A profound knowledge of the past climate is vital for our understanding of global warming. The past 2000 years are both the period which is of most relevance to the next century and that for which there is the most evidence. High-resolution proxy records for this period are available from a variety of sources. Five sections consider dendroclimatology, ice cores, corals, historical records, lake varves, and other indicators. The final two sections cover the histories of various forcing factors and attempt to bring together records from a variety of sources and provide explanations.

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.

Experts discuss how to repair, rehabilitate and modernize the transportation infrastructure in emerging Central Europe. The focus is on applying modern engineering technologies and management decision-making technologies to solve common and regional environmental issues in ground transportation, with emphasis on roads and bridges. The book includes situation, position and technical papers and state-of-the-art presentations from scientific and engineering experts as well as from government agency officials responsible for national and regional transport. Concise, cogent recommendations are presented. The reader is provided with current information on related environmental and transportation issues. Experts and lay readers will benefit from the information on economic, social, and political aspects.

The growing use of mathematical models in hydraulics has not made physical models obsolete. They keep pace with mathematical models and in some cases make progress in conjunction with them Physical models continue to be developed: more precise use of similitude criteria, better knowledge of scale effects, new and more complex types of model,use of various artifices, more ade- quate instrumentation, automation of the operation of model- all these pOint to that development. What was needed was to make a survey of the situation, and this was the principal aim of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Recent Advances in Hydraulic Physical Modelling, which took place on the premises of the Laborat6rio Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) in Lisbon, Portugal, from 4th to 15th July 1988, and of which this book is one of the main outputs. It is divided into 11 chapters, corresponding to 28 lectures that cover five areas: fundamentals of physical modelling, river models, hydraulics of structures, maritime hvdraulics and densi ty models. -- Hodelling is obviously dependent on the knowledge of the phe- nomena that are being modelled. This book is therefore also a book on hydraulic engineering in general and not only on phv- sical, modelling. The text also refers to mathematical modelling, experimental methods in hydraulics and observation of nature and prototypes.

The International Conference on Fracture of Concrete and Rock was organized by the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) subdivision on Fracture of Concrete and Rock and RILEM Committee 89-FMT Fracture MechanicS of Concrete; Test Methods. The venue was Houston, Texas on June 17-19, 1987 and cooperation was provided by ACI 446, Fracture Mechanics and RILEM 90-FHA Fracture Mechanics of Concrete; Applications. The conference co-chai rmen were Professor S. P. Shah, Northwestern Uni versity and Professor S. E. Swartz, Kansas State University with the able assistance of Professor K. P. Chong, University of Wyoming. The conference theme was Fracture Mechanics Applications to Cracking and Fracture of Concrete (plain or reinforced) and Rock Subjected to Uniaxial or Complex Stress States with Static- or Dynamic-Loading Rates. This theme was chosen in recognition of parallel efforts between the rock mechanics community and researchers working in the application of fracture mechanics methods to the problem of cracking and fracture of concrete.

Routine seismic monitoring in mines was introduced over 30 years ago with two main objectives in mind: * immediate location of larger seIsmIC events to guide rescue operations; * prediction of large rockmass instabilities. The first objective was achieved fairly quickly, but with the subsequent development of mine communication systems, its strategic importance has diminished. The very limited success with prediction can, at least partially, be attributed to three factors: * seismic monitoring systems based on analogue technology that provided noisy and, frequently, poorly calibrated data of limited dynamic range; * the non-quantitative description of a seismic event by at best its local magnitude; and * the resultant non-quantitative analysis of seismicity, frequently through parameters of some statistical distributions, with a somewhat loose but imaginative physical interpretation. The introduction of modern digital seismic systems to mines and progress in the theory and methods of quantitative seismology have enabled the implementation of realtime seismic monitoring as a management tool, quantifying rockmass response to mining and achieving the first tangible results with prediction. A seismic event, being a sudden inelastic deformation within the rockmass, can now routinely be quantified in terms of seismic moment, its tensor, and radiated seismic energy, so that the overall size of, and stress released at, the seismic source can be estimated.

