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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere > General
Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality Improvement is a virtual encyclopedia of state-of-the-art information on the use of constructed wetlands for improving water quality. Well-organized and easy-to-use, this book features contributions from prominent scientists and provides important case studies. It is ideal for anyone involved in the application of constructed wetlands in treating municipal and industrial wastewater, mine drainage, and non-point source pollution. Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality Improvement is a "must" for industrial and municipal water treatment professionals, consulting engineers, federal and state regulators, wetland scientists and professionals, ecologists, environmental health professionals, planners, and industrial environmental managers.
The book presents a thorough overview of the latest trends and challenges in renewable energy technologies applications for water desalination, with an emphasis on environmental concerns and sustainable development. Emphasis is on the various uses of renewable energy, as well as economics & scale-up, government subsidies & regulations, and environmental concerns. It provides an indication on how renewable energy technologies are rapidly emerging with the promise of economic and environmental viability for desalination. Further it gives a clear indication on how exactly to accelerate the expansion and commercialization of novel water production systems powered by renewable energies and in what manner environmental concerns may be minimized. This book is all-inclusive and wide-ranging and directed at decision makers in government, industry and the academic world as well as students.
Fractured rocks extend over much of the world, cropping out in shields, massifs, and the cores of major mountain ranges. They also form the basement below younger sedimentary rocks; at depth; they represent a continuous environment of extended and deep regional groundwater flow. Understanding of groundwater flow and solute transport in fractured rocks is vital for analysis of water resources, water quality and environmental protection, geotechnical and engineering projects, and geothermal energy production. Book chapters include theoretical and practical analyses using numerical modelling, geochemistry, isotopes, aquifer tests, laboratory tests, field mapping, geophysics, geological analyses, and some unique combinations of these types of investigation. Current water resource and geotechnical problems in many countries-and the techniques now used to address them-are also discussed. The importance of geological interpretation is re-emphasised in analysing the hydrogeology of fractured, mostly crystalline rocks and in how critical this is for understanding their hydrology and the wise utilisation of resources. This is indeed hydrogeology in its broadest sense. The importance of, but great difficulty in, extending or upscaling fractured rock hydraulic properties is also made clear. This book is aimed at practicing hydrogeologists, engineers, ecologists, resource managers, and perhaps most importantly, students and earth scientists not yet familiar with the ubiquity and importance of fractured rock systems.
Large-Eddy Simulation (LES), which is an advanced eddy-resolving method for calculating turbulent flows, is used increasingly in Computational Fluid Dynamics, also for solving hydraulics and environmental flow problems. The method has generally great potential and is particularly suited for problems dominated by large-scale turbulent structures. This book gives an introduction to the LES method specially geared for hydraulic and environmental engineers. Compared with existing books on LES it is less theoretically and mathematically demanding and hence easier to follow, and it covers special features of flows in water bodies and summarizes the experience gained with LES for calculating such flows. The book was written primarily as an introduction to LES for hydraulic and environmental engineers, but it will also be very useful as an entry to the subject of LES for researchers and students in all fields of fluids engineering. The applications part will further be useful to researchers interested in the physics of flows governed by the dynamics of coherent structures.
Issues in Underground Storage Tank Management presents a comprehensive description of the many complex facets of hazardous waste management, tank closure, and site assessment. It is also the only book to cover financial assurance of UST remediation. Part I discusses UST closure including regulation, closure techniques, site assessment methods and data interpretation, waste disposal, contracting, and health and safety. The book's site assessment section covers such issues as field screening, analytical techniques, sample collection, and equipment decontamination. Part 2 covers financial assurance addressing UST financial responsibility, EPA financial responsibility regulations, use of insurance, use of state funds, and litigation and common law. Non-technical language is used throughout the book to present information in an easy-to-understand, readable fashion. Issues in Underground Storage Tank Management is an essential guide for UST owners, facility managers, environmental and hazardous waste consultants, federal and state environmental regulatory personnel, groundwater professionals, pollution engineers. It also has useful information for anyone involved in petroleum contamination assessment.
