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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General
Imagine living in a city where people could move freely and buildings could be replaced at minimal cost. Reality cannot be further from such. Despite this imperfect world in which we live, urban planning has become integral and critical especially in the face of rapid urbanization in many developing and developed countries. This book introduces the axiomatic/experimental approach to urban planning and addresses the criticism of the lack of a theoretical foundation in urban planning. With the rise of the complexity movement, the book is timely in its depiction of cities as complex systems and explains why planning from within is useful in the face of urban complexity. It also includes policy implications for the Chinese cities in the context of axiomatic/experimental planning theory.
Lowell Thomas Jr. is a famed Alaskan who made his mark as a Bush pilot and by serving in state government, but who also has had a lifetime’s worth of adventures that have taken him around the world. Thomas, now eighty-nine, and living in Anchorage, is the son of one of the most widely known Americans of the twentieth century, and his connection to Lowell Thomas Sr. (1892-1981) enabled him to jump-start his life of adventure at a very early age. From the time he was fifteen, Lowell Thomas Jr. has been involved in a series of journeys that have seen him cross paths with many famous lives and take part in many historic events.
The world is in the midst of a storm that has shaped the history of modernity along a double fracture: on the one hand, an environmental fracture driven by a technocratic and capitalist civilization that led to the ongoing devastation of the Earth's ecosystems and its human and non-human communities and, on the other, a colonial fracture instilled by Western colonization and imperialism that resulted in racial slavery and the domination of indigenous peoples and women in particular. In this important new book, Malcom Ferdinand challenges this double fracture, thinking from the Caribbean world. Here, the slave ship reveals the inequalities that continue during the storm: some are shackled inside the hold and even thrown overboard at the first gusts of wind. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work in the Caribbean, Ferdinand conceptualizes a decolonial ecology that holds protecting the environment together with the political struggles against (post)colonial domination, structural racism, and misogynistic practices. Facing the storm, this book is an invitation to build a world-ship where humans and non-humans can live together on a bridge of justice and shape a common world. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in environmental humanities and Latin American and Caribbean studies, as well as anyone interested in ecology, slavery, and (de)colonization.
This book provides an empirical analysis of the concept of play as a form of spatial practice in urban public spaces. The introduced City-Play-Framework (CPF) is a practical urban analysis tool that allows urban designers, landscape architects and researchers to develop a shared awareness when opening up this window of possibility for adventure. Two case studies substantiate and illustrate the development process and testing of the framework in Canberra, Australia, and Potsdam, Germany. The appropriation of public spaces that transcend boundaries can facilitate an intrinsic connection between people and their immediate environment, towards a more joyful ontological state of human existence in which imagination, co-creation and a sense of agency are key elements of the design approach. The framework presents an alternative understanding of public spaces and public life, reflecting on theory and its implications for practice in a post-pandemic world in dense urban centres. A bridge between theory and practice, this book explores possibilities on what future design ought to be when openness and ambiguity are consciously integrated parts of practice and process. The book presents a valuable discussion on public space and play for academic audiences across a wide range of disciplines such as landscape architecture, urban design, planning, architecture and urban sociology, which is informative for future practice.
This book provides an empirical analysis of the concept of play as a form of spatial practice in urban public spaces. The introduced City-Play-Framework (CPF) is a practical urban analysis tool that allows urban designers, landscape architects and researchers to develop a shared awareness when opening up this window of possibility for adventure. Two case studies substantiate and illustrate the development process and testing of the framework in Canberra, Australia, and Potsdam, Germany. The appropriation of public spaces that transcend boundaries can facilitate an intrinsic connection between people and their immediate environment, towards a more joyful ontological state of human existence in which imagination, co-creation and a sense of agency are key elements of the design approach. The framework presents an alternative understanding of public spaces and public life, reflecting on theory and its implications for practice in a post-pandemic world in dense urban centres. A bridge between theory and practice, this book explores possibilities on what future design ought to be when openness and ambiguity are consciously integrated parts of practice and process. The book presents a valuable discussion on public space and play for academic audiences across a wide range of disciplines such as landscape architecture, urban design, planning, architecture and urban sociology, which is informative for future practice.
Applications of Furrow and Micro Irrigation in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions, the fifth volume in the Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation series, addresses the ever-challenging need for irrigation systems in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, areas that are suffering from severe water shortages. These areas, such as Egypt, Tunisia, most of Africa, and parts of South America, Central America, and Australia, find it a struggle to grow crops sustainably with the water available. This important book emphasizes sustainable agriculture practices to promote increased water usage efficiency in dry areas for growing of crops. It presents a variety of research and studies on such topics as: * Meteorological instruments for water management * Buried micro irrigation laterals for soil water retention * Water vapor flux models * Performance of various crops grown under different irrigation methods * Scheduling of irrigation * Phyto-monitoring techniques This valuable book is a must for those finding it a challenge to maintain sustainable crop production in the midst of continuous water shortages in areas where water is not naturally plentiful. With contributions from authors with hands-on experience in the field, the book will be an invaluable reference and guide to effective micro irrigation methods.
