Nominated by Tsinghua University as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis, this book investigates the mechanical properties of unsaturated compacted clayey soil, the multi-field coupling consolidation theory of unsaturated soil and its application to a 261.5 m high earth-rockfill dam. It proposes a multi-field coupling analysis method of consolidation, and develops an efficient and practical finite element (FE) program for large-scale complex earth-rockfill dams. The book is primarily intended for researchers studying the multi-field coupling analysis of seepage consolidation.

This book presents recent research into developing and applying computational tools to estimate the performance and safety of hydraulic structures from the planning and construction stage to the service period. Based on the results of a close collaboration between the author and his colleagues, friends, students and field engineers, it shows how to achieve a good correlation between numerical computation and the actual in situ behavior of hydraulic structures. The book's heuristic and visualized style disseminates the philosophy and road map as well as the findings of the research. The chapters reflect the various aspects of the three typical and practical methods (the finite element method, the block element method, the composite element method) that the author has been working on and made essential contributions to since the 1980s. This book is an advanced continuation of Hydraulic Structures by the same author, published by Springer in 2015.

Global climate change - rapid, substantial and human induced - may have radical consequences for life on earth. The problem is a complex one, however, demanding a multi-disciplinary approach. A simple cost-benefit analysis cannot capture the essentials, nor can the issue be reduced to an emissions reduction game, as the Kyoto process tries to do. It is much more sensible to adopt an integrative approach, which reveals that global climate change needs to be considered as a spider in a web, a triggering factor for a range of other, related problems - land use changes, water supply and demand, food supply, energy supply, human health, air pollution, etc. But an approach like this, which takes account of all items of knowledge, known and uncertain, does not produce clear-cut, final and popular answers. It does provide useful insights, however, which will allow comprehensive and effective long-term climate strategies to be put into effect. Climate Change: An Integrated Perspective will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. It is a useful source for the climate-change professionals, such as policy makers and analysts, natural and social scientists. It is also suitable for educationalists, students and indeed anyone interested in the fascinating world of multidisciplinary research underlying our approach to this global change issue.

The book addresses a weakness of current methodologies used in extreme value assessment, i.e. the assumption of stationarity, which is not given in reality. With respect to this issue a lot of new developed technologies are presented, i.e. influence of trends vs. internal correlations, quantitative uncertainty assessments, etc. The book not only focuses on artificial time series data, but has a close link to empirical measurements, in order to make the suggested methodologies applicable for practitioners in water management and meteorology.

The global food security and sustainable agriculture are the key challenges before the scientific community in the present era of enhanced climate variability, rapidly rising population and dwindling resources. No part of the world is immune from meteorological extremes of one sort or another posing threat to the food security. Agrometeorology has to make most efficient use of the opportunities available in achieving the objectives of enhancing productivity and maintenance of sustainability. Increased awareness and technological advancement have provided opportunities to develop efficient agrometeorological services that can help cope with risks. These include improvements in weather forecasting, better understanding of the monsoon variability and crop-weather relationships, advances in operational agrometeorology and agrometeorological information systems, adaptation strategies to climate change and improved risk evaluation and management. This book based on an International Workshop held in New Delhi, India should be of interest to all organizations and agencies interested in agrometeorological applications.

This book's main objective is to decipher for the reader the main processes in the atmosphere and the quantification of air pollution effects on humans and the environment, through first principles of meteorology and modelling/measurement approaches. The understanding of the complex sequence of events, starting from the emission of air pollutants into the atmosphere to the human health effects as the final event, is necessary for the prognosis of potential risk to humans from specific chemical compounds and mixtures of them. It fills a gap in the literature by providing a solid grounding in the first principles of meteorology and air pollution, making it particularly useful for undergraduate students. Its broad scope makes it a valuable text in many related disciplines, containing a comprehensive and integrated methodology to study the first principles of air pollution, meteorology, indoor air pollution, and human exposure. Problem-solving exercises help to reinforce concepts.

