Flood disasters continue to occur in many countries in the world and cause tremendous casualties and property damage. To mitigate the effects of floods, a range of structural and non-structural measures have been employed including dykes, channelling, flood-proofing property, land-use regulation and flood warning schemes. Such schemes can include the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for modelling the rainfall run-off process as it is a quick and flexible approach which gives very promising results. However, the inability of ANN to extrapolate beyond the limits of the training range is a serious limitation of the method, and this book examines ways of side-stepping or solving this complex issue.

Originally published in 1984, this book discusses the structure of a multi-sectoral, general equilibrium growth model of the US economy that gives special attention to the energy sectors and presents results from the simulation of this model under varying conditions of energy supply. While the book primarily analyzes the effect of energy supply on economic growth, it also presents a new methodology for approaching this kind of problem, but this same approach can be used to model the effect of changes in the supply of any produced raw material on economic growth.

Originally published in 1987 this book presents a comprehensive survey of the global natural gas industry: it looks at the problems of supply, the pattern of demand, the economics of the industrya nd how the industry in the 1980s was being affected by changes in other energy sectors. As a key commodity in the world economy the supply of natural gas is increasingly affecting and changing international relations between importer and supplier countries: the siberian natural gas pipeline which supplies Soviet gas to Western Europe is a key example of the impact of natural gas on international relations and one which is discussed in the book.

Originally published in 1994, this book contains the edited papers of the workshop of the Energy and Environmental Programme at the Royal Institute of Interantional Affairs which examined the interaction between environmental legislation and the energy indusutries. It examines past experience; the nature of the challenges to the industries; actual industrial responses and what implications this might have framing legislation. The international contributors represent a range of perspectives.

Energy and Society: An Introduction, Second Edition provides readers with a detailed introduction to energy sources and energy utilization. This book presents an overview of alternative energy issues and technologies, discusses the pros and cons of various energy sources, and explores their impacts on society and the environment. What's New in the Second Edition: This second edition offers simple updates, as well as completely rewritten material, regarding the last decade in areas including global climate change, oil prices, renewable and alternative fuels, and diversion of civil nuclear energy programs into nuclear weapons proliferation. It covers the development of energy technology from the time of early humans through antiquity, medieval times, and the Industrial Revolution. It also addresses the development of nuclear energy, energy supply and demand, geopolitics of energy, and the various environmental issues associated with energy use. Keeps mathematics to a minimum, making the book usable for a variety of academic majors Includes up-to-date coverage of all new energy sources Traces the development and utilization of energy throughout history Energy and Society: An Introduction, Second Edition can benefit undergraduate students taking a survey course in engineering, as well as professionals in the energy supply, energy planning, or environmental industry.

China is frequently described as a threat to regional and global stability and its rapidly rising demand for imported energy is seens as one cause of this threat. This book shows that domestic politics and foreign policy have both played a part in China's recent major energy policy decisions. However, China's increasing involvement in the global energy markets can be seen as an opportunity to enhance cooperation and interdependence rather than as a threat.

Since China has now become the world's largest energy consumer, its energy sector has understandably huge implications for the global economy. This book examines the transformation of China's conventional and renewable energy sectors, with special attention to state-business relations. Two studies examine the development of China's energy profile, especially China's renewable energy. Two others explore governmental relations with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and their reform. Despite drastic restructuring in the late 1990s, SOEs continue their oligopolistic control of the oil and gas sectors and even overshadow the stock market. Three studies investigate the factors that help propel the expansion of China's conventional energy firms, as well as those producing renewable energy (i.e. solar PV industry). A study of China's solar PV industry suggests that China's governmental support for it has evolved from subsidising production (a "mercantile" stage aimed at expanding the industry's global production and export share) to subsidising the demand side (aiming at expanding domestic demand and absorbing redundant manufacture capacity). Another review of this industry finds that firms tend to pay heavy attention to extra-firm institutional network relationships both inside and outside China, and that buyer-supplier networks are influenced by extra-local managerial education. The final chapter compares China's provinces and their embedded carbon-footprints per capita in urban areas from a consumption perspective, using a self-organizing feature map (SOFM) model. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Business Review.

Taken from a report for the Electric Power Research Institute, Joy Dunkerley's study aims to clarify the relationship between energy consumption and economic output in industrialised countries. Originally published in 1980 and using data from 1972, this study uses cross-country comparisons of energy use to stress the importance of new supply options and measures of controlling energy use without affecting living standards whilst also discussing the impact of energy prices and economic growth in the countries studied. This title will be of interest to students of environmental studies.

