This book traces the evolution of Singapore's parks system, from colonial to present times. Further, it contextualizes the design and planning of parks in the general discourse on western and eastern traditions: early twentieth century western conceptions 'imported' during colonialism; modernism; postmodernism, and the contemporary ecological debate. Park system planning products respond to national policies and result in structural urban elements and a range of park types. Global (western ideology) and local issues have influenced park system planning and the physical design of individual parks over time. However, in Singapore the eastern literature has not addressed the development of parks and urban green spaces in terms of historical perspective. The publication reveals the interrelations between visual representations and changing political ideologies. Singapore's system of public parks is shown to represent an iconography created by the state. Its set of constructed narratives elucidates on the potential social, cultural and environmental roles of public parks. However, Singapore's park system presents a novel paradigm for expanding Asian cities, characterized by evolving urban imaging strategies. In framing Singapore's case study within the broader perspective of eastern applications of western planning and design practices, and constructions of nation in post-colonial countries, the manuscript establishes the contribution of the Singaporean model of design and planning of parks to the international debate.

This book presents the outcome of an interdisciplinary and international workshop supported by the Volkswagen Stiftung (funding line 'Knowledge for Tomorrow') on the topic of 'Natural Resources, Socio-Ecological Sensitivity and Climate Change in the Volta-Oti Basin, West Africa'. The conference was jointly organised by Goethe-University Frankfurt (Germany) and the University of Kara (Togo) held from March 6 to 8, 2019 in northern Togo. It aimed to strengthen capacities of junior scientists from the sub-region, exchange and mobilise theoretical and methodological background from various scientific fields (Botany, Construction, Geology, Geography, Infrastructure, Politics, Remote Sensing, Sociology and Urban Planning). One goal was to deliver reliable elements for ongoing and profound environmental analyses that lie outside the common questions of the academic and civil society stakeholders. Ecosystem fragmentation and deforestation in West Africa are mainly triggered by humans such as agriculture and small-scale forest disturbances for charcoal and firewood production. Increasing population pressure, declining of carrying capacity and demand for agricultural land caused the reduction of land conservation capacities, even in protected areas. The complexity of interactions between environmental and socio-ecological systems and subsequent effects (sensitivity) has raised ongoing international awareness in light of ongoing climate change. By the example of natural resources, land use and stakeholders' perceptions within the Volta-Oti Basin the book's proceedings present, discuss and distribute new findings that will sustainably stimulate the international debate. The workshop also intended to overcome national borders and language barriers between the Anglophone (Ghana) and the Francophone (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo) research communities, and supported better West African cooperation and networking. The young as well as the established partners formed new collaborations, and the event at the University of Kara (Togo) was a truly unique opportunity for all involved, not only to discuss science, but also to assess applied and best future management practices for the Oti-Volta Basin in West Africa.

Laws of the Sea assembles scholars from law, geography, anthropology, and environmental humanities to consider the possibilities of a critical ocean approach in legal studies. Unlike the United Nations' monumental Convention on the Law of the Sea, which imagines one comprehensive constitutional framework for governing the ocean, Laws of the Sea approaches oceanic law in plural and dynamic ways. Critically engaging contemporary concerns about the fate of the ocean, the collection's twelve chapters range from hydrothermal vents through the continental shelf and marine genetic resources to coastal communities in France, Sweden, Florida, and Indonesia. Documenting the longstanding binary of land and sea, the chapters pose a fundamental challenge to European law's "terracentrism" and its pervasive influence on juridical modes of knowing and making the world. Together, the chapters ask: is contemporary Eurocentric law-and international law in particular-capable of moving away from its capitalist and colonial legacies, established through myriad oceanic abstractions and classifications, toward more amphibious legalities? Laws of the Sea will appeal to legal scholars, geographers, anthropologists, cultural and political theorists, as well as scholars in the environmental humanities, political ecology, ocean studies, and animal studies.

The geo-hydro-morphometry of the river Ganges has a history of long and wide variations as the river is continuously fed by the high Himalayas hill ranges, the highest in the world. The river is categorized as an international one, passing through several independent countries.
The major flow of the river used to flow through the branch river, Bhagirathi-Hooghly on the banks of which both city and port of Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata) are situated. However, due to massive tectonic and morphological changes, the flow through the branch river has gradually decreased resulting in enormous damages to the port and the city. After more than a century of investigations on the probable causes of deterioration and its remedies, a barrage across the river had been constructed near a place called Farakka in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, India for diversion of a part of lean season flow (40,000 cu secs) from the parent river to the branch river for the resuscitation of the branch river and revitalization of the port of Calcutta.
The turmoil started since the construction of barrage between 1965-1975 and the major neighbouring countries, India and Bangladesh, were locked in the dispute over sharing the water of the parent river. After several rounds of discussions at different levels between the two countries, short-term agreements were signed two times, one in 1977 and the other in 1985, and finally one long term Treaty was signed in 1996 between the two countries in an atmosphere of peaceful co-existence.