This volume provides an up to date overview of climate variability during the 20th century in the context of natural and anthropogenic variability. It compiles a number of contributions to a workshop held in Gwatt, Switzerland, in July 2006 dealing with different aspects of climate change, variability, and extremes during the past 100 years. The individual contributions cover a broad range of topics. The volume fills a gap in this exciting field of research.

General Circulation Models (GCMs) are rapidly assuming widespread use as powerful tools for predicting global events on time scales of months to decades, such as the onset of EL Nino, monsoons, soil moisture saturation indices, global warming estimates, and even snowfall predictions. While GCMs have been praised for helping to foretell the current El Nino and its impact on droughts in Indonesia, its full power is only now being recognized by international scientists and governments who seek to link GCMs to help them estimate fish harvests, risk of floods, landslides, and even forest fires.
Scientists in oceanography, hydrology, meteorology, and climatology and civil, ocean, and geological engineers perceive a need for a reference on GCM design. In this compilation of information by an internationally recognized group of experts, Professor Randall brings together the knowledge base of the forerunners in theoretical and applied frontiers of GCM development. General Circulation Model Development focuses on the past, present, and future design of numerical methods for general circulation modeling, as well as the physical parameterizations required for their proper implementation. Additional chapters on climate simulation and other applications provide illustrative examples of state-of-the-art GCM design.
Key Features
* Foreword by Norman Phillips
* Authoritative overviews of current issues and ideas on global circulation modeling by leading experts
* Retrospective and forward-looking chapters by Akio Arakawa of UCLA
* Historical perspectives on the early years of general circulation modeling
* Indispensable reference for researchers and graduate students

This book focuses on how climatic change during the last fifteen million years - especially the last three million - has affected human evolution and other evolutionary events. Leading evolutionists and physical geologists from all over the worldauthorities on such subjects as paleoceanography, palynology, mammalian paleontology, and paleoanthropology - address the relationship between climatic and biotic evolution, presenting and integrating the most up-to-date research in their fields. Among the subjects discussed are: global and regional climatic changes; tectonism and its effects on climate; the evolution of biomes and mammals; the ways climate might have influenced the origins of hominid species; and the evolution of hominid morphologies and behaviors. The book draws on the comparatively rich data base of the Late Neogene and includes many new data sets and hypotheses on paleoclimatic changes and on floral and mammalian evolution.

Most studies of the impacts of climate change consider impacts in the future from anthropogenic climate change. Very few consider what the impacts of past climate change have been. History and Climate: Memories of the Future? contains 13 interdisciplinary chapters which consider impacts of change in different regions of the world, over the last millennium. Initial chapters assess evidence for the changes, while later chapters consider the impacts on agriculture, fisheries, health, and society. The book will be of interest to anyone working in the field of climate change and history.

The book drawing on the author's nearly half a century of energetic materials research experience intends to systematically review the global researches on liquid explosives. The book focuses on the study of the conception, explosion mechanism, properties and preparation of liquid explosives. It provides a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical examples in a reader-friendly style. The book is likely to be interest of university researchers and graduate students in the fields of energetic materials, blasting engineering and mining.

Understanding and predicting the Earth's climate system, particularly climate variability and possible human-induced climate change, presents one of the most difficult and urgent challenges in science. Climate scientists worldwide have responded to that challenge over the past decade by creating a wide variety of ever more sophisticated climate models that are beginning to show considerable ability to replicate many aspects of the climate system. At the same time, to fully understand climate change, one also has to look to past climates. For this purpose five eminent scholars who span the disciplines of modeling and observation, including elements of past, present and future climate studies came together at this Les Houches school. They presented a systematic development of each of their respective subjects which provided a comprehensive overview of this vast and complex subject. These core lectures were supplemented by a set of shorter lectures and of seminars.

As the first comprehensive and authoritative review of intra-seasonal variability (ISV), this multi-author work balances coverage of observation, theory and modeling and provides a single source of reference for all those interested in this important, multi-faceted natural phenomenon and its relation to major short-term climatic variations. Commencing with an overview of ISV and observations from an historical perspective, the book offers successive chapters that deal with the role of ISV in monsoon variability on the monsoon regions of South Asia, East Asia and South America, in North America, and in the oceans. The coupling between ocean and atmosphere is considered, together with the function of angular momentum and Earth rotation. Later chapters deal with modeling ISV in the atmosphere and oceans, and the connection between the Madden and Julian Oscillations, and El Nino/Southern Oscillation with short-term climate are considered.