Management Science in Hospitality and Tourism is a timely and unique book focusing on management science applications. The first section of the book introduces the concept of management science application in hospitality and tourism and related issues to set the stage for subsequent sections. Section II focuses on management science applications with conceptual pieces, empirical applications, and best practices with examples coming from different parts of the world and settings. The last section ends with a chapter focusing on challenges and future research directions. This book goes beyond revenue management topics and presents a broad range of topics in management science applications as they relate to hospitality and tourism cases. Researchers and students in hospitality and tourism will find this book very useful since it contains chapters on data analytics, e-commerce and technology, revenue and yield management, optimization methods, resource allocation, goal programming, dynamic programming, Markov chain models, trends analysis and detection, measuring potential and attractiveness in tourism development, performance measures and use of indices in hospitality and tourism, and more. There is a heightened interest in these areas of business applications in today's data-driven business environment, and this book addresses that interest. This book is the only comprehensive text on management science applications in hospitality and tourism. It will help managers and hospitality and tourism students as future managers to develop an in-depth understanding of the importance of data analysis, interpretation, and generating information, and intelligence for decision making. It covers a broad range of applications representing different geographic regions of the world.
This new book focuses on the important concern of sustainability in tourism and hospitality industry. As the world's natural resource base is limited, the world is looking for solutions in the domains of energy, water, alternate building materials, resource redeployment, and sustainable livelihoods as well. The tourism and hospitality industry is a large deployer of natural and created resources. Some of the themes the book addresses include: designing sustainable restaurants sustainable accommodation practices designing green hotels energy conservation in hotels- a Green Approach technology and sustainability marketing sustainability to consumers sustainable culinary practices sustainable employee practices sustainable equipment design for the hospitality industry sustainable tourism practices sustainable transport practices sustainable tourism destinations/cities The book takes sustainability beyond the realms of external factors that matter to an organization. The authors look at various constituents of the hospitality sector and analyze each of those from a sustainability standpoint. The book includes case studies that are global in nature and that show how sustainable applications can be used and how concerns can be addressed. Environmental challenges are also discussed. This book is futuristic with lot of practical insights for the students, faculty,. and practitioners. Since the contributors are from across the globe, it is fascinating to see the global benchmarks.
This valuable book, the third volume in the Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation series, focuses on sustainable micro irrigation management for trees and vines. It covers the principles as well as recent advances and applications of micro irrigation techniques. Specialists throughout the world share their expertise on: * Automation of micro irrigation systems * Service and maintenance of micro irrigation systems * Evaluation of micro irrigation systems * Scheduling of irrigation * Using municipal wastewater for micro irrigation * Micro-jet irrigation and other systems * The effect of potassium, acid lime, and other elements
This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Urban horticulture, referring to the study and cultivation of the relationship between plants and the urban environment, is gaining more attention as the world rapidly urbanizes and cities expand. While plants have been grown in urban areas for millennia, it is now recognized that they not only provide food, ornament, and recreation, but also supply invaluable ecological services that help mitigate potentially negative impacts of urban ecosystems, and thus increase the livability of cities. This book provides background on key issues in this growing field.
This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This book presents the latest research on resilience strategies around the world. Research such as this is necessary to create new ideas and to evaluate established ones in an effort to make communities more adaptable and to increase people's survival and quality of life while living with the reality of climate change. The book offers definitions of resilience and various ways of measuring it, since resilience is still a concept in transition. It also describes general strategies for increasing communities' resilience at multiple levels, then dives into specific dimensions of resilience, tying it to energy infrastructure and systems and public health.
Existing structures represent a heterogeneous category in the global built environment as often characterized by the presence of archaic materials, damage and disconnections, uncommon construction techniques and subsequent interventions throughout the building history. In this scenario, the common linear elastic analysis approach adopted for new buildings is incapable of an accurate estimation of structural capacity, leading to overconservative results, invasive structural strengthening, added intervention costs, excessive interference to building users and possible losses in terms of aesthetics or heritage values. For a rational and sustainable use of the resources, this book deals with advanced numerical simulations, adopting a practical approach to introduce the fundamentals of Finite Element Method, nonlinear solution procedures and constitutive material models. Recommended material properties for masonry, timber, reinforced concrete, iron and steel are discussed according to experimental evidence, building standards and codes of practice. The examples examined throughout the book and in the conclusive chapter support the analyst's decision-making process toward a safe and efficient use of finite element analysis. Written primarily for practicing engineers, the book is of value to students in engineering and technical architecture with solid knowledge in the field of continuum mechanics and structural design.