The study ofthree-dimensional continua has been a traditional part of graduate education in solid mechanics for some time. With rational simplifications to the three-dimensional theory of elasticity, the engineering theories of medium-thin plates and of thin shells may be derived and applied to a large class of engi neering structures distinguished by a characteristically small dimension in one direction. Often, these theories are developed somewhat independently due to their distinctive geometrical and load-resistance characteristics. On the other hand, the two systems share a common basis and might be unified under the classification of Surface Structures after the German term Fliichentragwerke. This common basis is fully exploited in this book. A substantial portion of many traditional approaches to this subject has been devoted to constructing classical and approximate solutions to the governing equations of the system in order to proceed with applications. Within the context of analytical, as opposed to numerical, approaches, the limited general ity of many such solutions has been a formidable obstacle to applications involving complex geometry, material properties, and/or loading. It is now relatively routine to obtain computer-based solutions to quite complicated situations. However, the choice of the proper problem to solve through the selection of the mathematical model remains a human rather than a machine task and requires a basis in the theory of the subject."

Fluvial Hydrosystems provides a unified approach to the study of running waters and aims to provide a scientific basis for sustainable management of rivers. It differs from traditional texts in viewing rivers as structured, four-dimensional systems and integrating ecological and geomorphological approaches to provide a holistic perspective on river dynamics. Advanced students of geomorphology, ecology, environmental science, land use and civil engineering will all benefit from this wide-ranging and stimulating textbook.

Shortly after the creation of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University Brussels) in 1970, currently labelled as VUB, a Department of Quaternary Geology was installed within the Faculty of Science in 1974. At the beginning it dealt mainly with the study of periglacial loess deposits of the Pleistocene Glacial Period in Central Belgium and with coastal deposits in relation to sea level rise during the warm Holocene period covering the last 10,000 years, in which the dawn of civilization took place step by step. Today the same research teams widen their scope of interest: they are presently studying the loess plateau in the People's Republic of China and the world-wide problems associated with sea level rise, coastal erosion being one of the most devastating natural hazards. More and more emphasis is put on problems concerning environmental engineering and those dealing with global change. Since 1975 UNESCO sponsored a number of symposia of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), whose secretariat was located on the VUB Campus grounds from 1973 to 1982. In 1981 the Applied Geology Department ofthe Faculty of Applied Sciences was created. The NATO-Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) , organized in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain) in March 1989 was a climax of this series of Global Change gatherings. As Rector of the VUB, I am satisfied that the VUB, through its Earth Technology Institute, of both USA and Belgium could cooperate with NATO and the National Science Foundations in cosponsoring such an initiative.

Sealing of boreholes and underground excavations has not received much engineering attention until fairly recently. The growing awareness of and sensitivity to environmental concerns of the technical community as well as of the public at large has resulted in an increasing recognition of the fact that these geological penetrations may have an environmental impact. The issue of possible contamination resulting from migration along boreholes, adits, shafts or tunnels unquestionably has been raised most forcefully with in the context of nuclear waste disposal. Several nuclear waste disposal programs, notably the Civilian and the Defence programs of the US De partment of Energy, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Canadian and Swedish radioactive waste disposal programs have conducted major research efforts aimed at developing adequate seal designs for penet rations in host rock formations for high-level nuclear waste repositories. While a considerable data base has been gathered over the last two decades or so with regard to the performance of seals, most of the information is presented in research reports and widely scattered papers in journals and proceedings of conferences. Hence, the materials are not readily accessible to potential users such as designers, contractors or regulators who are not familiar with nuclear waste disposal programs."