Initially, the role of snow and ice in the global water balance is assessed and methods of snow measurements are explained. Remote sensing is dealt with with regard to periodical snow cover mapping. Last advances and refinements refer to spatial resolution, cloud interference and separate monitoring of snow and glacier ice. Following a review of snow melt and runoff modelling, the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) demonstrates the merits of remote sensing in snow hydrology by using the satellite data as a direct input variable. Applications in over 100 mountain basins around the world are documented, with surface areas ranging from 0.3 km2 to 900.000 km2. Based on runoff modelling, runoff forecasts are dealt with including seasonal and short term forecasts as well as computation of hydrographs from forecasted temperatures and precipitation. The climate change is becoming a major concern of our times. The effect of various climate scenarios on the seasonal snow cover and runoff is evaluated by the updated computer program which also enable the real-time runoff forecasts to be improved. As a final note, a method is outlined to predict the decline of glaciers in the warming climate.

This book sheds new light on improved methods for the study of the initiation and run-out of earthquake-induced landslides. It includes an initiation study method that considers tension-shear failure mechanism; an improved, rigorous, dynamic sliding-block method based on dynamic critical acceleration; and a run-out analysis of earthquake-induced landslides that takes account of the trampoline effect, all of which add to the accuracy and accessibility of landslide study. The book includes abundant illustrations, figures and tables, making it a valuable resource for those looking for practical landslide research tools.

Wetland Systems covers broad water and environmental engineering aspects relevant for the drainage and treatment of storm water and wastewater. It provides a descriptive overview of complex 'black box' treatment systems and the general design issues involved. Standard and novel design recommendations for predominantly constructed wetlands and related sustainable drainage systems are given to take into account the interests of professional engineers and environmental scientists. Wetland Systems deals comprehensively with not only the design, operation, maintenance and water quality monitoring of traditional and novel wetland systems, but also covers: * Analysis of asset performance * Modelling of treatment processes * Performances of existing infrastructure * Sustainability and economic issues Solutions to pressing water quality problems associated with constructed treatment wetlands, integrated constructed wetlands, farm constructed wetlands and storm water ponds, and other sustainable biological filtration and treatment technologies linked to public health engineering are explained. Case study topics are diverse: natural wetlands and constructed treatment wetlands; sustainable water management; and specific applications, such as wetlands treating hydrocarbons. The research projects discussed are multi-disciplinary, holistic, experimental and modelling-orientated. Wetland Systems is a useful reference for the design and operation of wetland systems by engineers and scientists working for the water industry, non-governmental organisations, local authorities and governmental bodies. It is also a valuable text for undergraduate and postgraduate students, lecturers and researchers in civil and environmental engineering fields.

The book focuses on the impact of energy policies on fossil fuel use, environmental quality, and economic growth in Mexico for the next 20 years.Part 1 examines the Mexican energy sector and its link to international trade, government revenues, economic welfare and environmental pollution. The scientific links between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are presented. The effects of climate change on economic well-being in Mexico are examined. The role of Mexico and Latin America in current climate change negotiations is explained. Part 2 develops a Computable General Equilibrium model of the Mexican economy, paying attention to the energy sector and its links with other aspects of the aggregate economy. Conclusions for Mexico are placed in the context of the Americas. The effects of climate change policy are contrasted with that in Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile...

