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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere > General
This book is designed to provide concepts, methodologies, and
approaches for river basin studies with respect to water resources
and environment. The book is not limited to the Yamuna River basin,
but will help in the study of various other river basins for
integrated water resources management. The book covers the
essential components of integrated water resources management,
including analysis of climatic variables, climate change detection,
analysis of natural resources, geology, geomorphology,
socio-economics, water budgeting, flood estimation, river
pollution, etc. Furthermore, the book addresses recent issues
pertaining to water quality, water quality indices, environmental
flows, water resources management through cropping pattern change,
etc. along with methodologies and application to the Yamuna River
system. However, the main objective of this book is to address
important issues of water resources management of river basins.
The geodynamic evolution of the Mediterranean region has been often described as a puzzling problem' because of the complex space-time distribution of tectonic events. The gathering of new constraining information and frequent changes of data and ideas among the scientists working on this topic seems to be the most suitable approach to the above problem. This volume reports the most significant results of geological, geophysical, seismological, volcanological, paleomagnetic studies and the geodynamic syntheses presented, and discussed. Special attention is devoted to regions, such as the Aegean--Anatolian and central Mediterranean, which played a crucial role in the evolution of the whole Mediterranean area. A considerable improvement in the understanding of the post-Tortonian deformation pattern of the Tyrrhenian--Apennine system has been achieved by recent geological and geophysical investigations. The geodynamic implications of the data presently available might provide important insights into the evolution of continental collision zones, where shortening processes may also involve lateral extrusion of crustal wedges and consumption of continental-like lithosphere. The main uncertainties which still surround the relative motion between Africa and Eurasia in the Mediterranean region are also pointed out. The arguments reported in this volume are mainly addressed to research scientists and advanced students of the earth sciences. (abstract) This volume reports information about the evolutionary history and the present structural-tectonic setting of the Mediterranean region, which has been presented and discussed during a meeting on Recent Evolution and Seismicity of the Mediterranean Region', held in Erice (Italy) in September 1992. Recent results of geological, geophysical, seismological, volcanological and paleomagnetic studies are described. The geodynamic implications of the presently available data set might provide important insights into the evolution of continental collision zones, where shortening processes may also involve lateral extrusion of crustal wedges and consumption of continental-like lithosphere.
Sustainable technologies for water supply are urgently needed if water has to be supplied to billions of less fortunate people with inadequate access to water. These technologies must be simple, less expensive, less energy intensive, and easy to maintain for their adaptation among the poor masses. Four appropriate technologies are discussed here: solar pasteurization, membrane desalination, natural filtration (riverbank filtration), and solar distillation. Solar pasteurization can be a useful means of producing water at remote, but sunny locations where fuel may not be easily available for boiling water. Membrane desalination will remain as a viable means of drinking water production for individual households to large communities. Various membrane filtration techniques as well as the means to "democratize" membrane filtration have been presented. Riverbank filtration is a "natural" filtration technique where drinking water is produced by placing wells on the banks of rivers. The riverbed/bank material and the underlying aquifer act as natural filters to remove pollutants from river water. Solar distillation can be a viable method of drinking water production for individual households to small communities without the input of external energy. Sustainability framework and technology transfer are discussed through transdisciplinary analysis.
by K. Lambeck, R. Sabadini and E. B08Chi Viscosity is one of the important material properties of the Earth, controlling tectonic and dynamic processes such as mantle convection, isostasy, and glacial rebound. Yet it remains a poorly resolved parameter and basic questions such as whether the planet's response to loading is linear or non-linear, or what are its depth and lateral variations remain uncertain. Part of the answer to such questions lies in laboratory observations of the rheology of terrestrial materials. But the extrapolation of such measurements from the laboratory environment to the geological environment is a hazardous and vexing undertaking, for neither the time scales nor the strain rates characterizing the geological processes can be reproduced in the laboratory. General rules for this extrapolation are that if deformation is observed in the laboratory at a particular temperature, deformation in geological environments will occur at a much reduced temperature, and that if at laboratory strain rates a particular deformation mechanism dominates over all others, the relative importance of possible mechanisms may be quite different at the geologically encountered strain rates. Hence experimental results are little more than guidelines as to how the Earth may respond to forces on long time scales.
