The world needs to turn away from fossil fuels and use clean, renewable sources of energy as soon as we can. Failure to do so will cause catastrophic climate damage sooner than you might think, leading to loss of biodiversity and economic and political instability. But all is not lost! We still have time to save the planet without resorting to 'miracle' technologies. We need to wave goodbye to outdated technologies, such as natural gas and carbon capture, and repurpose the technologies that we already have at our disposal. We can use existing technologies to harness, store, and transmit energy from wind, water, and solar sources to ensure reliable electricity, heat supplies, and energy security. Find out what you can do to improve the health, climate, and economic state of our planet. Together, we can solve the climate crisis, eliminate air pollution and safely secure energy supplies for everyone.

General circulation models (GCMs), which define the fundamental dynamics of atmospheric circulation, are nowadays used in various fields of atmospheric science such as weather forecasting, climate predictions and environmental estimations. The Second Edition of this renowned work has been updated to include recent progress of high resolution global modeling. It also contains for the first time aspects of high-resolution global non-hydrostatic models that the author has been studying since the publication of the first edition. Some highlighted results from the Non-hydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) are also included. The author outlines the theoretical concepts, simple models and numerical methods for modeling the general circulation of the atmosphere. Concentrating on the physical mechanisms responsible for the development of large-scale circulation of the atmosphere, the book offers comprehensive coverage of an important and rapidly developing technique used in the atmospheric science. Dynamic interpretations of the atmospheric structure and their aspects in the general circulation model are described step by step.

This book demystifies the models we use to simulate present and future climates, allowing readers to better understand how to use climate model results. In order to predict the future trajectory of the Earth's climate, climate-system simulation models are necessary. When and how do we trust climate model predictions? The book offers a framework for answering this question. It provides readers with a basic primer on climate and climate change, and offers non-technical explanations for how climate models are constructed, why they are uncertain, and what level of confidence we should place in them. It presents current results and the key uncertainties concerning them. Uncertainty is not a weakness but understanding uncertainty is a strength and a key part of using any model, including climate models. Case studies of how climate model output has been used and how it might be used in the future are provided. The ultimate goal of this book is to promote a better understanding of the structure and uncertainties of climate models among users, including scientists, engineers and policymakers.

This book is an interdisciplinary and accessible guide to environmental physics. It allows readers to gain a more complete understanding of physical process and their interaction with ecological ones underpin important environmental issues. The book covers a wide range of topics within environmental physics, including: * natural and anthropogenic canopies, including forests, urban or wavy terrains;* the fundamentals of heat transfer;* atmospheric flow dynamics;* global carbon budget;* climate change; and* the relevance of biochar as a global carbon sink. Including solved exercises, numerous illustrations and tables, as well as an entire chapter focused on applications, book is of interest to researchers, students and industrial engineers alike.

This book comprises selected papers from the International Conference on Civil Engineering Trends and Challenges for Sustainability (CTCS) 2019. The book presents latest research in several areas of civil engineering such as construction and structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering and sustainability, and geographical information systems. With a special emphasis on sustainable development, the book covers case studies and addresses key challenges in sustainability. The scope of the contents makes the book useful for students, researchers, and professionals interested in sustainable practices in civil engineering.

This book presents the theory and technologies of drilling operations. It covers the gamut of formulas and calculations for petroleum engineers that have been compiled over several years. Some of these formulas and calculations have been used for decades, while others help guide engineers through some of the industry's more recent technological breakthroughs. Comprehensively discussing all aspects of drilling technologies, and providing abundant figures, illustrations and tables, examples and exercises to facilitate the learning process, it is a valuable resource for students, scholars and engineers in the field of petroleum engineering.

This book addresses applications of earthquake engineering for both offshore and land-based structures. It is self-contained as a reference work and covers a wide range of topics, including topics related to engineering seismology, geotechnical earthquake engineering, structural engineering, as well as special contents dedicated to design philosophy, determination of ground motions, shock waves, tsunamis, earthquake damage, seismic response of offshore and arctic structures, spatial varied ground motions, simplified and advanced seismic analysis methods, sudden subsidence of offshore platforms, tank liquid impacts during earthquakes, seismic resistance of non-structural elements, and various types of mitigation measures, etc. The target readership includes professionals in offshore and civil engineering, officials and regulators, as well as researchers and students in this field.

This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date assessment of the key terrestrial components of the Arctic system, i.e., its hydrology, permafrost, and ecology, drawing on the latest research results from across the circumpolar regions. The Arctic is an integrated system, the elements of which are closely linked by the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Using an integrated system approach, the book's 30 chapters, written by a diverse team of leading scholars, carefully examine Arctic climate variability/change, large river hydrology, lakes and wetlands, snow cover and ice processes, permafrost characteristics, vegetation/landscape changes, and the future trajectory of Arctic system evolution. The discussions cover the fundamental features of and processes in the Arctic system, with a special focus on critical knowledge gaps, i.e., the interactions and feedbacks between water, permafrost, and ecosystem, such as snow pack and permafrost changes and their impacts on basin hydrology and ecology, river flow, geochemistry, and energy fluxes to the Arctic Ocean, and the structure and function of the Arctic ecosystem in response to past/future changes in climate, hydrology, and permafrost conditions. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students, environmentalists, managers, and administrators who are concerned with the northern environment and resources.

