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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Physical geography > General
This book describes the urgent challenge faced by cities worldwide to become resilient to climate change impacts. This challenge goes further than the ability to resist the impacts of extreme weather conditions. Coping with climate impacts and the ability to recover from them are equally important, as well as the capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change and the ability to transform the entire urban system. The book explores how the resilience journey for coastal cities in particular encompasses using scientific knowledge but also the knowledge of citizens and practitioners. Measures and strategies on different scales are needed, from national scale all the way down to neighbourhood, street level and building level. Representing the holistic nature of climate resilience, this collection contains unique insights from leading scientists and practitioners in areas of expertise such as engineering, social sciences and urban design. It will be a valuable resource for scholars, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in the development of resilient and sustainable urban environments.
This book features a comprehensive analysis of the development of shale gas resources in China, with a focus on the potential environmental impacts that may result. China has the world's largest shale gas resources, which it is keen to develop to alleviate air pollution and successfully transition to a low-carbon energy future. However, one significant obstacle standing between the ambition and reality is the potentially serious environmental impacts of shale gas production. This book offers a systematic assessment of these potential impacts, including the risk of water contamination, ecological disruption due to the huge consumption of water and methane leakage. It presents valuable first-hand data collected from the authors' fieldwork in Sichuan and Chongqing and the latest information on China's current shale gas operations and also includes a set of models and methods developed to quantify the impacts. It allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of environmental regulatory management systems regarding shale gas production in China by examining whether the existing monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems and environmental regulations can effectively prevent adverse impacts from shale gas production. Providing a detailed study of shale gas development in China based on an unprecedented primary dataset, the book is a valuable resource for scholars, engineers and students who are interested in the energy development and environmental risks.
Rivers and the ecosystems they support have always captivated humans, leading curious scientists to broaden our understanding with ongoing research. In Explorer's Guide to Rivers and Streams, Dr. Ryan Utz (Chatham University) presents a broad scientific understanding of rivers, streams, and the animals that reside within them, written accessibly for a general audience. Topics range from what causes river flows to rise and fall to the ecology of riverine fishes. Kayakers, anglers, and hikers alike will find many tools within Explorer's Guide to Rivers and Streams to deepen their understanding of their favorite waterway.
This edited volume addresses the impacts of climate change on Pacific islands, and presents databases and indexes for assessing and adapting to island vulnerabilities. By analyzing susceptibility variables, developing comprehensive vulnerability indexes, and applying GIS techniques, the book's authors demonstrate the particular issues presented by climate change in the islands of the Pacific region, and how these issues may be managed to preserve and improve biodiversity and human livelihoods. The book first introduces the issues specific to island communities, such as high emissions impacts, and discusses the importance of the lithological traits of Pacific islands and how these physical factors relate to climate change impacts. From here, the book aims to analyze the various vulnerabilities of different island sectors, and to formulate a susceptibility index from these variables to be used by government and planning agencies for relief prioritization. Such variables include tropical cyclones, built infrastructures, proximity to coastal areas, agriculture, fisheries and marine resources, groundwater availability, biodiversity, and economic impacts on industries such as tourism. Through the categorization and indexing of these variables, human and physical adaptation measures are proposed, and support solutions are offered to aid the inhabitants of affected island countries. This book is intended for policy makers, academics, and climate change researchers, particularly those dealing with climate change impacts on small islands.
"Origin of the Earth" is an outgrowth of the Lunar and Planetary Institute Conference on the Origin of the Earth, which was held in Berkeley, California, in December 1988, with leading earth and planetary scientists participating. Among the topics covered are theoretical models of the solar nebula, planetary accretion and models of the differentiation of the Earth into the familiar regimes of hydrosphere, crust, mantle and core. A central theme of the book is a discussion of the "giant impact" model for the formation of the Moon. This popular model of lunar origin has severe implications for the early history of the Earth. Contributors discuss whether the "giant impact" model is incorrect in relation to the Earth, or whether natural processes conspired to erase all traces of its consequences. These and other issues related to the Earth's origin and early differentiation are covered.
