Integrated assessment modelling is an active and rapidly developing field, triggered by the debate on climate change and the move towards the goal of sustainable development. This book provides an integrated approach to modelling, using a transdisciplinary approach. The author summarizes the main issues involved in the changing global system, and gives an overview of the emerging field of integrated assessment. He then presents a general discussion of the methodological principles of a multidisciplinary integrated modelling approach. Existing tools are examined and new methodological approaches are applied to various aspects of the problem of global change. The case studies focus on optimizing climate change mitigating policies, the allocation of emission rights and the the adaptive behaviour of social and biological agents. Special attention is given to the role of uncertainty, especially the subjective interpretation of uncertainties (world views), and the role of adaptive multi-agent modelling. The book concludes with a discussion on future uses of integrated assessment modelling in the global environment. Modelling Global Change will be vital to economists and scientists who have an interest in integrated assessment modelling, global modelling and decision support, environmental and ecological economists and those interested in sustainable development.

Ecological Significance of Riparian Ecosystems: Challenges and Management Strategies examines the current issues related to river ecosystems, their environmental importance, pollution issues and potential management strategies. The book is divided into 4 key themes: Basics of river ecosystem, Natural phenomenon of river ecosystem, Human-induced problems of river ecosystem, and Management measures for the river ecosystem. Through these four themes, the contributors present both practical and theoretical aspects of river ecosystem in changing climate. An emphasis has been made on the recent research of climate change and its impact on the river ecosystem. River ecosystems have tremendous potential to store CO2, however, with changing climatic and anthropogenic activities, these habitats are under threat, and river ecosystems are losing the very vital service of storing carbon. Unlike well documented terrestrial biodiversity, the biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems is still unrecognized to some extent.

This book provides a richly illustrated study of sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship. Specifically, it examines the ways in which governmental policies and practices modify the social conditions necessary to promote innovation in businesses and by so doing impact economic development. Exploring topics such as green innovation, green customer capital, smart cities, green entrepreneurship and environmental responsibility, this book presents some of the most current research and best practices in the field. In today's global economy, strategies, policies and practices that address the negative effects of human activity on the environment need to be incorporated into the business framework in order for companies to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Around the world, such changes have already resulted in a broad range of products, production methods and technical features that ensure environmental protection. At the same time, the mass media's communication of a deteriorating earth have motivated a growing number of citizens in both developed and developing nations to modify their consumption habits towards more ecological products. Consequently, an increasing number of companies are reacting to these changes in business and legal frameworks and consumer preferences by investing in new forms of green innovation or "eco-innovation" designed to promote both environmental and corporate sustainability. For example, Hewlett-Packard eliminated lead from its welding process; Wal-Mart reduced the emissions of their suppliers; and Cisco, Dell and IBM are investing in smart grids. This volume showcases pioneering efforts among companies, citizens, and government agencies that are moving from theory to practice by placing sustainability at the core of their development strategies.

Forest inventories throughout the world have evolved gradually over time. The content as well as the concepts and de?nitions employed are constantly adapted to the users' needs. Advanced inventory systems have been established in many countries within Europe, as well as outside Europe, as a result of development work spanning several decades, in some cases more than 100 years. With continuously increasing international agreements and commitments, the need for information has also grown drastically, and reporting requests have become more frequent and the content of the reports wider. Some of the agreements made at the international level have direct impacts on national economies and international decisions, e. g. , the Kyoto Protocol. Thus it is of utmost importance that the forest information supplied is collected and analysed using sound scienti?c principles and that the information from different countries is comparable. European National Forest Inventory (NFI) teams gathered in Vienna in 2003 to discuss the new challenges and the measures needed to get data users to take full advantage of existing NFIs. As a result, the European National Forest Inventory Network (ENFIN), a network of NFIs, was established. The ENFIN members decided to apply for funding for meetings and collaborative activities. COST- European Cooperation in Science and Technology - provided the necessary ?n- cial means for the realization of the program.

This book presents a comprehensive typology and a comprehensible description of spatiotemporal models used in population dynamics. The main types included are: reaction-diffusion systems, patch models, matapopulation approaches, host parasitoid models, cellular automata (interacting particle systems), tessellations and distance models. The models are introduced through examples and with informative verbal explanations to help understanding. Some of the cellular automation examples are models not yet published elsewhere. Possible extensions of certain model types are suggested.

The first edition of the widely praised Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, published in 2005, led to numerous new marine protected area proposals and a number of notable conservation successes around the world.