The provision of a safe and reliable water supply is a major challenge for the world's growing urban populations. This book investigates the implications of different developments in water technology and infrastructure for urban sustainability and the relationship between cities and nature. The book begins by outlining five frameworks for analysing water technologies and systems - sustainable development, ecological modernisation, socio-technical systems, political ecology and radical ecology. It then analyses in detail what the sustainability implications are of different technical developments in water systems, specifically: demand management, sanitation, urban drainage, water reuse and desalination. The main purpose of the book is to draw out the social, political and ethical implications of technical changes that are occurring in urban water systems around the world, with positive and negative impacts on sustainability. Distinguished from existing social science analysis due to its attention to the engineering details of the technology, this book will be of use to a wide audience, including students on water management courses, engineering students and researchers, urban geographers and planners interested in sustainability, infrastructure and critical ecology.
Groundwater is integral to many human and environmental systems but there are significant challenges in dealing with the impact of anthropogenic activities on groundwater systems. These challenges need innovative solutions. This book contains a wide range of content, from a discussion of the Australian regulatory framework for unconventional hydrocarbons, the extraction of which have the potential to significantly impact groundwater systems, to the best way to apply numerical models to help solve complex, real world problems. The impact of urbanisation on groundwater systems in the developing world is also discussed, at both a local scale in Nigeria and at a world scale. The use of innovative tools such as managed aquifer recharge, a critical tool in solving the groundwater challenges of the 21st century, is also discussed. The framework used to manage the legacy of agricultural contamination in Denmark, covering investigation to regulation and remediation, is also presented, focussing on how the many challenges in implantation were solved. This book is targeted at professional hydrogeologists, experts in governance, law and policy as well as other professionals that need to incorporate an understanding of groundwater. The book will also appeal to politicians, resource managers, regulators and others interested in sustainable water supply.
Sustainable groundwater development requires knowledge of the appropriate recharge and transport-processes. This is a prerequisite to understanding: (i) groundwater resources and their availability, and (ii) the dependence between groundwater and the environment. Conceptual understanding of groundwater flow at both temporal and spatial scales (local and regional) is essential for management that will support engineering, industry, agriculture, ecology, and all environmentally related issues. This book has been prepared for scientists, researchers, students, engineers, water resources specialists, groundwater consultants, government administrators and teachers. It is of direct and applied interest to practitioners in hydrogeology and groundwater (resources, quality, pollution, protection and clean-up), geochemistry and hydrogeochemical modelling, and investigators into environmental hydrology, groundwater dependent ecosystems, and other practical environmental issues.
The 31 chapters provide a wealth of previously unpublished information, plus topic syntheses, for a wide range of ecological parameters. These include the physical driving forces that created and continue to shape the Everglades and patterns and processes of its flora and fauna. The book summarizes recent studies of the region's vegetation, alligators, wading birds, and endangered species such as the snail kite and Florida panther. This referee-reviewed volume is the product of collaboration among 58 international authors from 27 institutional affiliations over nearly five years. The book concludes with a synthesis of system-wide restoration hypotheses, as they apply to the Everglades, that represent the integration and a collective viewpoint from the preceding 30 chapters. Techniques and systems learned here can be applied to ecosystems around the world.
This book focuses on the river morphodynamics and stream ecology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The objective of the book is to summarize and synthesize the recent studies based on field surveys undertaken in the period 2007-2014. This book was written to serve as a graduate-level text for a course in river dynamics and stream ecology and as a reference text for engineers and researchers engaged in hydropower engineering, fluvial geomorphology and aquatic ecology. The first two chapters serve as an introduction of geomorphological characteristics as well as uplift and its impact on river morphology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Chapters 3-5 cover meandering rivers and cutoff, wetlands and wetland shrinkage,desertification and restoration strategies in the Sanjiangyuan region. Chapter 6 discusses the interaction between erosion and vegetation, and Chapter 7 characterizes the aquatic ecology of the Yarlung Tsangpo and the Sanjiangyuan region.