Audience The book will be of interest to researchers and scientists, professionals and policymakers in water resources management and environmental science, conservation policy and development research.

* This book deals with modern scientific methods and techniques to analyse fluvial process. * It highlights the concept of river channel stability and instability using channel morphology and demonstrates field techniques to assess channel morphology. * It will be useful for students, teachers and researchers of geography, earth sciences and environmental geology across UK and US. It will also be useful for geographers, civil engineers, hydrologists, geomorphologists, planners and other concerned authorities who are working on fluvial processes and riverbank erosion problems worldwide.

This edited volume reviews the latest advances in policies and actions in understanding the science, impacts and management of climate change in Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to its geographical, physical, and social-economic situations. There are many initiatives to understand and deal with the impacts in the country. The national government has issued key guiding policies for climate change. International agencies together with local stakeholders are working on strengthening the capacity in the policy formulations and implement actions to build community resilience. Universities are conducting research on climate change related at different scales. Cities and local governments are implementing innovations in adapting to the impacts of climate change and transiting toward green economy. This book summarizes and discusses the state-of-the-art regarding climate change in Indonesia including adaptation and mitigation measures. The primary readership of the book includes policy makers, scientists and practitioners of climate change actions in Indonesia and other countries facing similar challenges. Chapter "Carbon Stocks from Peat Swamp Forest and Oil Palm Plantation in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book draws on the author's professional experience and expertise in humid and arid regions to familiarize readers with the basic scientific philosophy and methods regarding floods and their impacts on human life and property. The basis of each model, algorithm and calculation methodology is presented, together with logical and analytical strategies. Global warming and climate change trends are addressed, while flood risk assessments, vulnerability, preventive and mitigation procedures are explained systematically, helping readers apply them in a rational and effective manner. Lastly, real-world project applications are highlighted in each section, ensuring readers grasp not only the theoretical aspects but also their concrete implementation.

This book draws upon the expertise of academic researchers, urban planners and architects to explore the challenge of building the sustainable cities of the future. It addresses this challenge by considering current cities and those of the near future, and creates a picture of the sustainable city from the bottom up. Individual chapters cover topics such as transport, energy supply, sustainable urbanism and promoting social equality in large infrastructure projects. Real-world examples are presented to illustrate how systems thinking is used to integrate different components of a city so as to ensure that the whole is more sustainable than its parts. Written in an accessible style, this book is intended for general readers as much as it is for students and researchers interested in sustainable cities and related topics. It is also ideal for urban planners seeking best-practice guidelines for sustainable urban development.

This book is devoted to the exploration of environmental Prometheanism, the belief that human beings can and should master nature and remake it for the better. Meyer considers, among others, the question of why Prometheanism today is usually found on the political right while environmentalism is on the left. Chapters examine the works of leading Promethean thinkers of nineteenth and early and mid-twentieth century Britain, France, America, and Russia and how they tied their beliefs about the earth to a progressive, left-wing politics. Meyer reconstructs the logic of this "progressive Prometheanism" and the reasons it has vanished from the intellectual scene today. The Progressive Environmental Prometheans broadens the reader's understanding of the history of the ideas behind Prometheanism. This book appeals to anyone with an interest in environmental politics, environmental history, global history, geography and Anthropocene studies.

Human footprints provide some of the most emotive and tangible evidence of our ancestors. They provide evidence of stature, presence, behaviour and in the case of early hominin footprints, evidence with respect to the evolution of human gait and foot anatomy. While human footprint sites are rare in the geological record the number of sites around the World has increased in recent years, along with the analytical tools available for their study. The aim of this book is to provide a definitive review of these recent developments with specific reference to the increased availability of three-dimensional digital elevation models of human tracks at many key sites. The book is divided into eight chapters. Following an introduction the second chapter reviews modern field methods in human ichnology focusing on the development of new analytical tools. The third chapter then reviews the major footprint sites around the World including details on several unpublished examples. Chapters then follow on the role of geology in the formation and preservation of tracks, on the inferences that can be made from human tracks and the final chapter explores the application of this work to forensic science. Audience: This volume will be of interest to researchers and students across a wide range of disciplines - sedimentology, archaeology, forensics and palaeoanthropology.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Renewable resources such as wind, solar, and geothermal are often perceived as being the answer to the fossil fuel crisis. Ironically, however, climate change may also negatively impact on these energy sources. All forms of renewable energy are somewhat sensitive to climate variation. This new compendium looks at the impact of renewable resources on climate change from a variety of perspectives.