In this completely revised and expanded second edition, new developments in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Pacific are described, as well as future directions for High Seas protection. New sections show how to design and manage Marine Protected Areas (MPA's) in an ever noisier ocean subject to climate change, increased shipping and hydrocarbon exploration. The process of protected area creation for cetaceans has been accelerated and more than 200 exciting new places are detailed in this edition. This book provides a route map for MPA managers, as well as countries, to meet the ambitious targets for highly protected MPA networks by 2012 and 2020.

Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is a key conservation tool and a springboard for worldwide change in human attitudes toward the world ocean where all life originated and where the majority of life on Earth still lives.

The use of environmentally safe products is an emerging and popular trend throughout various industries. Product manufacturing and sales has changed in order to incorporate green initiatives that will appeal to this fast-growing market. Driving Green Consumerism Through Strategic Sustainability Marketing is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the latest trends of consumerism and its effect and implications on the environment. Featuring coverage on topics and perspectives such as nutricosmetic products, green marketing, and animal products, this publication is ideal for those interested in aspects of green consumerism.

Tree based production systems abound especially in the tropics. Despite the pervasiveness of such multipurpose trees-outside-forest resources, they have not attracted adequate attention in the development paradigms of many nation states. These multispecies production systems impact the ecosystem processes favourably. Yet, our understanding of the diversity attributes and carbon dynamics under agroforestry is not adequate. This book focuses on the role of multispecies production systems involving tree and crop species as a means for carbon sequestration and thereby reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Sixteen chapters organized into three broad sections titled: Measurement and Estimation, Agrobiodiversity and Tree Management, and Policy and Socioeconomic Aspects represent a cross section of the opportunities and challenges in current research and emerging issues in harnessing carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry systems. "

An ACE National Strategic Planning Framework for the United States is a game changer for climate action. After decades of inspired but fragmented efforts, 150 highly diverse Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) leaders joined forces in 2020 to build a strategic roadmap for encouraging, informing, and empowering the public to tackle the climate crisis. Their goal: push the United States and other nations to meet - and exceed - the targets of the Paris Agreement in the fastest and most equitable way possible, namely, by empowering the people.

From its inception, the U.S. Department of the Interior has been charged with a conflicting mission. One set of statutes demands that the department must develop America's lands, that it get our trees, water, oil, and minerals out into the marketplace. Yet an opposing set of laws orders us to conserve these same resources, to preserve them for the long term and to consider the noncommodity values of our public landscape. That dichotomy, between rapid exploitation and long-term protection, demands what I see as the most significant policy departure of my tenure in office: the use of science-interdisciplinary science-as the primary basis for land management decisions. For more than a century, that has not been the case. Instead, we have managed this dichotomy by compartmentalizing the American landscape. Congress and my predecessors handled resource conflicts by drawing enclosures: "We'll create a national park here," they said, "and we'll put a wildlife refuge over there." Simple enough, as far as protection goes. And outside those protected areas, the message was equally simplistic: "Y'all come and get it. Have at it." The nature and the pace of the resource extraction was not at issue; if you could find it, it was yours.

Regions with Mediterranean-type climates include parts of California, South America, Australia, and of course, Europe. The effect of global climate change on these heavily populated areas will have major social and political ramifications.
This volume addresses issues in these areas, from processes at the leaf level to the individual, ecosystem, and landscape levels. This book will serve to raise awareness on the significance of these types of ecosystems, and on their sensitivity to the threat that global change represents.

This proceedings volume examines leadership from the perspectives of business, economics, social sciences, cross-cultural management, and education as a means to establish a future of sustainable development. Featuring contributions from the 2017 Prague Institute for Qualification Enhancement (PRIZK) and International Research Centre (IRC) "Scientific Cooperation" International Conference held in the Czech Republic, this volume focuses particularly on business models and higher education schemes from BRICS nations and examines topics such as social and educational practices, academic policies and business development. Leadership is becoming a key element for the future sustainable development of business and education in the quickly globalizing world. In this regard, a special emphasis should be made on the formation of high-quality human resources-the leading experts in their field who will create innovations and introduce breakthrough technologies. The development of a creative economy and knowledge economy requires highly-educated human capital, thus education becomes a key element of this process. Education must keep pace with time, be competitive, and stay in touch with the process of technology. The enclosed papers identify the key steps for sustainable growth and development in business and education. Featuring contributions on theory and practice, this book is appropriate for academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in the areas of business, leadership management, entrepreneurship, innovation and education.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy, and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

