This book addresses strategies for food security and sustainable agriculture in developing economies. The book focuses primarily on India, a fast developing economy, whose natural resource base comprising land and water supporting agricultural production is not only under enormous stress, but also complex and not amenable to a uniform strategy. It critically reviews issues which continue to dominate the debate on water management for agricultural and food production. The book examines the validity of the claim that large water resources projects cause serious social and environmental damages using global and national datasets. The authors examine claims that the future of Indian agriculture is in rain-fed farming supported by small water harvesting. They question whether water-abundant eastern India could become the granary of India, through a groundwater revolution with the right policy inputs. In the process, they look at the less researched aspect of the food security challenge, which is land scarcity in eastern India. The book analyzes the physical, economic and social impacts of large-scale adoption of micro irrigation systems, using a farming system approach for north Gujarat. Through an economic valuation of the multiple use benefits from tank systems in western Orissa, it shows how value of water from large public irrigation systems could be enhanced. The book also looks at the reasons for the limited success in bringing about the much needed institutional reforms in canal irrigation for securing higher productivity and equity using case studies of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Finally it addresses how other countries in the developing world, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa could learn from Indian experience.

1. Uses advanced geospatial technology to study fragile Himalayan ecosystems and their sustainability. 2. Provides satellite data and spatio-temporal analyses to assess and monitor water resources in the Himalayas. 3. Focuses on land use/land cover changes (LULCC) a leading aspect of environmental changes caused by human-induced activities in rapidly developing areas. 4. Includes case studies from Indian Himalayan, Nepal, and Afghanistan regions. 5. Discusses urban sprawls and future projections of groundwater resources and air pollution in the region.

Hydrological research in humid tropics is particularly challenging because of highly variable hydrological conditions and high socio-economic stresses caused by rapid population increase, as is the case of Nicaragua. The objective of this research is to understand the surface and subsurface runoff generation processes in a poorly gauged coastal catchment in Nicaragua under variable humid tropical conditions. Specifically, it focuses on identifying geomorphological and hydro-climatic controls on catchment response at different spatio-temporal scales and studies the link between hydrological processes and ecosystem conditions (i.e. mangrove forest). Catchment topography, geology and land use control surface and subsurface runoff generation. Spatio-temporal variability of precipitation affects availability of water resources, determines sources of surface runoff generation and induces changes in groundwater-surface interactions. Sustainable water resources management must prevent drastic alterations in catchment structural characteristics defined by forested areas and tidal sand ridges. Catchment response to hydro-climatic and geomorphologic controls supports the mangrove ecosystem freshwater needs. The outcome of this work is a contribution to the hydrological knowledge of poorly gauged catchment in humid tropics. It also provides scientific hydrological insights to support water resources management on the South Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

This title, first published in 1987, provides an authoritative account of both the science and the politics of acid rain. Chris Park places the debates surrounding acid rain in context, and examines the full implications of scientific studies and the effects of acid rain on surface waters, soils and buildings. Evidence is drawn from around the world, including an examination of the damage in Scandinavia and Germany and the effects of acid rain in the U.K. and U.S.A. A comprehensive and relevant work, this is an important guide for students of geography, environment and sustainability and energy policy.

This book presents recent lessons learned in the context of research and development for various dryland ecosystems, focusing on water resources management, land and vegetation cover degradation and remediation, and socioeconomic aspects, as well as integrated approaches to ensuring water and land security in view of the current and predicted climate change. As water and land are the essential bases of food production, the management of these natural resources is becoming a cornerstone for the development of dryland populations. The book gathers the peer-reviewed, revised versions of the most outstanding papers on these topics presented at the ILDAC2015 Conference in Djerba, Tunisia.

This book accounts for the previously inadequately explained transformation in the meaning of equity in sixteenth century England, a transformation which, intriguingly, first comes to light in literary texts rather than political or legal treatises. The book address the two principal literary works in which the transformation becomes apparent, Thomas More's Utopia and Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, and sketches the history of equity to its roots in the Greek concept of epieikeia, uncovering along the way both previously unexplained distinctions, and a long-obscured esoteric meaning. These rediscoveries, when brought to bear upon the Utopia and Faerie Queene, illuminate critical though relatively neglected textual passages that have long puzzled scholars.

