. Organised by the KES International organisation, SEB'10 formed a welcome opportunity for researchers in subjects related to sustainability, renewable energy technology, and applications in the built environment to mix with other scientists, industrialists and stakeholders in the field. SEB'10 attracted papers on a range of renewable energy and sustainability related topics and in addition the conference explored two innovative themes:- * The application of intelligent sensing, control, optimisation and modelling techniques to sustainability and * The technology of sustainable buildings. These techniques could ultimately be applied to the intelligent building SEB'10 attracted about 100 submissions from around the world. These were subjected to a two-stage blind peer-review process. With the objective of producing a high quality conference, the best 30% of these were selected for presentation at the conference and publication in this volume of proceedings. The papers in this volume are grouped into the five themes under which they were presented: Building Sustainability, Sustainable Power Generation, Sustainable Energy Policy and Strategy, Energy Monitoring and Management and Solar Energy Technology. These proceedings form an interesting and informative collection of papers, useful as a resource for further research, and a valuable source of information for those interested in the subject.

Up-to-date coverage of most micro-econometric topics; first half parametric, second half semi- (non-) parametric Many empirical examples and tips in applying econometric theories to data Essential ideas and steps shown for most estimators and tests; well-suited for both applied and theoretical readers

Metrology and its applications e.g. in chemical or food analysis or in environmental monitoring are entering our daily life. This book provides a basic overview over the relevant metrological concepts like traceability, ISO uncertainties or cause-and-effect diagrams. The applications described in great detail range from progression-of-error type evaluation of the measurement uncertainty budget to complex applications like pH measurement or speciation calculations for aqueous solutions. The consequences of a measurement uncertainty concept for chemical data are outlined for geochemical modeling applied to transport in the subsurface and to nuclear waste disposal. Special sections deal with the deficits of existing thermodynamic data for these applications and with the current position of chemical metrology in respect to other quality assurance measures, e.g. ISO 900x, GLP, European and U.S.-American standards.

Growing energy demand and environmental consciousness have re-evoked human interest in wind energy. As a result, wind is the fastest growing energy source in the world today. Policy frame works and action plans have already been for- lated at various corners for meeting at least 20 per cent of the global energy - mand with new-renewables by 2010, among which wind is going to be the major player. In view of the rapid growth of wind industry, Universities, all around the world, have given due emphasis to wind energy technology in their undergraduate and graduate curriculum. These academic programmes attract students from diver- fied backgrounds, ranging from social science to engineering and technology. Fundamentals of wind energy conversion, which is discussed in the preliminary chapters of this book, have these students as the target group. Advanced resource analysis tools derived and applied are beneficial to academics and researchers working in this area. The Wind Energy Resource Analysis (WERA) software, provided with the book, is an effective tool for wind energy practitioners for - sessing the energy potential and simulating turbine performance at prospective sites.

The science of geostatistics is now being employed in an increasing number of disciplines in environmental sciences. This book surveys the latest applications of Geostatistics in a broad spectrum of fields including air quality, climatology, ecology, groundwater hydrology, surface hydrology, oceanography, soil contamination, epidemiology and health, natural hazards, and remote sensing.

This resource explains and demonstrates the backscattering properties of multiscale rough surfaces, and illustrates their application to establish the geophysical model function (GMF) needed in wind scatterometry. This book also explains how the mechanisms of backscattering change with frequency and the incident angle on a multiscale surface and how to recognize single scale versus multiscale surfaces - very useful information for those wanting to use backscattering models more efficiently.

Forest inventories throughout the world have evolved gradually over time. The content as well as the concepts and de?nitions employed are constantly adapted to the users' needs. Advanced inventory systems have been established in many countries within Europe, as well as outside Europe, as a result of development work spanning several decades, in some cases more than 100 years. With continuously increasing international agreements and commitments, the need for information has also grown drastically, and reporting requests have become more frequent and the content of the reports wider. Some of the agreements made at the international level have direct impacts on national economies and international decisions, e. g. , the Kyoto Protocol. Thus it is of utmost importance that the forest information supplied is collected and analysed using sound scienti?c principles and that the information from different countries is comparable. European National Forest Inventory (NFI) teams gathered in Vienna in 2003 to discuss the new challenges and the measures needed to get data users to take full advantage of existing NFIs. As a result, the European National Forest Inventory Network (ENFIN), a network of NFIs, was established. The ENFIN members decided to apply for funding for meetings and collaborative activities. COST- European Cooperation in Science and Technology - provided the necessary ?n- cial means for the realization of the program.

