Risk-Based Environmental Decision: Methods and Culture presents the principles of human health risk analysis as they are applied in environmental decisions. It balances the discussion of scientific theory and methods, philosophical analysis, and applications in regulatory decisions. The material is directed towards risk analysts who must apply their skills in a policy setting, and towards policy analysts who must use risk estimates. The presentation is suited ideally as an introductory text on the methods of risk analysis and on the cultural issues that underlie these methodologies. An important feature of Risk-Based Environmental Decision: Methods and Culture is that it is designed around a series of detailed case studies of environmental risk analysis which walk the reader from the historical nature of the problem, to the formulation as a risk-based problem, to the conduct of risk analysis, and on to the application, debate, and defense of the risk analysis.

HAPM Component Life Manual has broken new ground, it is the first document to provide extensive life-span assessments (suitable for insurance purposes) for a wide range of building components which are classified within the concept of quality specifications. A further benefit is that it does not seek to be prescriptive. It indicative 'benchmarks' against which new or differing specifications can be assessed, in that sense it is both robust and flexible.

The concept of the manual is simple yet profound. Seven component groups contain a range of component types and sub-types each of which has been given a life class designation. The life classes embrace good practice, a normal amount of maintenance and typical exposure conditions. If a new component does not match an existing HAPM class, then a new 'benchmark' can be defined and a life assigned.

People and the Environment: Approaches for Linking Household and Community Surveys to Remote Sensing and GIS appeals to a wide range of natural, social, and spatial scientists with interests in conducting population and environment research and thereby characterizing (a) land use and land cover dynamics through remote sensing, (b) demographic and socio-economic variables through household and community surveys, and (c) local site and situation through resource endowments, geographical accessibility, and connections of people to place through GIS. Case studies are used to examine theories and practices useful in linking people and the environment. We also describe land use and land cover dynamics and the associated social, biophysical, and geographical drivers of change articulated through human-environment interactions.

The relationships between humans and their natural surroundings is paradoxical. They impose knowledge and action on the world around them, yet at the same time subscribe to myths and beliefs which portray them and their natural suroundings as inseparable, with neither more powerful than the other. This paradox is explored in the essays in Bush Base: Forest Farm, which uses an anthropological perpective to direct new light on development and environmental studies. The contributors, all anthropologists who have had practical experience of development programmes, present case studies drawn form Africa and Asia, and reflect upon their theoretical implications. They reject the traditional sharp dichotomies of human settelemnt and external natural environment - farm of camp on the one hand, and forest or bush on the other - and suggest instead that the people, their indigenous knowledge and their forests or bush exist within each other. They argue that although the concept of sustainable development takes greater cognisance of the environment there is still a need to place at their centre and appreciation of people's cosmologies and cultural understandings.

This book proposes a new critical relationship between computation and architecture, developing a history and theory of representation in architecture to understand and unleash potential means to open up creativity in the field. Historically, architecture has led spatial representation. Today, computation has established new representational paradigms that can be compared to spatial representations, such as the revolution of perspective in the Renaissance. Architects now use software, robotics, and fabrication tools with very little understanding and participation in how these tools influence, revolutionize, and determine both architecture and its construction today. Why does the discipline of architecture not have a higher degree of authorship in the conception and development of computational technologies that define spatial representation? This book critically explores the relationship between history, theory and cultural criticism. Lorenzo-Eiroa positions new understandings through parallel historical sections and theories of many revolutionary representational architecture canons displaced by conventional spatial projection. He identifies the architects, artists, mathematicians, and philosophers that were able to revolutionise their disciplines through the development of new technologies, new systems of representation, and new lenses to understand reality. This book frames the discussion by addressing new means to understand and expand architecture authorship in relation to survey, information, representation, higher dimensional space, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence - in the pursuit of activating an architecture of information. This will be important reading for upper-level students and researchers of architecture and architectural theory, especially those with a keen interest in computational design and robotic fabrication.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the second workshop on Evaluation and Planning held at Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Mediterraneennes (CIHEAM) in Valenzano (Bari) in November 1993. The workshop was financially and otherwise supported by the School of Engineering, Bari Polytechnic; the School of Agriculture, University of Bari; and CIHEAM. The publication of this book was made possible by to the efforts of the contributing authors. Several other persons have provided invaluable support for the workshop or the preparation of this volume. One of these is Patsy Healey for her fascinating challenge to Andreas Faludi's most recent arguments about rational planning theory. Another is John Friedmann whose lecture at the workshop presented world future scenarios depicting interaction between economic growth, social justice and ecological balance. Angela Barbanente provided marvelous support in organizing the workshop and editorial advice in the preparation of this volume. Jeremy Franks carefully improved the English and the clarity of all the papers. Carmelo Torre made a final editing of texts and images. We owe thanks to Maurizio Raeli for providing all the support services during the workshop and Claudia Baublys for her excellent help with various administrative issues with regard to the workshop and publication of this book. This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Giovanni Grittani, Professor of Land Economics, University of Bari.

