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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology > General
A comprehensive exploration of the effects of fires—in forests and other environments—on soils, watersheds, vegetation, air and cultural resources.
This book investigates the functioning and ecosystems of biorefineries and assesses the potential of the industrial bioeconomy. The authors present a case study of the biorefinery at Bazancourt Pomacle, near Reims, France, as an outstanding illustration of the creation, work processes, financing, provision of environmental services, competitive benefits and future prospects of a bioeconomy. Analysing the case of Bazancourt Pomacle, the authors show the wide range of products produced by integrated biorefineries such as food, bioenergy, molecules for cosmetics and nutrients for agricultural use. They also analyse Bazancourt Pomacle as an open innovation platform, which encompasses several layers of R&D, including three department chairs from leading engineering and business schools in France. Illustrating a number of global success stories that started in Bazancourt Pomacle, the authors also investigate the provision of pilot- and demonstration plants as inescapable steps in the scaling-up process from the lab to industrial scale. The book provides a systematic overview of the lessons learned, as well as data on an industrial bioeconomy. Investors, decision- makers, public-policy shapers, analysts and scholars will learn about the history, actors, economics, industrial symbiosis, role of cooperatives, R&D and future prospects of a world-class biorefinery and bio-based cluster in Europe.
This book examines the different ways companies can develop and design social innovation. Combining technological and social perspectives, the contributors present emerging research on social innovation from different sectors such as entrepreneurship, education and energy. Collectively, the authors demonstrate the ways in which social innovation can drive sustainability and development in regions around the world. All societies are characterized by their political, economic and social institutions, as well as by how they utilize technology. The social innovations with the highest importance are those which modify existing institutions or create new ones, and based on their magnitude, they can be considered as radical or incremental. For example, when Joseph Chamberlain encouraged workers to organize in order to achieve universal male suffrage in Great Britain in 1885, this was a considered a radical innovation for British society, which in turn changed its political framework. Social innovations may be based on intelligence and commitment, on technology or on social entrepreneurship in its most open forms. In addition, social innovations can be classified into those which correspond to an entire country or region, a field (e.g., education) or a sector (e.g., entrepreneurship, technology, social reform). Featuring contributions on topics such as agro-food, smart cities, higher education, gender equality and sports, this book is ideal for academics, students, scholars, professionals and policy makers in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and regional development.
This book provides support to academics and researchers, as well as those operating in the management and engineering fields that need to deal with policies and strategies that allow to move towards a more sustainable paradigm, a greener economy that guarantees economic development and the improvement of living and working conditions. Drawing on the latest developments, ideas, research and best practice, this book examines the new advances in the subjects of circular economy.
With an account of over 6.000 recent and 15.000 fossil species, phylum Bryozoa represents a quite large and important phylum of colonial filter feeders. This volume of the series Handbook of Zoology contains new findings on phylogeny, morphology and evolution that have significantly improved our knowledge and understanding of this phylum. It is a comprehensive book that will be a standard for many specialists but also newcomers to the field of bryozoology.
"Global warming is the greatest problem of our time. Unfortunately, the debate is marred by prejudice, misinformation and bigotry. But here is an original and timely book that sets out exactly what are the real problems.... So if you really want to save the planet, read this book."
This book collects recent work presented at the 31st IPMA Congress, which was held in Merida, Mexico, from September 30th to October 2nd, 2019. It covers a range of project, programme and portfolio management contexts, with the general aim of integrating sustainability into project management. The book is structured into three parts. The first part covers concepts and approaches related to the integration of sustainability in project management. The second part presents research on integrating sustainability into project management in different industries and regions. The final part takes specific perspectives on integrating sustainability into project management related to learning and continuing competence development. The book offers a valuable resource for all researchers interested in studying the emerging trends in incorporating sustainability in project, programme and portfolio management.
For over a century, American have created laws, processes, objectives, priorities, and rules for federal land management that often conflict, contradict, and undermine each other. We now find ourselves with inconsistent laws, unclear priorities, procedural mazes, and an antiquated bureaucratic structure. Processes and procedures often impede rather than aid management actions and prevent good stewardship. The overall result is a loss of public benefits and undesirable impact on natural resources. Allan Fitzsimmons presents a clear argument for major changes and offers new ideas for how those changes can be accomplished. Students and professionals interested in public policy, resource management, and environmental studies will find this book to be particularly interesting.
