This book presents up-to-date information on the status of water resources in India. It presents an assessment of the surface water and groundwater condition to help stakeholders take the necessary actions to control pollution and make the country's water resources sustainable. The book addresses various topics, including forest-water interactions for governing water quality at catchment scales, water quality status, rainwater harvesting methods, acid-mine drainage, water pollution, management strategies, drinking water quality, and treatment of industrial wastewater. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable tool for policy planners who wish to improve the current situation and move toward sustainable water resources in India.

Industrialized nations are facing a broad range of environmental restoration problems associated with contamination of surface-subsurface soils. Remedial action is assigned a high priority because of possibly dangerous drinking water contamination and non-compliance situations. Numerous technologies, both commercially available or in various stages of development, are examined. This book focuses on recent technological developments for environmental control and clean-up. The book acquaints scientists, government officials and managers with technical issues related to environmental restoration in case of contamination, including accidental pollution release.

From a new perspective, namely focusing on the interaction of selenium and mercury, this thesis provides new insights into traditional research on biogeochemical cycles of mercury in soil-plant interaction and associated human exposure and risks. The subject of this thesis is both valuable and timely, providing essential information not only on selenium-mercury interaction in the soil-plant system but also on how to assess the combined benefits and risk of co-exposure to mercury and selenium. This work also sheds light on future aspects regarding prevention, remediation and risk management for environmental mercury contamination. Presenting high-quality papers published in leading international SCI journals such as Environmental Health Perspectives and Environmental Science & Technology and having been recognized with the Special Award of Presidential Scholarship Award and Excellent Doctoral Dissertations Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), this thesis offers a valuable resource for scientific communities, policy-makers and non-experts who are interested in this field.

Dr. Hua Zhang works at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway.

The Geography of Nowhere traces America's evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots.

In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation's evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. "The future will require us to build better places," Kunstler says, "or the future will belong to other people in other societies."

Divided into four sections, this work presents the proceedings of an international symposium on monitoring of gaseous pollutants by tunable diode lasers. Focusing on atmospheric trace gas detection, the presentations demonstrate the impressive capabilities of the diode laser technique. Reports on IV-VI mid-infrared diode lasers stress those properties - radiation noise and emission linewidth - which are essential for application to ultra-high sensitivity pollution monitoring. Two reports on III-V systems emitting at wavelengths shorter than 3 mu-m show that the less severe cooling requirements can lead to more compact equipment which can be used to detect pollutants via overtone absorption bands. The presentations on IV-VI physics and devices stress the physical and technological aspects of mid-infrared diode lasers. Laterally structured diode lasers are discussed in detail. There is also extensive material which compares traditional AM and the more recent FM techniques. The reports on special applications point to new directions for research, thus rounding off an expert discussion of a vital research area.

Atmospheric pollution has many different detrimental impacts on air quality at urban, regional and global scales. Large volume photoreactors (often referred to as smog or simulation chambers) have been used very effectively to investigate and understand many varied aspects of atmospheric chemistry related to air pollution problems. Photochemical smog formation, which was first observed around 1945 in Los Angeles, is now a major environmental problem for all industrialised and densely populated regions of the world. Over the years many different modelling and experimental tools have been developed to analyse and simulate the complex chemical processes associated with tropspheric photooxidant formation. Work in environmental chambers has played a key role in the development of our understanding of the atmospheric chemistry associated with pollution problems on local, regional and global scales. Chamber observations have also been used in connection with environmental policy issues. In general they are used for validation of atmospheric chemical models, studies of chemical reaction mechanisms and as a direct means to test the possible impact of specific chemical compounds on air quality under simulated ambient conditions New large smog chamber installations have been recently developed in the US (Riverside, California), Europe (Julich, Germany) and Japan, and a large number of smaller scale laboratory chambers are in operation around the world. Over the years there have been numerous new technical developments related to environmental chamber facilities such as the design of the chambers (e. g."