The story of invasive species in New Zealand is unlike any other in the world. By the mid-thirteenth century, the main islands of the country were the last large landmasses on Earth to remain uninhabited by humans, or any other land mammals. New Zealand's endemic fauna evolved in isolation until first Polynesians, and then Europeans, arrived with a host of companion animals such as rats and cats in tow. Well-equipped with teeth and claws, these small furry mammals, along with the later arrival of stoats and ferrets, have devastated the fragile populations of unique birds, lizards and insects. Carolyn M. King brings together the necessary historical analysis and recent ecological research to understand this long, slow tragedy. As a comprehensive historical perspective on the fate of an iconic endemic fauna, this book offers much-needed insight into one of New Zealand's longest-running national crises.
This book explains what makes landscapes resilient. Why are some landscapes able to recover quickly from disruptive events or crises, while others are completely thrown off balance for the foreseeable future? The author sets out in search of the influencing factors and conditional structures of landscape resilience and not only evaluates the current state of the art, but also explores landscapes around the globe that could not be more contrasting: from arid agricultural landscapes to boreal forest landscapes, from atolls to saline landscapes, from terraced landscapes to cities. Just as diverse as the landscape types are the factors considered that can put landscapes under stress. However diverse the case studies are in detail, their fascinating mosaic shows at the same time that there are overarching principles that can be used to increase the resilience of landscapes in a targeted way, so that landscapes emerge from crises strengthened rather than weakened. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Landschaftliche Resilienz by Catrin Schmidt, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.
This book introduces environmental participation as a distinct field comprising diverse practices. It presents examples of public participation specifically in environmental science, decision making and expertise. The first chapter introduces the science studies perspective and the key concepts that underpin the argument for approaching such a range of practices as a coherent field. The following three chapters explore a wide range of practical examples of how the public can participate in all three domains. Drawing on her experience with a variety of transdisciplinary projects Landstroem discusses topics including the coproduction of knowledge about flooding, community involvement with radioactive waste disposal and collaborative water quality modelling. She then goes on to cover citizen science and social movement expertise as environmental participation practices. The concluding chapter reflects on the challenges as well as future opportunities of environmental participation. This book is aimed at readers from a variety of academic and non-academic backgrounds and will be a great interest to social and natural scientists, students and practitioners.
This book presents the first empirically tested, comprehensive study on shifting cultivation in Mizoram. Shifting cultivation is a unique and centuries-old practice carried out by the people of Mizoram in Northeast India. Today, it is a non-economic activity as it does not produce sufficient crops, and as a result, the area under shifting cultivation is decreasing. Such cultivation leads to the burning and degradation of vast areas of forestland and therefore has adverse impacts on the floral and faunal resources. This book is a valuable resource for government workers, policymakers, academics, farmers and those who are directly or indirectly associated with practical farming, or with framing and implementing policies. It is equally important to master's and Ph.D. students of geography, resource management, development, and environmental studies who are involved in research and development.
Magmatic sulfides provide most of the world's supplies of platinum and nickel, among other rare and valuable ores. The author, a ranking authority on the topic, discusses the types of rocks that contain magmatic sulfides, the chemical processes by which they form, and the geological setting of major nickel-copper and platinum deposits throughout the world--in Canada, Australia, the U.S.S.R., South Africa, the U.S.A., and Zimbabwe. Naldrett also examines how theories about ore genesis can be applied in exploring for minerals. The book will be used in graduate-level courses and by economic geologists, geochemists, and geologists in the mining industry. It will also be of interest to members of geological surveys worldwide.
This book provides a framework for understanding the components of woodland wellbeing. Based around the collaborative project, Good from Woods, the book spotlights multiple case studies to explore how wellbeing and health are promoted in woodland settings and through woodland inspired activity. It illustrates forms of wellbeing through real examples of woodland practice and draws out implications for the design of programmes to support health and wellbeing across different client groups. Chapters discuss health and wellbeing from a variety of perspectives such as psychological, physical, social, emotional and biophilic wellbeing. The book will be of great practical use to commissioners, providers and users of woodland based activity who want to take a deeper look into how trees, woods and forests support human health and happiness, as well as of interest to academics and students engaged in research in outdoor activities, urban forestry and natural health and wellbeing.
