This open access book asks just how climate-smart our food really is. It follows an average day's worth of food and drink to see where it comes from, how far it travels, and the carbon price we all pay for it. From our breakfast tea and toast, through breaktime chocolate bar, to take-away supper, Dave Reay explores the weather extremes the world's farmers are already dealing with, and what new threats climate change will bring. Readers will encounter heat waves and hurricanes, wildfires and deadly toxins, as well as some truly climate-smart solutions. In every case there are responses that could cut emissions while boosting resilience and livelihoods. Ultimately we are all in this together, our decisions on what food we buy and how we consume it send life-changing ripples right through the global web that is our food supply. As we face a future of 10 billion mouths to feed in a rapidly changing climate, it's time to get to know our farmers and herders, our vintners and fisherfolk, a whole lot better.

The present book highlights studies that show how smart cities promote urban economic development. The book surveys the state of the art of Smart City Economic Development through a literature survey. The book uses 13 in depth city research case studies in 10 countries such as the North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to explain how a smart economy changes the urban spatial system and vice versa. This book focuses on exploratory city studies in different countries, which investigate how urban spatial systems adapt to the specific needs of smart urban economy. The theory of smart city economic development is not yet entirely understood and applied in metropolitan regional plans. Smart urban economies are largely the result of the influence of ICT applications on all aspects of urban economy, which in turn changes the land-use system. It points out that the dynamics of smart city GDP creation takes 'different paths,' which need further empirical study, hypothesis testing and mathematical modelling. Although there are hypotheses on how smart cities generate wealth and social benefits for nations, there are no significant empirical studies available on how they generate urban economic development through urban spatial adaptation. This book with 13 cities research studies is one attempt to fill in the gap in knowledge base.

Written by a career geologist with decades of experience in the field, North America's Natural Wonders provides everything the reader needs to understand the landscape. It guides readers through the most iconic, geologically significant scenery in North America, points out features of interest, explains what they are seeing, and describes how these features came to be. Presented as classic excursions to some of the best-known natural wonders on the continent, Volume I focuses primarily on Western North America, including the Canadian Rockies, California, the Southwest, Great Basin, and Tetons-Yellowstone Country. The trips detailed in this volume include stops at quintessential features, such as the glaciers and mountains of Banff National Park, Yosemite, the vineyards of Napa Valley, the California goldfields, the Grand Canyon, numerous parks in Utah, the geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, as well as many others. It also features discussions of lesser-known but equally interesting geologic formations and important information on accessing these sites. Features Addresses issues of interest, such as fossils, earthquakes, mineral sites, mining, and oil fields Lavishly illustrated with numerous colorful maps and breathtaking geological landscapes and their various features These five self-guided tours explain to the curious layman, student, and geologist what they are seeing when they look at a roadcut or a quarry and enhances the experience far beyond simple sightseeing.

Written by a career geologist with decades of experience in the field, North America's Natural Wonders guides readers through the most iconic, geologically significant scenery in North America, points out features of interest, explains what they are seeing, and describes how these features came to be. Presented as classic excursions to some of the best-known natural wonders on the continent, Volume II focuses primarily on Central and Eastern North America, including the Appalachians, the Colorado Rockies, Austin-Big Bend Country, and the Sierra Madre. The trips detailed in this volume include stops at quintessential features, such as the Shenandoah Valley, Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend National Park, and La Popa Basin of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, Mexico, as well as many others. It also features discussions of lesser-known but equally interesting geologic formations and important information on accessing these sites. Features Clearly explains the geology of these regions with an emphasis on landscape formation Addresses issues of interest, such as fossils, earthquakes, mineral sites, mining, and oil fields Lavishly illustrated with numerous colorful maps and breathtaking geological landscapes and their various features These six self-guided tours explain to the curious layman, student, and geologist what they are seeing when they look at a roadcut or a quarry and enhances the experience far beyond simple sightseeing.

Rifts and passive margins are extremely important for the petroleum industry, as they are areas of high sedimentation and can contain significant oil and gas resources. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of rifts and passive margins as a whole. It synthesises in one volume the existing information devoted to specific aspects of these vitally important hydrocarbon habitats. This collection of state-of-the-art information on the topic facilitates the better use of this knowledge to assess the risks of exploring and operating in these settings and the development of systematic and predictive hydrocarbon screening tools. The book will be invaluable for a broad range of readers, from advanced geology students and researchers to exploration geoscientists to exploration managers exploring for and developing hydrocarbon resources in analogous settings.