This volume investigates the challenges facing the Egyptian Northern coastal lakes, focusing on the impact of climate change, their biodiversity and sustainable management. Presenting up-to-date research, it covers the following topics: climate change and water quality modeling and their impacts on the sustainability of the lakes; the economic role of the lakes; the use of remote sensing in monitoring; and the biodiversity of the lakes with detailed discussions. Further, management strategies for the sustainable development of these valuable resources are proposed to maintain the lakes sustainability. The book closes with a concise summary of the conclusions and recommendations presented in the preceding chapters. As such, it offers an invaluable resource for the academic community and postgraduate students, as well as for environmental managers and policymakers.

"Chemical Contamination and Its VictimS" is a comprehensive analytical study of three major problems surrounding chemical pollution: the medical and scientific aspects of chemical hazards; the legal responses to chemical intoxication; and the role of the insurance industry and federal mechanisms like the Superfund in matters related to chemical contamination. The contributors are united in their belief that reform is necessary in each of these areas if victims are to be appropriately compensated for the effects of increasingly frequent chemical pollution.

The book begins by discussing medical and scientific advances in the field of chemical hazards. The contributors draw from the disciplines of toxicology, epidemiology, pathology, and environmental health to show the extent to which medicine is limited in dealing with chemical hazards and their human and environmental side-effects. A middle section, written by legal experts, defines toxic torts, explores the courts' responses to actions brought by chemical victims, and examines the less than satisfactory attempts of Congress to compensate these victims. In the final section, the contributors look at the three different insurance plans that carry the burden of compensating victims of environmental disasters. They conclude that the present systems neither adequately protect industry nor adequately compensate victims and that the federal government may need to play a more active role in ensuring that the polluter pays and equitable compensation is granted. Ideal as supplemental reading for courses in business law, environmental medicine, public health, and public policy, this book offers a cogent statement of the dimensions and dynamics of the chemical victims problem.

single toxicant before it, yet one that has now been brought under effective control-at least in estuaries and the nearshore environment. The problem with TBT and its cause was first recognized in France, then in the United Kingdom and the United States of America; and in these and other countries legislation is now in place (see Abel, Chapter 2; Champ and Wade, Chapter 3), but in many countries the hazard is only now being identified. This volume has the important function of making available to all a summary of the results of work on TBT and the main conclusions. It will help to minimize the duplication of research and speed the introduction of legislation around the world to control organotin pollution. It is the more valuable because research on TBT has often been published in less accessible journals and symposium proceedings. This volume brings together accounts of these findings by the major contributors to the TBT story, providing the most comprehensive account to date. The TBT problem has proved to be instructive in a number of different ways beyond the bounds of the specific issue (Stebbing, 1985). Most important is that TBT can be seen as a challenge to monitoring systems for nearshore waters, by which it can be judged how effective monitoring has been in fulfilling its purpose, and what improvements should be made. Most instructive was the time it took to bring TBT under control.

The book offers a review of the work of the Polish Research Group on selected topics of environmental magnetism: the application of magnetic methods to study pollution of outdoor and indoor air, street dust, polluted soil, air filters and indoor dust; the use of magnetic properties to study pedogenic processes in soils and soil structure; as well as deposition processes in recent sediments. The authors focus on detailed cases and provide in-depth explanations of the causes of and relations between physical processes. The examples of different studies demonstrate how to apply magnetometry to solve problems in related disciplines, how to better understand the complexity of the magnetic structure of substances and mediums as well as how to trace interactions between the environment and natural and anthropogenic factors.

This book identifies four key forms of air pollution: indoor, urban, regional and global. It discusses how these four types of pollution are manifest in today's society and examines the scientific and policy challenges that stand in the way of progress. Written in a style that balances scientific underpinnings with accessible language, Pearson and Derwent examine the sources and historical context of air pollutants, before dedicating a chapter to each of the key forms. Armed with these basics, they begin to address the challenges faced by improving indoor, urban and regional air quality, whilst reducing global warming in the years ahead. This leads to a greater understanding of the challenges of global climate change, with new proposals for reducing global warming. However, the authors conclude that it is only when we have a scenario of reforestation combined with reductions in emissions of all greenhouse gases that real progress will be made in the fight against climate change. Then, air pollution will also be consigned to history. With a foreword written by Professor James Lovelock, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change and environmental policy, as well as air quality professionals working in this important field.