This book examines sustainable energy development in China, a non-liberal state, as a counterexample to conventional wisdom that effective policy outcomes are premised on the basis of decentralized governance. The use of sustainable energies as part of the solution for stabilising global warming has been promoted in industrialised countries for the past three decades. In the last ten years, China has expanded its renewable energy capacity with unprecedented speed and breadth. This phenomenon seems to contradict the principle of orthodox environmental governance, in which stakeholder participation is deemed a necessary condition for effective policy outcomes. Based upon policy documents, news report and interviews with 32 policy makers, business leaders, and NGO practitioners in selected subnational governments, this book examines the politics of sustainable energy in China. It engages debates over the relationships among democratic prioritisation, environmental protection, and economic empowerment, arguing that China's quasi-corporatist model in the sustainable energy field challenges Western scholars' dominant assumptions about ecopolitics.
This open access book analyzes and seeks to consolidate the use of robust quantitative tools and qualitative methods for the design and assessment of energy and climate policies. In particular, it examines energy and climate policy performance and associated risks, as well as public acceptance and portfolio analysis in climate policy, and presents methods for evaluating the costs and benefits of flexible policy implementation as well as new framings for business and market actors. In turn, it discusses the development of alternative policy pathways and the identification of optimal switching points, drawing on concrete examples to do so. Lastly, it discusses climate change mitigation policies' implications for the agricultural, food, building, transportation, service and manufacturing sectors.
Featuring completely updated chapters, additional authors, and an increased emphasis on alternatives to traditional pesticides, the second edition of Ecological Entomology is the field's leading reference on the role of insects in ecosystems. The authors cover insect growth and development, what they eat, how they reproduce, and how they move in various environments. The book also examines how insects interact with the plant community and how to control insect populations naturally.
Geopolitical changes combined with the increasing urgency of ambitious climate action have re-opened debates about justice and international climate policy. Mechanisms and insights from transitional justice have been used in over thirty countries across a range of conflicts at the interface of historical responsibility and imperatives for collective futures. However, lessons from transitional justice theory and practice have not been systematically explored in the climate context. The comparison gives rise to new ideas and strategies that help address climate change dilemmas. This book examines the potential of transitional justice insights to inform global climate governance. It lays out core structural similarities between current global climate governance tensions and transitional justice contexts. It explores how transitional justice approaches and mechanisms could be productively applied in the climate change context. These include responsibility mechanisms such as amnesties, legal accountability measures, and truth commissions, as well as reparations and institutional reform. The book then steps beyond reformist transitional justice practice to consider more transformative approaches, and uses this to explore a wider set of possibilities for the climate context. Each chapter presents one or more concrete proposals arrived at by using ideas from transitional justice and applying them to the justice tensions central to the global climate context. By combining these two fields the book provides a new framework through which to understand the challenges of addressing harms and strengthening collective climate action. This book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of climate change and transitional justice.
This book describes the emergence of landscape ecology, its current status as a new integrative science, and how distinguished scholars in the field of landscape ecology view the future regarding new challenges and career opportunities. Over the past thirty years, landscape ecology has utilized development in technology and methodology (e.g., satellites, GIS, and systems technologists) to monitor large temporal-spatial scale events and phenomena. These events include changes in vegetative cover and composition due to both natural disturbance and human cause-changes that have academic, economic, political, and social manifestations. There is little doubt, due to the temporal-spatial scale of this integrative science, that scholars in fields of study ranging from anthropology to urban ecology will desire to compare their fields with landscape ecology during this intellectually and technologically fertile time. History of Landscape Ecology in the United States brings to light the vital role that landscape ecologists will play in the future as the human population continues to increase and fragment the natural environment. Landscape ecology is known as a synthesized intersection of disciplines; but new theories, concepts, and principles have emerged that form the foundation of a new transdiscipline.
