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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Physical geography > General
This book discusses the concept and practice of a smart
metropolitan region, and how smart cities promote healthy economic
and spatial development. It highlights how smart metropolitan
regional development can energize, reorganize and transform the
legacy economy into a smart economy; how it can help embrace
Information and Communications Technology (ICT); and how it can
foster a shared economy. In addition, it outlines how the five
pillars of the third industrial revolution can be achieved by smart
communities. In addition, the book draws on 16 in-depth city case
studies from ten countries to explore the state of the art
regarding the smart economy in smart cities - and to apply the
lessons learned to shape smart metropolitan economic and spatial
development.
The ice mountains of the Karakoram are among the world's greatest
natural treasures. At 8611 metres (28,251 ft), K2 is the second
tallest mountain on Earth. There are three other mountains in the
range that top 8000 metres (26,247 ft) - Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak
and Gasherbrum II - and more than 60 peaks above 7000 metres
(22,966 ft). Extending in a south-easterly direction from the
north-eastern tip of Afghanistan and spanning the borders of
Pakistan, India and China, the Karakoram is part of a complex of
ranges in Central Asia that includes the Hindu Kush to the west and
the Himalayas to the south-east. These mountains, however, are
distinctive. This is the most glaciated region on the planet
outside the Arctic and Antarctic. But while most of the world's
great peaks are almost blanketed in snow and ice, the Karakoram is
an exception: the mountains are so vertical that they rapidly shed
snow, leaving their bold, jagged outlines of black granite
glistening in the sun. The name of the range comes from the Turkic
term for 'black rock' or 'black gravel'. The well-known landscape
photographer Colin Prior was initially inspired to visit the
Karakoram in his early twenties: in his local library he picked up
the book In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods (1977) by the
American climber and photographer Galen Rowell, and was instantly
captivated by images of the sharp, fractured peaks and vast
glaciers. His first trip to the Karakoram came in the mid-1990s,
and he has been passionate about these mountains ever since.
Prior's new book is the result of six expeditions he has made to
the Gilgit-Baltistan region of north-east Pakistan over the last
six years. Because the region is so remote, there are no
established base camps, and each expedition requires careful
planning and miles of trekking with a large team of guides, porters
and ponies to carry the equipment and provisions. There are regular
rock falls and perilous snow-covered crevasses to contend with. The
reward for Prior is what he calls the ultimate mountain landscape:
'The scenery is graphic, with towers, minarets and cathedrals of
rock.' This beautifully produced volume showcases the breathtaking
beauty of the Karakoram in some 130 duotone and colour photographs.
The images are largely arranged to follow Prior's progress up the
glaciers, and are accompanied by well-chosen quotations from
accounts of historical expeditions to the region. A selection of
'making of' images at the end of the book highlights the challenges
of documenting the most exceptional mountain range in the world.
'Evocative and intelligent' Guardian Discover the secret history of
our green belts.The first book to tell the story of Britain's green
belts, Outskirts is at once a fascinating social history, a
stirring evocation of the natural world, and a poignant tale of
growing up in a place, and within a family, like no other.
'Illuminating and enjoyable' David Kynaston, Spectator Green belts
are part of the landscape and psyche of post-war Britain, but have
led to conflicts at every level of society - between
conservationists and developers, town and country, politicians and
people, nimbys and the forces of progress. Growing up on 'the last
road in London' on an estate at the edge of the woods, John
Grindrod had a childhood that mirrored these tensions. His family,
too, seemed caught between two worlds: his wheelchair-bound mother
and soft hearted father had moved from the inner city and had
trouble adjusting. His warring brothers struggled too: there was
the sporty one who loved the outdoors, and the agoraphobic who
hated it. And then there was John, an unremarkable boy on the edge
of it all discovering something magical. In the green belts John
discovers strange hidden places, from nuclear bunkers to buried
landfill sites, and along the way meets planners, protestors,
foresters and residents whose passions for and against the green
belt tell a fascinating tale of Britain today.
An expanded guide to the best places in Ontario to connect with the
natural world. The best-selling 100 Nature Hot Spots in Ontario now
features 10 additional destinations. This reader-friendly guide
explores the remarkable splendour and diversity of the province,
from its soaring clifftops, subterranean caves and thundering
cataracts to the province's tallest white pine, the oldest rocks on
Earth and the warbler capital of North America. The guide is
organized by region, and each destination includes a descriptive
profile illustrated with colour photographs and at-a-glance
information about special features and contact details. Regional
maps showcase locations. Some of these hot spots are surprisingly
close to towns and cities, some are hidden urban treasures, and
many are ideal for a day trip. The 10 new hot spots include:
Central Ontario South - the York Region Forest, 2,300 hectares of
protected land with 120 kilometers of nature-rich trails. Eastern
Ontario - Mattawa River Provincial Park, with gorgeous waterfalls,
granite cliffs, forests and wetlands; Meisel Woods Conservation
Area, offering five kilometers of trails that provide stunning
views of Crow Lake and a forest rich with animals and plants; Perth
Wildlife Reserve Conservation Area, a 275-hectare reserve, home to
diverse plant and wildlife species; and Thousand Islands National
Park, a dramatic granite landscape largely accessible only by boat.
Other destinations include: Southwestern Ontario - Rock Glen
Conservation's fossil beds, trails and Carolinian forest; Luther
Marsh Wildlife Management Area's northern flying squirrels,
Butler's garter snakes, and spotted turtles; Pelee Island's
breeding marsh birds and world-renowned annual songbird migration.