During the past few decades there has been an advance in the research and development of solving the issue of declining energy resources. Funding by the U.S. government into energy research has risen steeply. Because of the growing importance of research and development in this field of research, in 1973 Resources for the Future undertook a study of energy-associated study, including an investigation of how research on energy R & D itself could be carried out. This title, first published in 1974, assesses a wide range of ways in which economics could contribute to decisions on where and in what amounts government R & D money should be spent. The report also evaluates the research and development approach in relation to other public energy policies or management tools. The book will be of interest to students of environmental studies and economics.

The challenges in Russia's energy sector are changing. On the demand side, Europe is seeking to limit its dependence on Russian oil and gas, with the result that China and other Asian countries are likely to eventually become growing export markets for Russian energy. On the supply side, oil and gas fields in West Siberia are diminishing and in future Russia's energy will have to come more from East Siberia and the Arctic, which will necessitate new infrastructure development and the employment of advanced technologies, which may increase Russia's dependence on commercial partners from outside Russia. This book explores the challenges facing Russia's energy sector and the resulting security implications. It includes a discussion of how far the Russian state is likely to continue to monopolise the energy sector, and how far competition from private and foreign companies might be allowed.

Energy Markets in Emerging Economies addresses current key issues, new opportunities, and various growth strategies relating to the energy markets in key emerging economies. The book addresses key aspects, including key oil and gas energy markets, and their strategic ties to global petrochemical and chemicals, shale gas, and renewable energy growths. It also provides insights on business strategies and market expansion strategies employed by MNCs and state-owned companies in maintaining and defending their positions in the global market, and in developing new markets and opportunities globally, particularly in China, India and the Middle East. The strategic implications of the global oil and gas prices fluctuations on the industries are also discussed. The practical and theoretical perspectives within the commercial context addressed in this book provide a clearer understanding of the energy markets and their leading players, relevant not only to industry players, but also interdependent markets.

Energy Markets in Emerging Economies addresses current key issues, new opportunities, and various growth strategies relating to the energy markets in key emerging economies. The book addresses key aspects, including key oil and gas energy markets, and their strategic ties to global petrochemical and chemicals, shale gas, and renewable energy growths. It also provides insights on business strategies and market expansion strategies employed by MNCs and state-owned companies in maintaining and defending their positions in the global market, and in developing new markets and opportunities globally, particularly in China, India and the Middle East. The strategic implications of the global oil and gas prices fluctuations on the industries are also discussed. The practical and theoretical perspectives within the commercial context addressed in this book provide a clearer understanding of the energy markets and their leading players, relevant not only to industry players, but also interdependent markets.

As discussed in this text, countries with excess energy resources export these to countries that need them. This is an important function of the global energy markets, where energy sources, products and services are traded among countries and companies. While this is the primary activity in energy markets, it is only part of the entire global energy market scheme. The goal of this text is to analyze all sides of the energy markets in their physical, technological, economic, political, regulatory, environmental, financial, and legal aspects.

This book offers a detailed account of how renewable energy has moved from the margins to the mainstream in the UK, and of the battles that have been fought to achieve this, trawling through the often troubled history of government involvement. The book examines how renewables became what now seem likely to be the dominant energy sources of the future. Renewable energy technologies, using solar and wind power and other natural energy sources, are now supplying around 30% of UK electricity and appear set to continue expanding to supply around 50% within the next decade. Although the emphasis of the book is on the UK, developments there are compared with those in other countries to provide an overall assessment of the relevance of the UK experience. Chapters explore why the UK still lags behind many other countries in deploying renewables, in part, it is argued, due to its continued reliance on nuclear power. The book ends with a discussion on what sort of changes may be expected over the coming years. The author does not assume a single answer, but invites readers to consider the possibilities.

