As cities are rapidly expanding and encroaching into agricultural and natural areas, a question of primary concern is how this expansion affects surrounding agriculture and natural landscapes. This book presents a wide spectrum of both theoretical and empirical approaches to simulation and assessment of landscape dynamics. The first part presents state-of-the-art modelling approaches pertaining to land-use changes entailed by the urban sprawl, at different spatial resolutions and temporal time scales. The second part is dedicated to case studies of the effects and consequences of the emerging urban-agriculture open space patterns.

​The classical field dealing with earthquakes is called “earthquake engineering� and considered to be a branch of structural engineering. In projects dealing with strategies for earthquake risk mitigation, urban planning approaches are often neglected. Today interventions are needed on a city, rather than a building, scale. This work deals with the impact of earthquakes, including also a broader view on multihazards in urban areas. Uniquely among other works in the field, particular importance is given to urban planning issues, in conservation of heritage and emergency management. Multicriteria decision making and broad participation of those affected by disasters are included.

This book calls for the conditions of transition to sustainability: How to take into consideration new global phenomena such as and of the dimension of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, financial crises, demographic dynamics, global urbanization, migrations and mobility, while bearing in mind short-term or local place-based issues, such as social justice or quality of life? Meeting this challenge requires an inclusive approach of sustainability. It is a matter of designing a new social contract: Sustainability requires more than developing the right markets, institutions and metrics, it requires social momentum. To do so, many issues need a clear and complete answer: How to link social justice with sustainability policies? What governance tools to do so? What linkage between one decision-making level and the other? These are major issues to design sound transitions to sustainability.

The ''Aral Sea Encyclopedia'' is the first one in the new series of encyclopedias about the seas of the former Soviet Union. Preparing it we faced certain difficulties. The thing is that this encyclopedia is a monument to the sea that is disappearing during our lifetime. The world community considers the situation with the Aral Sea and all changes that occurred in its whereabouts in the recent decades as one of the most serious, if not disastrous anthropogenic environmental crises of the 20th century. Before 1960, this was a water-abundant sea-lake that was fourth among world lakes after the Caspian Sea (USSR, Iran), the Great Lakes (USA, Canada) and Victoria Lake (Africa). This was a real ''pearl'' among the sands of the largest deserts, the Karakums and the Kyzylkums. Navigation between the sea ports Muinak and Aralsk and fisheries famous for the Aral breams, barbells, sturgeons, shemaya, and others were developed here. One could find beautiful recreational zones and beaches here. The deltas of the Amudarya, the major river of Central Asia, and the Syrdarya bringing their waters into the Aral Sea were famous for their biodiversity, fishery, muskrat rearing, reed prod- tion. The local population found occupations related to the water infrastructure.

This book provides an up-to-date coverage of green (vegetated) roof research, design, and management from an ecosystem perspective. It reviews, explains, and poses questions about monitoring, substrate, living components and the abiotic, biotic and cultural aspects connecting green roofs to the fields of community, landscape and urban ecology. The work contains examples of green roof venues that demonstrate the focus, level of detail, and techniques needed to understand the structure, function, and impact of these novel ecosystems. Representing a seminal compilation of research and technical knowledge about green roof ecology and how functional attributes can be enhanced, it delves to explore the next wave of evolution in green technology and defines potential paths for technological advancement and research.

This book explores the common language of politics, ecology and risk, and crosses their conceptual divides. It seeks to shed light on the underlying structural factors, processes, players and interactions in the risk scenario, all of which influence decision-making that both increases and reduces disaster risk. The first section explores risk governance under conditions of increasing complexity, diversity and change. The discussion includes chapters on The problem of governance in the risk society; Making sense of decentralization; Understanding and conceptualizing risk in large-scale social-ecological systems; The disaster epidemic and Structure, process, and agency in the evaluation of risk governance. Part II, focused on governance in regions and domains of risk, includes nine chapters with discussion of Climate governance and climate change and society; Climate change and the politics of uncertainty; Risk complexity and governance in mountain environments; On the edge: Coastal governance and risk and Governance of megacity disaster risks, among other important topics. Part III discusses directions for further advancement in risk governance, with ten chapters on such topics as the transition From risk society to security society; Governing risk tolerability; Risk and adaptive planning for coastal cities; Profiling risk governance in natural hazards contexts; Confronting the risk of large disasters in nature and Transitions into and out of a crisis mode of socio-ecological systems. The book presents a comprehensive examination of the complexity of both risk and environmental policy-making and of their multiple-and not always visible-interactions in the context of social-ecological systems. Just as important, it also addresses unseen and neglected complementarities between regulatory policy-making and ordinary individual decision-making through the actions of nongovernmental actors. A range of distinguished scholars from a diverse set of disciplines have contributed to the book with their expertise in many areas, including disaster studies, emergency planning and management, ecology, sustainability, environmental planning and management, climate change, geography, spatial planning, development studies, economy, political sciences, public administration, communication, as well as physics and geology.