The book examines surface rainfall processes through cloud-resolving modeling and quantitative analysis of surface rainfall budget and summarizes modeling and analysis results in recent seven years. The book shows validation of precipitation modeling against observations and derives a set of diagnostic precipitation equations. The book provides detailed discussions of the applications of precipitation equations to the examination of effects of sea surface temperature, vertical wind shear, radiation, and ice clouds on torrential rainfall processes in the tropics and mid-latitudes, and to the studies of sensitivity of precipitation modeling to uncertainty of the initial conditions and to the estimate of precipitation efficiency. The book can be used as a text book for graduate students and will be beneficial to researchers and forecasters for precipitation process studies and operational forecasts.

This book broadly explains the requirement to focus on core components in a business and provides a case study of open-pit mining operations throughout the book to understand the management perspective of large organizations. With globalized approaches of large businesses and the rising requirement of understanding the needs of modern organizations, it is necessary to focus on key areas of businesses to ensure sustainability of operations. Organizations look into achieving a high return on investments and short-term measures in increasing sales or revenue is considered unsuitable. It is a necessity to look for sustainability and continuous methods of innovation to boost efficiency. This book provides a case study based on large organizations and uses qualitative methodologies where data was collected using in-depth interviews of respondents from various mining companies in the top and middle-level management from different parts of the world, detailing the state of the art of information systems currently used in large scale open-pit miming (LSOPM). This book provides a sound knowledge of cutting-edge factors to the reader for managing the business to attain operational excellence and long-term sustainability, and caters to a broad spectrum of management and technical readers.

This book describes thoroughly the North American Climate of the past 65 million years, with special emphasis on the last 21,000 years, as revealed by paleoclimatic observations and climate models. It analyzes weather observations over the past century and satellite measurements of the last few decades to develop a picture of more recent climatic trends. It explains how global climate models are used to simulate and project climate, and presents the application of these models to reproduce recent climate variations and predict future North American climate. It answers the critical question of whether observed climate change is due to natural variations or human activity.

Climate and other environmental changes are drawing unprecedented concern and attention from national governments, international organizations and local communities. Global warming has left noticeable impacts on the environment and the ecosystems it supports (including humans), and has important implications for sustainable economic and social development in the future. Satellite observations of climate and environmental change have become an increasingly important tool in recent years in helping to shape the response of international communities to this critical global challenge. The book presents the latest advances in satellite-based remote sensing of the Earth's environment - ranging from applications in climate and atmospheric science to hydrology, oceanography, hydrology, geomorphology, ecology and fire studies. Introductory chapters also cover key technical aspects such as instrumentation, calibration, data analysis, and GIS tools for decision-making.

Die vorliegende Publikation thematisiert aktuelle Probleme integrativer Modellierung vor dem Hintergrund des Ziels der Forschung zum globalen Wandel. Dabei werden insbesondere Fragen der Modellbildung und Szenarienentwicklung wie auch die Beurteilung ihrer qualitAtssichernden Kriterien erArtert. Das Ziel ist eine umfassende Analyse von Chancen und Limitationen integrativer Forschungs- und Modellierungsarbeit, die im Rahmen der Global Change-Forschung geleistet wird. Durch Einbringung von Erfahrungen aus der Forschungspraxis, ihrer theoretischen Fundierung und methodischen Reflexion soll dieses Ziel erreicht werden. Die resultierenden Erkenntnisse sollen der Standortbestimmung und dem Fortschritt integrativer Forschung zum globalen Wandel dienen - auf strategischer Ebene auch der Gewinnung von Perspektiven fA1/4r die weitere Entwicklung und Schwerpunktsetzung in Deutschland.

Global Change studies are increasingly being considered a vital source of information to understand the Earth Environment, in particular in the framework of human-induced climate change and land use transformation. Satellite Earth Observing systems provide a unique tool to monitor those changes. While the range of applications and innovative techniques is constantly increasing, this book provides a summary of key case studies where satellite data offer critical information to understand the causes and effects of those environmental changes, minimizing their negative impacts. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of remote sensing, geographical information, meteorology and environmental sciences. Also scientists and graduate up to post-graduate level students in environmental science will find valuable information in this book.

This book explains the engineering required to bring geothermal resources into use. The book covers specifically engineering aspects that are unique to geothermal engineering, such as measurements in wells and their interpretation, transport of near-boiling water through long pipelines, turbines driven by fluids other than steam, and project economics. The explanations are reinforced by drawing comparisons with other energy industries.