In this book 25 authors from the Global South (19) and the Global North (6) address conflicts, security, peace, gender, environment and development. Four parts cover I) peace research epistemology; II) conflicts, families and vulnerable people; III) peacekeeping, peacebuilding and transitional justice; and IV) peace and education. Part I deals with peace ecology, transformative peace, peaceful societies, Gandhi's non-violent policy and disobedient peace. Part II discusses urban climate change, climate rituals, conflicts in Kenya, the sexual abuse of girls, farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria, wartime sexual violence facing refugees, the traditional conflict and peacemakingprocess of Kurdish tribes, Hindustani family shame, and communication with Roma. Part III analyses norms of peacekeeping, violent non-state actors in Brazil, the art of peace in Mexico, grass-roots post-conflict peacebuilding in Sulawesi, hydrodiplomacyin the Indus River Basin, the Rohingya refugee crisis, and transitional justice. Part IV assesses SDGs and peace in India, peace education in Nepal, and infrastructure-based development and peace in West Papua. * Peer-reviewed texts prepared for the 27th Conference of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) in 2018 in Ahmedabad in India.* Contributions from two pioneers of global peace research:a foreword by Johan Galtung from Norway and a preface by Betty Reardon from the United States.* Innovative case studies by peace researchers on decolonising conflicts, security, peace, gender, environment and development in the Anthropocene, the new epoch of earth and human history.* New theoretical perspectives by senior and junior scholars from Europe and Latin America on peace ecology, transformative peace, peaceful societies, and Gandhi's non-violence policy.* Case studies on climate change, SDGs and peace in India; conflicts in Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico; Roma in Hungary;the refugee crisis in Bangladesh; peace action in Indonesia and India/Pakistan; and peace education in Nepal.
As the risks of the climate crisis continue to grow, so too do the challenges of facing a harsh climate future with honesty and courage; justice and compassion; meaning and purpose. Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis explores diverse sources of learning and wisdom -from climate scientists and activists; philosophers and social theorists; Indigenous cultures and ways of life; faith based and spiritual traditions; artists and writers -which can help us live courageous, compassionate and creative lives in a world of rapidly accelerating climatic and ecological risk. Accelerating the transition to a just and resilient zero-carbon society will require visionary leadership and courageous collective action. Awareness that rapid action might still be insufficient to prevent severe and irreversible social and ecological damage is however a source of deep concern for many people passionately committed to decisive climate action. Drawing on broad experience as a climate activist, researcher and policy maker John Wiseman provides a wide ranging, accessible and provocative guided tour of ideas which can inspire and sustain radical hope and defiant courage in the long emergency which now lies before us.
This volume presents an in-depth analysis of climate change problems and discusses the proliferation of renewable energy worldwide-in conjunction with such important questions as social justice and economic growth, providing an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development. Exploring various responses to human-induced climate change, the book offers a critical reflection on climate change and clean energy and highlights the fundamental problems of international energy justice and human rights. Examining these and other climate-related issues from legal, business, political, and scientific perspectives, the volume also analyzes the impact of economic factors and policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Environmental Sustainability in a Time of Change is the first book in a new Palgrave series on Environmental Sustainability. It takes a fresh look at the dynamic field of environmental sustainability by exploring the interconnections between climate change, water, energy, waste, land use, ecosystems, food, and transportation. It also provides an extensive summary on sustainability management, data analysis, mapping, and data sources. Brinkmann highlights how environmental sustainability challenges are distinctly different in the developed world, where sustainability is largely a choice, versus the developing world, where many struggle with basic existence due to war, migration, and water or food scarcity. He takes a broad systems and historic approach to contextualize environmental sustainability prior to the 1987 Brundtland Report and utilizes many contemporary examples throughout the text, analyzing numerous case studies from many areas of the world including China, Yemen, Malaysia, Egypt, and Florida. This book questions traditional approaches to sustainability that highlight the need for an equal balance of economic development, environmental protection, and social equality to achieve sustainability. This book focuses on a new line of thinking that places environmental sustainability as the key foundation in how to manage sustainability in a time of change. Our planet is quickly becoming environmentally unsustainable due to global consumption and unsustainable economic development and it is high time for a fresh approach. This book will be of great value to academics, practitioners, and students interested in environmental sustainability from a myriad of fields including geology, geography, biology, ecology, economics, business, sociology, anthropology, and other areas that intersect the interdisciplinary field of sustainability.