This publication is devoted to the natural feature - the Black Sea and its littoral states. At the same time the Azov Sea is also considered here. This region is the focus of many geopolitical, economic, social and environmental issues that involve not only the countries coming out to the Black and Azov Seas, but other world countries, too. This publication contains over 1500 articles and terms providing descriptions of geographical and oceanographic features, cities, ports, transport routes, marine biological resources, international treaties, national and international programs, research institutions, historical and archaeological monuments, activities of prominent scientists, researchers, travelers, military commanders, etc. who had relation to the Black Sea. It includes a multi-century chronology of the events that became the outstanding milestones in the history of development of the Black Sea - Azov Sea region.

Beginning with an overview of data and concepts developed in the EU-project HABIT-CHANGE, this book addresses the need for sharing knowledge and experience in the field of biodiversity conservation and climate change. There is an urgent need to build capacity in protected areas to monitor, assess, manage and report the effects of climate change and their interaction with other pressures. The contributors identify barriers to the adaptation of conservation management, such as the mismatch between planning reality and the decision context at site level. Short and vivid descriptions of case studies, drawn from investigation areas all over Central and Eastern Europe, illustrate both the local impacts of climate change and their consequences for future management. These focus on ecosystems most vulnerable to changes in climatic conditions, including alpine areas, wetlands, forests, lowland grasslands and coastal areas. The case studies demonstrate the application of adaptation strategies in protected areas like National Parks, Biosphere Reserves and Natural Parks, and reflect the potential benefits as well as existing obstacles. A general section provides the necessary background information on climate trends and their effects on abiotic and biotic components. Often, the parties to policy change and conservation management, including managers, land users and stakeholders, lack both expertise and incentives to undertake adaptation activities. The authors recognise that achieving the needed changes in behavior – habit – is as much a social learning process as a matter of science-based procedure. They describe the implementation of modeling, impact assessment and monitoring of climate conditions, and show how the results can support efforts to increase stakeholder involvement in local adaptation strategies. The book concludes by pointing out the need for more work to communicate the cross-sectoral nature of biodiversity protection, the value of well-informed planning in the long-term process of adaptation, the definition of acceptable change, and the motivational value of exchanging experience and examples of good practice.

The March 11 disaster in 2011, known as the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, caused extensive damage in various sectors. Through the recovery process, special lessons are being learned and applied in the affected region. This book attempts to draw lessons from different issues and sectors such as policy perspectives (both national and local), the role of international NGOs, fishing industries and other livelihoods, temporary housing, health, heritage, and lesson sharing. The book outlines the need and approach for sharing the lessons with wider communities in developing those lessons. Based on intensive field research, the book also provides some key lessons from community-based recovery in the affected regions of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures. This book has 13 chapters in two parts. The first part of the book, with seven chapters, provides a set of lessons from diverse sectors. The second part, with six chapters, provides case studies from different areas of Tohoku. Six specific issues are addressed in part 1: the role of international agencies, livelihood (namely, fisheries) recovery, temporary housing, health, heritage, and lesson sharing. Part 2 has six case studies from different areas of the Tohoku region, including Fukushima. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the fields of environment, disaster risk reduction, and recovery studies. The book provides them with a good idea of the current research trends in the field and furnishes basic knowledge about these vital topics. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers, who will be able to apply the knowledge collected here to policy and decision-making.

