Access, distribution and processing of Geographic Information (GI) are basic preconditions to support strategic environmental decision-making. The heterogeneity of information on the environment today available is driving a wide number of initiatives, on both sides of the Atlantic, all advocating both the strategic role of proper management and processing of environme- related data as well as the importance of harmonized IT infrastructures designed to better monitor and manage the environment. The extremely wide range of often multidimensional environmental information made available at the global scale poses a great challenge to technologists and scientists to find extremely sophisticated yet effective ways to provide access to relevant data patterns within such a vast and highly dynamic information flow. In the past years the domain of 3D scientific visualization has developed several solutions designed for operators requiring to access results of a simulation through the use of 3D visualization that could support the understanding of an evolving phenomenon. However 3D data visualization alone does not provide model and hypothesis-making neither it provide tools to validate results. In order overcome this shortcoming, in recent years scientists have developed a discipline that combines the benefits of data mining and information visualization, which is often referred to as Visual Analytics (VA).

Land degradation from soil erosion has been considered by many to be a problem of significant proportion, affecting some 30 50% of the earth's land surface. At the time of the first publication of this book in 1993, estimates indicated that 10 15 million hectares of land were being lost each year through erosion and salinisation from irrigation and that at such a rate of loss, topsoil reserves on most sloping lands would be depleted within two hundred years. Since humankind's dependency on the land for food is almost total, soil erosion represents a real threat to the security of our food supply. The need for the immediate conservation of the world's soil resources is therefore clear. As part of the response to this need, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Commission on Ecology convened a special working group to consider the problem of world soil erosion and to propose practical solutions for soil conservation. This important book presents the outcome of their work.

Marine environment can be affected by several pollutants such as the presence of elements and their chemical species, pharmaceuticals, nanoparticles and other emerging contaminants. Environmental monitoring can be assessed by genomics, proteomics (i.e. redox proteomics), chemical speciation analysis and metallomics, metabolomics as well as other advanced strategies. The present book is a useful methodological tool for researchers and specialists in the field of analytical chemistry, environmental sciences, biochemistry, genomics and toxicology. The book includes for the first time the methodological aspects and applications related to chemical speciation and -omics strategies applied to marine environment.

Das Buch enthAlt ausgewAhlte BeitrAge von Workshops zur Theorie und Modellierung von A-kosystemen, die von der BTU Cottbus veranstaltet wurden. Schwerpunkte des Buches sind systemtheoretische Grundlagen und dynamische Eigenschaften Akologischer Systeme, Modellierungskonzepte und Anwendungen mathematischer Modelle auf FlieAgewAsser, KlAranlagen und AgroAkosysteme. Insbesondere wird die Verwendung von Informatikwerkzeugen zur LAsung von Umweltaufgaben betont. Dabei spielen neue physikalische und mathematische Sichtweisen zur A-kosystemanalyse und zur Bewertung von Umweltproblemen eine wichtige Rolle.

Ohne die Geowissenschaften wAre die technische Entwicklung der Menschheit nicht dort, wo sie heute steht. In Zukunft wird es darauf ankommen, die Umwelt so schonend wie mAglich zu nutzen, ohne die Lebensgrundlagen Wasser, Boden und Luft zu A1/4bernutzen. Auch zu diesen Problemen leisten Geowissenschaftler grundlegende BeitrAge.
Ausgehend von Aoeberlegungen, wohin sich die zukA1/4nftige Umweltforschung orientieren wird, geben die BeitrAge des Bandes aktuelle EinschAtzungen A1/4ber den momentanen Stand ausgewAhlter Forschungsrichtungen im geowissenschaftlichen Umweltbereich. Dabei geht es aber auch immer um den zukA1/4nftigen Zustand und darum, was die Forschung zur Verbesserung beitragen kann - in der Klimaforschung, in der Bodenforschung, in der Forschung zur Wasserversorgung und zum Umweltzustand, aber auch in der Forschung zur besseren Ausnutzung der irdischen Rohstoffe.