The perception of Central Asia and its place in the world has come to be shaped by its large oil and gas reserves. Literature on energy in the region has thus largely focused on related geopolitical issues and national policies. However, little is known about citizens' needs within this broader context of commodities that connect the energy networks of China, Russia and the West. This multidisciplinary special issue brings together anthropologists, economists, geographers and political scientists to examine the role of all forms of energy (here: oil, gas, hydropower and solar power) and their products (especially electricity) in people's daily lives throughout Central Asia and the Caucasus. The papers in this issue ask how energy is understood as an everyday resource, as a necessity and a source of opportunity, a challenge or even as an indicator of exclusionary practices. We enquire into the role and views of energy sector workers, rural consumers and urban communities, and their experiences of energy companies' and national policies. We further examine the legacy of Soviet and more recent domestic energy policies, the environmental impact of energy use as well as the political impact of citizens' energy grievances. This book was published as a special issue of Central Asian Survey.

A European Legal Framework for Nuclear Liability discusses nuclear liability and the interplay of the different stakeholders involved in the nuclear sector. It highlights shortcomings of the current liability regimes, suggests alternatives and calls for a more active role of the European Union in the area of nuclear liability. Contrary to existing literature, it refocuses the discussion of nuclear liability in the European Union away from the Euratom Treaty, arguing that the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union could also provide a sufficient legal basis for a European nuclear liability regime.The book presents a proposal for a harmonised European liability regime and discusses possibilities to enhance the feasibility of such a reform. It calls for a stronger involvement of the public in the nuclear sector and emphasises the intrinsic link between effective safety regulation and liability and compensation mechanisms. It also describes the need to find ways in which safety regulation and liability rules can mutually reinforce each other.This book sets out the regulation of nuclear energy and pressing legal questions to do with the commercial exploitation of nuclear energy. Equally it will be of interest for government officials, policy advisors, environmental agencies and other practitioners in the nuclear sector.

This book surveys decision-making inthe energy field, especially electricity in the UK and Western Europe, andprovides a critique of the various claims that are made for different ways ofapproaching the critical need for vast amounts of new investment. It explores reasons for the paralysis indecision-making, which is contrasted with past periods of rapid change,including the growth of electricity and renewables in the late 19th century,the development of centralised grids in the 1920s and 1930s and the rapiddeployment of nuclear power in the 1970s and 1980s. It briefly reviews the history of each major fuel then considers thereasons for the decision sclerosis and suggests possible ways out of it. Itreviews the difficulties of investing in long-term electricity generatingcapacity in competitive marketplaces; the problems caused by a lack ofunderstanding of basic physics among elected representatives coupled with adegree of short-term political opportunism; the fundamentally dishonestapproach of the Big Green industry; a naive approach to communication on the partof the energy industry itself and a lax approach to scientific rigour amongthose advocating action against climate change which has bred disillusionmentand suspicion. Comparisons with recent experience in Germany and Japan areoffered to illustrate the issues.

Taken from a report for the Electric Power Research Institute, Joy Dunkerley's study aims to clarify the relationship between energy consumption and economic output in industrialised countries. Originally published in 1980 and using data from 1972, this study uses cross-country comparisons of energy use to stress the importance of new supply options and measures of controlling energy use without affecting living standards whilst also discussing the impact of energy prices and economic growth in the countries studied. This title will be of interest to students of environmental studies.

Originally published in 1983, Energy and Household Expenditure Patterns claimed that two-thirds of energy consumption in the United States came from households. This study aimed to estimate the expected changes in household activities and how this would affect energy consumption in the country as a whole. Also discussed are implications of direct energy purchases and spending on energy goods in households as well as predicting the growth in energy consumption leading up to the year 2000. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies and Economics.

Since China has now become the world's largest energy consumer, its energy sector has understandably huge implications for the global economy. This book examines the transformation of China's conventional and renewable energy sectors, with special attention to state-business relations. Two studies examine the development of China's energy profile, especially China's renewable energy. Two others explore governmental relations with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and their reform. Despite drastic restructuring in the late 1990s, SOEs continue their oligopolistic control of the oil and gas sectors and even overshadow the stock market. Three studies investigate the factors that help propel the expansion of China's conventional energy firms, as well as those producing renewable energy (i.e. solar PV industry). A study of China's solar PV industry suggests that China's governmental support for it has evolved from subsidising production (a "mercantile" stage aimed at expanding the industry's global production and export share) to subsidising the demand side (aiming at expanding domestic demand and absorbing redundant manufacture capacity). Another review of this industry finds that firms tend to pay heavy attention to extra-firm institutional network relationships both inside and outside China, and that buyer-supplier networks are influenced by extra-local managerial education. The final chapter compares China's provinces and their embedded carbon-footprints per capita in urban areas from a consumption perspective, using a self-organizing feature map (SOFM) model. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Business Review.