Outstanding advances have been achieved on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering and Microzonation in the last decade mostly due to the increase in the recorded instrumental in-situ data and large number of case studies conducted in analyzing the observed effects during the recent major earthquakes. During the 15th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering held in Istanbul in August 2001, the Technical Committee of Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering, (TC4) of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering organised a regional seminar on Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Microzonation where an effort has been made to present the recent advances in the field by eminent scientists and researchers. The book idea was first suggested by the participants of this seminar. The purpose of this book as well as of the seminar was to present the broad spectrum of earthquake geotechnical engineering and seismic microzonation including strong ground motion, site characterisation, site effects, liquefaction, seismic microzonation, solid waste landfills and foundation engineering. The subject matter requires multidisciplinary input from different fields of engineering seismology, soil dynamics, geotechnical and structural engineering. The chapters in this book are prepared by some of the distinguished lecturers who took part in the seminar supplemented with contributions of few distinguished experts in the field of earthquake geotechnical engineering. The editor would like to express his gratitude to all authors for their interest and efforts in preparing their manuscripts. Without their enthusiasm and support, it would not have been possible to complete this book.
This volume describes important sites in the Pleistocene deposits of the Thames terrace system laid down by the Thames and its tributaries. It correlates the Thames sequence with deposits found elsewhere in Britain, on the European continent and on the ocean floor.
An integrated approach to environmental data management is necessitated by the complexity of the environmental problems that need to be addresses, coupled with the interdisciplinary approach that needs to be adopted to solve them. Agenda 21 of the Rio Environmental Conference mandated international programmes and organizations to take steps to develop common data and information management plans, and steps have been taken in this direction. The key word that defines the framework of the present book is `integration'. The book establishes the basics of integrated approaches and covers environmental data management systems within that framework, covering all aspects of data management, from objectives and constraints, design of data collection networks, statistical and physical sampling, remote sensing and GIS, databases, reliability of data, data analysis, and the transformation of data into information.
Stochastic hydrology is an essential base of water resources systems analysis, due to the inherent randomness of the input, and consequently of the results. These results have to be incorporated in a decision-making process regarding the planning and management of water systems. It is through this application that stochastic hydrology finds its true meaning, otherwise it becomes merely an academic exercise. A set of well known specialists from both stochastic hydrology and water resources systems present a synthesis of the actual knowledge currently used in real-world planning and management. The book is intended for both practitioners and researchers who are willing to apply advanced approaches for incorporating hydrological randomness and uncertainty into the simulation and optimization of water resources systems. (abstract) Stochastic hydrology is a basic tool for water resources systems analysis, due to inherent randomness of the hydrologic cycle. This book contains actual techniques in use for water resources planning and management, incorporating randomness into the decision making process. Optimization and simulation, the classical systems-analysis technologies, are revisited under up-to-date statistical hydrology findings backed by real world applications.
Modeling of the rainfall-runoff process is of both scientific and practical significance. Many of the currently used mathematical models of hydrologic systems were developed a genera tion ago. Much of the effort since then has focused on refining these models rather than on developing new models based on improved scientific understanding. In the past few years, however, a renewed effort has been made to improve both our fundamental understanding of hydrologic processes and to exploit technological advances in computing and remote sensing. It is against this background that the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Recent Advances in the Modeling of Hydrologic Systems was organized. The idea for holding a NATO ASI on this topic grew out of an informal discussion between one of the co-directors and Professor Francisco Nunes-Correia at a previous NATO ASI held at Tucson, Arizona in 1985. The Special Program Panel on Global Transport Mechanisms in the Geo-Sciences of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division agreed to sponsor the ASI and an organizing committee was formed. The committee comprised the co directors, Professor David S. Bowles (U.S.A.) and Professor P. Enda O'Connell (U.K.), and Professor Francisco Nunes-Correia (Portugal), Dr. Donn G. DeCoursey (U.S.A.), and Professor Ezio Todini (Italy)."