The second volume of "Adaptation and Evolution in Marine Environments - The Impacts of Global Change on Biodiversity" from the series "From Pole to Pole" integrates the marine biology contribution of the first tome to the IPY 2007-2009, presenting overviews of organisms (from bacteria and ciliates to higher vertebrates) thriving on polar continental shelves, slopes and deep sea. The speed and extent of warming in the Arctic and in regions of Antarctica (the Peninsula, at the present ) are greater than elsewhere. Changes impact several parameters, in particular the extent of sea ice; organisms, ecosystems and communities that became finely adapted to increasing cold in the course of millions of years are now becoming vulnerable, and biodiversity is threatened. Investigating evolutionary adaptations helps to foresee the impact of changes in temperate areas, highlighting the invaluable contribution of polar marine research to present and future outcomes of the IPY in the Earth system scenario.

This book discusses in detail the analysis and monitoring of the most important analytes in the environmental field. It also reviews the implementation, realization and application of sensor designs mentioned in the first volume of this set, dividing the coverage into global parameters, sensors of organics and sensors of inorganics.

Progressing towards sustainable development raises important challenges to conducting performance evaluations in governments because there are neither generally accepted methods nor specific standards to be met at present. Sustainability Performance Evaluation System in Government, makes a conceptual contribution to public sustainability performance evaluation and develops a set of framework indicators with the help of the strategic and comprehensive approach "Sustainability Balanced Scorecard". As a conceptual basis for the further research and application, this volume will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners at many levels of environmental / sustainability, public management and strategic control studies. Evaluators will find methodological approaches and applied tools for their work. Decision-makers and managers will find it valuable to manage the social, economic and environmental issues in a balanced and integrated manner. Governments will also find it helpful in assisting them in establishing an evaluation system towards sustainable development.

The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) has been established by the Int- national Association of Geodesy (IAG) in order to integrate the three fundamental areas of geodesy, so as to monitor geodetic parameters and their temporal varia- ?9 tions, in a global reference frame with a target relative accuracy of 10 or b- ter. These areas, often called 'pillars', deal with the determination and evolution of (a) the Earth's geometry (topography, bathymetry, ice surface, sea level), (b) the Earth's rotation and orientation (polar motion, rotation rate, nutation, etc. ), and (c) the Earth's gravity eld (gravity, geoid). Therefore, Earth Observation on a global scale is at the heart of GGOS's activities, which contributes to Global Change - search through the monitoring, as well as the modeling, of dynamic Earth processes such as, for example, mass and angular momentum exchanges, mass transport and ocean circulation, and changes in sea, land and ice surfaces. To achieve such an - bitious goal, GGOS relies on an integrated network of current and future terrestrial, airborne and satellite systems and technologies. These include: various positioning, navigation, remote sensing and dedicated gravity and altimetry satellite missions; global ground networks of VLBI, SLR, DORIS, GNSS and absolute and relative gravity stations; and airborne gravity, mapping and remote sensing systems.

This volume represents the proceedings of the First International Conference on S- tainability in Energy and Buildings, SEB'09, held in the City of Brighton and Hove in the United Kingdom, organised by KES International with the assistance of the World Renewable Energy Congress / Network, and hosted by the University of Brighton. KES International is a knowledge transfer organisation providing high-quality c- ference events and publishing opportunities for researchers. The KES association is a community consisting of several thousand research scientists and engineers who p- ticipate in KES activities. For over a decade KES has been a leader in the area of Knowledge Based and Intelligent information and Engineering Systems. Now KES is starting to make a contribution in the area of Sustainability and Renewable Energy with this first conference specifically on renewable energy and its application to - mestic and other buildings. Sustainability in energy and buildings is a topic of - creasing interest and importance on the world agenda. We therefore hope and intend that this first SEB event may grow and evolve into a conference series. KES International is a member of the World Renewable Energy Congress / N- work which is Chaired by Professor Ali Sayigh. We are grateful to Professor Sayigh for the collaboration and assistance of WREC/N in the organisation of SEB'09. We hope to continue to work with WREC/N in the future on projects of common interest.