Risk analysis is not a narrowly defined set of applications. Rather, it is widely used to assess and manage a plethora of hazards that threaten dire implications. However, too few people actually understand what risk analysis can help us accomplish and, even among experts, knowledge is often limited to one or two applications. Explaining Risk Analysis frames risk analysis as a holistic planning process aimed at making better risk-informed decisions and emphasizing the connections between the parts. This framework requires an understanding of basic terms, including explanations of why there is no universal agreement about what risk means, much less risk assessment, risk management and risk analysis. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, the book illustrates the ways in which risk analysis can help lead to better decisions in a variety of scenarios, including the destruction of chemical weapons, management of nuclear waste and the response to passenger rail threats. The book demonstrates how the risk analysis process and the data, models and processes used in risk analysis will clarify, rather than obfuscate, decision-makers' options. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of risk assessment, risk management, public health, environmental science, environmental economics and environmental psychology.

Das vorliegende Buch gibt einen umfassenden UEberblick uber die wesentlichen Methoden und Konzepte von Betrieblichen Umweltinformationssystemen (BUIS) fur ein effizientes Umweltinformationsmanagement. Nach einer Einfuhrung in die Grundlagen des Stoffstrommanagements und des OEkocontrolling werden die Prinzipien von BUIS verschiedener Funktionsbereiche ausfuhrlich dargelegt. Alle wichtigen Arten von BUIS, angefangen von Betriebs-, Produkt- und Lebenswegoekobilanzen uber produktionsnahe Systeme bis hin zu Meta-Informationssystemen werden von den konzeptionellen Grundlagen bis hin zu konkreten Systemimplementierungen systematisch erlautert. Anhand eines kommerziellen BUIS werden die Konzepte dann illustriert. Das Buch schliesst mit kritischen Anmerkungen zur Umweltvertraglichkeit der Informationstechnik und mit einem Ausblick auf zukunftige Entwicklungen von BUIS.

Der konkrete Bedarf an spezieller Software zur Unterstutzung der Okobilanzerstellung war der Ausgangspunkt fur die Entwicklung einer Methodik zur Modellierung von Stoff- und Energiestromsystemen und der darauf basierenden Software 'Umberto'. Das vorliegende Anwenderhandbuch bietet einen praxisorientierten Einstieg in die Anwendungsgebiete und Vorteile dieses Okobilanzprogramms.

Die Rahmenbedingungen fur abfallwirtschaftliche Software haben sich in den letzten Jahren verandert. Durch das neue in Nordrhein-Westfalen erlassene Landesabfallgesetz und die darin enthaltenen Pflichten fur die Unternehmen, namlich unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen Abfallbilanzen und Abfallwirtschaftskonzepte vorzulegen, wurden einige Weiter- und Neuentwicklungen im Softwarebereich zur Unterstutzung dieser Aufgaben initiiert. Eine weitere veranderte Rahmenbedingung war der Entwurf des Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetzes, um dessen Verabschiedung im Vermittlungsausschuss hart gerungen wurde. Dieses Gesetz ist inzwischen verabschiedet und wird 1996 in Kraft treten.

This book aims at sensitizing readers towards sustainability and encourages them to understand the importance of lean, green and clean (LGC) issues pertaining to everyday life. The necessity of measurement-based evaluations, statistical significance of material use, and energy are discussed. The book focuses on the importance of climate change issues and environmental concerns associated with lean production and manufacturing. Emphasis is laid on understanding and applying the concepts of quality through project management and measurement based assessment methods. A wide range of audience, including students, teachers, quality professionals, management consultants, lean and Six Sigma practitioners, will find this book valuable.

Human beings have always been affected by their surroundings. There are various health benefits linked to being able to access to nature; including increased physical activity, stress recovery, and the stimulation of child cognitive development. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health provides a broad and inclusive picture of the relationship between our own health and the natural environment. All aspects of this unique relationship are covered, ranging from disease prevention through physical activity in green spaces to innovative ecosystem services, such as climate change adaptation by urban trees. Potential hazardous consequences are also discussed including natural disasters, vector-borne pathogens, and allergies. This book analyses the complexity of our human interaction with nature and includes sections for example epigenetics, stress physiology, and impact assessments. These topics are all interconnected and fundamental for reaching a full understanding of the role of nature in public health and wellbeing. Much of the recent literature on environmental health has primarily described potential threats from our natural surroundings. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health instead focuses on how nature can positively impact our health and wellbeing, and how much we risk losing by destroying it. The all-inclusive approach provides a comprehensive and complete coverage of the role of nature in public health, making this textbook invaluable reading for health professionals, students, and researchers within public health, environmental health, and complementary medicine.