Water is vital to life, maintenance of ecological balance, economic development, and sustenance of civilization. Planning and management of water resources and its optimal use are a matter of urgency for most countries of the world, and even more so for India with a huge population. Growing population and expanding economic activities exert increasing demands on water for varied needs--domestic, industrial, agricultural, power generation, navigation, recreation, etc. In India, agriculture is the highest user of water. The past three decades have witnessed numerous advances as well as have presented intriguing challenges and exciting opportunities in hydrology and water resources. Compounding them has been the growing environmental consciousness. Nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in India. As we approach the twenty first century, it is entirely fitting to take stock of what has been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished, and what accomplishments are relevant, with particular reference to Indian conditions."
In recent years there have been a number of catastrophic floods that have resulted in a tragic loss of life. These natural disasters highlight the need to further understand the occurrence phenomena, to improve forecasting techniques, and to develop procedures and contingency plans to minimise the flood impact. This volume contains contributions from the 3rd International Conference on Floods and Flood Management held in Florence in November 1992. The volume is timely and provides an important overview for engineers, scientists, managers and researchers of the latest developments in technology, analysis and management.
"Field screening" indicates field analytical tools, and (quick) methods and strategies for on-site or in-situ environmental analysis and assessment of contamination. "Field screening" includes not only field analytical methods, such as mobile laboratories, portable analyses, detectors, sensors, or noninvasive techniques, but also reconnaissance strategies and problems of measurement in heterogeneous media, using, among others, new geotechnical and geophysical instruments. This volume contains both oral and poster contributions to the Second International Conference on Strategies and Techniques for the Investigation and Monitoring of Contaminated Sites, "Field Screening Europe 2001," held in Karlsruhe, May 14 - May 16, 2001. As an integrated study of environmental contamination, "field screening" has become a more and more important part of environmental monitoring and the assessment of chemical contaminations. Recent developments are presented in these proceedings. Audience Environmental engineers, geo-scientists, chemists, biologists, soil scientists, hydrologists and geophysicists.
In describing the geomorphological heritage of Scotland, this volume offers a remarkable account of how the natural environment responded in terms of landforms, processes and plant communities, to severe climatic change as the Quaternary era progressed over the last two million years. This legacy, as preserved in the 138 nationally important GCR sites described, documents a remarkable diversity of landforms in a relatively small area. The rugged highland contrast with the rolling hills and flat plains found further south, while the western and northern islands, together with the highly-indented coastline add further to the scenic diversity. How this variety of landscapes came into being, the forces which shaped it , and the climatic extremes which drove it, are the themes explored in this volume.
Colleagues and friends of Dan Yaron submitted the following tributes. While each submission comes from an individual who knew Dan in a very different way, they all remark on his immeasurable contributions to the field of agricultural eco nomics, his unique approach, which combines his training and experience with his scientific background, and the admirable professionalism and civility that was apparent in every project he undertook. His work, initially inspired by the chal lenge of farmers in the arid Negev, eventually took him to the United States to work with universities and to serve on commissions furnishing his research with global applicability. Dan is not only admired for his enormous contributions to the vast body of research available in his field, but also for the commitment and dedi cation he epitomized. He will be greatly missed by those of us who were fortunate enough to make his acquaintance. ELIFEINERMAN The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel Dan Yaron, my teacher and mentor of blessed memory, was a man of wisdom, thought, counsel and deeds. His many talents, his endless energy and his ambition led him to blaze new trails in research, to ask the relevant questions while separat ing the wheat from the chaff, and to answer them while mastering the most ad vanced scientific analyses.