More than 850 individuals partly forgotten by name, but sometimes found in historical writings, together with many well known or recently deceased persons are presented in terms of bio-data, short career highlights, and main advances made to the profession with a short biography of the main writings. If available, a portrait is also included. Hydraulicians in Europe, Volume 2 is a continuation of the first volume, both in outline and in coverage and pagination. Volumes 1 and 2 include more than 1500 biographies.
Published in 1968: The author not only pioneered modern-style village surveys in both England and India, but also modern style urban surveys and studies in India. There he broke new ground in his remarkable first-hand researches on agricultural labour, village economics, depressed or "Untouchable" classes in town and country, and human and industrial relations in India's first steel town, Jamshedpur. In the text of this book we reproduce thirty-five of the author's papers - in whole, in part, or in summary.
This book provides an introduction to peatlands for the non-specialist student reader and for all those concerned about environmental protection, and is an essential guide to peatland history and heritage for scientists and enthusiasts. Peat is formed when vegetation partially decays in a waterlogged environment and occurs extensively throughout both temperate and tropical regions. Interest in peatlands is currently high due to the degradation of global peatlands which is disrupting hydrology and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This book opens by explaining how peat is formed, its properties and worldwide distribution, and defines related terms such as mires, wetlands, bogs and marshes. There is discussion of the ecology and wildlife of peatlands as well as their ability to preserve pollen and organic remains as environmental archives. It also addresses the history, heritage and cultural exploitation of peat, extending back to pre-Roman times, and the degradation of peatlands over the centuries, particularly as a source of fuel but more recently for commercial horticulture. Other chapters discuss the ecosystem services delivered by peatlands, and how their destruction is contributing to biodiversity loss, flooding or drought, and climate change. Finally, the many current peatland restoration projects around the world are highlighted. Overall the book provides a wide-ranging but concise overview of peatlands from both a natural and social science perspective, and will be invaluable for students of ecology, geography, environmental studies and history.
In recent decades there has been an exponential increase in large hydroelectric plants in Brazil, especially in the Amazon region. These large hydraulic structures impact the environment and the lives of people living in the places where they settle and require a special type of water governance. The dictatorial regime (1964-1985) created a "standard" for the construction of these great structures, through an institutional and legal framework, which benefited the Brazilian business elite but also, through the creation of a popular imagination, which shows itself lasting progress on the country's progress and development. The suspension of security, the fragility of institutional environmental structures, the disrespect for indigenous reserves, the lack of clarity about the concept of "affected population" and the non-payment of fair compensation were identified as one of the main challenges for a democratic water governance in the country. In the late 1970s, the Dam-Affected Movement (MAB) began its organization and is also studied in this research. The study is an important and insightful academic contribution to the understanding of the main bottlenecks of effective water governance in Brazil.
This book, first published in 1992, contains the proceedings of the 22nd Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, and highlights the quantity and diversity of periglacial geomorphic research being undertaken in Arctic and alpine environments. The articles explore a variety of geomorphic processes and examine the potential impacts of global change on the nature and extent of permafrost and seasonal ice phenomena.
The four decades long ideological-based insurgencies and conflict in the Kabul River Basin (KRB) have seriously hampered the relations and foreign policies of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Consequently, it restricts them to solve various bilateral issues including transboundary waters. This lack of cooperation over shared water resources is one of the barriers to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. Additionally, it has contributed to the prevailing anarchic situation where each country does what it wants. The absence of a formal water-sharing mechanism coupled with poor water management practices within both the riparian counties are resulting various flow and administration-related challenges. Moreover, these challenges are further exacerbated by regional changes in social, political, environmental and economic systems. The scholarly literature suggests that an analytical transboundary water governance framework is essential to address the challenges of water politicisation and securitisation, quality degradation and quantity reduction. Additionally, the literature rarely integrates (a) a multi-level approach, (b) an institutional approach (c) an inclusive development approach, or (d) accounts for the uses of different types of water and their varied ecosystem services for improved transboundary water governance. To enhance human wellbeing and achieve inclusive and sustainable development in the KRB this research indicates that it is essential to: (1) defrost frozen collaboration; (2) bypass border dispute; (3) use biodiversity and ecosystem services approach; (4) address existing and potential natural and anthropogenic challenges; (5) remove contradictions in the policy environment; (6) combat resource limits and dependence by promoting collaboration on long-term cost effective solutions; and (7) enhance knowledge and dialogue on inclusive development.