This book focuses on environmental aspects of Boka Kotorska Bay in Montenegro (South Adriatic Sea), an area that has been shaped by seasonal tourism, and explores the use and limitations of its natural resources. The individual chapters highlight its geographic and oceanographic characteristics, climate, history and development, biology, fisheries, agriculture, coastal zones, shipping, marine tourism and pollution. Above all, the environmental impact of tourism on marine, coastal and shoreline areas and the resulting conflicts are discussed in detail. The volume is intended for specialists working in various fields of environmental sciences and ecology, water resources and management, land reclamation and agriculture, and regional climate change.

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are predominantly unregulated anthropogenic chemicals that occur in air, soil, water, food, and plant/animal tissues in trace concentrations. ECs are persistent in the environment, capable of perturbing the physiology of target receptors and, therefore, are increasingly regarded as a subject of concern. This volume aims to enhance understanding of emerging contaminants' effects on plants and the environment and to highlight and address the need of sustainable and eco-friendly approaches in mitigating and remediating the effects of ECs. The book comprises chapters from diverse areas dealing with biotechnology, microbial technology, nanotechnology, molecular biology, remediation, and more. This volume will be useful to remediation practitioners, researchers, regulators and graduate students.

Focusing on climate change policy after the first Kyoto commitment period ending in 2012, this special issue examines long-term strategy and the implications for stakeholders and the environment. International experts offer detailed policy analysis and review the links between policy and economics, sustainable development, technology and adaptation. An invaluable and insightful source of information on long-term thinking on climate change, this special issue of Climate Policy addresses the following key questions: What long-term range of policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation should Europe pursue to adequately enhance sustainability on a global level? What are the implications of long-term European climate strategy for the design of a global post-2012 climate regime? What are the key concerns of different stakeholders and how will these concerns impact on long-term climate policy?These questions were discussed during two workshops, commissioned by the European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment (EFIEA) and jointly organized by the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Resear publication in this special issue. The special issue also includes introductory and concluding remarks from the guest editors, highlighting key points and offering an expert synthesis of the workshop discussions.Climate Policy Options Post-2012 offers a synthesis of expert thinking on long-term climate policy, addressing points such as: EU institutional and coalition development on climate change strategy, the importance of setting a diverse range of targets and commitments, retaining other features such as the flexible mechanisms, assessing costs and competitiveness, dealing with policy dilemmas and creating coherence in policy issues, and the need to strengthen strategic research, boost technological change, pay more attention to impacts and adaptation to enhance support for mitigation, develop a long-term vision and link this to short term action and managing of change.

"The sociology of hazardous waste, risk, and disasters is a relatively new discipline with an increasing volume of empirical research by scholars. Francis O. Adeola focuses this book on hazardous and toxic wastes releases, industrial toxic disasters, contamination of communities and the environment, and the subsequent adverse health effects among exposed populations. He explains the emerging sociological study of risk, natural, and technological disasters, and he reviews the accumulated body of knowledge in the field up-to-date. This groundbreaking work integrates sociological perspectives with perspectives from other disciplines in the discussion of the problems posed by technological hazards both in advanced industrialized societies and in underdeveloped world"--

Environmental protection has been a matter of public awareness for many years. However, improvement of environmental quality is not always considered in terms of economic advantage. Rigorous evaluation of the relationship between economy and environment suggests a positive feedback between social benefits (public health, education, technology) and economic development. Definition of environmental quality includes determination of origins, distributions and dispersion mechanisms of xenobiotic substances. Risk assessment incorporating measures for preventive/corrective policy may then follow. Environmental protection requires global participation and concomitant exchange of ideas. The present book introduces specialists to environmental issues. In particular it supplements formal training in chemistry disciplines, covering: Environmental protection regulations Social cultural factors influencing environmental policy Scientific tools to support the environmental management Pollution dispersion processes Analytical chemistry aspects Protection and management of water resources Hazardous waste treatments.