This interdisciplinary volume reviews the roots of conflict over the Jordan between Arabs and Jews and the development of that conflict over the past 150 years, analyzing the positions of Arabs and Israelis and the role of the United States in promoting a settlement.
Centralized, top-down management of water resources through regulations has created unnecessary economic burdens upon users. More flexible decentralized controls through the use of economic incentives have gained acceptance over the past decade. The theme of this book is the increasing efforts throughout water-scarce regions to rely upon economic incentives and decentralized mechanisms for efficient water management and allocation. The book begins with a section of introductory chapters describing water systems, institutions, constraints, and similarities in the following regions: Israel and the Middle East, Turkey, California, Florida, and Australia. Four of these regions face similar climates with wet winters and dry summers. Florida has a more even seasonal distribution of rainfall, yet it uses similar management strategies in controlling groundwater demand and water quality. The book concludes with a section on water management case studies. These case studies examine issues of conflict related to both water quality and water quantity. While the case studies address both international and intranational concerns in specific regions of the world, they portray broad principles that are applicable to many regions.
Bill Streever, author of Bringing Back the Wetlands and numerous technical articles about wetland restoration and creation, worked for two years to bring together this collection of papers. Authors ranging from private landowners to government managers to scientists present regional overviews, case studies, and discussions of various issues. Regional overviews cover areas as small as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to areas as large as Australia and Africa. Case studies range from relatively small projects, such as rehabilitation of damage caused by wheel ruts in the high arctic, to much larger projects, such as attempts to rehabilitate thousands of hectares of Northern Territory wetlands in Australia. Seedbank ecology, economics, remote sensing, community involvement, the role of the wetland consulting industry, and other issues are discussed. In an effort to synthesize information from around the world, Joy Zedler presents a model that allows comparison of projects and may lead to better predictability of project outcomes. In An International Perspective on Wetland Rehabilitation, authors describe planting, engineered structures, prescribed flooding, excavation, and other rehabilitation methods, from Israel to New Zealand to the Netherlands and elsewhere. For the first time, one volume offers an impression of the magnitude and diversity of the field of wetland rehabilitation around the globe.
On behalf of the Russian Federation Committee on Water Economy, I would like to welcome the participants of the NATO-sponsored Workshop on the Problems of the Caspian Sea and the Circum-Caspian States. The world's largest intercontinental sea/lake is well known for its wealth mineral and fuel resources and sturgeon stocks' the products of which (oil and caviar) are in constant demand on the world market. During the last half-century the Caspian Sea has been the focus of the scientific community concerned with its level fluctuations. We were, and still are, solving a two-faceted issue: to rescue the Caspian Sea and to rescue the population from the Caspian Sea. To rescue the Caspian Sea is to address a broad spectrum of environmental issues related primarily to water pollution by waste water and petroleum products. To rescue the population from the Caspian Sea means that an almost 2.5 m sea level rise in the last two decades has resulted in flooding of vast coastal areas deteriorating economic and social spheres of activity. Solutions to these issues are linked to the numerous mysterious aspects of recent Caspian Sea behavior. Regrettably, the collapse of the USSR has led to a decline of marine observations and control over the use of marine resources in the region. Coordinated international action on the protection of living marine resources have terminated, generating disastrous consequences.
This volume brings together contributions from an experienced group of archaeologists and geologists whose common objective is to present thorough and current reviews of the diverse ways in which methods from the earth sciences can contribute to archaeological research. Many areas of research are addressed here, including artifact analysis and sourcing, landscape reconstruction and site formation analysis, soil micromorphology and geophysical exploration of buried sites.