Niagara Region - The dramatic lower and upper waterfalls at Ball's
Fall's Conservation Area; passerine bird watching in the Woodend
Conservation Area; the Niagara Glen Nature Reserve's unique
microclimate and plants. Central Ontario South - The Scarborough
Bluffs' rock formations; the Minesing Wetlands' network of
sensitive flora and fauna; Toronto's unusual lakeside reserve,
Tommy Thompson Park. Central Ontario North - The towering cedars
and cliffs of Bruce Peninsula Park; Flowerpot Island's orchids;
Huckleberry Rock, some of the oldest rock in the world; the
peaceful idyll that is Silent Lake Provincial Park; three
unforgettable trails in Algonquin Park. Eastern Ontario -Wintertime
sightings of snowy owls, hawks and coyotes on Amherst Island;
geological eras collide in Frontenac Provincial Park; spectacular
views of lakes and forests from Foley Mountain and Rock Dunder.
Northwestern Ontario -The iconic Sleeping Giant in Sleeping Giant
Provincial Park; windswept Pukaskwa National Park; Ouimet Canyon
with rare arctic plants growing at its base; spectacular 130 feet
(40 m) plummet of Kakabeka Falls. These family-friendly
destinations will appeal to naturalists, budding botanists and
biologists, photographers, hikers, campers and paddlers.
Bioengineering in Extreme Environments is an engaging text that
supports students' education in both technology and the natural
world. Students learn about natural science, human body responses,
and various technologies that enable or could enable humans to
thrive in extreme environments. The text demystifies technology for
readers, demonstrating that many technologies are simply
well-developed solutions to everyday problems. Over the course of
11 chapters, students visit Death Valley, Antarctica, the Great
Salt Lake, Chernobyl, Jupiter, Mt. Everest, and other extreme
locations to learn about their environments, effects on the human
body, and the types of technology they each would require for human
survival. Each chapter includes learning objectives, the core text,
and instructions and assignments for small groups. Students are
challenged to work together to cultivate knowledge, complete
interactive homework assignments, and answer thought-provoking
questions. Embracing active learning and interdisciplinary
knowledge-building, Bioengineering in Extreme Environments is an
ideal textbook for undergraduate general education courses in
science and the natural world.
Since the 1970s and particularly the works of Tuxen (1978) and Gehu
& Rivas-Martinez (1981), dynamico-catenal phytosociology has
facilitated the integration of vegetation dynamics by more
precisely describing the trajectories of vegetation series. A
national habitat mapping program (CarHAB), launched by France's
Ministry of Ecology, aims to map the vegetation and vegetation
series of metropolitan France at a scale of 1: 25,000 by 2025. In
this context, Corsica has been selected as a pilot region, due to
its unique characteristics regarding Mediterranean and alticole
vegetation. This book describes in detail the vegetation series and
geoseries (ecology, structure, dynamic trajectories, effects of
anthropogenic factors on vegetation dynamics, catenal positioning
in the landscape) of two Corsican sectors: Cap Corse and Biguglia
pond. These two study sites were selected using two methods: * For
Cap Corse, the typology and mapping are based on an inductive
approach, which seeks to understand the dynamics of vegetation by
drawing on the mature, substitutional, pioneering and anthropogenic
associations likely to exist within a tessellar envelope. These
various dynamic stages characterize "the vegetation series"
(sigmetum or synassociation), the fundamental unit of
symphytosociology (Gehu 2006; Biondi 2011). The aim of
symphytosociology is, therefore, to define the vegetation series;
in other words, it seeks to identify the repetitive combinations of
syntaxa under homogeneous ecological conditions. * For Biguglia
pond, the typology and mapping are based on a deductive approach,
which combines (under SIG) the ecological descriptor maps with the
vegetation mapping, in order to reveal the tesselas and the natural
potential vegetation that underlies them. Thanks to the improvement
of GIS techniques, this approach has been frequently used to
characterize plant landscapes from vegetation to vegetation
geoseries since the 2000s, with applications to the conservation
management of natural and semi-natural environments.
This book provides an accessible but intellectually rigorous
introduction to the global social movement for 'climate justice'
and addresses the socially uneven consequences of anthropogenic
climate change. Deploying relational understandings of
nature-society, space, and power, Brandon Derman shows that climate
change has been co-produced with social inequality. Mismatching
levels of responsibility and vulnerability, and institutions that
emerged in tandem with those disproportionalities compose the
terrain on which NGOs and social movements now contest climate
injustice in a wide-ranging "politics of connection." Case-based
chapters explore the defining commitments of affected and allied
communities, and how they have shaped specific struggles mobilizing
human rights, international treaties, transnational activist
forums, national and local constituencies, and broad-based
demonstrations. Derman synthesizes these cases and similar efforts
across the globe to identify and explore crosscutting themes in
climate justice politics as well as the opportunities and dilemmas
facing advocates and activists, and those who would ally with them
going forward. How should we understand campaigns for climate
justice? What do these initiatives share, and what differentiates
them? What, in fact, does "climate justice" mean in these contexts?
And what do the framing and progression of such efforts in
different settings suggest about the broader conditions that
produce and sustain climate injustice, how those conditions could
be unmade, and what might take their place? Struggles for Climate
Justice approaches these questions from an interdisciplinary
perspective accessible to graduate and advanced undergraduate
students as well as scholars of geography, social movements,
environmental politics, policy, and socio-legal studies.
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