In this insightful book, Joseph Huber investigates the life cycle analysis of technological and environmental innovations (TEIs). TEIs are new technologies, products and practices which have benign environmental effects and which can increase eco-efficiency. More importantly, they can also improve 'metabolic consistency', thus laying the foundations for a sustainable industrial ecology. The author studies a large number of TEIs from a variety of diverse fields including energy, agriculture, chemistry, biotechnology, materials re/processing, construction, vehicles and consumer goods. He finds that TEIs can offer real and sustainable solutions to almost all of today's environmental problems. However, for this to happen the author calls for a paradigm shift from 'downstream' to 'upstream' in the manufacturing chain and technologies' life cycles, and a corresponding shift in environmental policy from command-and-control regulation to coordinated innovation. By combining the sustainability approaches of 'sufficiency' and 'eco-efficiency' with the concept of 'metabolic consistency', this book opens up new horizons for ecological modernisation. It will prove valuable reading for academics and students of the social and technical sciences with an interest in environmental technology. Researchers and practitioners of industrial innovation will also gain useful insights, as will policymakers and environmental analysts in government, businesses and NGOs.

As environmental issues increasingly impinge on society, sociologists have turned their attention to nature and the environment. However, unlike the majority of sociological work on environmental issues which has too often been dominated by abstract theoretical disputes, this book concentrates on empirical studies in environmental sociology. It shows what sociologists can bring to current debates over environmental topics (including genetic modification) and--using the author's first-hand research--demonstrates how sociologists can best pursue practical work on environmental topics.

This edited collection approaches the most pressing discourses of the Anthropocene and posthumanist culture through the surreal, yet instructive lens of Jeff VanderMeer's fiction. In contrast to universalist and essentializing ways of responding to new material realities, VanderMeer's work invites us to re-imagine human subjectivity and other collectivities in the light of historically unique entanglements we face today: the ecological, technological, aesthetic, epistemological, and political challenges of life in the Anthropocene era. Situating these messy, multi-scalar, material complexities of life in close relation to their ecological, material, and colonialist histories, his fiction renders them at once troublingly familiar and strangely generative of other potentialities and insight. The collection measures VanderMeer's work as a new kind of speculative surrealism, his texts capturing the strangeness of navigating a world in which "nature" has become radically uncanny due to global climate change and powerful bio-technologies. The first collection to survey academic engagements with VanderMeer, this book brings together scholars in the fields of environmental literature, science fiction, genre studies, American literary history, philosophy of technology, and digital cultures to reflect on the environmentally, culturally, aesthetically, and politically central questions his fiction poses to predominant understandings of the Anthropocene.

How small-to-midsize Rust Belt cities can play a crucial role in a low-carbon, sustainable, and relocalized future. America's once-vibrant small-to-midsize cities-Syracuse, Worcester, Akron, Flint, Rockford, and others-increasingly resemble urban wastelands. Gutted by deindustrialization, outsourcing, and middle-class flight, disproportionately devastated by metro freeway systems that laid waste to the urban fabric and displaced the working poor, small industrial cities seem to be part of America's past, not its future. And yet, Catherine Tumber argues in this provocative book, America's gritty Rust Belt cities could play a central role in a greener, low-carbon, relocalized future. As we wean ourselves from fossil fuels and realize the environmental costs of suburban sprawl, we will see that small cities offer many assets for sustainable living not shared by their big city or small town counterparts, including population density and nearby, fertile farmland available for new environmentally friendly uses. Tumber traveled to twenty-five cities in the Northeast and Midwest-from Buffalo to Peoria to Detroit to Rochester-interviewing planners, city officials, and activists, and weaving their stories into this exploration of small-scale urbanism. Smaller cities can be a critical part of a sustainable future and a productive green economy. Small, Gritty, and Green will help us develop the moral and political imagination we need to realize this.

The volume contains peer-reviewed proceedings of EPREC 2021 with a focus on control applications in the modern power system. The book includes original research and case studies that present recent developments in the control system, especially load frequency control, wide-area monitoring, control & instrumentation, optimization, intelligent control, energy management system, SCADA systems, etc. The book will be a valuable reference guide for beginners, researchers, and professionals interested in advancements in the control system.

