The continental hydrological cycle is one of the least understood components of the climate system. The understanding of the different processes involved is important in the fields of hydrology and meteorology. In this volume the main applications for continental hydrology are presented, including the characterization of the states of continental surfaces (water state, snow cover, etc.) using active and passive remote sensing, monitoring the Antarctic ice sheet and land water surface heights using radar altimetry, the characterization of redistributions of water masses using the GRACE mission, the potential of GNSS-R technology in hydrology, and remote sensing data assimilation in hydrological models. This book, part of a set of six volumes, has been produced by scientists who are internationally renowned in their fields. It is addressed to students (engineers, Masters, PhD) , engineers and scientists, specialists in remote sensing applied to hydrology. Through this pedagogical work, the authors contribute to breaking down the barriers that hinder the use of Earth observation data.

The environmental and economic importance of monitoring forests and agricultural resources has allowed remote sensing to be increasingly in the development of products and services responding to user needs. This volume presents the main applications in remote sensing for agriculture and forestry, including the primary soil properties, the estimation of the vegetation's biophysical variables, methods for mapping land cover, the contribution of remote sensing for crop and water monitoring, and the estimation of the forest cover properties (cover dynamic, height, biomass). This book, part of a set of six volumes, has been produced by scientists who are internationally renowned in their fields. It is addressed to students (engineers, Masters, PhD), engineers and scientists, specialists in remote sensing applied to agriculture and forestry. Through this pedagogical work, the authors contribute to breaking down the barriers that hinder the use of radar imaging techniques.

Sensing and Monitoring Technologies for Mines and Hazardous Areas: Monitoring and Prediction Technologies presents the fundamentals of mining related geotechnical risk and how the latest advances in sensing and data communication can be used both to prevent accidents and provide early warnings. Opencast mining operations involve huge quantities of overburden removal, dumping, and backfilling in excavated areas. Substantial increases in the rate of accumulation of waste dumps in recent years has resulted in greater height of dumps and also has given rise to the danger of dump failures as steeper open pit slopes are prone to failure. These failures lead to loss of valuable human lives and damage to mining machinery. This book presents the most recent advances in gas sensors, methane detectors, and power cut-off systems. It also introduces monitoring of the gas strata and environment, and an overview of the use of Internet of Things and cloud computing for mining sensing and surveillance purposes. Targeted at geotechnical and mining engineers, this volume covers the latest findings and technology to prevent mining accidents and mitigate the inherent risk of the activity.

For a long time, the dynamics of urban and coastal areas have been the focus of administrators and decision makers in charge of public policy in order to better take into account anthropogenic pressure and the impact of climate change. This volume presents applications of remote sensing in urban environments and coastal zones, including the use of remote sensing in city planning (urban expansion, light pollution, air quality, etc.), observation of the properties of ocean color, the study of coastal dynamics (identifying coastlines and estimating sediment balances, etc.) and analysis of the dynamics of mangroves. This book, part of a set of six volumes, has been produced by scientists who are internationally renowned in their fields. It is addressed to students (engineers, Masters, PhD), engineers and scientists, specialists in remote sensing applied to the coastal environment and urban areas. Through this pedagogical work, the authors contribute to breaking down the barriers that hinder the use of Earth observation data.

Mountain Ice and Water: Investigations of the Hydrologic Cycle in Alpine Environments is a new volume of papers reviewed and edited by John Shroder, Emeritus Professor of Geography and Geology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA, and Greg Greenwood, Director of the Mountain Research Initiative from Bern, Switzerland. Chapters in this book were derived from research papers that were delivered at the Perth III Conference on Mountains of our Future Earth in Scotland in October 2015. The conference was established to help develop the knowledge necessary to respond effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change and to support transformations toward global sustainability in the coming decades. To this end, the conference and book have investigated the future situation in mountains from three points of view. (1) Dynamic Planet: Observing, explaining, understanding, and projecting Earth, environmental, and societal system trends, drivers, and processes and their interactions to anticipate global thresholds and risks, (2) Global Sustainable Development: Increasing knowledge for sustainable, secure, and fair stewardship of biodiversity, food, water, health, energy, materials, and other ecosystem services, and (3) Transformations towards Sustainability: Understanding transformation processes and options, assessing how these relate to human values, emerging technologies and social and economic development pathways, and evaluating strategies for governing and managing the global environment across sectors and scales.

Land Surface Remote Sensing: Environment and Risks explores the use of remote sensing in applications concerning the environment, including desertification and monitoring deforestation and forest fires. The first chapter covers the characterization of aerosols and gases by passive remote sensing. The next chapter presents the correlation of optical images for quantifying the deformation of the Earth's surface and geomorphological processes. The third chapter is examines remote sensing applications in the mining environment. The fourth chapter depicts the strong potential of radar imagery for volcanology and urban and mining subsidence studies. The next two chapters deal respectively with the use of remote sensing in locust control and the contribution of remote sensing to the epidemiology of infectious diseases. In the last ten years, spatial observation of the Earth-particularly continental surfaces-has expanded considerably with the launch of increasing numbers of satellites covering various applications (hydrology, biosphere, flow of surface, snow, ice, landslide, floods). This has paved the way for an explosion in the use of remote sensing data. This book offers essential coverage of space-based observation techniques for continental surfaces. The authors explore major applications and provide a corresponding detailed chapter for the physical principles, physics of measurement, and data processing requirements for each technique, bringing you up-to-date descriptions of techniques used by leading scientists in the field of remote sensing and Earth observation.

Being essential to the survival of civilisations, rivers run through mythology - think of ancient Egypt - and religion - think of the Ganges and Hinduism. And they continue to inspire writers and artists - think of Mark Twain's Mississippi and John Steinbeck's Salinas. From the Ganges rising in the Himalayas to the Nile Delta, from the Amazon rainforest to the Bow River flowing out of the Rocky Mountains, from the Rhine to the Rhone, Yangtze to the Mekong, Danube to the Volga to the Ebro, Rivers explores the grandest and most interesting rivers around the world. Arranged by continent, the book reveals the fascinating stories of how rivers have supported and shaped civilisations, the significance that rivers have gained in religion and myth, the battles that have been fought over them, the borders that they have marked, and how rivers have altered their courses, thus changing lives and livelihoods. Illustrated with more than 200 spectacular colour photographs supported by expert captions, Rivers is a fascinating journey from the mountains to the sea.