In 1998, my colleague, Forrest Mims, and I began a project to develop inexpensive handheld atmosphere monitoring instruments for the GLOBE Program, an international environmental science and education program that began its operations on Earth Day, 1995. GLOBE's goal was to involve students, teachers, and scientists around the world in authentic partn- ships in which scientists would develop instrumentation and experimental protocols suitable for student use. In return, data collected by students and their teachers would be used by scientists in their research. This kind of collaboration represented a grand vision for science education which had never before been attempted on such a scale, and we embraced this vision with great enthusiasm. Between 1998 and 2006, Forrest Mims and I collaborated on the development of several instruments based on Mims' original concept of using light emitting diodes as spectrally selective detectors of sunlight, which was first published in the peer-reviewed literature in 1992. These instruments have evolved into a set of tools and procedures for monitoring the transmission of sunlight through the atmosphere, and they can be used to learn a great deal about the composition of the atmosphere and the dynamics of the Earth/atmosphere/sun system. If measurements with these instruments are made properly, they have significant scientific value, as well.

The Earth's magnetosphere is part of our environment, and physical processes in the magnetosphere and coupling between the solar energy stream, the solar wind, and the magnetosphere are important to our understanding of our environment. Variations in the electromagnetic and particle energy output of the Sun have a significant effect on global changes. The energy transfer mechanisms at the dayside magnetospheric boundary layers and their ionospheric signatures may be even more important to solar-terrestrial research than the nightside processes. The dayside boundary layer and the polar cusps are the Earth's windows to outer space.

Covering an area of over 130 million km2 spanning the Mediterranean, equator and tropics, the African continent features a spectacular geographic diversity. Consequently, it is characterised by extremely variable climatic, edaphic and ecological conditions, associated with a wide range of natural vegetation and wildlife, as well as human population density, crops and livestock.

In this book, Henry Le Houerou presents his bioclimatic and biogeographic classification of Africa. The extensive data provide the basis for comparisons between various African regions, and with regions on other continents such as Latin America or the Indian subcontinent. The results constitute a rational basis for national, regional and sub-regional rural development planning, and for agricultural research dealing with aspects such as plant and animal introductions, the extrapolation or interpolation of experimental or developmental findings, and ecosystems dynamics. Possible problems of applications are also examined."

A vast amount has been written on climate change and what should be our response. Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation suggests that most of this literature takes a far too optimistic position regarding the potential for conventional mitigation solutions to achieve the deep cuts in greenhouse gases necessary in the limited time frame we have available. In addition, global environmental problems, as exemplified by climate change, and global resource problems - such as fossil fuel depletion or fresh water scarcity - have largely been seen as separate issues. Further, proposals for solution of these problems often focus at the national level, when the problems are global. The authors argue that the various challenges the planet faces are both serious and interconnected. Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation takes a global perspective in its treatment of various solutions: * renewable energy; * nuclear energy; * energy efficiency; * carbon sequestration; and * geo-engineering. It also addresses the possibility that realistic solutions cannot be achieved until the fundamentally ethical question of global equity - both across nations today and also inter-generational - is fully addressed. Such an approach will also involve reorienting the global economy away from an emphasis on growth and toward the direct satisfaction of basic human needs for all the Earth's people. Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation is aimed at the many members of the public with an awareness of climate change, but who wish to find out more about how we need to respond to the challenge. It will also be of interest to technical professionals, as well as postgraduate students and researchers, from the environmental and engineering science sectors.

The term "soft computing" applies to variants of and combinations under the four broad categories of evolutionary computing, neural networks, fuzzy logic, and Bayesian statistics. Although each one has its separate strengths, the complem- tary nature of these techniques when used in combination (hybrid) makes them a powerful alternative for solving complex problems where conventional mat- matical methods fail. The use of intelligent and soft computing techniques in the field of geo- chanical and pavement engineering has steadily increased over the past decade owing to their ability to admit approximate reasoning, imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth. Since real-life infrastructure engineering decisions are made in ambiguous environments that require human expertise, the application of soft computing techniques has been an attractive option in pavement and geomecha- cal modeling. The objective of this carefully edited book is to highlight key recent advances made in the application of soft computing techniques in pavement and geo- chanical systems. Soft computing techniques discussed in this book include, but are not limited to: neural networks, evolutionary computing, swarm intelligence, probabilistic modeling, kernel machines, knowledge discovery and data mining, neuro-fuzzy systems and hybrid approaches. Highlighted application areas include infrastructure materials modeling, pavement analysis and design, rapid interpre- tion of nondestructive testing results, porous asphalt concrete distress modeling, model parameter identification, pavement engineering inversion problems, s- grade soils characterization, and backcalculation of pavement layer thickness and moduli.