Since 2008, the Global Center of Excellence (COE) at Kyoto University, Japan, has been engaged in a program called "Energy Science in the Age of Global Warming-Toward a CO2 Zero-Emission Energy System." Its aim is to establish an international education and research platform to foster educators, researchers, and policy makers who can develop technologies and propose policies for establishing a CO2 zero-emission society no longer dependent on fossil fuels. It is well known that the energy problem cannot simply be labeled a technological one, as it is also deeply involved with social and economic issues. The establishment of a "low-carbon energy science" as an interdisciplinary field integrating social sciences with natural sciences is necessary. The Global COE is setting out a zero-emission technology roadmap and is promoting socioeconomic studies of energy, studies of new technologies for renewable energies, and research for advanced nuclear energy. It has also established the Global COE Unit for Energy Science Education to support young researchers as they apply their skills and knowledge and a broad international perspective to respond to issues of energy and the environment in our societies. Comprising the proceedings of the Second International Symposium of the Global COE Program, this book follows on the earlier volume "Zero-Carbon Energy Kyoto 2009," published in March 2010.

In recent years, future climate change has increasingly been recognized as one of the most important issues of the twenty-first century, challenging the very structure of our global society. No longer just an abstruse scientific concern, it prompts difficult choices for both individuals and governments. Moreover, it is of the first importance to those working in disciplines such as climatology, engineering, economics, sociology, geopolitics, local politics, law, and global health.

Emanating from across the social and natural sciences, as well as in the humanities, serious scholarship on future climate change flourishes now as it has never done before, and this new title in the Routledge series, Critical Concepts in the Environment, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output. Edited by leading scholars in the field, this new Routledge Major Work is a four-volume collection of foundational and cutting-edge contributions.

The first volume (Science) in the collection deals with the development of the science of global warming and climate change, starting with Tyndall (1861), through to the IPCC synthesis (2007), and ending with the very latest research. Volume two (Impact Assessments), meanwhile, assembles the best thinking on how the potential physical, biological, social-political, and economic impacts of climate change are assessed. This volume also includes material on potential surprises that science is starting to investigate, such as the rapid melting of the Greenland and Western Antarctic ice sheets, die back of the Amazon rainforest, release of gas hydrates, and other tipping points. The third volume (Politics and Solutions) gathers the most influential research on climate-change solutions; it encompasses global and local politics, engineering, renewable energy, and geoengineering. The final volume in the collection (Framing the Debate) brings together key scholarship to question and explore how the climate-change debate has been framed and reframed as a scientific, economic, security, health, development, geopolitical, ethical, and cultural issue.

With comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editors, which place the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Future Climate Change is an essential collection destined to be welcomed as a vital research resource by all scholars and students of the subject.

The Mediterranean basin represents one of the most important "hot spots" of climate change in the world, with recent trends towards a hotter and drier climate being related to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns. Such changes can have significant impacts in the climate of this region but also on the natural environment and several socioeconomic activities. Among these patterns, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is one of the main forcing factors in the region with impact on extreme events such as droughts, severe precipitations or heat and cold waves, the availability of water resources, the ecological dynamics, the quality and quantity of crops, the migration and welfare of animal populations, the fisheries dynamics, the triggering of landslides and the air pollution and human health, among others. The aim of Hydrological, Socioeconomic and Ecological Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation in the Mediterranean Region, is to serve as an updated reference text that covers the wide range of evidences on the NAO impacts in the Mediterranean regions and from a multidisciplinary perspective. This volume constitutes a unique document to present the state of the art of the numerous studies undertaken on the hydrological, socioeconomic and ecological impact of the NAO, collecting the expertise of researchers from several complementary earth science fields (geography, hydrology, remote-sensing, climatology, agriculture, energy), but that have been lacking a common ground.