Atmospheric and climatological studies are becoming more and more important in day-to-day living. Winds and ocean current owe their existence to the thermodynamic imbalances that arise from the differential heating of the Earth and air by the sun. Accounting for heat exchanges with the atmosphere and ocean is essential in any predictive model of the ocean and/or atmosphere. Thermodynamic feedback processes in the atmosphere and ocean are critical to understanding the overall stability of the Earth's climate and climate change. Water and its phase changes make the thermodynamics of the atmosphere and ocean uniquely interesting and challenging.
Written by leading scientists in the field, Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans incorporates all the relevant information from the varying fields of dynamics meteorology, atmospheric physics and cloud physics, into a comprehensive, self-contained guide ideal for students and researchers of atmospheric thermodynamics. At the moment, courses in atmospheric thermdynamics typically have to use one or two chapters in textbooks on dynamic meteorology, atmospheric physics or cloud physics. This book combines these topics in one text.

This multi-authored book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in porous CO2 capture materials, including ionic liquid derived carbonaceous adsorbents, porous carbons, metal-organic frameworks, porous aromatic frameworks, micro porous organic polymers. It also reviews the sorption techniques such as cyclic uptake and desorption reactions and membrane separations. In each category, the design and fabrication, the comprehensive characterization, the evaluation of CO2 sorption/separation and the sorption/degradation mechanism are highlighted. In addition, the advantages and remaining challenges as well as future perspectives for each porous material are covered.

This book is aimed at scientists and graduate students in such fields as separation, carbon, polymer, chemistry, material science and technology, who will use and appreciate this information source in their research. Other specialists may consult specific chapters to find the latest, authoritative reviews.

Dr. An-Hui Lu is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical, Environmental and Biological Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, China.

Dr. Sheng Dai is a Corporate Fellow and Group Leader in the Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, USA."

This book brings together an overview of the recent geological history, active earth and biological processes and human settlement of New Zealand. Topics covered include the very active neotectonic and volcanic setting. Mountain geomorphic processes are examined and new ideas about landsliding are highlighted. The exceptional sedimentary archives of the Whanganui Basin are also presented. As one of two land masses that extend into the southern mid-latitudes, New Zealand is ideally located to investigate changes in Southern Ocean climate. Related to this, mountain glaciation in New Zealand is a focus in global climate change debates. New Zealand also has a unique biota due to its long isolation and is the last major land mass to be settled by people. Advances in DNA technologies have revolutionised our understanding of the histories and processes involved. The book provides a comprehensive review of existing work and highlights new ideas and major debates across all these fields.

This book introduces systematically the concept of weakly-bound complexes into the broad field of atmospheric sciences. To fill up the gap between our rapidly expanding knowledge of the individual properties of Van der Waals and hydrogen-bonded molecules, and our understanding of their role in the atmospheric processes, an ensemble of related topics are covered by a team of expert co-authors. The general properties of the weakly bound molecular complexes (or "clusters") are discussed, as well as their distribution in the planetary atmospheres. Collision-induced and dimeric absorption and emission are considered in the context of atmospheric spectroscopy. The advanced experimental techniques which enable us to study the spectroscopic features of molecular complexes in the gas phase, or which are adsorbed, are reviewed. The role of molecular complexes in the cometary atmosphere, the Earth mesosphere, and the atmospheres of the giant planets and some of their satellites are also discussed in detail.

The sixth EUROTRAC Symposium was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, th st Gennany from 27 - 31 March 2000. Some 375 scientists from 28 different countries (from the USA to Uzbekistan) gathered together and contributed to a lively week. Symposium 2000 was the second Symposium of the second phase, EUROTRAC- 2 which is EUREKA environmental project number 1489, and also the ftrst one organised by the new team at the International Scientiftc Secretariat (ISS). We stayed with the tried and tested EUROTRAC format, giving ample time for poster sessions as well as side meetings and workshops. The invited talks, over 35 in all, contributed breadth and depth. The Symposium had the focal points of "Shaping the Future" and "Scientiftc Research and Environmental Policy". The "Highlights from the Subprojects" were well represented by a series of talks and of course by the ca 300 posters. Guest poster contributions added to the spectrum of scientiftc coverage. An innovation for 2000 is the publication of these Proceedings in a book containing the extended abstracts of the lectures and a companion CD-ROM with the extended abstracts of the posters as well as the lectures. The availability of the Proceedings on a CD will enable us to distribute them more widely.