The United States Forest Service, perhaps more than any other federal agency, has made great strides during the past two decades revolution izing its public involvement efforts and reshaping its profile through the hiring of professionals in many disciplinary areas long absent in the agency. In fact, to a large extent, the agency has been doing precisely what everyone has been clamoring for it to do: involving the public more in its decisions; hiring more wildlife biologists, recreation specialists, sociologists, planners, and individuals with "people skills"; and, fur thermore, taking a more comprehensive and long-term view in planning the future of the national forests. The result has been significant-in some ways, monumental-changes in the agency and its land manage ment practices. There are provisions for public input in almost all as pects of national forest management today. The profeSSional disciplines represented throughout the agency's ranks are markedly more diverse than they have ever been. Moreover, no stone is left untumed in the agency's current forest-planning effort, undoubtedly the most compre hensive, interdisciplinary planning effort ever undertaken by a resource agency in the United States. Regardless of the dramatic change that has occurred in the U. S. Forest Service since the early 1970s, the agency is still plagued by con flicts arising from dissatisfaction th how it is doing business."

Climate change is not only one of the greatest threats to modern civilization; it is also a great challenge to economic development in the 21st century. Global warming can lead to periods of both drought and intense rain, causing crops to fail and ruining the livelihoods of many in underdeveloped countries. The Handbook of Research on Climate Change Impact on Health and Environmental Sustainability is an authoritative reference source that offers a comprehensive and timely analysis of various aspects of global warming and its consequences. Featuring such topics as assessment of and adaption to climate change, water and its socio-economic impact, the environmental effects of climate change on human health, and the mitigation of climate change on both a local and global level, this expansive handbook is an essential reference source for students, researchers, academicians, engineers, government executives, and other practitioners looking to make a difference in the treatment of our environment. This publication features timely research on subjects including, but not limited to, climate change and its effect on both urbanization and the trade competitiveness of different regions, water-related diseases flourishing due to climate change, health risks and rethinking health service provision, losses from natural disasters, farmers' views on the environment, drought management policies, groundwater resource management, trends in long-term rainfall, fishery management and productivity, preserving biodiversity, and sustainable forest use.

Oil wealth and Federal Conflict in American Petrofederations documents the critical relationship between oil rents and federal conflicts by illustrating key concepts with six representative cross-regional case studies. Each case study discusses encompasses qualitative, quantitative and comparative elements under a common structure. With each petrofederation ranging in conflict types and modalities, the work as a whole identifies key differences including oil rent decentralization (in terms of resource property, sector management and distribution of revenues), sectoral importance (considered at national and subnational levels), and federation redistribution policy (in terms of fiscal federal imbalance, fiscal equalization, and oil rent use for regional equity). Collectively, the book generalizes a consistent theory of causality between oil rents and federal conflicts that take into account systemic variables. The book's conclusions will serve as a guide for researchers and policymakers seeking pathways to translate oil rents into development and stability.

This book is purposefully styled as an introductory textbook on circular economy (CE) for the benefit of educators and students of universities. It provides comprehensive knowledge exemplified by practices from policy, education, R&D, innovation, design, production, waste management, business and financing around the world. The book covers sectors such as agriculture/food, packaging materials, build environment, textile, energy, and mobility to inspire the growth of circular business transformation. It aims to stimulate action among different stakeholders to drive CE transformation. It elaborates critical driving forces of CE including digital technologies; restorative innovations; business opportunities & sustainable business model; financing instruments, regulation & assessment and experiential education programs. It connects a CE transformation for reaching the SDGs2030 and highlights youth leadership and entrepreneurship at all levels in driving the sustainability transformation.

This book describes the outstanding features of the ecology and bio geography of the Indian region, comprising former British India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ceylon and Burma. It summarizes the results of nearly four decades' studies and field explorations and discussions with students on the distribution of plants and animals, practically throughout this vast area and on the underlying factors. A number of specialists in geology, meteorology, botany, zoology, ecology and anthropology have also actively collaborated with me and have contributed valuable chapters in their respective fields. India has an exceptionally rich and highly diversified flora and fauna, exhibiting complex composition, character and affinities. Although the fauna of the Indian region as a whole is less completely known than its flora, we are nevertheless fairly well acquainted with at least the salient features of its faunal characters to enable us to present a meaningful discussion on some of the outstanding peculiarities of the biogeography of India. A general synthesis of the available, though much scattered, information should prove useful to future students of biogeography throughout the world."