Dimensional analysis is an essential scientific method and a powerful tool for solving problems in physics and engineering. This book starts by introducing the Pi Theorem, which is the theoretical foundation of dimensional analysis. It also provides ample and detailed examples of how dimensional analysis is applied to solving problems in various branches of mechanics. The book covers the extensive findings on explosion mechanics and impact dynamics contributed by the author 's research group over the past forty years at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The book is intended for research scientists and engineers working in the fields of physics and engineering, as well as graduate students and advanced undergraduates of the related fields.

Qing-Ming Tan is a former Professor at the Institute of Mechanics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

Qing-Ming Tan is a former Professor at the Institute of Mechanics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

This book evolved from the 5th School of Environmental Research entitled Persistent Pollution Past, Present and Future," which has set a focus on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), heavy metals and aerosols.

-reconstruction of past changes based on the scientific analysis of natural archives such as ice cores and peat deposits,

-evaluation of the present environmental state by the integration of measurements and modelling and the establishment of cause-effect-patterns,

-assessment of possible environmental future scenarios including emission and climate change perspectives.

As the need for accurate and non-invasive optical characterization and diagnostic techniques is rapidly increasing, it is imperative to find improved ways of extracting the additional information contained within the measured parameters of the scattered light. This is the first specialized monograph on photopolarimetry, a rapidly developing, multidisciplinary topic with numerous military, ecological remote-sensing, astrophysical, biomedical, and technological applications. The main objective is to describe and discuss techniques developed in various disciplines to acquire useful information from the polarization signal of scattered electromagnetic waves. It focuses on the state-of-the-art in polarimetric detection, characterization, and remote sensing, including military and environmental monitoring as well as terrestrial, atmospheric, and biomedical characterization. The book identifies polarimetric techniques that have been especially successful for various applications as well as the future needs of the various research communities. The monograph is intended to facilitate cross-pollination of ideas and thereby improve research efficiency and help advance the field of polarimetry into the future. The book is thoroughly interdisciplinary and contains only invited review chapters written by leading experts in the respective fields. It will be useful to science professionals, engineers, and graduate students working in a broad range of disciplines: optics, electromagnetics, atmospheric radiation and remote sensing, radar meteorology, oceanography, climate research, astrophysics, optical engineering and technology, particle characterization, and biomedical optics.

A three-tier approach is presented: (i) fundamental dynamical concepts of climate processes, (ii) their mathematical formulation based on balance equations, and (iii) the necessary numerical techniques to solve these equations. This book showcases the global energy balance of the climate system and feedback processes that determine the climate sensitivity, inital-boundary value problems, energy transport in the climate system, large-scale ocean circulation and abrupt climate change.

A fascinating journey through the atmosphere that will leave you breathless. With seven million early deaths a year linked to air pollution, air quality is headline news around the world. But how do we measure air pollution and what on earth is an odour panel? Why are property prices higher upwind of cities? Should we buy, hold on to, or avoid a diesel car? And will our grandchildren inherit an atmosphere worth breathing? From the atmosphere on distant planets to the stuff that gets into your lungs, from holes in the ozone layer to lazy and disappearing gases, air quality specialist and full-time breather Dr Mark Broomfield combines scientific evidence with personal stories and advice on what you can do to improve air quality, giving you the low-down on what's up high. ***PRAISE FOR EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE*** A NewBooks Book of the Month The Revelator, 13 Best Environmental Books of July 2019 'Written in an easily accessible style yet get across important facts about the world and what we are doing to it.' Peter Wadhams, author of A Farewell to Ice 'Not without raising a wry smile, the author takes us from the atmospheres of the planets to the air outside our front door... a fascinating read.' Professor Duncan Laxen, Associate of Air Quality Consultants 'Mark Broomfield s writing is just the breath of fresh air needed to lift the fog on atmospheric sciences.' Piers Forster, Professor of Physical Climate Change, University of Leeds

This book comprises the main results of the Scenario (Support on Common European Strategy for sustainable natural and induced technological hazards mitigation) project, funded as a Specific Support Action under the VI FP. This book addresses three main needs: first, it constitutes an assessment of the situation of Europe as far as natural na-tech risks are considered; second, it suggests future research themes to be opened of widened so as to tackle new and emerging threats as well as changes in the potential response to risk governance, in order to improve the way scientific and technical expertise informs decision making regarding all fields of mitigation, ranging from structural to non structural measures, such as training, education and land use planning.