This fully updated second edition presents a conceptual framework of outdoor recreation management in the form of a series of management matrices. It then illustrates this framework through new and updated case studies in the US national parks, and concludes with the principles of outdoor recreation management. Written by an author team with extensive academic and practical experience in the field of outdoor recreation, the book: - Develops and presents a matrix-based framework of strategies and practices for managing outdoor recreation in a sustainable way. - Illustrates application of best management practices through a series of case studies in diverse national parks. - Includes lecture slides and online matrices to aid the teaching of outdoor recreation management to a new generation. Managing Outdoor Recreation, 2nd Edition is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students of parks, outdoor recreation and related subjects, as well as a helpful tool for practitioners.

This book is about how water managers in the United States are responding to the call for increased effort to achieve sustainable supplies of clean fresh water for present and future generations. The author, himself a participant in the water supply chain, demonstrates that while water is indeed one of life's most essential commodities, in many parts of the United States it is one of the most stressed resources. Throughout the book the author illustrates both the good and the bad efforts taken or not taken by water and wastewater management with real life examples. This book will appeal to the educators, students, volunteers, elected officials, regulators, and other participants with a role in helping the suppliers of water and wastewater services to achieve their goals providing clean, safe water on a sustainable basis.

This book offers an introduction to remotely sensed image processing and classification in R using machine learning algorithms. It also provides a concise and practical reference tutorial, which equips readers to immediately start using the software platform and R packages for image processing and classification. This book is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces remote sensing digital image processing in R, while chapter 2 covers pre-processing. Chapter 3 focuses on image transformation, and chapter 4 addresses image classification. Lastly, chapter 5 deals with improving image classification. R is advantageous in that it is open source software, available free of charge and includes several useful features that are not available in commercial software packages. This book benefits all undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, university teachers and other remote- sensing practitioners interested in the practical implementation of remote sensing in R.

An August 2023 Indie Next Pick, selected by booksellers A Vogue Most Anticipated Book of 2023 A WBUR Summer Reading Recommendation A Next Big Idea Club's August 2023 Must-Read Book An astonishing, vital book about Antarctica, climate change, and motherhood from the author of Rising, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. In 2019, fifty-seven scientists and crew set out onboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer. Their destination: Thwaites Glacier. Their goal: to learn as much as possible about this mysterious place, never before visited by humans, and believed to be both rapidly deteriorating and capable of making a catastrophic impact on global sea-level rise. In The Quickening, Elizabeth Rush documents their voyage, offering the sublime—seeing an iceberg for the first time; the staggering waves of the Drake Passage; the torqued, unfamiliar contours of Thwaites—alongside the workaday moments of this groundbreaking expedition. A ping-pong tournament at sea. Long hours in the lab. All the effort that goes into caring for and protecting human life in a place that is inhospitable to it. Along the way, she takes readers on a personal journey around a more intimate question: What does it mean to bring a child into the world at this time of radical change? What emerges is a new kind of Antarctica story, one preoccupied not with flag planting but with the collective and challenging work of imagining a better future. With understanding the language of a continent where humans have only been present for two centuries. With the contributions and concerns of women, who were largely excluded from voyages until the last few decades, and of crew members of color, whose labor has often gone unrecognized. The Quickening teems with their voices—with the colorful stories and personalities of Rush’s shipmates—in a thrilling chorus. Urgent and brave, absorbing and vulnerable, The Quickening is another essential book from Elizabeth Rush.

The supply of reliable and safe water is a key challenge for developing countries, particularly India. Community management has long been the declared model for rural water supply and is recognised to be critical for its implementation and success. Based on 20 detailed successful case studies from across India, this book outlines future rural water supply approaches for all lower-income countries as they start to follow India on the economic growth (and subsequent service levels) transition. The case studies cover state-level wealth varying from US$2,600 to US$10,000 GDP per person and a mix of gravity flow, single village and multi-village groundwater and surface water schemes. The research reported covers 17 states and surveys of 2,400 households. Together, they provide a spread of cases directly relevant to policy-makers in lower-income economies planning to upgrade the quality and sustainability of rural water supply to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in the context of economic growth.

It is widely recognized that the degree of development of a science is given by the transition from a mainly descriptive stage to a more quantitative stage. In this transition, qualitative interpretations (conceptual models) are complemented with quantification (numerical models, both, deterministic and stochastic). This has been the main task of mathematical geoscientists during the last forty years - to establish new frontiers and new challenges in the study and understanding of the natural world. Mathematics of Planet Earth comprises the proceedings of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences Conference (IAMG2013), held in Madrid from September 2-6, 2013. The Conference addresses researchers, professionals and students. The proceedings contain more than 150 original contributions and give a multidisciplinary vision of mathematical geosciences.