This book presents a variety of climate change impact and mitigation strategies for different environments in India. These include fractional snow cover change in the Himalayan region, and the impact of frequent cyclonic storms on land use and land cover changes along coastal areas. The book explores watershed, surface water, and hydrologic conditions for urban storm water drainage, as well as trend analysis of precipitation, and a statistical approach to detect rainfall trends. The book starts with a critical review of climate change diplomacy, adaptation and mitigation strategies in South Asian countries. It also covers the role of natural gas in energy security. There are chapters pertaining to farmer's perception on the impact of climate change, as well discussion on land use change and ecological implications. Many geographical areas are covered including; the Mahananda River Basin, Pindar Basin, Kumaun Himalaya, the Upper Tapi River Basin, Southern Kerala Districts, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka State, Telangana State, Tamil Nadu State, to name a few.

Management consultant Kenichi Ohmae describes the new reality of global economic competition as a 'borderless world'. What is the future of human values, and of environmental quality, in such a world? The authors whose work is collected in Surviving Globalism try to answer these questions from the point of view of sociology, social history, philosophy, geography and political theory. Many argue that the gains made over the last few decades in terms of social justice and environmental protection are in grave peril. Others take a somewhat more optimistic note, but all emphasize the importance of dealing with environmental and social policy against the background of a transforming global economy.

CATRINUS J. JEPMA This volume contains the various contributions that were made during the International Conference on Joint Implementation, held near Groningen, The Netherlands, 1-3 June 1994. The conference was initiated by The Netherlands' Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment -along with the Ministries of Foreign (Development Cooper ation) and Economic Affairs -and carried out under the responsibility of Foundation IDE (Groningen, The Netherlands). Its underlying idea was to bring together an international group of specialists on Joint Implementation (11) - from governments, NGOs, business and science -to discuss its feasibility of 11. The conference was timed between the 9th and 10th session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) - which was by then considered as the most crucial phase preparing for the first Conference of Parties (CoP I; Berlin, 28 March - 7 April 1995) - in order to provide additional information or results that might serve as an input in the international negotiating process. The main purpose of the conference was, however, to sit back and have a reflection about what has now become known as 11, and evaluate from the perspective of academics, and practitioners, jointly with officials what promise the option really holds, and to evaluate under what socio-economic and political circumstances and conditions one could successfully proceed in setting out the framework for its further testing and l application."

Explores SMS as it is implemented in aviation based on examples from several countries and regions, namely the UK, USA, and Australia. Presents a socio-historical analysis of how SMSs emerged in high-risk industries. Provides insights to explain the existing limitations of SMS. Proposes new avenues to reach beyond the limitations of SMS. Discusses the COVID-19 pandemic within the framework of risk analysis.

Following on from the ground-breaking first edition, which received the 2014 EDRA Achievement Award, this fully updated text includes new chapters on current issues in the built environment, such as GIS and mapping, climate change, and qualitative approaches. Place attachments are powerful emotional bonds that form between people and their physical surroundings. They inform our sense of identity, create meaning in our lives, facilitate community, and influence action. Place attachments have bearing on such diverse issues as rootedness and belonging, placemaking and displacement, mobility and migration, intergroup conflict, civic engagement, social housing and urban redevelopment, natural resource management, and global climate change. In this multidisciplinary book, Manzo and Devine-Wright draw together the latest thinking by leading scholars from around the globe, including contributions from scholars such as Daniel Williams, Mindy Fullilove, Randy Hester, and David Seamon, to capture significant advancements in three main areas: theory, methods, and applications. Over the course of fifteen chapters, using a wide range of conceptual and applied methods, the authors critically review and challenge contemporary knowledge, identify significant advances, and point to areas for future research. This important volume offers the most current understandings about place attachment, a critical concept for the environmental social sciences and placemaking professions.

Most photovoltaic (PV) installations utilise heavy conventional glass or polycarbonate panels, and even newly developed thin plastic or metal films for PV cell use may fracture during both construction and application. Textile fabrics, the most widespread flexible materials in everyday use, offer a solution to the need for lightweight, flexible solar PV generators. Solar Textiles: The Flexible Solution for Solar Power is about the incorporation and operation of solar cells on textile fabrics. The combination of textile manufacturing and solar PV cell technology opens up further avenues for both the textile and semiconductor industries. Thus, this book reflects the progressively increasing commercial interest in PV cell technology and the versatility that their integration in textiles provides. Discusses textiles as electrical substrates Explains the photovoltaic effect and associated parameters Offers special consideration of solar cells on textiles Compares fibres and fabrics and how to implement PV activity on a textile Describes manufacturing methods outside of semiconductor technology Includes applications open only to textiles This work is aimed at textile technologists, electronic engineers, solar technologists, civil engineers and designers in building fabrics and architecture.

This report indicates that the benefits that accrue to a building and its occupants from a consideration of solar radiation are greatest when the 'passive solar component' is seen in perspective, as a natural part of an integrated approach to climatically interactive low-energy building design.