This book arose out of a paper that I wrote for the World Bank at the request of Ariel Dinar, the editor for the series in which this volume appears. I began that paper by pointing to the growing importance of demand-side considerations in water resources: "The provision of potable water is one of government's oldest functions with evidence of this activity stretching back thousands of years. During much of that time, water demands were taken as exogenously given and the principle task of authorities was defined as an engineering one: how to supply a given quantity of water at least cost. In recent years, however, concerns have arisen from observations of excessive water use, degraded water quality and continued inadequate service for many, especially the very poor. As a result of these and other concerns, there is a growing effort to view water resource allocation from a perspective that incorporates consumers' preferences along with supply constraints into management plans. " (Renzetti, 2000, p. 123). The purpose of this volume is to examine, in greater detail than was possible in that article, what is known regarding the economic characteristics of the demand for water. Thus, this book is meant to be an extended critical review of the state of the art.
Arid and semi-arid regions face major challenges in the management of scarce freshwater resources under pressures of population, economic development, climate change, pollution and over-abstraction. Groundwater is commonly the most important water resource in these areas. Groundwater models are widely used globally to understand groundwater systems and to guide decisions on management. However, the hydrology of arid and semi-arid areas is very different from that of humid regions, and there is little guidance on the special challenges of groundwater modelling for these areas. This book brings together the experience of internationally leading experts to fill a gap in the scientific and technical literature. It introduces state-of-the-art methods for modelling groundwater resources, illustrated with a wide-ranging set of illustrative examples from around the world. The book is valuable for researchers, practitioners in developed and developing countries, and graduate students in hydrology, hydrogeology, water resources management, environmental engineering and geography.
The arid frontier has been a challenge for humanity from time immemorial. Drylands cover more than one-third of the global land surface, distributed over Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Southern Europe. Disasters may develop as a result of complex interactions between drought, desertification and society. Therefore, proactive planning and interactive management, including disaster-coping strategies, are essential in dealing with arid-frontier development. This book presents a conceptual framework with case studies in dryland development and management. The option of a rational and ethical discourse for development that is beneficial for both the environment and society is emphasized, avoiding extreme environmentalism and human destructionism, combating both desertification and human livelihood insecurity. Such development has to be based on appropriate ethics, legislation, policy, proactive planning and interactive management. Excellent scholars address these issues, focusing on the principal interactions between people and dryland environments in terms of drought, food, land, water, renewable energy and housing. Audience: This volume will be of great value to all those interested in Dryland Development and Management: professionals and policy-makers in governmental, international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as researchers, lecturers and students in Geography, Environmental Management, Regional Studies, Development Anthropology, Hazard and Disaster Management, Agriculture and Pastoralism, Land and Water Use, African Studies, and Renewable Energy Resources.
Significant vulnerability of water systems to drought is a common issue of water resources management in Mediterranean regions. This is due both to the increasing occurrence and severity of drought events and to the growing demand for municipal, tourist, and agricultural uses. The INCO-DC project entitled "A Decision Support System for Mitigation of Drought Impacts in the Mediterranean Regions" (DSS DROUGHT) addresses this issue, contributing to an improved management of water supply systems for irrigation, which represents the most consumptive sector of water resources uses in the Mediterranean region. In order to develop a comprehensive approach toward improved operation of irrigation systems under drought conditions, the project was developed around the following five main, strictly interconnected tasks: Identification of drought characteristics at a site and over a region Modelling irrigation management under conditions of water scarcity Modelling operation of water supply systems under drought conditions Integration of the developed methodologies within a Decision Support System software package Definition of requisites for Drought Watch Systems The research resulted in an advancement of knowledge through in-depth analysis of innovative methodologies, the development of tools to help decision-makers in coping with droughts through the implementation of the developed procedures in software packages, and the application of these tools to the case-studies identified by partners in their countries."
Agricultural pollution (with nitrates and pesticides) is one of the biggest threats to drinking water resources. At many places regional and local water authorities, together with the water supply industry, are involved in preventive action aimed at farming practices. Three national case studies (Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) analyse these efforts within the context of problematical national agricultural policy and the need to implement EU directives on water quality. Additional case studies cover the role of the European Union, while the same problem in a different setting is analysed for the United States. The central question of how national and European governments can reinforce the control capacity of the actors at the regional and local level, is treated from the theoretical perspective of the policy network approach. |
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