This study assessed the downstream river system adaptation in response to upstream damming on the Ribb River, Ethiopia, to irrigate 15,000 ha. It combined primary and secondary data, and the application of remote sensing and mathematical modeling. The pre-dam morphodynamic trends of the Ribb River were analyzed for 59 years based on aerial photographs, satellite images, and newly collected field data. Three dam operation scenarios were developed to analyze the long-term hydro-morphological effects of the dam on the downstream river reaches. It also assessed the applicability of physics-based analytical equations (Equilibrium Theory) compared to a 1D numerical model (SOBEK-RE) to determine the least-morphologically impactful dam operation scenario on the river reaches downstream of the dam. Moreover, a HEC-RAS 2D hydrodynamic model was developed to assess the effect of the dam on the flooding extent of the Fogera Plain. This was used to study the potential implications of hydrological alteration on the ecology of the floodplain wetlands, as they are the habitats of important fish and bird species. The results contribute to knowledge on the hydro-morphological and environmental impacts of dams on downstream river systems. The developed methodologies and findings may be used to study future hydro-morphological and ecological changes that may arise due to other dam operations or climate change.

Field Practices for Wastewater Use in Agriculture discusses the growing importance of wastewater application in the field of agriculture. Addressing the tremendous need for the irrigation sector to reduce the demand for freshwater in agriculture, this volume looks at wastewater as a source for agricultural irrigation. The volume is divided into four sections: current and emerging issues in wastewater use in agriculture, wastewater management with biological systems, effective field practices for wastewater use, and case studies that provide information on scientific analytical studies on the environment under the influence of wastewater quality from different pollution sources. This book sheds light on the vast potential of wastewater use in agricultural irrigation while also considering safety of the agricultural products for human consumption. Much emphasis has also been given to technological aspects for the treatment of wastewater to protect our environment for better public health protection.

Geochemical reaction modeling plays an increasingly vital role in several areas of geoscience ranging from groundwater and surface water hydrology to environmental preservation and remediation to economic and petroleum geology. This book provides an up-to-date overview and a large number of fully worked examples of the use of numerical methods to model reaction processes in the Earth's crust and on its surface. Special attention is given to integrating surface complexation, kinetic rate laws, and isotope fractionation into quantitative process models. Earth science professionals and students in a variety of specialties will benefit from the wealth of information and practical advice this book has to offer.

This volume discusses climate change impacts on groundwater quality in arid and semi-arid regions, and provides human health risk assessments due to pollution of surface and groundwater. The book presents recent trends in monitoring groundwater management and implementing pollution mitigation strategies, including practices involving remote sensing and GIS techniques, entropy water quality index, weighted arithmetic water quality index, fuzzy logic applications, and improved irrigation methods. The book also outlines hydrological processes in arid and semi-arid regions and hydrochemical properties of surface and groundwater as a necessary background for understanding how pollution impacts groundwater quality and resources, and how geographical modeling of hydrological processes can aid in human health risk assessments. The book is intended for academics, administrators, policymakers, social scientists, and professionals involved in the various aspects of climate change impact on groundwater quality, hydrological process, pollution mitigation strategies, sustainable development, and environmental planning and management.

This book reviews the current state of knowledge on, recent advances in, and future prospects of Montenegrin river basins in the context of anthropogenic activities. Edited by three respected experts in the field, the book begins with an introduction to the specific hydrogeological conditions in Montenegro and critical reflections on the impact of hydropower projects. It then reviews the vulnerability of river ecosystems, exploring potential genotoxic effects and water quality, and explaining typology and monitoring of these aspects, and particularly highlighting mollusk assemblages and monitoring of intermittent rivers. The closing chapters focus on the impact of river flooding and discuss controversial projects aiming to find an approach mutually acceptable to all stakeholders. Given its scope, the book is an indispensable resource for scientists in academia and the water industry, as well as for decision-makers in the field investigating the interactions between land and water, limnology and biota, and natural and cultural resources.