Even leaving aside the vast death and suffering that it wrought on indigenous populations, German ambitions to transform Southwest Africa in the early part of the twentieth century were futile for most. For years colonists wrestled ocean waters, desert landscapes, and widespread aridity as they tried to reach inland in their effort of turning outwardly barren lands into a profitable settler colony. In his innovative environmental history, Martin Kalb outlines the development of the colony up to World War I, deconstructing the common settler narrative, all to reveal the importance of natural forces and the Kaisereich's everyday violence.

Concern for more open, participative, devolved and integrated government has led many, including the UK Labour government, to re-examine the importance of place, space and territory. Applying an institutionalist approach, and deploying substantial original empirical evidence, this book makes a major contribution to understanding the emergence of more localised governance in England in the 1990s, with particular reference to the role of spatial planning systems.

The Power Makers - the producers of our electricity - must meet the demands of their customers while also addressing the threat of climate change. There are widely differing views about solutions to electricity generation in an emission constrained world. Some see the problem as relatively straight forward, requiring deep cuts in emissions now by improving energy efficiency, energy conservation and using only renewable resources. Many electricity industry engineers and scientists see the problem as being much more involved.

"The Power Makers Challenge: and the need for Fission Energy "looks at why using only conventional renewable energy sources is not quite as simple as it seems. Following a general introduction to electricity and its distribution, the author quantifies the reductions needed in greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector in the face of ever increasing world demands for electricity. It provides some much needed background on the many energy sources available for producing electricity and discusses their advantages and limitations to meet both the emission reduction challenge and electricity demand.

By analyzing the three main groups of energy sources: renewable energy, fossil fuels and fission energy (nuclear power), readers can assess the ability of each group to meet the challenge of both reducing emissions and maintaining reliable supply at least cost. It is written for both non-technical and technical readers."

FOREST ECOLOGY Authoritative resource covering traditional plant ecology topics and contemporary components such as climate change, invasive species, ecosystem services, and more Forest Ecology provides comprehensive coverage of the field, focusing on traditional plant ecology topics of tree structure and growth, regeneration, effects of light and temperature on tree physiology, forest communities, succession, and diversity. The work also reviews abiotic factors of light, temperature, physiography (landforms and topography), soil, and disturbance (especially fire), and provides coverage of ecosystem-level topics including carbon storage and balance, nutrient cycling, and forest ecosystem productivity. The 5th edition of Forest Ecology retains the readability and accessibility of the previous editions and includes important additional topical material that has surfaced in the field. All topics are approached with a landscape ecosystem or geo-ecological view, which places biota (organisms and communities) in context as integral parts of whole ecosystems that also include air (atmosphere and climate), topography, soil, and water. As such, the book fills a niche utilized by no other forest ecology text on the market, helping students and researchers consider whole ecosystems at multiple scales. Sample topics covered in Forest Ecology include: Contemporary components of forest ecology, including climate change, invasive species, diversity, ecological forestry, landscape ecology, and ecosystem services. Characteristics of physiography important for forest ecosystems, including its effects on microclimate, disturbance, soil, and vegetation. Genetic diversity of woody plants and genecological differentiation of tree species, including the importance of hybridization, polyploidy, and epigenetics. Site quality estimation using tree height and ground flora, and multiple-factor approaches to forest site and ecosystem classification and mapping. Forest Ecology is a highly accessible text for students, but it also serves as an excellent reference for academics. In addition, practitioners of forest ecology can also harness the information within to gain better insight into the field for practical application of concepts.

Covering the 17th century to the contemporary era, this chronological overview of the role of the environment provides many insights into one of the most important aspects of American history. Environmental issues such as deforestation, water pollution, extinction of indigenous animal species, and climate change have long existed in the United States. Fortunately, the American people and their government have demonstrated a willingness to address environmental concerns. Chronology of Americans and the Environment encompasses more than four centuries of dynamic and transformational environmental change that illustrate the central importance of the environment, natural resources, and "nature" throughout American history. The author provides a chronological overview of the significant events, major figures, and public policy developments throughout the history of our relationship with the environment, illustrating the sequence of historical events, cultural ideas, and trends that have led Americans to take action to protect the environment and public health. This book also touches upon prehistoric occurrences and events prior to the arrival of European explorers that provide context for Native American ideas and attitudes toward nature. Primary source accounts give a fascinating window into the ideas and experiences of those who have been instrumental in or witness to key events in U.S. environmental history Provides a chronology of events, key figures, ideas, and political developments that define Americans' relationship with the environment Includes various photographs and illustrations to accompany topics in the text A bibliography containing general titles, monographs, and websites provides sources for further research