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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Meteorology > General
Monitoring drought’s slow evolution and identifying the end of a
drought is still a big challenge for scientists, natural resource
managers, and decision makers. This comprehensive two-volume set
with contributions from over 200 experts, and featuring case
studies representing numerous countries throughout the world,
discusses different aspects of drought from types, indices, and
forecasting to monitoring, modeling, and mitigation measures. It
also addresses how climate change is impacting drought and
decision-making concluding with lessons learned about science,
policy, and managing uncertainty. Features: Provides a global
perspective on drought prediction and management and a synthesis of
the recent state of knowledge. Covers a wide range of topics from
essential concepts and advanced techniques for forecasting and
modeling drought to societal impacts, consequences, and planning
Presents numerous case studies with different management approaches
from different regions and countries. Addresses how climate change
impacts drought, the increasing challenges associated with managing
drought, decision making, and policy implications. Includes
contributions from hundreds of experts around the world.
Professionals, researchers, academics, and postgraduate students
with knowledge in Environmental Sciences, Ecology, Agriculture,
Forestry, Hydrology, Water Resources Engineering, and Earth
Sciences, as well as those interested in how climate change impacts
drought management, will gain new insights from the experts
featured in this two-volume handbook.
This book provides a survey of the frontiers of research in the
numerical modeling and mathematical analysis used in the study of
the atmosphere and oceans. The details of the current practices in
global atmospheric and ocean models, the assimilation of
observational data into such models and the numerical techniques
used in theoretical analysis of the atmosphere and ocean are among
the topics covered.
Truly interdisciplinary: scientific interactions between
specialties of atmospheric and ocean sciences and applied and
computational mathematics
Uses the approach of computational mathematicians, applied and
numerical analysts and the tools appropriate for unsolved problems
in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences
Contributions uniquely address central problems and provide a
survey of the frontier of research
As the Earth's oil supply runs out, and the effects of climate
change threaten nations and their populations, the search for
carbon-neutral sources of energy becomes more important and
increasingly urgent. This book focuses on solutions to the energy
problem, and not just the problem itself. It describes the major
energy-generation technologies currently under development, and
provides an authoritative summary of the current status of each
one. It stresses the need for a balanced portfolio of alternative
energy technologies. Certain solutions will be more appropriate
than others in particular locations, due to the differences in
availability of natural resources such as solar, wind, wave, tidal
and geothermal. In addition, nuclear options (both fission and
fusion), as well as technologies such as fuel cells, photovoltaics,
artificial photosynthesis and hydrogen (as an energy carrier), all
have a potential role to play. A state-of-the-art critique of
energy efficiency in building design is also included. Each chapter
is written by an acknowledged international expert and provides a
non-technical overview of the competing and complementary
approaches to energy generation.
Broad in scope and comprehensive in treatment, Energy..beyond Oil
provides an authoritative synthesis of the scientific and
technological issues which are essential to the survival of the
human race in the near future. The book will be of interest and use
to graduate students and researchers in all areas of energy
studies, and will also be highly useful for policy-makers and
professionals in the environmental sector as well as a more general
readership who wish to learn more about this extremely topical
subject.
Many scientists either working on the El Nino/Southern Oscillation
(ENSO) problem or its many applications have not been trained in
both the equatorial ocean and atmospheric dynamics necessary to
understand it. This book seeks to overcome this difficulty by
providing a step by step introduction to ENSO, helping the upper
level graduate student or research scientist to learn quickly the
ENSO basics and be up to date with the latest ENSO research. The
text assumes that the reader has a knowledge of the equations of
fluid mechanics on a rotating earth and emphasizes the observations
and simple physical explanations of them.
Following a history of ENSO and a discussion of ENSO observations
in Chapters 1 and 2, Chapters 3-5 consider relevant equatorial
ocean dynamics, Chapters 6 and 9 relevant atmospheric dynamics, and
Chapters 7 and 8 the main paradigms for how the Pacific Ocean and
atmosphere couple together to produce ENSO. Chapter 8 also
discusses the old mystery of why ENSO tends to be locked in phase
with the seasonal cycle. Successful dynamical and statistical
approaches to ENSO prediction are discussed in Chapters 10 and 11
while Chapter 12 concludes the book with examples of how ENSO
influences marine and bird life.
* Quick reference guide and step by step introduction to El
Nino/Southern Oscillation dynamics
* Keep informed and up to date on El Nino/Southern Oscillation
research and how El Nino and the Southern Oscillation can be
predicted
* Understand how El Nino can affect marine and bird life
Authored by world-class scientists and scholars, the Handbook of
Natural Resources, Second Edition, is an excellent reference for
understanding the consequences of changing natural resources to the
degradation of ecological integrity and the sustainability of life.