1. Highlights the achievements of India in the contemporary field of Antarctic Climatology. 2. Presents four-decades of research by Indian scientists in Antarctica, and the data obtained are now shared for the first time with the global community. 3. Includes case studies on climatological and environmental conditions of natural archives to shed light on climate scenario in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic regions. 4. Covers various aspects of the climate variability and induced Air-Sea-Ice-Atmosphere interactions. 5. Edited by one of India's top scientists and researchers in the field of paleoclimatology and contributed by experts in Antarctic region.

This book analyzes the issues associated with climate change in the Himalayas. The purpose of choosing the Himalayas as a focus is because it is a particularly fragile mountain system, highly sensitive to climate change impacts, and it contains one of the largest human populations affected by climate change. The book provides extensive data and information regarding the climate history of the Himalayas, and the current effects of climate change on Himalayan weather systems, and on human and animal populations in the region. The book begins with an overview of global climate change with discussions of data trends and international initiatives, then segues into a history of climate changes and weather trends in the Himalayas. Weather systems of the Himalayas, both past and current, are analyzed and detailed through climate models, seasonal observations of weather fronts, and overviews of various climate scenarios. The book then discusses climate change impacts and signat ures specific to the Central Himalayan region, where the largest effects of impacts are observed. Readers will discover analysis presented on water resources, meteorological changes, biodiversity, agriculture and human health along with perspectives of management and policy. This book will appeal to researchers studying climate science, climatology, environmental scientists and policymakers.

Every year a landslide disaster occurs somewhere in Europe. Destructive events are fortunately infrequent but when they do occur they are often tragic in their effects. Europe is heavily populated and development is expanding into areas where natural events are more likely to happen. Landslide Recognition is written by specialists from several European institutions and is designed to portray the diagnostic features of landslides as they would appear in the field, on maps or in photographs. Brief descriptions are provided and some guidance is given in the area in which different landslide types might be expected. This book will assist planners, developers, engineers and earth scientists to recognise where a problem may exist and to diagnose what type of failure may occur. The correct investigations and remedial measures may then be applied.

This book explores humanity's relationship with the natural world throughout evolutionary history, and the need to reorient this onto a symbiotic basis. It integrates the themes of natural and artificial selection, the characteristics of historic 'revolutions', and directed versus random change. Inspiring community-based projects, mainly from the developing world, show how ecosystem regeneration uplifts human livelihoods in a positively reinforcing cycle, embodying lessons germane to co-creating a Symbiocene era wherein humanity's substantial influence (the Anthropocene) achieves increasing symbiosis with the natural processes shaping the former Holocene epoch. The Ecosystems Revolution provides practical, positive examples, highlighting the attainability of an 'ecosystems revolution'.

Originally published in 1915, The Natural Theology of Evolution looks at the concept of natural theology, examining the argument for the existence of God based on reason and ordinary experiences of nature. The book looks at natural theology in light of Darwin's theory of evolution, and how this important discovery affected belief in intelligent design. The book argues that the discovery of evolution, far from diminishing the existence of God, provides stronger proof for an intelligently designed earth and therefore the existence of God. This book provides a unique and interesting take on the debates surrounding evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century. It will be of interest to philosophers, historians of religion and natural historians alike.

Provides both students and researchers with an inclusive survey of environmental communication research from around the world, featuring scholars from Africa, Latin American and Asian countries. Includes theoretical, methodological, and practical chapters for a comprehensive introduction to the field. Uniquely, each chapter brings together authors from various countries to develop a truly international overview of the issue covered in the chapter. This novel approach opens up a conversation across countries and breaks geographic and disciplinary boundaries.

Provides both students and researchers with an inclusive survey of environmental communication research from around the world, featuring scholars from Africa, Latin American and Asian countries. Includes theoretical, methodological, and practical chapters for a comprehensive introduction to the field. Uniquely, each chapter brings together authors from various countries to develop a truly international overview of the issue covered in the chapter. This novel approach opens up a conversation across countries and breaks geographic and disciplinary boundaries.

Originally published in 1984, Themes in Biogeography presents a broad examination of biogeographical themes, extending across the field of plant and animal ecology and geography. The book provides a detailed and unique investigation into life and its environment and delves into not just geography, and ecology, but provides an interdisciplinary look at these areas across both biological and environmental sciences. The book examines biogeographical themes applying them to areas of research in soils and climate change, as well as in depth studies of plant communities and their animal associates. The book also discusses plants and animals through their taxonomic distribution, and deals with factors of plant geography, using both global and regional examples. This book will be of interest to biologists, ecologists and geographers alike.