As individual topics, the terms "satellite rainfall" and "surface hydrology" have beenmuchwidelystudiedoverthelastfewdecades.Eversincerainfallproducts beguntobedevelopedusingspace-borneinfraredsensorsingeostationaryorbitin theseventies,satelliteremotesensingofrainfallexperiencedtremendousprogress. Microwavesensorsonlowearthorbitscamealongduringtheeightiestoprovide more accurate estimates of rainfall at the cost of limited sampling. As the c- trastingbutcomplementarypropertiesofmicrowaveandinfraredsensorsbecame apparent,mergedrainfallproductsstartedtoappearduringthefollowingdecade.In 1997,theTropicalRainfallMeasuringMission(TRMM)withthe?rstspace-borne active microwave precipitation radar (TRMM-PR), was launched. The success of TRMMinimprovingourunderstandingonTropicalandSub-tropicalrainfalld- tribution and precipitation structures consequently spurred a larger scale mission aimed at the study of global distribution of precipitation. Today, we now eagerly anticipatetheGlobalPrecipitationMeasurement(GPM)mission,whichenvisions aglobalconstellationofmicrowavesensorsthatwillprovidemoreaccurateglobal rainfallproductsathighresolutionfrom2013onwards. Itisthereforesafetoclaimthreedecadesofresearchheritageonsatelliteremote sensing of rainfall. Similarly, the topic of "surface hydrology" requires no int- duction for readers of environmental sciences and geosciences either. But what happens if we connect all the individual terms and name it - "satellite rainfall applications for surface hydrology"? A new topic is created. But little is known aboutthistopicbecausesatelliteremotesensingofrainfallandsurfacehydrology have evolved rather independently of each other. Even though the potential for a space-bornesourceofrainfalldatawasalwaysrecognizedforavarietyofappli- tions(suchas?oodforecastinginungaugedregions,transboundarywaterresources, global/regionaldroughtandagriculturalplanning),the?eldsofsatelliterainfalland surfacehydrologyhavehardlyintersectedduringtheirdevelopmentalstagesduring thelastfewdecades.Wearenowfacedwithamyriadofquestionsrangingfrom commonoperationalissuestodetailedscienti?cinquiries.Someofthesequestions are: There are so many satellite rainfall products currently available - which one does one use for a speci?c application to get the best results? What is the optimum scaleofapplication ofsatelliterainfalldataforagiven surfaceapplication? Whatis the level of uncertainty in each satellite rainfall product and what is the implication v vi Preface for a given surface hydrologic prediction? Where do I acquire the data for research or for operational applications? How are these satellite rainfall products developed and how do they differ from one another? This book by Springer on "Satellite Rainfall Applications for Surface Hydrology" is a contribution to both scienti?c and practical questions regarding

Optimizing Stormwater Treatment Practices: A Handbook of Assessment and Maintenance provides the information necessary for developing and operating an effective maintenance program for stormwater treatment. The book offers instructions on how to measure the level of performance of stormwater treatment practices directly and bases proposed maintenance schedules on actual performance and historical maintenance efforts and costs. The inspection methods, which are proven in the field and have been implemented successfully, are necessary as regulatory agencies are demanding evaluations of the performance of stormwater treatment practices. The authors have developed a three-tiered approach that offers readers a standard protocol for how to determine the effectiveness of stormwater treatment practices currently in place.

Human induced global climate change is the biggest challenge humankind faces today. Increasing amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases play a crucial role in the evolution of the climate. Without the understanding of the contributing processes, feedbacks and interactions we cannot predict the future changes and develop effective mitigation strategies. To decrease the uncertainty of the global studies detailed regional studies are needed surveying the regional characteristics of the atmospheric greenhouse gas budget and the influencing factors. Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases: The Hungarian Perspective covers a coherent subset of the Hungarian climate change oriented research that is directly related to greenhouse gases. Topics discussed in the book range from the monitoring of the concentrations and fluxes of atmospheric greenhouse gases, through the modeling of atmosphere-biosphere interaction and greenhouse gas exchange processes, to the review of the anthropogenic contribution of Hungary to the greenhouse gas budget of the atmosphere. The studies call the attention to the regional properties which may modulate the European scale or global picture on the variation of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

The assessment of greenhouse gases emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on the international political and scientific agendas. Growing international concern and cooperation regarding the climate change problem have increased the need for policy-oriented solutions to the issue of uncertainty in, and related to, inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed here reflect attempts to improve national inventories, not only for their own sake but also from a wider, systems analytical perspective - a perspective that seeks to strengthen the usefulness of national inventories under a compliance and/or global monitoring and reporting framework. These approaches demonstrate the benefits of including inventory uncertainty in policy analyses. The authors of the contributed papers show that considering uncertainty helps avoid situations that can, for example, create a false sense of certainty or lead to invalid views of subsystems. This may eventually prevent related errors from showing up in analyses. However, considering uncertainty does not come for free. Proper treatment of uncertainty is costly and demanding because it forces us to make the step from "simple to complex" and only then to discuss potential simplifications. Finally, comprehensive treatment of uncertainty does not offer policymakers quick and easy solutions.