This title meets a great demand for training in spatial analysis tools accessible to a wide audience. Landscape ecology continues to grow as an exciting discipline with much to offer for solving pressing and emerging problems in environmental science. Much of the strength of landscape ecology lies in its ability to address challenges over large areas, over spatial and temporal scales at which decision-making often occurs. As the world tackles issues related to sustainability and global change, the need for this broad perspective has only increased. Furthermore, spatial data and spatial analysis (core methods in landscape ecology) are critical for analyzing land-cover changes world-wide. While spatial dynamics have long been fundamental to terrestrial conservation strategies, land management and reserve design, mapping and spatial themes are increasingly recognized as important for ecosystem management in aquatic, coastal and marine systems. This second edition is purposefully more applied and international in its examples, approaches, perspectives and contributors. It includes new advances in quantifying landscape structure and connectivity (such as graph theory), as well as labs that incorporate the latest scientific understanding of ecosystem services, resilience, social-ecological landscapes, and even seascapes. Of course, as before, the exercises emphasize easy-to-use, widely available software. http://sarahgergel.net/lel/learning-landscape-ecology/

This book is comprised of two parts, both of which explore modular systems: Pipe-Z (PZ) and Truss-Z (TZ), respectively. It presents several methods of creating PZ and TZ structures subjected to discrete optimization. The algorithms presented employ graph-theoretic and heuristic methods. The underlying idea of both systems is to create free-form structures using the minimal number of types of modular elements. PZ is more conceptual, as it forms single-branch mathematical knots with a single type of module. Conversely, TZ is a skeletal system for creating free-form pedestrian ramps and ramp networks among any number of terminals in space. In physical space, TZ uses two types of modules that are mirror reflections of each other. The optimization criteria discussed include: the minimal number of units, maximal adherence to the given guide paths, etc.

This thesis provides a new approach to the Ethiopian Land Law debate. The basic argument made in this thesis is that even if the Ethiopian Constitution provides and guarantees common ownership of land (together with the state) to the people, this right has not been fully realized whether in terms of land accessibility, enjoyability, and payment of fair compensation in the event of expropriation. Expropriation is an inherent power of the state to acquire land for public purpose activities. It is an important development tool in a country such as Ethiopia where expropriation remains the only method to acquire land. Furthermore, the two preconditions of payment of fair compensation and existence of public purpose justifications are not strictly followed in Ethiopia. The state remains the sole beneficiary of the process by capturing the full profit of land value, while paying inadequate compensation to those who cede their land by expropriation. Secondly, the broader public purpose power of the state in expropriating the land for unlimited activities puts the property owners under imminent risk of expropriation.

In this provocative new book, Peter Latham argues that the UK Conservative Government's devolution agenda conceals their real intention: to complete the privatisation of local government and other public services. Using illustrative examples from across the UK, including the so-called 'Northern Powerhouse' and the Midlands, the book explains the far-reaching implications of the reorganisation of local government that is already affecting vital public services, including education, health, housing and policing. Proposing an overhaul of the taxation system to include land value taxation, a wealth tax and more progressive income tax to fund an increase in directly provided services, the author argues that a new basis for federal, regional and local democracy is vital.

How Drawings Work cheekily explains that what architects make is information that enables other people to make buildings. That information comes in a variety of forms: drawings by hand and computer, models both physical and virtual, and words as needed. The book reflects in witty prose on the nature of architectural drawings as tools of communication, pulling from a diverse and eclectic landscape of theories from grammar, functional linguistics, philosophy, art criticism, science fiction, popular culture, and, of course, architecture, to propose a new way to think about architectural communication.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of thermal infrared remote sensing. Temperature is one of the most important physical environmental variables monitored by earth observing remote sensing systems. Temperature ranges define the boundaries of habitats on our planet. Thermal hazards endanger our resources and well-being. In this book renowned international experts have contributed chapters on currently available thermal sensors as well as innovative plans for future missions. Further chapters discuss the underlying physics and image processing techniques for analyzing thermal data. Ground-breaking chapters on applications present a wide variety of case studies leading to a deepened understanding of land and sea surface temperature dynamics, urban heat island effects, forest fires, volcanic eruption precursors, underground coal fires, geothermal systems, soil moisture variability, and temperature-based mineral discrimination. 'Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing: Sensors, Methods, Applications' is unique because of the large field it spans, the potentials it reveals, and the detail it provides. This book is an indispensable volume for scientists, lecturers, and decision makers interested in thermal infrared technology, methods, and applications.