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.

This is the first comprehensive survey of all the deserts of Arabia, based largely on the author’s 50 years of experience there. The text deals with every kind of desert in the region, from vast sand seas to clay pans and stony plains to volcanic flows. Along with dune types unique to the region the author outlines climatic changes, current ecology and human influence on desertification.

The two volume proceedings of CCIS 698 and 699 constitutes revised selected papers from the 4th International Conference on Geo-Informatics in Resource Management and Sustainable Ecosystem, GRMSE 2016, held in Hong Kong, China, in November 2016. The total of 118 papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 311 submissions. The contributions were organized in topical sections named: smart city in resource management and sustainable ecosystem; spatial data acquisition through RS and GIS in resource management and sustainable ecosystem; ecological and environmental data processing and management; advanced geospatial model and analysis for understanding ecological and environmental processes; applications of geo-informatics in resource management and sustainable ecosystem.

The two volume proceedings of CCIS 698 and 699 constitutes revised selected papers from the 4th International Conference on Geo-Informatics in Resource Management and Sustainable Ecosystem, GRMSE 2016, held in Hong Kong, China, in November 2016. The total of 118 papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 311 submissions. The contributions were organized in topical sections named: smart city in resource management and sustainable ecosystem; spatial data acquisition through RS and GIS in resource management and sustainable ecosystem; ecological and environmental data processing and management; advanced geospatial model and analysis for understanding ecological and environmental processes; applications of geo-informatics in resource management and sustainable ecosystem.

It is more than half a century since the publication of R. A. Bagnold's classic book The physics of blown sand and desert dunes, and it is a tribute to the quality of Bagnold's work that many of the fundamental principles which he developed - main valid today. His book continues to be essential reading for any serious s- dent of aeolian processes. However, the past two decades have seen an explosion in the scale of research dealing with aeolian transport processes, sediments, and landforms. Some of this work has been summarized in review papers and edited conference proceedings, but this book provides the rst attempt to review the whole eld of aeolian sand research. Inevitably, it has not been possible to cover all - pects in equal depth, and the balance of included material naturally re ects the - thors' own interests to a signi cant degree. However, our aim has been to provide as broad a perspective as possible, and to provide an entry point to an extensive mul- disciplinary scienti c literature, some of which has not been given the attention it deserves in earlier textbooks and review papers. Many examples are drawn from existing published work, but the book also makes extensive use of our own research in the Middle East, Australia, Europe, and North America. The book has been written principally for use by advanced undergraduates, po- graduates, and more senior research workers in geomorphology and sedimentology.

This book divides Antarctica into eight ice-free regions and provides information on the soils of each region. Soils have been studied in Antarctica for nearly 100 years. Although only 0.35% (45,000 km2) of Antarctica is ice-free, its weathered, unconsolidated material qualify as “soils�. Soils of Antarctica is richly illustrated with nearly 150 images and provisional maps are provided for several key ice-free areas.

This book presents Brazil as a country of continental dimensions. Its territory has a large variety of rock types, geological structures and climates. The country has a large variety of landscapes, such as the humid plains of the Amazon River, the dry plateaus of the semi-arid region or the subtropical mountains of the southern region. On the coast, some plateaus and mountains, like the Serra do Mar Mountain range, formed a significant barrier front to access the hinterland of Brazil. On the other side of these coastal plateaus and mountains, there is a large collection of other plateaus, mountains, plains and depressions little altered by human interference. Thus, Brazil has a unique variety of different landscapes and extraordinary geomorphological sites. The book invites readers to learn more about the beautiful Brazilian landscapes, their complexity and vastness.