This book offers an alternative analysis of the various theories and dimensions of green and environmental justice which are rooted in political economy. Much green criminological literature sidelines political economic theoretical insights and therefore with this work the authors enrich the field by vigorously exploring such perspectives. It engages with a number of studies relevant to a political economic approach to justice in order to make two key arguments: that capitalism has produced profound ecological injustices and that the concept of ecological justice (human and ecological rights) itself needs critiquing. Green Criminology and Green Theories of Justice is a timely text which urges the field to revisit its radical roots in social justice while broadening its disciplinary horizons to include a meaningful analysis of political economy and its role in producing and responding to environmental harm and injustice.
This textbook provides an overview of economic perspectives on sustainability. It synthesises economic, ecological and interdisciplinary sustainability research and by applying an integrated social-ecological and economic framework, demonstrates how this research can be improved and implemented in practice. Split into three parts, the book begins by introducing a range of topics forming the basis of knowledge needed to understand the varying sustainability discourses in economics, ecology and interdisciplinary sustainability research. Chapters cover the political context of sustainability; the history of sustainability in European environmental discourses dating back to the seventeenth century; as well as various problems and forms of interdisciplinary knowledge integration and synthesis in the sustainability process. Part II reviews the core economic themes relevant to sustainable development including natural resource management, environmental economics and ecological economics. Also highlighted are often neglected issues such as conflicts, disasters and interrelated crises on the way towards sustainability. The chapters in Part III discuss the future of the sustainability process. They argue for the necessity of overhauling the relationship between science and practice; explore failures and the unforeseen difficulties of sustainability transformation; and discuss how to enable a long term sustainability process that reaches into the distant future. An innovative resource for a broad range of interdisciplinary programmes on sustainability. The book will be an invaluable reference for master and PhD students, instructors, researchers and practitioners in sustainability governance.
This textbook introduces the key concepts that underpin sustainable energy transitions. Starting with the basic biophysical principles, current sources and environmental consequences of existing energy resource use, the book takes readers through the key questions and topics needed to understand, prescribe, and advocate just and sustainable energy solutions. The interdisciplinary nature of the book aims to build bridges across the social and natural sciences and humanities, bringing together perspectives, ideas and concepts from engineering, economics, and life cycle assessment to sociology, political science, anthropology, policy studies, the humanities, arts, and some interdisciplinary thinkers that defy categories. This accessible approach fills the gap for a textbook that integrates sustainability science and engineering studies with strong empirical social science and it will be a useful tool to anyone interested in the socio-ecological dimensions of energy system transitions.
This open access book is a result of the Dalhousie-led research project Safe Navigation and Environment Protection, supported by a grant from the Ocean Frontier Institute's the Canada First Research Excellent Fund (CFREF). The book focuses on Arctic shipping and investigates how ocean change and anthropogenic impacts affect our understanding of risk, policy, management and regulation for safe navigation, environment protection, conflict management between ocean uses, and protection of Indigenous peoples' interests. A rapidly changing Arctic as a result of climate change and ice loss is rendering the North more accessible, providing new opportunities while producing impacts on the Arctic. The book explores ideas for enhanced governance of Arctic shipping through risk-based planning, marine spatial planning and scaling up shipping standards for safety, environment protection and public health.