In recent years climate change has become a leading issue on both the business and political agenda. With the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change now ratified, business is bracing itself for the reality of serious regulation on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions."The Business of Climate Change" presents a state-of-the-art analysis of corporate responses to the climate change issue. The book describes and assesses a number of recent business approaches that will help to identify effective strategies and promote the dissemination of proactive corporate practices on climate change worldwide. By identifying the factors that cause companies to pursue low-carbon strategies and support the Kyoto process, the book will also be helpful to governments in formulating policy.Business and industry have a crucial role to play in the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. They are major emitters of greenhouse gases, and pressure is mounting for them to engage in a range of mitigation strategies, from emission inventorying and trading schemes to investments in low-carbon technologies. Behind the scenes a number of companies have started to develop strategies to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.These strategies can be very diverse in nature. At a political level, companies try to influence policy implementation and, more specifically, to test ideas in anticipation of possible regulation on the climate change issue. At a more practical level, there are a burgeoning number of initiatives to conserve energy use in production, transportation and buildings, to develop renewable sources of energy, to measure carbon emissions and sequestration at a detailed level, and to develop various markets for trading carbon credits among companies and countries. Some technologies, such as hybrid cars and compact fluorescent lighting, are now market realities.Common to all of these initiatives is that they operate in an environment of high complexity and uncertainty. The political implementation of the Kyoto Protocol remains uncertain and many details remain unspecified. Economic instruments such as emission trading are favored, but their mechanisms are still hotly debated and the future price of credits is unknown. New markets for low-emission products and technologies are beginning to appear, but there are currently few regulatory drivers to assist their development. The impact of potential regulation on business will vary tremendously between companies and sectors. The fossil fuel and energy sectors fear the economics of action, while sectors such as insurance and agriculture fear the economics of inaction. Combined with the remaining uncertainties about what form climate change may take, corporate responses to reduce risks have to differentiate between sectors and have to be flexible. For individual companies, these big uncertainties demand new thinking and contingency planning."The Business of Climate Change" is split into four sections: 'Introduction and overview' presents a broad perspective on business and climate policies. 'Policy instruments' outlines early experiences with different types of policy instruments to curb greenhouse gas emissions, ranging from emission trading to voluntary agreements. 'Sector analysis' assesses developments within sectors of industry that are likely to play an important role in future climate policies: oil, cement, chemical, automotive and insurance. Finally, 'Case studies' discusses bottom-up initiatives to combat climate change in five different organizations.This book will be essential reading for policy-makers searching for instruments that have proven business support; academics and researchers analyzing the complexity of how business is responding to the challenge of climate change; and businesses wishing to learn about best practice in the sectors most likely to be seriously affected.

Characterising spatial and temporal variation in environmental properties, generatingmapsfromsparse samples,and quantifyinguncertaintiesin the maps,are key concerns across the environmental sciences. The body of tools known as g- statistics offers a powerful means of addressing these and related questions. This volume presents recent research in methodological developments in geostatistics and in a variety of speci?c environmental application areas including soil science, climatology, pollution, health, wildlife mapping, ?sheries and remote sensing, amongst others. This book contains selected contributions from geoENV VII, the 7th Int- national Conference on Geostatistics for Environmental Applications, held in Southampton, UK, in September 2008. Like previous conferences in the series, the meeting attracted a diversity of researchers from across Europe and further a?eld. A total of 82 abstracts were submitted to the conference and from these the organisation committee selected 46 papers for oral presentation and 30 for poster presentation. The chapters contained in the book represent the state-of-the-art in geostatistics for the environmental sciences. The book includes 35 chapters arranged according to their main focus, whether methodological, or in a particular application. All of the chapters included were accepted after review by members of the scienti?c c- mittee and each chapter was also subject to checks by the editors.

This book critically evaluates recently investigated feedstock for biofuels production. Biofuel sector is rapidly evolving to cater the renewable energy demands. Novel and advanced feedstock are being investigated for their techno-economic feasibility. Environmental concerns, food vs fuel debate, energy security, economic feasibility, and availability are the major drivers for exploring different feedstock for biofuel production. This book explores a wide range of potential biofuels feedstock, their functional concepts, recent advancement, novel technique and critical evaluation with other available biofuel feedstock. This book also discusses future prospects of biofuel production. It is a useful read for students, researchers, faculty, industry and policy makers in the biofuel field.