Sediment deposition threatens the performance of many irrigation systems. Because of the high impact on irrigation performance and crop production, many studies have been done on how to deal with sediment deposition. In this research, the Delft3D model, originally developed for hydro-morphologic modeling of rivers and estuaries, was adapted for the use in irrigation systems simulations and applied to different case studies. This research addresses two shortcomings of previous studies of sediments in irrigation systems. Firstly, while previous studies primarily used 1D models, this research uses a 2D/3D model. The use of 2D/3D models in irrigation systems is significant because the non-uniform flow around structures such as offtakes, weirs and gates, leads to asymmetric sedimentation patterns that are missed by 1D simulations. Secondly, whereas previous studies mostly considered non-cohesive sediments, this research simulates cohesive, non-cohesive and a mix of both sediment types. This is important for irrigation systems that draw water from natural rivers that carry a mix of cohesive and non-cohesive sediments. The findings of this research are important for irrigation system maintenance and gate operation. It is also essential for the development of canal operating plans that meet crop water requirements and at the same time minimizes sediment deposition by alternating gates.
The exercise of solving engineering problems that require optimisation procedures can be seriously affected by uncertain variables, resulting in potential underperforming solutions. Although this is a well-known problem, important knowledge gaps are still to be addressed. For example, concepts of robustness largely differ from study to study, robust solutions are generally provided with limited information about their uncertainty, and robust optimisation is difficult to apply as it is a computationally demanding task. The proposed research aims to address the mentioned challenges and focuses on robust optimisation of multiple objectives and multiple sources of probabilistically described uncertainty. This is done by the development of the Robust Optimisation and Probabilistic Analysis of Robustness algorithm (ROPAR), which integrates widely accepted robustness metrics into a single flexible framework. In this thesis, ROPAR is not only tested in benchmark functions, but also in engineering problems related to the water sector, in particular the design of urban drainage and water distribution systems. ROPAR allows for employing practically any existing multi-objective optimisation algorithm as its internal optimisation engine, which enables its applicability to other problems as well. Additionally, ROPAR can be straightforwardly parallelized, allowing for fast availability of results.
Flood based irrigation in particular spate irrigation relies on variable flood scenarios occurring every year. Management of spate flood for spate irrigation must cope with the variability and uncertainty of water supply. Coping with water supply risks is often the only way to harness the opportunities for a productive use of water in arid environment. Integrating and strengthening community responses into irrigation policies and improvement plans could ensure sustainable and productive spate irrigated systems that can achieve food security for the poor population. This research analyses and evaluates risks and coping strategies developed by farming communities in the Gash spate irrigation system in Sudan, Eastern Africa. The research has synthesized different coping strategies developed by farmers, water user associations and water managers to cope with low, high and untimely flood risks. The research provide different frameworks that can assist with the identification of risk sources, pathways and propagation as well as evaluation of locally developed strategies at field, secondary and intake systems. The findings of this study contribute to scarce knowledge on spate irrigation system and provide scientifically sound and evidence-based insights to aid informed policy and decision making to improve productivity and sustainability of the spate irrigation systems.