This book takes a critical look at solar geoengineering as an acceptable means for addressing climate change. Baskin explores the assumptions and imaginaries which animate 'engineering the climate' and discusses why this climate solution is so controversial. The book explains geoengineering's past, its revival in the mid-2000s, and its future prospects including its shadow presence in the Paris climate accord. The main focus however is on dissecting solar geoengineering today - its rationales, underpinning knowledge, relationship to power, and the stance towards nature which accompanies it. Baskin explores three competing imaginaries associated with geoengineering: an Imperial imaginary, an oppositional Un-Natural imaginary, and a conspiratorial Chemtrail imaginary. He seeks to explain why solar geoengineering has struggled to gain approval and why resistance to it persists, despite the support of several powerful actors. He provocatively suggests that reconceptualising our present as the Anthropocene might unwittingly facilitate the normalisation of geoengineering by providing a sustaining socio-technical imaginary. This book is essential reading for those interested in climate policy, political ecology, and science & technology studies.
This book assesses the construction of security in the context of climate change, with a focus on the Arctic region. It examines and discusses changes in the security premises of the Arctic states, from traditional security to environmental and human security. In particular, the book explores how climate change impacts security discourses and premises as well as theoretically discussing the possibility for another change, from circumpolar stability into peaceful change. Chapters cover topics such as the ethics of climate change in the arctic, China's emerging power and influence on arctic climate security, the discursive transformation of the definition of security and the intersection between urban, climate and Arctic studies. The book concludes with the question of whether a paradigm shift in our understanding of traditional security is possible, and whether it is already occurring in the Arctic.
This book explores urban futures in the making, as seen through the lens of urban infrastructure. The book describes how socio-technical arrangements of energy and water provision are being recast in continuing efforts towards realising 'sustainable' transformation of cities. It critically investigates how infrastructure comes to matter by analyzing the shifting capacities and entanglements of diverse actors with these systems, the various means they use to envision, enact and contest changes, and the wide-ranging social and political implications of emerging infrastructure transitions. Drawing on original research into urban infrastructure debates and projects in Stockholm and Paris, the author develops a novel conceptual framework for studying and acknowledging the active, vital role of infrastructure in constituting a material politics of urban transformation. Straddling the latest theoretical insights and empirical investigation of urban planning practice and socio-technical engineering of systems and flows, Redeploying Urban Infrastructure forges new, timely reflections and perspectives which will be of interest to the growing multidisciplinary community of scholars investigating infrastructure and to academics and practitioners with a concern for understanding the wider politics of urban futures.
The book compares different approaches to urban development in Singapore and Seoul over the past decades, by focusing on community participation in the transformation of neighbourhoods and its impact on the built environment and communal life. Singapore and Seoul are known for their rapid economic growth and urbanisation under a strong control of developmental state in the past. However, these cities are at a critical crossroads of societal transformation, where participatory and community-based urban development is gaining importance. This new approach can be seen as a result of a changing relationship between the state and civil society, where an emerging partnership between both aims to overcome the limitations of earlier urban development. The book draws attention to the possibilities and challenges that these cities face while moving towards a more inclusive and socially sustainable post-developmental urbanisation. By applying a comparative perspective to understand the evolving urban paradigms in Singapore and Seoul, this unique and timely book offers insights for scholars, professionals and students interested in contemporary Asian urbanisation and its future trajectories.
This book interrogates the impact of tourism on local lives and environments along the southern Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. Nicaragua has turned to tourism to earn needed foreign exchange and to provide jobs. The unplanned boom, however, has come with costs to local environments. Using an in-depth case study of the community of Gigante and nearby tourism developments, the chapters delve into the impact of recent unregulated booms in tourism on groundwater, household water security, local economies, culture, land ownership, and artisanal fisheries.
This is the first English language book to systematically introduce basic theories, methods and applications of disaster risk science from the angle of different subjects including disaster science, emergency technology and risk management. Viewed from basic theories, disaster risk science consists of disaster system, formation mechanism and process, covering 3 chapters in this book. From the perspective of technical methods, disaster risk science includes measurement and assessment of disasters, mapping and zoning of disaster risk, covering 4 chapters in this book. From the angle of application practices, disaster risk science contains disaster management, emergency response and integrated disaster risk paradigm, covering 3 chapters in the book. The book can be a good reference for researchers, students, and practitioners in the field of disaster risk science and natural disaster risk management for more actively participating in and supporting the development of "disaster risk science". |
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