The Panama Canal is a 48 mile waterway located in the country of Panama that joins the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic. The conduit, essential to international trade as a bypass to the hazardous trade routes around South America, has been called one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It routinely has tens of thousands of ships pass through it every year, carrying over 300 million tons of cargo. The canal has shaved nearly 8,000 sailing miles off a trip between New York and San Francisco, even though traveling the canal itself can take between 8 to 10 hours. A canal that connects the east to the west, it ironically has a path that finds it travelers moving north and south, as well. In this book, James K. Wheaton looks at the history of the engineering marvels, and problems it faces to this day.

The Anthropocene refers to all societies' current era of environmental challenges. For the social sciences, the Anthropocene represents a historical "moment" with huge potential: it offers people new ways of considering the human condition, as well as how they interact with the rest of the living world and with the planet on all levels. At the turn of the 21st century, the idea of the Anthropocene burst onto the older, diverse and varied scene of risk studies. This "new geological era", which is entirely created by humanity, went on to revive our understanding of environmental issues, as well as the analysis of the social and political problems that constitute risk situations. Drawing together contributions from specialists in social sciences concerning risks and the environment, Risks and the Anthropocene explores the advantages that the idea of the Anthropocene can offer in understanding risks and their management, as well as the limitations it presents.

Maritime spaces are socially constructed by humans and refer to seas and islands, coasts, port cities and villages, as well as ships and other human-made marine structures. Social interaction with marine environments and living beings, e.g. in a symbolic, cultural or economic manner, has led to the emergence of spatial structures which affect the knowledge, beliefs, meanings and obstinately patterns. Those structures shape mutual expectations of human beings and form the perception, imagination, or memory of inhabitants of maritime spaces. They enable or restrict human action, construct people's everyday life, their norms and values, and are changeable. Contributors include: Jan Asmussen, Robert Bartlomiejski, Benjamin Bowles, Isabel Duarte, Eduardo Sarmento Ferreira, Rita Gracio, Marie C. Grasmeier, Karolina Izdebska, Seung Kuk Kim, Arkadiusz Kolodziej, Agnieszka Kolodziej-Durnas, Maciej Kowalewski, Urszula Kozlowska, Ulrike Kronfeld-Goharani, Rute Muchacho, Giacomo Orsini, Wlodzimierz Karol Pessel, Celia Quico, Harini Sivalingam, Joana Sousa, Frank Sowa, Nuno Cintra Torres, and Gunter Warsewa.

Examining the science of stream restoration, Rebecca Lave argues that the neoliberal emphasis on the privatization and commercialization of knowledge has fundamentally changed the way that science is funded, organized, and viewed in the United States. Stream restoration science and practice is in a startling state. The most widely respected expert in the field, Dave Rosgen, is a private consultant with relatively little formal scientific training. Since the mid-1990s, many academic and federal agency - based scientists have denounced Rosgen as a charlatan and a hack. Despite this, Rosgen's Natural Channel Design approach, classification system, and short-course series are not only accepted but are viewed as more legitimate than academically produced knowledge and training. Rosgen's methods are now promoted by federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as by resource agencies in dozens of states. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Lave demonstrates that the primary cause of Rosgen's success is neither the method nor the man but is instead the assignment of a new legitimacy to scientific claims developed outside the academy, concurrent with academic scientists' decreasing ability to defend their turf. What is at stake in the Rosgen wars, argues Lave, is not just the ecological health of our rivers and streams but the very future of environmental science.

The book seeks to comprehend how indigenous knowledge systems of local communities can be effectively used in disaster management of various types. A prime example is the 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, promoting indigenous environmental management knowledge and practices. Traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples includes information and insight that supplement conventional science and environmental observations, a comprehensive understanding of the environment, natural resources, culture, and human interactions with them which is not documented before. A great deal of this knowledge have been lost in translation. In this book, the authors attempt to keep a record of each and every traditional knowledge study of the indigenous communities in managing the disasters. The use of indigenous knowledge systems in disaster understanding and management is the primary focus of the chapters.   This book is organized into four major sections. The first part gives an overview and help in conceptualizing the different concepts of hazard and disaster perception and how response and adaptation are connected with it. This part also discusses the concept of the connection between hazard and sustainable development and how the understanding of risk reduction and resilience can happen with the help of indigenous knowledge, insights, and strategies. The second part of the book introduces the different approaches to disaster and risk management. It establishes how vulnerability influences the risk associated with a hazard and the responses can be both positive and negative in disaster management. The approaches of the indigenous communities in managing a disaster, their resilience, capacity building, and community-based preparedness will be the area of prime focus in this chapter. Part 3 of this book describes the concept of sustainability through indigenous knowledge and practice. The sole highlight of this chapter is the indigenous knowledge efficacies in disaster identification, risk reduction, climate risk management, and climate action. The last section of the book explores how to meet the gaps between local knowledge and policy formulation. It highlights how traditional knowledge of the indigenous communities can prove to be beneficial in developing a holistic regional-based policy framework which will be easily accepted by the target stakeholders since they will be more acquainted with the local strategies and methods. This section ends with an assessment and discussion of the gaps and future scopes in disaster risk reduction through integrating local knowledge and modern technologies.

Experienced author with an excellent reputation and publication track record. Wide ranging, advanced overview of the topic. Provides a broad ranging overview. Includes pedagogical features to facilitate further study. Freshly updated to include the latest developments including China's growing influence.