Synergistic Design of Sustainable Built Environments introduces and illustrates a novel systems approach that fosters both design excellence and a leap toward a more biocentric (ecologically sustainable) design paradigm. The book provides a deeper understanding of the theories and principles of biocentric design and offers detailed descriptions of the synergistic design process of integrating theories and principles into practice. It also presents extensive thermal and visual built environment design strategies, along with qualitative and quantitative information that designers can use to generate feasible solutions in response to varying climate and occupant comfort. Features: Examines the principles and practices of the synergistic design (a fusion of anthropocentric and biocentric) of sustainable built environments and how they relate to practical applications. Presents climatic data and its analysis along with sun-path diagrams for numerous cities to aid in the design of sustainable built environments in multiple regional contexts. Includes numerous case studies of sustainable built environments in varying climatic zones. Explains how renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro, fuel cells) can be successfully integrated in the built environment. This forward-thinking and highly illustrated book will be an invaluable reference to all those concerned with sustainable built environments and related architectural issues.
Drawing on a range of European cases, this edited volume analyses the offshoring and outsourcing of foreign companies, with a focus on territorial embeddedness. The book opens by developing a theoretical framework and then presents a range of international case studies exploring the experiences of the service hub cities of Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow, and Prague. Attention is also given to internal and external determinants of embeddedness, with chapters on the employee perspective, the Fintech industry, corporate social responsibility, and the role of universities. This volume will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in regional economics, economic geography, innovation studies, industrial economics, European economics, and international business.
Ecology of Plant-Derived Smoke is the continuation of the research and discussion presented in Uses & Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke, published in 2010. Both books are the first of their kind in what is now an ever-expanding and exciting field of research. This volume focuses on the use of plant-derived smoke as a tool, used for promoting seed germination and growth. Our ancestors may have used smoke in this capacity for centuries. Only recently has the scientific community delved into understanding the ecology of smoke as a seed dormancy-breaking mechanism in fire-prone environments. Most research to date has focused on the fire-prone Mediterranean environments of the western U.S.A., Western Australia and South Africa. These environments are among the richest floristic regions in the world, and require ecological understanding in order to be managed properly. This includes knowledge of that role that smoke plays in these ecosystems. Ecology of Plant Derived Smoke presents accounts of 1355 species of plants, from 120 families, whose seed have been tested for their response to aerosol smoke, smoke water, and plant-derived smoke. Each account includes a short summary of research findings, along with any other relevant information. Ecology of Plant-Derived Smoke is a comprehensive resource for ecologists seeking to understand the properties of smoke as they relate to ecosystems.
This is the first book to place continuous improvement at the heart of construction cost management Covers theoretical background, before presenting real practical tools to improve construction costs Includes international case studies
Alvar Aalto and The Art of Landscape captures the essence of the Finnish architect's landscape concept, emphasising culture and tradition, which characterised his approach to and understanding of architecture as part of the wider environment. From the forests of his youth to sights from his travels, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) was influenced by outdoor landscapes. Throughout his career, he felt the need to shape the terrain and this became a signature of his architecture. Divided into five chapters, this book traces Aalto's relationship with landscape, starting with an analysis of his definitions and descriptions of landscape language, which ranged from natural references and biological terms, to synonyms and comparisons. It includes beautifully illustrated case study projects from the 1950s and 1960s, discussing Aalto's transformation of different landscapes through topography, terracing and tiers, ruins and natural elements, horizon outlines, landmarks, and the repetition of form. Featuring archival sketches, garden drawings, and plans, the book also contains Aalto's text 'Architecture in the Landscape of Central Finland' from 1925 in the appendix. This book provides fascinating, untold insights into Aalto's relationship with landscape and how this developed during his lifetime, for scholars, researchers, and students interested in architecture and landscape history, landscape art, and cultural studies.
* Hugely topical book, considering terrorist attacks on structures and infrastructures. * Brings novel ideas to researchers and engineers in dynamic analysis of structures under combined actions of impact and blast loads. * Presents practical discussions in finite element modeling and numerical analysis of different structures under extreme loads using high-fidelity software which can be very useful for students. * Contains comprehensive state-of-the-art reviews on the performance of structures under extreme loads which can be very helpful for junior researchers who are beginners in impact and blast engineering. * Presents novel damage indices for different structural members under extreme loads that can be promoted to practical instructions to be experimentally conducted in structural engineering laboratories and academic environments.