This state-of-the-art book contains all results and papers of the International Workshop on Multiscale and Multiphysics Processes in Geomechanics at Stanford University Campus, June 23-25, 2010.

This monograph develops the theory of noise mechanisms and measurements, and describes general noise characteristics and computational methods. The vast ambient noise literature is concisely summarized using theory combined with key representative results.

The air sea boundary interaction zone is described in terms of nondimensional variables requisite for future experiments. Noise field coherency, rare directional measurements, and unique basin scale computations and methods are presented. The use of satellite measurements in these basin scale models is demonstrated. A series of appendices provides in-depth mathematical treatments which will be of interest to graduate students and active researchers.

This book surveys recent developments in numerical techniques for global atmospheric models. It is based upon a collection of lectures prepared by leading experts in the field. The chapters reveal the multitude of steps that determine the global atmospheric model design. They encompass the choice of the equation set, computational grids on the sphere, horizontal and vertical discretizations, time integration methods, filtering and diffusion mechanisms, conservation properties, tracer transport, and considerations for designing models for massively parallel computers. A reader interested in applied numerical methods but also the many facets of atmospheric modeling should find this book of particular relevance.

This unique , authoritative book introduces and accurately depicts the current state-of-the art in the field of space storms. Professor Koskinen, renowned expert in the field, takes the basic understanding of the system, together with the pyhsics of space plasmas, and produces a treatment of space storms. He combines a solid base describing space physics phenomena with a rigourous theoretical basis. The topics range from the storms in the solar atmosphere through the solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere to the production of the storm-related geoelectric field on the ground. The most up-to-date information available ist presented in a clear, analytical and quantitative way. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is a phenomenological introduction to space weather from the Sun to the Earth. Part 2 comprehensively presents the fundamental concepts of space plasma physics. It consists of discussions of fundamental concepts of plasma physics, starting from underlying electrodynamics and statistical physics of charged particles and continuing to single particle motion in homogeneous electromagnetic fields, waves in cold plasma approximation, Vlasov theory, magnetohydrodynamics, instabilities in space plasmas, reconnection and dynamo. Part 3 bridges the gap between the fundamental plasma physics and research level physics of space storms. This part discusses radiation and scattering processes, transport and diffiusion, shocks and shock acceleration, storms on the Sun, in the magnetosphere, the coupling to the atmosphere and ground. The book is concluded wtih a brief review of what is known of space stroms on other planets. One tool for building this briege ist extensive cross-referencing between the various chapters. Exercise problems of varying difficulty are embedded within the main body of the text.

It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that we introduce this volume which comprises the papers accepted for the 4th International Conference on Hydrocyclones held in Southampton from 23rd to 25th September 1992. As the name implies, this is the fourth Conference in the series, with the previous ones held in Cambridge in 1980, Bath in 1984 and Oxford in 1987. The papers cover a wide span of activities, from fundamental research to advances in industrial practice and, as in the earlier volumes, make a significant contribution of lasting value to the technical literature on hydrocyclones. Hydrocyclones continue to widen their appeal to engineers; besides their traditional role in mineral processing they now attract a lot of attention in chemical engineering, the oil and gas industry, power generation, the food industry, textiles, metal working, waste water treatment, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and other industries. The reason for this continuously increasing attention is, as David Parkinson (General Manager of Conoco (UK)) said recently, that" ... a hydrocyclone is an engineering dream, a machine with no moving parts." Yet as this Volume clearly shows, the hydrocyclone can do so many things and do them well, whether the application is in solid-liquid, liquid-liquid or liquid-gas separation.