Dieser Band enthAlt die BeitrAge des 3. Workshops "Computer in der Chemie" (16.-18. November 1988 in TA1/4bingen). Das Meeting wurde von der Fachgruppe Chemie-Information der GDCh veranstaltet und enthAlt BeitrAge fA1/4r folgende Gebiete: - Chemometrie - MolekA1/4lmodellierung - Syntheseplanung - ProzeAsteuerung - Design und Aufbau von Datenbanken, z.B. in der Toxikologie - Spektrenbibliotheken - Datenerfassung in der Analytik - RAntgenstrukturanalyse - Simulation elektrochemischer Prozesse

Umweltbelastungen kann man aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln beurteilen. Ein wichtiger Gesichtspunkt ist die Toxikologie, d. h. die Frage danach, wie stark die Gesundheit des Menschen belastet wird, so wie es vorzugsweise in der "Umweltforschung" (Heidel berger Taschenbucher, Bd. 194) dargestellt wurde. Ein anderer, weit umfassenderer Gesichtspunkt ist die Okologie, d. h. die Frage nach den Schiidigungen der belebten und unbelebten Umwelt des Menschen, so wie es in diesem Buch beschrieben wird. Dabei wird versucht, an Hand einiger wichtiger, okologischer Probleme der Umweltbelastung den Blick fur Wechselwirkungen von belebter und unbelebter Umwelt des Menschen zu schulen, wobei in die Betrachtungen auch die Bevolkerungsentwicklung des Menschen seiber einbezogen wird. Daneben soll das Buch dazu anregen, Umweltprobleme besser zu erkennen, urn fruher als bisher oft ublich, GegenmaBnahmen einzuleiten. Leider hat die Vergangen heit wiederholt gelehrt, daB emotionsbeladene, nicht immer ganz sachlich gefuhrte, dafur aber spektakuliire Protestaktionen eher Aufmerksamkeit erregten und Anderungen einleiteten, als ein fruhzeitig gegebener, sachlicher Hinweis auf drohende Gefahren. Ais Beispiel sei auf saure Niederschliige und Stick oxide hingewie sen, deren Bedeutung fur Fischzucht, Gesundheit des Menschen und Pflanzen, bes. Nadelholzer in groBen Zugen schon in den siebziger lahren bekannt war (z. B. "Umweltforschung" 1977, Engelhardt, W.: "Umweltschutz" 1973 u. a. ). Es ist deshalb erfor derlich zu lemen, die fur die Entlastung unserer Umwelt verfug bare Zeit viel schiirfer zu kalkulieren, als das in der Vergangenheit ublich war."

Building Environmental Control Systems Illustrated provides students with an easy-to-use and highly visual guide to building environmental control systems. By coupling diagrams, drawings, and pictures with concise text, the book offers readers a digestible and simplified way to learn about cutting-edge technologies, standards, and tools within the discipline. Opening chapters explore thermodynamics, comfort, and climate; heat transfer; sun and shading; and passive heating and passive cooling. In additional chapters, students learn about light and lighting; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC); electricity and electrical systems; water and plumbing systems; and sound and architectural acoustics. Closing chapters address vertical transportation and fire safety/fire protection. Throughout the text, theoretical considerations are accompanied by real-world examples that help students connect key concepts with practice. The text also features end-of-chapter review problems and an appendix that contains the solutions to all of the review problems. Presenting students with an accessible and dynamic approach to the subject matter, Building Environmental Control Systems Illustrated is an ideal resource for courses and programs in architecture.