The first soil survey in the Philippines was done by Mr. Clarence Dorsey, an American soil scientist in the province of Batangas in 1903. The Soils of the Philippines, however, is the first comprehensive summary of more than a century of soil-survey work in this country. It integrates the soil concepts of the reconnaissance soil-survey results, which commenced as early as 1934 and continued until the mid 1960s, with the semi-detailed soil surveys that continue to this day. The result is the first-ever genetic key for classifying Philippine soils at soil series level; thus, making it possible for any newcomers to the soil survey field to confidently produce their own soil map, at a more detailed map scale, to suit the project requirements. This book brings together discussions on soils and soil mapping units and up-to-date international techniques and technologies. It makes soils relevant to current political realities and national issues. As soil survey moves from a reductionist agricultural-development planning tool to a more holistic and integrated approach, to enable us to understand our dynamic and complex environment, The Soils of the Philippines will be the only source of authoritative and updated data on soil resources for macro-level resource management planning for decades to come. With a vanishing breed of experienced soil surveyors, not only in the Philippines but also worldwide, it may remain the only book on Philippine soils for the next hundred years or more. Since soils follow a geological and not a human time frame, the contents of this volume will stay relevant for soil surveyors even in a fast changing world. As the country leaps from an agricultural economy towards modernization and a more diversified economic base, some of the soil series in the Philippines, for example the Guadalupe series underlying the skyscrapers of Makati City, are becoming extinct as a result of urban development. Therefore, this book serves as the repository for the soils that we possess, the soils that have been lost through decades of urbanization while, at the same time, it creates a soil classification system for the soils we are yet to discover.

The proposed monograph on 'Geomorphological Landscapes of India' will aim to describe and explain in simple words the geomorphological characteristics and the origin of the above-mentioned landforms and landscapes. The proposed monograph will provide the background information about the geology, climate and tectonic framework of the Indian region, as well as cover Indian climates of the present and the past. It will mainly cover the four main morphotectonic regions of India and about 15-20 distinct landforms of the Indian region as well as the major geomorphosites in India.

This book contains peer-reviewed papers from the Second World Landslide Forum, organised by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), that took place in September 2011. The entire material from the conference has been split into seven volumes, this one is the second: 1. Landslide Inventory and Susceptibility and Hazard Zoning, 2. Early Warning, Instrumentation and Monitoring, 3. Spatial Analysis and Modelling, 4. Global Environmental Change, 5. Complex Environment, 6. Risk Assessment, Management and Mitigation, 7. Social and Economic Impact and Policies.

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 book highlights the electronic governance in a smart city through case studies of cities located in many countries. "E-Government" refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits are less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions. The book is divided into three parts. * E-Governance State of the Art Studies of many cities * E-Governance Domains Studies * E-Governance Tools and Issues

This study brings together decades of research on the modern natural environment of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, reviews past research on paleoenvironmental change since the Late Pleistocene, and finally presents paleoecological records of changing forest composition and fire over the last 14,000 years. The focus of this study is on the authors' studies of five pollen records from the Olympic Peninsula. Maps and other data graphics are used extensively. Paleoecology can effectively address some of these challenges we face in understanding the biotic response to climate change and other agents of change in ecosystems. First, species responses to climate change are mediated by changing disturbance regimes. Second, biotic hotspots today suggest a long-term maintenance of diversity in an area, and researchers approach the maintenance of diversity from a wide range and angles (CITE). Mountain regions may maintain biodiversity through significant climate change in 'refugia': locations where components of diversity retreat to and expand from during periods of unfavorable climate (Keppel et al., 2012). Paleoecological studies can describe the context for which biodiversity persisted through time climate refugia. Third, the paleoecological approach is especially suited for long-lived organisms. For example, a tree species that may typically reach reproductive sizes only after 50 years and remain fertile for 300 years, will experience only 30 to 200 generations since colonizing a location after Holocene warming about 11,000 years ago. Thus, by summarizing community change through multiple generations and natural disturbance events, paleoecological studies can examine the resilience of ecosystems to disturbances in the past, showing how many ecosystems recover quickly while others may not (Willis et al., 2010).

The Soils of Bulgaria offers a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of soils and concepts on their magnitude. The purpose of the book is to introduce readers to the soil problematic and ecology in Bulgaria. The volume is divided into 3 parts. The first includes historical facts on soil research in Bulgaria, as well as general conditions and factors of soil formation, while the second applies an original pedological approach. The book's third part focuses on essential information concerning land use/cover in Bulgaria. Each of the 13 chapters deals more specifically with fundamental chemical and physical soil properties, concepts of soil evolution, old and modern processes, geographic distribution, climatic conditions, topography, parent materials, plant associations, morphology and the relationship with different classification systems. The interactions between soil status and management are also highlighted. The use of the latest, statistically significant data ensures precise conclusions. The book also includes a large number of charts and new illustrations. The Soils of Bulgaria is crucial reading material for anyone interested in soil management and agriculture in Easter Europe, from students to policy makers and is also of particular interest for researchers in the field.