Theology and Climate Change examines Progressive Dominion Theology (PDT) as a primary cultural driver of anthropogenic climate change. PDT is a distinctive and Western form of Christian theology out of which the modern scientific revolution and technological modernity arises. Basic attitudes to nature, to instrumental power over nature, and to an understanding of humanity's relationship with nature are a function of the deep theological preconditions of Western modernity. Much of what we like about Western modernity is indebted to PDT at the same time that this tacit cultural theology is propelling us towards climate disaster. This text argues that the urgent need to change the fundamental operational assumptions of our way of life is now very hard for us to do, because secular modernity is now largely unaware of its tacit theological commitments. Modern consumer society, including the global economy that supports this way of life, could not have the operational signatures it currently has without its distinctive theological origin and its ongoing submerged theological assumptions. Some forms of Christian theology are now acutely aware of this dynamic and are determined to change the modern life-world, from first assumptions up, in order to avert climate disaster. At the same time that other forms of Christian theology - aligned with pragmatic fossil fuel interests - advance climate change skepticism and overtly uphold PDT. Theology is, in fact, crucially integral with the politics of climate change, but this is not often understood in anything more than simplistic and polemically expedient ways in environmental and policy contexts. This text aims to dis-imbed climate change politics from polarized and unfruitful slinging-matches between conservatives and progressives of all or no religious commitments. This fascinating volume is a must read for those with an interest in environmental policy concerns and in culturally embedded first-order belief commitments.
This multidisciplinary approach to the Western Balkans addresses topics from responsible business and ethics, innovation, corporate social responsibility, and new technology to human resources management. It is a theoretical and practical guide towards a sustainable future for the Western Balkans, showing drivers and barriers affecting the region in its effort to green its economy, and provides a systematic and holistic overview and critical examination of the situation in the region. Chapters explore a review of the literature and developing theory, and report empirical procedures. If the Western Balkan countries are following the industrialised states of Western Europe-which are now keen to develop in a sustainable manner, combining economic growth with social justice and improved environment-this work fills the growing need for more research and to expand the current knowledge base about environmental and development challenges, as well as the new, efficient and climate-neutral 'Green Economy' of this region.
Aquatic weeds cause serious problems in water bodies throughout the world. They can, for example, block irrigation and drainage channels, interfere with fisheries, hinder navigation, and have environmentally undesirable effects on fresh-water ecosystems. The problems are most severe in tropical and subtropical countries, but they occur almost everywhere. The management of aquatic weeds poses special problems of its own. The main difficulty is to balance effective treatment against the undesirable side-effects that control operations may have on the ecosystem. This book, which is published for the European Weed Research Society, provides a detailed overview of the ecology and management of aquatic weeds, as well as the present status of aquatic weed problems in various continents. The environmental consequences of aquatic weed control measures are discussed in detail. The book will be of special interest to weed scientists, ecologists, agriculturalists, extension personnel, policy makers, and students.
How to progress climate science to be policy-relevant and actionable? This book presents a novel framework to give a positive vision and structuring approach to guide research and practice on transformative climate governance, to shift the narrative from apathy and stalemate to action and transformation. Our vision contrasts existing climate governance and associated lock-ins that signify the institutional resistance to change. To effectively address climate change, climate governance itself needs to be transformed to foster sustainability transitions under climate change. The book brings together a collection of case studies to investigate how capacities for transformative climate governance are developing at multiple scales and how they can be strengthened vis-a-vis existing governance regimes. Specifically, it sheds light on the following questions: What are key overarching conditions, actors and activities that facilitate governance for transformation under climate change? Given persistent climate governance lock-ins, what needs to happen in research and policy to build-up the capacities that transform climate governance and ensure effective climate action?
Ideal for city residents, developers, designers, and officials looking for ways to bring urban environments into harmony with the natural world and make cities more sustainable, Urban Ecology for Citizens and Planners offers a wealth of information and examples that will answer fundamental scientific questions, guide green initiatives, and inform environmental policies and decision-making processes.This book provides an overview of the synergistic relationships between humans and nature that shape the ecology of urban green spaces. It also emphasizes the social and cultural value of nature in cities for human health and well-being. Chapters describe the basic science of natural components and ecosystems in urban areas and explore the idea of biophilic urbanism, the philosophy of building nature into the framework of cities. To illustrate these topics, chapters include projects, case studies, expert insights, and successful citizen science programs from urban areas around the world. Authors Gail Hansen and Joseli Macedo argue that citizens have increasingly important roles to play in the environmental future of the cities they live in. A valuable resource for real-world solutions, this volume encourages citizens and planners to actively engage and collaborate in improving their communities and quality of life.
The book focuses on the challenges faced by urban areas in the context of handling waste in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner. It also discusses effective waste management approaches, which differ according to culture, climate, and socio-economic variables, as well as institutional volume. Presenting selected, high-quality papers from IconSWM 2018, the book explores a number of waste management methods with the help of case studies.