The objective of this book is to summarize and critically assess the current status, development trends and needs of three basic defensive elements that safeguard the quality and environmental safety of soil and water/sediments: early warning monitoring, protection and remediation measures, with particular regard to the viability of methods and technologies, i.e. easiness-to-use, reliability, cost-effectiveness, high efficiency and non-destructive character of remediation that is of particular importance considering the scale of application. The primary aim of the book is to contribute to the improving maintenance of ecosystems, and specifically to summarize and add to information on how best to protect our soils and aquifers, prevent migration and mobilization of pollutants and how to enhance their degradation and/or immobilization. Mechanism of action is considered the first priority, but optimization of technical construction/application details are of no lesser importance. In the permeable reactive barriers, and other preventive/remediation measures, a number of novel integrated physicochemical and biochemical methods are presented. The remediation solutions for soil pollution are focused on non-destructive methods such as phyto- and ecoremediation that would preserve soil properties during and after decontamination. The contributors to the book are internationally recognized experts, which present both state-of-the art and novel approaches in the above fields that makes the book unique with respect to the scope.

The many thousands of human-made and other chemical compounds present in the environment offer a serious challenge to our btosphere. It is appropriate, therefore, that our response to these products of human kno- edge and ingenuity should draw on a body of mtenstve scientific endeavor that is no less impressive. Bioremediation offers the possibility of harnessing the diversity of the biosphere to degrade, remove, alter, or otherwise detoxify these various chemicals. It brings together scientists from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds, such as microbiology, molecular biology, a- lytical chemistry, and chemical and environmental engineering, among o- ers. These different fields, each with its own individual approach, have actively contributed to the development of bioremediation research tn recent years. The prmcipal objective of Bioremediation Protocols is to make the fruits of some of this research available in a different format to that of the textbook or journal article. It provides a selection of clearly written laboratory pro- cols presented as stepwise, easy-to-follow mstructions. In common with p- wous volumes in this and the companion Methods in Molecular Biology series, an extensive "Notes" section is provided with each chapter. This contains u- ful mformation (of a type often not normally included m a research paper) supplementmg the protocol. Reviews and case studies are also included to provide a deeper context to the methods chapters.

Public Participation and Better Environmental Decisions is about a specific 'promise' that participation holds for environmental decision-making. Many of the arguments for public participation in (inter)national environmental policy documents are functional, that is to say they see public participation as a means to an end. Sound solutions to environmental problems require participation beyond experts and political elites. Neglecting information from the public leads to legitimacy questions and potential conflicts.

There is a discourse in the literature and in policy practice as to whether decision-making improves in quality as additional relevant information by the public is considered. The promise that public participation holds has to be weighed against the limitations of public participation in terms of costs and interest conflicts. The question that Public Participation and Better Environmental Decisions seeks to answer for academics, planners and civil servants in all environmental relevant policy fields is: What restricts and what enables information to hold the 'promise' that public participation lead to better environmental decision-making and better outcomes?

This book describes six months of initial intensive activities within a motivating multidisciplinary project to achieve sustainable social, economic, and environmental revitalization in the historic core of Multan City, Pakistan. The project is managed by Fondazione Politecnico di Milano within the framework of the "Pakistan-Italian Debt for Development Swap Agreement and has five components: a livelihood improvement program, a living conditions improvement program, revitalization of physical assets, establishment of a Pakistan-Italian resource centre in Multan, and an Italian collaboration program for training and capacity building. All aspects are covered in this book, which provides a comprehensive account of progress in this excellent example of cross-cultural cooperation between a Western and an Eastern country in regenerating an historic populated site."

A new interpretation of imperialism and environmental change, and the anxieties imperialism generated through environmental transformation and interaction with unknown landscapes. Tying together South Asia and Australasia, this book demonstrates how environmental anxieties led to increasing state resource management, conservation, and urban reform.