The new 'mobilities turn' has become a powerful perspective in social theory. John Urry's oeuvre has been very influential in the emergence of this new field and has had lasting impacts on many scholars. This collection presents originally commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field who reflect on how Urry's writing influenced the course of their research and theorizing. This volume gathers contributions in relation to John Urry's path-breaking work. The new 'mobilities turn' made a strong imprint in European social theory and is beginning to make an impact in the Americas and Asia as well. It challenges mainstream theoretical and empirical approaches that were grounded in a sedentary and bounded view of states. It propels innovative thinking about social and media ecologies, complex systems and social change. It bridges many disciplines and methodologies, leading to new approaches to existing problems while also resonating with questions about both history and the future. Mobilities research marks the rise of academic and intellectual cooperation and collaboration 'beyond societies', as nations around the world face the ecological limits of contemporary mobility and energy systems. The contributors represent several national contexts, including England, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Australia and the USA. This book collects personal essays and gives insight into a vivid network of scientists who have connections of various degrees to the late John Urry as an academic figure, an author and a person.

With ever increasing trends in urban consumption and production practices, a call for action to mitigate Climate Change is often seen as a way to foster sustainable development. Considerable attention is now being paid to determine what urban sustainability would include. Today there is a pressing need to broaden our knowledge and apply new concepts and frameworks to development of modern cities. Building on the foregoing, this book attempts to bring together and discuss concepts, tools, frameworks and best practices to cope with the emerging challenges faced by cities today. The book will be of use to policy makers, city planners, practitioners and academics who are starting to project what modern cities would need to do in terms of energy efficiency, mobility, planning and design of habitat and infrastructure and adapting to climate change.

The Architecture Portfolio Guidebook shows you how to make portfolios for both academic and professional needs to provide reviewers exactly what they are looking for. In school, architecture curricula nurture the knowledge and skills to develop design work to varying levels of presentation. In the profession, those skills are further developed and applied in the creation of the built environment. In both contexts, a portfolio is a core component for admission and advancement. This book provides key strategies to: * develop an understanding of the unique needs of professional and academic organizations; * identify applicants' key differentiators; * highlight how applicants present themselves in their portfolios to address institutional needs; * create successful reinforcing documentation; * communicate using portfolios. Rather than proposing generic solutions, this book details the successful practices for portfolio creation by addressing portfolio creation academically and professionally. Supporting insights and examples from leading academics and architects from around the world reinforce the themes presented in this guidebook. An ideal read for students and professionals of architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban design, looking to advance their studies and careers.

This book presents a multiregional input-output model for the metropolitan area of Southern California, which helps to estimate the economic impact of simulated terrorist attacks on seaports, malls etc. as well as of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. The authors also analyze the economic and social effects of metropolitan policies such as growth controls, neighborhood gentrification or road-congestion charges. The model presented in the book has evolved over a period of 25 years and requires a very substantial computer capacity.

It has long been theorized that people living in poor areas have more health problems than their more advantaged peers. More recently, science has been testing this hypothesis, concentrating on the impact of the built environment on well-being and its contribution to health inequities. Neighbourhood Structure and Health Promotion offers sociology-based theory and evidence-based findings so readers may better understand the effects of place on health choices, behaviour, and outcomes. This international volume analyzes the complex relationships among neighbourhood conditions and characteristics, people's perceptions of where they live, and their everyday health lives, from eating habits and activity levels to smoking, drinking, and drug use. Chapters introduce innovative methods for measuring and monitoring links between place and health in terms of risks and resources, and employing objective and subjective data. Prospects for engaging neighbourhoods in prevention efforts, particularly involving young people, and policy implications for the future of health promotion and inequity reduction are discussed as well. Included in the coverage: The spatiality of injustice: area effects on behaviour. Qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing neighbourhood health resources. The potential of GIS and GPS in the health sciences. Green spaces and health: possibilities for research and policy. School neighbourhoods and obesity prevention in youth. Connecting gender, social environment, and health. Neighbourhood Structure and Health Promotion advances the study of this increasingly critical topic, making it a valuable reference for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and advanced students in health, health promotion, social epidemiology, and urban planning.