Originally published in 1990 Tropical Resources presents in-depth coverage of the extremely diverse tropical environments, the resources to be found within the region and their production, and ecological management. The book discusses economic geography and ways of utilizing available resources, including those of tropical forests, wildlife, tidal wetlands and the sea. The book also include chapters on the development and land use of protected areas, the ecological aspects of pasture resources; and the impacts of economic development and population damage. In addition, studies are offered on tropical soils, including their distribution properties and management and the ecological processes at work in tropical forests. For geographers, economists and policymakers, the book provides a wealth of information on tropical resources and their potential development.

Originally published in 1998, Southern Forested Wetlands is an up to date, one source compendium of current knowledge on the wetland ecology of America's southern forests. This book presents both the ecological and management aspects of these important ecosystems. The book was compiled by members of the Consortium for Research on southern forested wetlands, and was a collaboration of those working to conserve, study, and manage these economically and environmentally influential areas. The book covers geographic ranges from West Virginia to Florida, to Texas and inland north to Arkansas and Tennessee. It also addresses specific wetland types, including deep-water swamps, major and minor alluvial flood plains, pocosins and Carolina bays, mountain fens, pond cypress swamps, flatwoods wetlands, and mangroves.

Originally published in 1982, Biogeographical Processes is a concise introduction to biogeography aimed at undergraduate students. It provides a detailed overview of man and his environment and includes data from such research projects as that of the International Biological Programme. The book argues that natural processes can be viewed as a datum line to which the human impact through time is added. It suggests that through this datum line, the man and the biological environment are inextricably linked. The book firstly examines the fundamental processes determining the distribution of plants and animals, and the interactions between such processes leading to the concept of the ecosystem. The book also examines major world ecosystems, or biomes, such as forests, grasslands and oceans as if they were in a natural condition and discusses the affect of human impact upon such systems. The book also discusses the alternative future relationships of man and other living organisms. Although over 30 years old, the book still contains a useful and detailed overview of biogeography. It will be of interest to students or lecturers in ecology, biology and the environmental sciences.

Revised and fully updated, this textbook provides a detailed yet accessible introduction to the key aspects of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services is one of the most powerful guiding principles for ecology, biodiversity conservation and the management of natural resources. It provides the basis of assessing the multiple values and services that ecosystems can provide to humankind, including diverse issues such as carbon sequestration, flood control, crop pollination and aesthetic and cultural services. The second edition of Ecosystem Services: Key Issues has been fully revised and updated to address policy and scientific developments, as well as new and emerging issues, such as nature-based solutions, zoonotic diseases and environmental justice. It includes new and updated case studies from across the world and each chapter contains further reading, learning objectives and discussion questions to aid student learning. The book details the historical roots of ecosystem services in the second half of the twentieth century, through initiatives such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It shows how ecosystem goods and services can be categorised and valued in economic as well as non-monetary terms, while also highlighting some of the difficulties and limitations of valuation techniques. The author describes how themes such as systems thinking, social-ecological resilience and natural capital relate to ecosystem services, and how these can contribute to more sustainable and equitable development. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of ecosystem services, ecology, environmental science, biodiversity conservation, environmental economics, natural resource management and sustainable development. It will also be of use to professionals and policymakers who are looking to integrate ecosystems and their services into their decision making processes.

Originally published in 1987 Rates of Evolution is an edited collection drawn from a symposium convened to bring together palaeontologists, geneticists, molecular biologists and developmental biologists to examine some aspects of the problem of evolutionary rates. The book asks questions surrounding the study of evolution, such as did large morphological changes really occur rapidly at various times in the geological past, or is the fossil record too imperfect to be of value in assessing rates of morphological change? What is the measure of 'rapid' change? Is stasis at any taxonomic level established? Is it possible to relate genomic and morphological change? What is the role of regulatory and executive genes in controlling evolutionary change? Does the transfer of genetic material between different taxa provide the possibility of increasing evolutionary rates? Featuring contributions from leading researchers, this book will interest anthropologists, palaeontology and scientists of evolution and genetics.

This book, first published in 1984, deals authoritatively with the nature and management of slope failures and sediment movement and their impact on the hazardous landscape of Los Angeles county. Bringing together for the first time a wide range of information derived from field observations, interviews, manuscript records, local agency reports and published sources, the book presents an analysis of the ways in which a rapidly developing metropolis has come to terms with complex geomorphological hazards. In particular, the events accompanying the major storms of 1914, 1934, 1969 and 1978 are reconstructed in detail.