This book focuses on River Basin Organizations as the key institutions for managing internationally shared water resources. This includes a comparative analysis of all River Basin Organizations worldwide and three in-depth case studies from three different continents. The detailed case studies are the Senegal (West Africa), Mekong (South-east Asia) and Danube (Europe) rivers. The book contributes to the academic debate on how shared natural and environmental resources can be managed in a sustainable way and which institutional and legal mechanisms actually matter for doing so. It adopts the neo-institutionalist approach, according to which international environmental institutions do make a difference. The analysis not only confirms this argument for the specific case of shared water resources, but also refines existing hypotheses on the influence of different independent variables, namely the nature of the collective action problem, the constellation of actors and the institutional design of an international environmental institution. The work also contributes to the policy debate on how to better govern internationally shared natural resources and the environment. It provides policy makers with advice on which exogenous conditions to be aware of when managing water resources they share with co-riparians and which institutional design features and governance mechanisms to set up in order to increase effectiveness in management.

This book addresses strategies for food security and sustainable agriculture in developing economies. The book focuses primarily on India, a fast developing economy, whose natural resource base comprising land and water supporting agricultural production is not only under enormous stress, but also complex and not amenable to a uniform strategy. It critically reviews issues which continue to dominate the debate on water management for agricultural and food production. The book examines the validity of the claim that large water resources projects cause serious social and environmental damages using global and national datasets. The authors examine claims that the future of Indian agriculture is in rain-fed farming supported by small water harvesting. They question whether water-abundant eastern India could become the granary of India, through a groundwater revolution with the right policy inputs. In the process, they look at the less researched aspect of the food security challenge, which is land scarcity in eastern India. The book analyzes the physical, economic and social impacts of large-scale adoption of micro irrigation systems, using a farming system approach for north Gujarat. Through an economic valuation of the multiple use benefits from tank systems in western Orissa, it shows how value of water from large public irrigation systems could be enhanced. The book also looks at the reasons for the limited success in bringing about the much needed institutional reforms in canal irrigation for securing higher productivity and equity using case studies of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Finally it addresses how other countries in the developing world, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa could learn from Indian experience.

Water losses occur in all water distribution systems worldwide and high levels are indicative of poor governance and poor physical condition of the system. Water losses vary from 3% of system input volume in the developed countries to 70% in the developing countries. This high contrast suggests that probably the existing tools and methodologies are not appropriate or cannot be directly applied for water loss reduction in the developing countries. This study highlights the challenges and prospects of managing water losses in developing countries and provides a toolbox of appropriate tools and methodologies to help water utilities in the developing countries assess inefficiencies in their water distribution systems and take corrective action. Included is a step-by-step approach for water accountability, performance improvement through benchmarking techniques, economic optimization techniques for minimizing revenue losses due to metering inaccuracies, pressure management planning for proactive leakage control, and strategic planning for water loss reduction based on multi-criteria decision analysis. The developed tools and methodologies have been tested and validated in practice on real case studies in Uganda. It is envisaged that this thesis will be of considerable value to utility managers, researchers, and other agencies involved in managing water distribution losses in developing countries.