During the last 10 years, there has been a revolution' in ecosystem modelling. The generality and predictive power of our models have increased in a way that was inconceivable 10 years ago. This book describes a new generation of practically useful models that predict as well as one can measure - if one measures well. And yet, they are driven by readily available driving variables and have a general structure that applies to most types of pollutants in aquatic systems. The major reason for this development is, in fact, the Chernobyl accident. Large quantities of radiocesium were released in April/May 1986 as a pulse. To follow the pulse of radiocesium through ecosystem pathways has meant that important fluxes and mechanisms, i.e., ecosystem structures, have been revealed. It is important to stress that many of these new structures and equations are valid not just for radiocesium, but for most types of contaminants, e.g. for metals, nutrients and organics. This means that the models, methods (of building and testing models) and equations described in this book for lakes and coastal areas should be of great interest also to other ecosystem modellers. This book will be of considerable interest to: students in radioecology, geosciences and biology; environmental engineers; consultants; administrators and scientists interested in the spread, biouptake and ecosystem effects of chemical pollutants in aquatic ecosystems.

Mercier looks at the environmental movement from an in-depth international perspective and seeks to analyze the spectrum of positions taken. He shows how the movement is an enduring one, and he demonstrates how it is intimately related to the development of media and to fundamental social and institutional trends of our time. Although environmentalists and sociologists have an often bewildering variety of positions and theories, some being incompatible with others, they share commom values. Mercier offers the image of the protoplasm, the viscous matter that surrounds the living cell, as a metaphor to explore these values.

Although environmentalists and ecologists all over the globe share certain basic goals-less consumption, less waste, less energy use-there is a bewildering variety of ideas, concepts, and theories, some incompatible with others, that is associated with the movement. Indeed, one might more accurately think of a series of movements rather than one movement.

Mercier divides the movement into downstream ecologists-sometimes called environmentalists-who are essentially concerned about the quality of the air, the water, and the soil, and the upstream ecologists, who essentially believe that the deterioration of the quality of the air, water, and soil is a symptom of some larger (upstream) phenomenon. The upstream ecologists, in turn, are divided into subgroups, among them the Social Ecologists, who are the inheritors of the traditional positions of the left, and the Deep Ecologists, who attribute the state of the environment to a modern, excessively specialized and segmented outlook that eventually leads to a loss of sensitivity and a disregard for nature and our environment. Using the image of the protoplasm, the viscous matter that contains the living cell, Mercier concludes by relating these and other patterns to a postmodern aesthetic which, itself, is strongly influenced by our changing communication environment. A major analysis that will be of importance to policymakers, scholars, and researchers involved with environmental issues and contemporary social patterns that go beyond the environment per se.

This book analyses state-of-the-art techniques in business process management as drivers of advanced entrepreneurship, financial management, supply chain management, and sustainability management. The role of management in a rapidly-changing environment and the use of innovative methods and techniques to address and solve key management problems are also explored.

The African lakes are an extremely important ecosystem and the subject of much study relating to species introductions and loss of biodiversity. This book provides a thorough review of the whole subject and will be of great interest to fish biologists, fisheries workers, ecologists, environmental scientists and conservationists.

This book focuses on threats, especially contaminants, to drinking water and the supply system, especially in municipalities but also in industrial and even residential settings. The safety, security, and suitability landscape can be described as dynamic and complex stemming from necessity and hence culpability due to the emerging threats and risks, vis-a-vis globalization resulting in new forms of contaminants being used due to new technologies. The book provides knowledge and guidance for engineers, scientists, designers, researchers, and students who are involved in water, sustainability, and study of security issues. This book starts out with basics of water usage, current statistics, and an overview ofwater resources. The book then introduces different scenarios of safety and security and areas that researchers need to focus. Following that, the book presents different types of contaminants - inadvertent, intentional, or incidental. The next section presents different methodologies of contamination sensing/detection and remediation strategies as per guidance and standards set globally. The book then concludes with selected chapters on water management, including critical infrastructure that is critical to maintaining safe water supplies to cities and municipalities. Each chapter includes descriptive information for professionals in their respective fields. The breadth of chapters offers insights into how science (physical, natural, and social) and technology can support new developments to manage the complexity resident within the evolving threat and risk landscape.

Biological homogenization is the dominant process shaping the future global biosphere. As global transportation becomes faster and more frequent, it is inevitable that biotic intermixing will increase. Unique local biotas will become extinct only to be replaced by already widespread biotas that can tolerate human activities. This process is affecting all aspects of our world: language, economies, and ecosystems alike. The ultimate outcome is the loss of uniqueness and the growth of uniformity. In this way, fast food restaurants exist in Moscow and Java Sparrows breed on Hawaii. Biological homogenization qualifies as a global environmental catastrophe. The Earth has never witnessed such a broad and complete reorganization of species distributions.