Following the success of the first edition, this fully updated and revised book continues to provide an interdisciplinary introduction to sustainability issues in the context of chemistry and chemical technology. Its prime objective is to equip young chemists (and others) to more fully to appreciate, defend and promote the role that chemistry and its practitioners play in moving towards a society better able to control, manage and ameliorate its impact on the ecosphere. To do this, it is necessary to set the ideas, concepts, achievements and challenges of chemistry and its application in the context of its environmental impact, past, present and future, and of the changes needed to bring about a more sustainable yet equitable world. Progress since 2010 is reflected by the inclusion of the latest research and thinking, selected and discussed to put the advances concisely in a much wider setting - historic, scientific, technological, intellectual and societal. The treatment also examines the complexities and additional challenges arising from public and media attitudes to science and technology and associated controversies and from the difficulties in reconciling environmental protection and global development. While the book stresses the central importance of rigour in the collection and treatment of evidence and reason in decision-making, to ensure that it meets the needs of an extensive community of students, it is broad in scope, rather than deep. It is, therefore, appropriate for a wide audience, including all practising scientists and technologists.

Since the 1970s and particularly the works of Tuxen (1978) and Gehu & Rivas-Martinez (1981), dynamico-catenal phytosociology has facilitated the integration of vegetation dynamics by more precisely describing the trajectories of vegetation series. A national habitat mapping program (CarHAB), launched by France's Ministry of Ecology, aims to map the vegetation and vegetation series of metropolitan France at a scale of 1: 25,000 by 2025. In this context, Corsica has been selected as a pilot region, due to its unique characteristics regarding Mediterranean and alticole vegetation. This book describes in detail the vegetation series and geoseries (ecology, structure, dynamic trajectories, effects of anthropogenic factors on vegetation dynamics, catenal positioning in the landscape) of two Corsican sectors: Cap Corse and Biguglia pond. These two study sites were selected using two methods: * For Cap Corse, the typology and mapping are based on an inductive approach, which seeks to understand the dynamics of vegetation by drawing on the mature, substitutional, pioneering and anthropogenic associations likely to exist within a tessellar envelope. These various dynamic stages characterize "the vegetation series" (sigmetum or synassociation), the fundamental unit of symphytosociology (Gehu 2006; Biondi 2011). The aim of symphytosociology is, therefore, to define the vegetation series; in other words, it seeks to identify the repetitive combinations of syntaxa under homogeneous ecological conditions. * For Biguglia pond, the typology and mapping are based on a deductive approach, which combines (under SIG) the ecological descriptor maps with the vegetation mapping, in order to reveal the tesselas and the natural potential vegetation that underlies them. Thanks to the improvement of GIS techniques, this approach has been frequently used to characterize plant landscapes from vegetation to vegetation geoseries since the 2000s, with applications to the conservation management of natural and semi-natural environments.

Selected papers from the ASCE Workshop on Engineering Methods for Precipitation under a Changing Climate, held in Reston, Virginia, May 30, 2017. Sponsored by the Subcommittee on Hydroclimatology and Engineering Adaptation of the Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate of ASCEThis collection contains seven peer-reviewed papers on engineering design for precipitation extremes. Topics include engineering methods for designing for and managing precipitation extremes and floods throughout the life cycle of a building, approaches to uncertainty and how acceptable risk is determined, and interactions with climate scientists on engineering needs for climate information and projections. Also included is a report on the discussions held during the workshop and the conclusions and recommendations that were drawn. This report provides information to practitioners and researchers working to ensure functional infrastructure while adapting to extreme precipitation changes.

Increasing numbers of ecologists and conservation biologists have begun to explore the use of drone technology to obtain accurate and up-to-date data on the distribution and density of species, as well as the threats to their habitats, in their ongoing attempts to conserve and monitor biodiversity. Conservation drones are low-cost, autonomous, and operator-friendly unmanned aerial vehicles that can be used for surveying, mapping, and monitoring both habitat and biodiversity. They are fast becoming a valuable complement to ground-based surveys and satellite imagery for a wide range of ecological and conservation applications. The authors pioneered the use of conservation drones for the purpose of monitoring orangutan populations in Southeast Asia. They subsequently founded ConservationDrones.org to share their knowledge of building and using drones with colleagues in the wider environmental community. This website has proved highly popular and this book aims to further build capacity to use drones and inspire others to adapt emerging technologies for practical conservation.