This book addresses issues that waterfronts face in small Mediterranean port towns due to increases in the tourism industry. Integrating theory and pragmatic approaches, Waterfront Design in Small Port Towns proposes a design matrix which can go on to be implemented in waterfronts globally. The demand for a sustainable regeneration of the urban waterfront is constantly growing and represents the ultimate challenge to preserve and value the uniqueness of the region and to activate an overall redevelopment of small port towns. To understand these issues, Waterfront Design in Small Port Towns contains an in-depth investigation of the cultural and environmental assets and spatial socio-economic factors of the urban waterfront. This is conducted through the author's original methodological framework, the Waterfront Design Matrix, which responds to the specific scales and idiosyncrasies of the archetypical waterfront. The methodological and theoretical approach developed in the book can be applied to different geographical locations and countries, presenting comparable characteristics. This book is an ideal read for professionals and students alike with an interest in urban design and planning.
The only book offering a straightforward and brief introduction to the way ships of the merchant navy operate and function Particularly for cadets at HNC, HND and foundation degree level in both the deck and engineering branches non-technical and non-specialist, and assumes no background knowledge
There is a growing recognition of the importance of transgender perspectives about the environment. Unlike more established approaches in the environmental humanities and queer studies, transecology is a nascent inquiry whose significance and scope are only just being articulated. Drawing upon the fields of gender studies and ecological studies, contributors to this volume engage major concepts widely used in both fields as they explore the role of identity, exclusion, connection, intimacy, and emplacement to understand our relationship to nature and environment. The theorists and ideas examined across multiple chapters include Stacy Alaimo's notion of "trans-corporeality" as a "contact zone" between humans and the environment, Timothy Morton's concept of "mesh" to explore the interconnectedness of all beings, Susan Stryker's notion of trans identity as "ontologically inescapable," Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson's history of the development of queer rural spaces, Judith Butler's analysis of gender as "performative"-with those who are not "properly gendered" being seen as "abjects"-and Julia Serano's contrasting rejection of gender as performance. Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature will be of great interest to scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in transgender studies, gender studies, ecocriticism, and environmental humanities.
The book provides a collection of cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary research-based chapters on work, workers and the regulation and management of workplace health and safety. Featuring research from Australia, Europe and North America, the chapters traverse important historical examples and place important, emerging contemporary trends, like work in the gig economy, into wider international and historical perspectives. The authors are leading authorities in their fields. The book contributes to advancing our knowledge - empirical and theoretical - of the ways in which labour market dynamics, management strategies, state regulation and public policy, and union organisation affect outcomes for workers. It features in-depth exploration of, and reflection on, some of the major labour market challenges facing workers, and analysis of strengths and weaknesses of responses to those challenges, whether via management, state regulation or collective employee voice. The chapters highlight shifts in in/equality of outcomes; access to security and flexibility at work; genuine access to workplace voice and decision-making; and the implications of different avenues and mechanisms for regulating work and employment. The text is aimed at researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students in work and organisational studies, industrial/employment relations and human resource management, workplace (or occupational) health and safety, employment law, and labour history. It will also be of particular interest to policy makers and practitioners working in the field of workplace health and safety.
The only book to examine reliability and validity of research in social science AND built environment setting Essential reading for global researchers at undergraduate and postgraduate level using all major methods of research Real case studies by recognised experts covering hot topics like BIM, Lean, Housing and Sustainability show the importance of validity and how to ensure research is reliable
This collection calls for improved technical communication for the public through an embodied, situated understanding of environmental risk that promotes social justice. In addition to providing a series of chapters about recent issues on risk communication, this volume offers a diverse look at methodological practices for students, researchers, and practitioners looking to address embodied aspects of crisis and risk that incorporate UX, storytelling, and dynamic text. It includes chapters that bring embodiment to the forefront of risk communication, highlighting the cycle of content creation, dissemination, public response and decision making, continuing iterations of educational efforts, and recovery, toward increasing adaptive capacity as a whole. In addition, this work directs necessary attention to overcoming perceptual difficulties, memory lapses, definitional differences, access issues, and pedagogical problems in the communication of risks to diverse publics. This collection is essential reading for scholars and can be used as a supplemental text or casebook for courses in technical communication, environmental communication, risk and crisis communication, science communication, and public health.
This collection calls for improved technical communication for the public through an embodied, situated understanding of environmental risk that promotes social justice. In addition to providing a series of chapters about recent issues on risk communication, this volume offers a diverse look at methodological practices for students, researchers, and practitioners looking to address embodied aspects of crisis and risk that incorporate UX, storytelling, and dynamic text. It includes chapters that bring embodiment to the forefront of risk communication, highlighting the cycle of content creation, dissemination, public response and decision making, continuing iterations of educational efforts, and recovery, toward increasing adaptive capacity as a whole. In addition, this work directs necessary attention to overcoming perceptual difficulties, memory lapses, definitional differences, access issues, and pedagogical problems in the communication of risks to diverse publics. This collection is essential reading for scholars and can be used as a supplemental text or casebook for courses in technical communication, environmental communication, risk and crisis communication, science communication, and public health. |
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