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) report (2000) “Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making� set a landmark in the ongoing controversy over large dams. Now that more than ten years have passed, one has to realize that the WCD norms matter. However, their real chance of becoming implemented relies on whether their core values, strategic priorities and guidelines are accepted by national decision-makers and are translated into official policies and practices. The book’s major concern is whether the big hydropower states have improved their standards for environment and resettlement, and whether international standards are applied or exist only on paper.   The introductory and synthesis chapters present the methodological approach and discuss the findings. Other chapters analyze changes in dam policies in the big hydropower states Brazil, China, India and Turkey; the role of non-governmental organizations in advocating against the Turkish Ilisu Dam project on the Tigris River; the strategies of International Rivers and World Wildlife Fund for Nature in the global hydropower game; the policies of the German government and its positioning in the dam debate, and the engagement of Chinese actors in building the Bui Dam (Ghana) and the Kamchay Dam (Cambodia).

Evaluating Production Efficiency in China examines production from engineering and statistics perspectives rather than from economics and mathematics perspectives. The authors present an observable benchmark as the criterion of the production efficiency to replace the unobservable production frontier surface. This book discusses several different computing technologies, controllable variable as a path of identification, changes in production efficiency by decision making on specific operating conditions, and optimal resource allocation. The book provides a channel to tap inside the success stories of China, exploiting the way of changes in production efficiency during China's development in the past 30 years. This book examines the concepts and realization of production efficiencies across all areas of the economy. Also the book provides the perspective of foreign direct investment (FDI) absorption to identify how Chinese economy changes in production efficiency.

With the major growth of the world's population over the past century, as well as rapid urbanisation, people increasingly live in crowded cities. This trend is often accompanied by proliferation of poorly built housing, uncontrolled use of land, occupation of unsafe environments and overstretched services. When a natural hazard strikes such a city many people are vulnerable to loss of life and property. This book explores what these people think and feel about the threats that they face. How do they live with perils ranging from earthquakes to monsoons, from floods to hurricanes, in the 21st century? The authors are drawn from a large range of disciplines: Psychology, Engineering, Geography, Anthropology and Urban Planning. They also reflect on how perils are represented in multiple cultures: the United States, Japan, Turkey, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The book therefore not only brings to light the ways that different cultures represent natural hazards but also the different ways in which various disciplines write about living with perils in the 21st century. The book is addressed both to researchers and to organizations involved with risk management and risk mitigation.

Design Against Crime will aid the design profession to meet the challenges presented by the competing needs and complex systems around crime and security. It proposes that designers should use their creative talents to develop innovative solutions to security problems that contribute to the ongoing fight against crime. The authors first explain the design against crime approach to security and security. They go on to provide practical advice on addressing crime and insecurity within the design process and offer practical examples of design being applied to security and safety. They also examine crime victimisation from a global perspective, highlighting the benefits worldwide of reducing opportunities for crime, including issues of national security, such as terrorism and natural disasters. A design-led, human-centred approach provides a way forward that is both aspirational and practical. The book is aimed primarily at design professionals, educators and students interested in safety and security, from all design disciplines, including product design, architecture, service design and communication design. The book should also be read by crime prevention experts, planners, local authorities, managers of urban environments and policymakers.

For the last seven decades, urban settlement policy worldwide has been increasingly dominated by modernist precepts and by urban decisions made in discipline-specific 'silos'. The urban management consequences have been invariably negative, with increasing sprawl, fragmentation and separation resulting in a wide range of environmental, social and economic problems. This book explores the role of movement in a more integrated approach to urban settlement, and how thinking, policies and actions need to change. South Africa is used as a particularly good case study, since patterns of sprawl, fragmentation and separation have been exacerbated by apartheid, while recent legislation has demanded a reversal of these tendencies.