Bangladesh is a large delta, where most people live in the overpopulated floodplains. Flooding is a normal phenomenon, which causes much suffering. How to reduce this suffering through better managing floods is a big societal challenge. To date, societal initiatives to address this challenge mainly consist of the construction of embankments along the river bank, to control hydrological processes and 'discipline' the river. Yet, such embankments generate their own hydrological and societal responses in sometimes unexpected ways. The study of these interactions and feedback mechanisms between hydrological and social processes is a new academic field, one that is particularly relevant in a dynamic delta such as Bangladesh. This research sets out to explore the phenomena, opportunities and risks generated by the interactions between physical and societal processes along the Jamuna River in Bangladesh. It conceptualize these interactions as temporally dynamic and spatially diverse combinations of fighting and living with water. The research proposes the concept of "Socio-hydrological spaces (SHSs)" to enrich the study of socio-hydrology. A SHS is a geographical area in a landscape. Its particular combination of hydrological and social features gives rise to the emergence of distinct interactions and dynamics (patterns) between society and water. The SHSs concept suggests that the interactions between society and water are place-bound and specific because of differences in social processes, technological choices and opportunities, and hydrological dynamics. Through the concept of SHS, this research does not only contribute to advance the knowledge about socio-hydrological dynamics in Bangladesh, but also provides more general insights for flood risk management.
Management of sludge is one of the most pressing issues in sanitation provision. The situation is especially complex when large quantities of fresh sludge containing various contaminants are generated in onsite sanitation systems in urban slums, emergency settlements and wastewater treatment facilities that require proper disposal of the sludge. The application of fast and efficient sludge management methods is important under these conditions. This study focused on the development of an innovative sludge treatment unit that is based on the microwave irradiation technology. The technology provides a rapid and efficient option for sludge treatment in isolated conditions such as slum, emergency, and similar situations. The microwave based technology forms part of the eSOS (emergency sanitation operation system) concept that promotes an integrated sanitation approach in which all components of the entire sanitation chain are planned holistically. Besides, the study addresses the deficiencies associated with the poor choice of emergency sanitation technology options by proposing a methodology that is based on compensatory multi-criteria analysis. This study contributes in providing solutions towards improved sanitation in complex scenarios, especially the management of faecal sludge in emergency and slum conditions.
Floods and droughts are climate extremes that account for more than 80% of people affected by natural disasters worldwide. Both catastrophes co-exist in many river basins, for example, the Mun River Basin in Thailand, which is selected as the study area. Approximately 90% of rice cultivation here is rain-fed, and that results in the lowest yields in the country, making many farmers persist in poverty. This study aims to assess floods and droughts and their impacts on agriculture at the basin scale. For flooding, the hydrologic and hydraulic models were developed to produce the first completed flood hazard maps at the Mun River Basin. Droughts in the basin were determined by the proposed drought risk assessment scheme that combines all three key components (hazard, exposure, and vulnerability). Subsequently, the study attempts to tackle both floods and droughts simultaneously and sustainably by using integrated measures and strategies. If the problems caused by flood and drought climate extremes are solved, this will ensure adequate food availability and alleviate poverty in the basin. Furthermore, the study shows that a holistic approach to simultaneously solving both problems is efficient as most water will be utilized to benefit agriculture, the primary sector that feeds a growing population.
This volume provides a holistic and concise overview of the complex science of climate change involving the interplay of multiple factors. It also acts as a primer and a one-source reference to all the aspects of climate change, allowing researchers to understand the complexity of this science and to see the larger picture, thereby aiming towards holistic solutions. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, the impacts of climate change have been the worst nightmare to hit humanity so fiercely, causing loss of human life and irreparable destruction to natural and man-made infrastructure in many parts of the world. The difference between climate change now and in the past is that of sudden and disproportionate disruption of the natural energy dynamics by the changing consumption patterns of billions of human beings who, in their quest for economic superiority, have polluted the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The picture that emerges from the exhaustive analysis of international data drawn from the most reliable sources indicates that we have possibly gained access to the gateway of extinction and it is time that we take corrective steps immediately. The book's chapters not only provide an overview of climate change science but also include detailed discussion on current research. This unique analytical text is suitable for conservation environmentalists, researchers, and academicians working in the field, along with policy makers, research and training institutes, and nongovernment organizations. |
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