With a sharp focus on environmental pollution and its impact on life and nature, scientists and engineers have studied the water treatment effect of natural wetlands for many years, resulting in the development of constructed wetlands (CWs) for treating wastewater. This informative new book provides current information and guidance on the construction, performance, operation, and maintenance of subsurface flow constructed wetlands of domestic and municipal wastewater. The focus of the volume is to evaluate the performance of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands in treating domestic wastewater to establish the limit that can be safely discharged to agricultural drains. Two-step procedures were used for the preparation of this book. Using modeling and statistical analyses of treated water samples showed a significant difference between different media for the treatment of most pollutants. The authors went on to design artificial neural network models (ANNs) using Matlab software to simulate some of the experimental data and to anticipate the parameters of output concentration. The wetland systems have the ability to deal with various pollutants with different concentrations and to decrease the treated water to the standard limits. This volume presents the main role of emergent plants for treatment performance in the constructed wetlands and will be a very important resource for engineers in this field as well as for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Studies of drought have increased in light of new data availability and advances in spatio-temporal analysis. However, the following gaps still need to be filled: 1) methods to characterise drought that explicitly consider its spatio-temporal features, such as spatial extent (area) and pathway; 2) methods to monitor and predict drought that include the above-mentioned characteristics and 3) approaches for visualising and analysing drought characteristics to facilitate interpretation of its variation. This research aims to explore, analyse and propose improvements to the spatio-temporal characterisation of drought. Outcomes provide new perspectives towards better prediction. The following objectives were proposed. 1) Improve the methodology for characterising drought based on the phenomenon's spatial features. 2) Develop a visual approach to analysing drought variations. 3) Develop a methodology for spatial drought tracking. 4) Explore machine learning (ML) techniques to predict crop-yield responses to drought. The four objectives were addressed and results are presented. Finally, a scope was formulated for integrating ML and the spatio-temporal analysis of drought. Proposed scope opens a new area of potential for drought prediction (i.e. predicting spatial drought tracks and areas). It is expected that the drought tracking and prediction method will help populations cope with drought and its severe impacts.

* case study based to provide concrete examples of GIS and 3D modelling * identifies and explores new paradigms of data management and representation, helping archaeologists and specialists in the cultural heritage sector to take advantage of full reconstructed 3D environments * Serves as a textbook for courses in GIS and 3D modelling but will also provide a useful guide for practicing archaeologist

* case study based to provide concrete examples of GIS and 3D modelling * identifies and explores new paradigms of data management and representation, helping archaeologists and specialists in the cultural heritage sector to take advantage of full reconstructed 3D environments * Serves as a textbook for courses in GIS and 3D modelling but will also provide a useful guide for practicing archaeologist

This book describes pathogen removal processes in aerobic granular sludge (AGS) wastewater treatment systems. Faecal indicators (E. coli, Enterococci, coliforms and bacteriophages) were tracked in full-scale AGS facilities and compared to parallel activated sludge (CAS) systems. AGS showed similar removals as the more complex CAS configurations. Removal mechanisms investigated in laboratory-scale reactors showed that the AGS morphology contributes to the removal processes. By tracking E. coli and MS2, it was observed that organisms not attached to the granules are predated by protozoa during aeration. 18S RNA gene analyses confirmed the occurrence of bacterivorous organisms (e.g., Epistylis, Vorticella, Rhogostoma) in the system. Particulate material in the feeding stimulated their development, and a protozoa bloom arose when co-treating with (synthetic) faecal sludge (4 % v/v). An overview of the diverse eukaryotic community in laboratory reactors and real-life applications is also provided. The microbial diversity of the influent was different compared to AGS and CAS sludge samples. However, no clear differences were found between them on species level. This study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind pathogen removals in AGS systems.

Sludge transportation costs can represent a large fraction of the expenses associated with municipal and faecal sludge management. These costs can be mitigated through the use of thermal drying approaches to reduce the sludge volume. This thesis described the application of a novel microwave-based pilot-scale unit as an alternative technology for the sanitisation and drying of sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants and on-site sanitation facilities. The potential economic benefits of volumetric heating, moisture levelling, and increased liquid and vapour migration from the interior to the surface of the product underpins the increasing interest in the use of microwave technology during sludge treatment processes. According to the findings of this study, these factors lead to faster processing times, improved drying rates, and a reduced physical footprint. Furthermore, microwave technology operates as a standalone treatment unit. When coupled with mechanical dewatering techniques and membrane separation technology, it can increase the reliability of the technology employed in the treatment of sludge while recovering valuable resources through an agricultural or thermochemical application such as (co-) combustion. The results of this work demonstrate the strong feasibility of applying microwave-based technology within initiatives designed to protect the environment and safeguard public health.