Fatty alcohols are mainly used in the production of detergents and surfactants. They are also components of cosmetics, foods and as industrial solvents. The 2008 edition originated from a multi-year review of the occurrence, behaviour and use of fatty alcohols to inform the registration of such chemicals through the REACH process in the EU. This review highlighted areas requiring further research. In this expanded edition, new information regarding products containing fatty alcohol derivatives, the fate of these down-the-drain products in wastewater systems and the use of compound specific stable isotope methods has been published. This work has been amalgamated with a number of aspects relating to the inclusion of these compounds in the EU bio-based economy drive. Significant advances have been made since the first edition. No other book brings together all the disparate information regarding this group of chemicals that are of great interest to environmental scientist (as biomarkers), industry (as surfactants) and to regulators.

Natural resource managers face a complex decision-making environment characterized by the potential occurrence of rapid and abrupt ecological change. These abrupt changes are poorly accommodated by traditional natural resource planning and decision-making processes. As recognition of threshold processes has increased, contemporary models of ecological systems have been modified to better represent a broader range of ecological system dynamics. Key conceptual advances associated with the ideas of non-linear responses, the existence of multiple ecological stable states and critical thresholds are more likely the rule than the exception in ecological systems. Once an ecological threshold is crossed, the ecosystem in question is not likely to return to its previous state. There are many examples and a general consensus that climatic disruptions will drive now stable systems across ecological thresholds. This book provides professional resource managers with a broad general decision framework that illustrates the utility of including ecological threshold concepts in natural resource management. It gives an entry into the literature in this rapidly evolving concept, with descriptions and discussion of the promising statistical approaches for threshold detection and demonstrations of the utility of the threshold framework via a series of case studies.

Fundamentals of Environmental Biology has been conceived to bring different aspects of environmental biology under one head. The purpose of this book is to fill the gap between basic books of ecology or environmental science and advanced environmental biotechnology in an appropriate manner. Divided in two parts, the book contains fourteen chapters. First part deals with the topics related with ecology and environmental sciences and second part deals with environmental biotechnology aspects.It will help the students of botany, zoology, biotechnology, and environmental sciences or engineering, as environmental biology is a multidisciplinary subject and involves various issues like ecological issues, global environmental problems, socio-economic scenario along with modern fields such as molecular ecology, etc. Although the book is primarily designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students, it also provides information in a precise way to the teachers, researchers and also to the people working in NGOs related to environmental aspects or problems. Salient Features: Multidisciplinary approach including case studies. Modern biotechnological and ecological approaches apart from traditional one Dedicated coverage of ';statistical ecology', ';green technology '; and ';molecular ecology'. Profusely illustrated with flowcharts and diagrams and has a lot of practice materials. PowerPoint slides are provided for teachers as well as students.

Sustainable development, the circular economy and environmental issues are at the forefront of public and Government concern. The field of green chemistry aims to provide environmentally benign products from sustainable resources, using processes that do not harm people or the environment at the same time as helping solve key societal problems such as climate change. Updated throughout, this third edition features an expanded section on legislation, a revised chapter on measurement, and a completely re-written chapter on renewable resources, bringing readers the latest developments in this quickly-growing area. Case studies now include more recent examples of real-world applications from industry to demonstrate how the techniques of green chemistry work in practice. This fascinating textbook is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate courses covering green chemistry, and it encourages new ways of thinking about how products and processes are developed.

The book presents theoretical and experimental studies of ice fracturing process during impact and explosion load. It shows how to obtain ice in natural and artificial conditions. The book summarizes the results of full-scale experiments for 5 years on undermining ice sheets with emulsion explosives. It presents an algorithm that simulates the process of fracturing of thick ice subjected to blast load, showing that the behavior of ice under impact and explosive loads can be described by a model of continuum mechanics. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of the ballistic perfomance of an ice cube after deep penetration low-velocity projectiles are reported in this book. Some pilot problems are formulated for a deeper understanding of the mechanics of ice fracturing during impact and explosion.