This thesis deals with two important and very timely aspects of the future power system operation - assessment of demand flexibility and advanced demand side management (DSM) facilitating flexible and secure operation of the power network. It provides a clear and comprehensive literature review in these two areas and states precisely the original contributions of the research. The book first demonstrates the benefits of data mining for a reliable assessment of demand flexibility and its composition even with very limited observability of the end-users. It then illustrates the importance of accurate load modelling for efficient application of DSM and considers different criteria in designing DSM programme to achieve several objectives of the network performance simultaneously. Finally, it demonstrates the importance of considering realistic assumptions when planning and estimating the success of DSM programs. The findings presented here have both scientific and practical significance; they gained her BSc and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Belgrade in 2011 and 2012 respectively. She graduated with her PhD from the University of Manchester. She has presented at several conferences, and has won runner-up prizes in poster presentation at three. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 journal, conference and technical papers.provide a basis for further research, and can be used to guide future applications in industry.
Frank E. Zachos offers a comprehensive review of one of today's most important and contentious issues in biology: the species problem. After setting the stage with key background information on the topic, the book provides a brief history of species concepts from antiquity to the Modern Synthesis, followed by a discussion of the ontological status of species with a focus on the individuality thesis and potential means of reconciling it with other philosophical approaches. More than 30 different species concepts found in the literature are presented in an annotated list, and the most important ones, including the Biological, Genetic, Evolutionary and different versions of the Phylogenetic Species Concept, are discussed in more detail. Specific questions addressed include the problem of asexual and prokaryotic species, intraspecific categories like subspecies and Evolutionarily Significant Units, and a potential solution to the species problem based on a hierarchical approach that distinguishes between ontological and operational species concepts. A full chapter is dedicated to the challenge of delimiting species by means of a discrete taxonomy in a continuous world of inherently fuzzy boundaries. Further, the book outlines the practical ramifications for ecology and evolutionary biology of how we define the species category, highlighting the danger of an apples and oranges problem if what we subsume under the same name ("species") is in actuality a variety of different entities. A succinct summary chapter, glossary and annotated list of references round out the coverage, making the book essential reading for all biologists looking for an accessible introduction to the historical, philosophical and practical dimensions of the species problem.
This book provides applied biologists and ecologists with the mathematical tools they need to understand the ever increasingly mathematical and complex area of population ecology.
The implementation of the circular economy will entail a major transformation from a resource-destroying, linear economy to a circular one that operates within the planet's regenerative boundaries. This book presents an interim assessment of the implementation of a circular economy in the EU. It reveals what achievements have been made in various EU institutions, but which are scarcely perceived by the public; which basic scientific principles can be applied in this context; and what NGOs are demanding beyond this progress. It provides convincing arguments for abandoning the "hamster wheel" of material-based satisfaction of our needs, and shows that the primacy of the economy stands in the way of a good life for all. Given its focus, it will appeal to everyone interested in an ecologically sustainable economic system.
This book discusses the role of cultural practices and policy for sustainable development in West Africa across different artistic disciplines, including performance, video, theatre, community arts and cultural heritage. Based on ethnographic field research in local communities, the book presents findings on current debates of cultural sustainability in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Benin. It provides a unique perspective connecting cultural studies, conflict studies and practical peacebuilding approaches through the arts. The first part pays particular attention to aspects of social cohesion and the circumstances of internally displaced persons e. g. caused by the Boko Haram insurgency in Northeast Nigeria. The second part focuses on cultural policy issues and challenges in the context of sustainable development, investigating participatory approaches and bottom-up processes, the role of governments and civil society, as well as performing arts organizations and universities in policy making and implementation processes. Performing Sustainability in West Africa presents research results and new methods on the role of artistic and cultural practices in conflict situations as well as current debates in cultural policy for researchers, academics, NGOs and students in cultural studies, sustainable development studies and African studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003261025, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Japan was ahead of the rest of the world when it introduced intermediate processing of municipal waste by such means as incineration in the 1960s. Owing to the small land area of the country and the difficulty in securing landfill sites, the incineration ratio of municipal combustible waste had reached 100% by the 1990s. Along with the landfill of incineration residues, proprietary technologies such as high salt leachate treatment, desalination treatment, by-product recycling, a focus on the resource of incineration residues, sea surface landfill sites, and covered type landfill sites have spread and developed since then. This book describes the introduction of incineration facilities starting in the 1960s, landfill technology, and issues arising after 1990 following the introduction of the facilities. The necessity of a total system from incineration to landfill is explained as well. The volume is a valuable resource for countries that plan to introduce intermediate processing such as incineration and for countries that are developing a waste management policy. |
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