Lead-Acid Battery Technologies: Fundamentals, Materials, and Applications offers a systematic and state-of-the-art overview of the materials, system design, and related issues for the development of lead-acid rechargeable battery technologies. Featuring contributions from leading scientists and engineers in industry and academia, this book: Describes the underlying science involved in the operation of lead-acid batteries Highlights advances in materials science and engineering for materials fabrication Delivers a detailed discussion of the mathematical modeling of lead-acid batteries Analyzes the integration of lead-acid batteries with other primary power systems Explores emerging applications such as electric bicycles and microhybrid vehicles Lead-Acid Battery Technologies: Fundamentals, Materials, and Applications provides researchers, students, industrial professionals, and manufacturers with valuable insight into the latest theories, experimental methodologies, and research achievements in lead-acid battery technologies.

During the past few decades there has been an advance in the research and development of solving the issue of declining energy resources. Funding by the U.S. government into energy research has risen steeply. Because of the growing importance of research and development in this field of research, in 1973 Resources for the Future undertook a study of energy-associated study, including an investigation of how research on energy R & D itself could be carried out. This title, first published in 1974, assesses a wide range of ways in which economics could contribute to decisions on where and in what amounts government R & D money should be spent. The report also evaluates the research and development approach in relation to other public energy policies or management tools. The book will be of interest to students of environmental studies and economics.

Historic sites celebrate defining moments in history, memorialize important events and people, and contribute to the character of the locations where they are situated. Heritage designation, both globally and nationally, is an inherently contested issue. As detailed in this volume, concerns of politics and identity, criteria for designation, impacts on communities and sites, and challenges to management planning are central to any understanding of the process by which heritage sites are created, developed, and maintained.

The idea for this volume originated at a symposium hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design. Contributors address such topics as the need to revamp criteria for designation, the effect historic site recognition has on local communities, the challenges encountered in maintaining a site, and issues linked to specific political climates or actions and group identity.

The contributors constitute an international cast of leading scholars, employees, and policy-makers, all of whom have had extensive experience with World Heritage and National Register site stewardship. The work will be an invaluable reference for historians, architects, and those committed to the preservation of national monuments.

Written by the leading expert in UK petroleum economics, this study provides a new, unique, in-depth analysis of the development of British policies towards the North Sea oil and gas industry from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.

Drawing on full access to the UK Government s relevant archives, Alex Kemp examines the thinking behind the initial legislation in 1964, the early licensing arrangements and the events leading up to the boundary delimitation agreements with Norway and other adjacent North Sea countries. He explains the debate in the later 1960s about the appropriate role of the state in the exploitation of the gas and oil resources, the prolonged negotiations resulting in the early long-term gas contracts, and the continuing debate on the role of the state following the large oil discoveries in the first half of the 1970s resulting in the formation of BNOC (British National Oil Corporation). The debate leading up to the introduction of, and subsequent increase in, the Petroleum Revenue Tax is fully explained as is the introduction of Supplementary Petroleum Duty. The author also outlines the debates around interventionist depletion policies and on how the oil revenues should best be utilised.

The Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas will be of much interest to students of North Sea oil and gas, energy economics, business history, and British politics, as well as to petroleum professionals and policymakers."

Written by the leading expert in the history of UK energy, this study provides new, in-depth analysis of the development of UK petroleum policies towards the North Sea oil and gas industry from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.

Following on from volume I (The Growing Dominance of the State) to discuss the more recent history of the North Sea oil and gas industry, here Alex Kemp offers new insights into developments in the industry. The controversial decisions to raise gas prices to consumers and to introduce the Gas Levy are discussed, while the thinking behind the gradual reduction in taxation - including the abolition of SPD (Supplementary Petroleum Duty) and the removal of royalties on new developments - is fully explained. The various options considered to reduce the powers of BNOC (British National Oil Corporation), then privatise its upstream assets, and finally to abolish the state company altogether are fully discussed, as is the thinking leading up to the privatisation of the British Gas Corporation in 1986. This volume also sheds light on the development of policies onshore, particularly the role of the OSO (Offshore Supplies Office), and the response of British industry to the North Sea opportunity. Finally, the evolution of policies relating to health, safety, decommissioning, and the environment over the whole period of the study are examined.

The Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas will be of interest to students of North Sea oil and gas, energy economics, business history, and British politics, as well as to petroleum professionals and policymakers.