Based on the content of the bestselling and CHOICE awarded
Encyclopedia of Natural Resources, this new edition demonstrates
the major challenges that the society is facing for the
sustainability of all wellbeing on planet Earth. The experience,
evidence, methods, and models used in studying natural resources
are presented in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the main
systems: land, water, and air. It reviews state-of-the-art
knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and
provides guidance for the appropriate use of remote sensing data in
the study of natural resources on a global scale. The six volumes
in this set cover: Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biodiversity;
Landscape and Land Capacity; Wetlands and Habitats; Fresh Water and
Watersheds; Coastal and Marine Environments; and finally Atmosphere
and Climate. Written in an easy-to-reference manner, the Handbook
of Natural Resources, Second Edition, as a complete set, is
essential for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the
science and management of natural resources. Public and private
libraries, educational and research institutions, scientists,
scholars, and resource managers will benefit enormously from this
set. Individual volumes and chapters can also be used in a wide
variety of both graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental
science and natural science courses at different levels and
disciplines, such as biology, geography, Earth system science,
ecology, etc.
Lightning has evoked a numinous response as well as powerful
timeless references and symbols among ancient religions throughout
the world. Thunder and lightning have also taken on various
symbolic manifestations, some representing primary deities, as in
the case of Zeus and Jupiter in the Greco/Roman tradition, and Thor
in Norse myth. Similarly, lightning veneration played an important
role to the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica and Andean South
America. Lightning veneration and the religious cults and their
associated rituals represent to varying degrees a worship of nature
and the forces that shape the natural world. The inter-relatedness
of the cultural and natural environment is related to what may be
called a widespread cultural perception of the natural world as
sacred, a kind of mythic landscape. Comparative analysis of the
Andes and Mesoamerica has been a recurring theme recently in part
because two of the areas of "high civilization" in the Americas
have much in common despite substantial ecological differences, and
in part because there is some evidence, of varying quality, that
some people had migrated from one area to the other. Lightning in
the Andes and Mesoamerica is the first ever study to explore the
symbolic elements surrounding lightning in their associated
Pre-Columbian religious ideologies. Moreover, it extends its
examination to contemporary culture to reveal how cultural
perceptions of the sacred, their symbolic representations and
ritual practices, and architectural representations in the
landscape were conjoined in the ancient past. Ethnographic accounts
and ethnohistoric documents provide insights through first-hand
accounts that broaden our understanding of levels of syncretism
since the European contact. The interdisciplinary research
presented herein also provides a basis for tracing back
Pre-Columbian manifestations of lightning its associated religious
beliefs and ritual practices, as well as its mythological,
symbolic, iconographic, and architectural representations to
earlier civilizations. This unique study will be of great interest
to scholars of Pre-Columbian South and Mesoamerica, and will
stimulate future comparative studies by archaeologists and
anthropologists.
Measurements and experiments are made each and every day, in fields
as disparate as particle physics, chemistry, economics and
medicine, but have you ever wondered why it is that a particular
experiment has been designed to be the way it is. Indeed, how do
you design an experiment to measure something whose value is
unknown, and what should your considerations be on deciding whether
an experiment has yielded the sought after, or indeed any useful
result? These are old questions, and they are the reason behind
this volume. We will explore the origins of the methods of data
analysis that are today routinely applied to all measurements, but
which were unknown before the mid-19th Century. Anyone who is
interested in the relationship between the precision and accuracy
of measurements will find this volume useful. Whether you are a
physicist, a chemist, a social scientist, or a student studying one
of these subjects, you will discover that the basis of measurement
is the struggle to identify the needle of useful data hidden in the
haystack of obscuring background noise.
This book presents the outcomes of the workshop sponsored by the
National Natural Sciences Foundation of China and the UK Newton
Fund, British Council Researcher Links. The Workshop was held in
Harbin, China, from 14 to 17 July 2017, and brought together some
thirty young (postdoctoral) researchers from China and the UK
specializing in geosciences, sensor signal networks and their
applications to natural disaster recovery. The Workshop
presentations covered the state of the art in the area of disaster
recovery and blended wireless sensor systems that act as early
warning systems to mitigate the consequences of disasters and
function as post-disaster recovery vehicles. This book promotes
knowledge transfer and helps readers explore and identify research
opportunities by highlighting research outcomes in the
internationally relevant area of disaster recovery and mitigation.
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