Flooding is one of the most frequently occurring and damaging natural disasters worldwide. Quantitative flood risk management (FRM) in the modern context demands statistically robust approaches (e.g. probabilistic) due to the need to deal with complex uncertainties. However, probabilistic estimates often involve ensemble 2D model runs resulting in large computational costs.Additionally, modern FRM necessitates the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders via co-design sessions. This makes it necessary for the flood models, at least at a simplified level, to be understood by and accessible to non-specialists. This study was undertaken to develop a flood modelling system that can provide rapid and sufficiently accurate estimates of flood risk within a methodology that is accessible to a wider range of stakeholders for a coastal city - Can Tho city, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A web-based hydraulic tool, Inform, was developed based on a simplified 1D model for the entire Mekong Delta, flood hazard and damage maps, and estimated flood damages for the urban centre of Can Tho city (Ninh Kieu district), containing the must-have features of a co-design tool (e.g. inbuilt input library, flexible options, easy to use, quick results, user-friendly interface). Inform provides rapid flood risk assessments with quantitative information (e.g. flood levels, flood hazard and damage maps, estimated damages) required for co-designing efforts aimed at flood risk reduction for Ninh Kieu district in the future.

This volume contains the lecture notes of the Short Course on Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Equations (Faculty of Mathematics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2-4 July 2011). The course was organized in recognition of Prof. Eleuterio Toro's contribution to education and training on numerical methods for partial differential equations and was organized prior to the International Conference on Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Equations: Theory and Applications, which honours Professor Toro in the month of his 65th birthday. These lecture notes on selected topics in numerical methods for hyperbolic equations are from renowned academics in both theoretical and applied fields, and include contributions on: -- Nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws -- First order schemes for the Euler equations -- High-order accuracy: monotonicity and non-linear methods -- High-order schemes for multidimensional hyperbolic problems -- A numerical method for the simulation of turbulent mixing and its basis in mathematical theory Lectures on Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Equations is intended primarily for research students and post-doctoral research fellows.Some background knowledge on the basics of the theoretical aspects of the partial differential equations, their physical meaning and discretization methods is assumed. The Short Course you are organizing not only matches perfectly well the problems I am trying to address in my PhD but also provides a unique opportunity to look at these challenges from the point of view of world class leaders in the field of hyperbolic equations. (A. Warzynski, University of Leeds, UK)

This open access book explores the interactions between water and earthquakes, including recent concerns about induced seismicity. It further highlights that a better understanding of the response of the water system to disturbances such as earthquakes is needed to safeguard water resources, to shield underground waste repositories, and to mitigate groundwater contamination. Although the effects of earthquakes on streams and groundwater have been reported for thousands of years, this field has only blossomed into an active area of research in the last twenty years after quantitative and continuous documentation of field data became available. This volume gathers the important advances that have been made in the field over the past decade, which to date have been scattered in the form of research articles in various scientific journals.

The chapters in this book explore the range of physical and social attributes that have shaped and re-shaped our landscapes through time. International authors have contributed the latest results of investigating ancient landscapes (or "palaeolandscapes") in diverse settings of tropical forests, deserts, river deltas, remote islands, coastal zones, and continental interiors. The case studies embrace a liberal approach of combining archaeological evidence with other avenues of research in earth sciences, biology, and social relations. The chapters offer new perspectives on what the world's palaeolandscapes looked like, how people lived in these places, and how communities have engaged with long-term change in their natural and cultural environments though successive centuries and millennia. This book reaches across archaeology, ecology, geography, and broader studies of human-environment relations that will appeal to general readers. Specialists and students in these fields will find extra value in the primary datasets and in the new ideas and perspectives. It also provides unique examples from the past, toward understanding the workings of sustainable landscape systems.

-Written by the authors of key spatial R packages -Makes spatial data analysis more robust -Integrates with the tidyverse and comparable approaches -Includes many easily reproducible examples