This book provides a practical guide to applying soft-computing methods to interpret geophysical data. It discusses the design of neural networks with Matlab for geophysical data, as well as fuzzy logic and neuro-fuzzy concepts and their applications. In addition, it describes genetic algorithms for the automatic and/or intelligent processing and interpretation of geophysical data.

The Angry Earth explores how various cultures in different historical moments have responded to calamity, offering insight into the complex relationship between societies and their environments. From hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes to oil spills and nuclear accidents, disasters triggered by both natural and technological hazards have become increasingly frequent and destructive across the planet. Through case studies drawn from around the globe the contributors to this volume examine issues ranging from the social and political factors that set the stage for disaster, to the cultural processes experienced by survivors, to the long-term impact of disasters on culture and society. In the second edition, each chapter has been updated with a postscript to reflect on recent developments in the field. There is also new material on key present-day topics including epidemics, drought, non-governmental organizations, and displacement and resettlement. This book demonstrates the relevance of studying disaster from an anthropological perspective and is a valuable resource not only for anthropologists but for other fields concerned with education, policy and practice.

This book describes essential concepts of, and the status quo in, the field of ionospheric space weather. It explains why our society on planet Earth and moving outwards into space cannot work safely, function efficiently, or progress steadily without committed and comprehensive research initiatives addressing space weather. These initiatives must provide space environment specifications, warnings, and forecasts, all of which need to be timely, accurate and reliable. Cause and effect models of the Earth's ionosphere are discussed in terms of the spatial and temporal dimensions of background variability, storms, gradients, irregularities, and waves in both current and long-term research activities. Starting from dynamic processes on the Sun, in the interplanetary medium, and in the Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere, the text focuses on the dominant features of the plasma medium under normal and extreme conditions over the European zone during the last few Solar Cycles. One of the book's most unique features is a series of fundamental examples that offer profound insights into ionospheric climate and weather. Various approaches for acquiring and disseminating the necessary data and forecasting analyses are discussed, and interesting analogies are observed between terrestrial and space weather - both of which could produce lasting social consequences, with not only academic but also concrete economic implications. The book's primary goal is to foster the development of ionospheric space weather products and services that are capable of satisfying the ever-growing demand for space-based technology, and are ready for the society of the not-so-distant future.

This handbook describes the broad aspects of risk management involving scientific policy judgment, uncertainty analysis, perception considerations, statistical insights, and strategic thinking. This book presents all the important concepts to enable the reader to "see the big picture." This ability is extremely important - it allows the decision maker or strategic environmental planner to understand and cope with a wide variety of complex and interlinked pieces of information and data. The text presents environmental problems and, whenever applicable, the methodology required to reach a successful solution. Decisions and policies are examined. The book covers numerous objective and subjective components of environmental risk decision making. It details quantitative and comparative risk, and investigates the cost and feasibility of different decisions. Social pressures, safety, and political, religious, ethical, and psychological issues are addressed. How to evaluate the potential impact on the quality of life also is discussed. Any company doing risk assessment, risk management, or risk communication, as well as those doing environmental decision making will find this reference to be invaluable. It is also suitable as a text for courses in environmental management, environmental science, and risk assessment in the areas of risk management and strategic environmental planning.

These Proceedings present selected research papers from CSNC2016, held during 18th-20th May in Changsha, China. The theme of CSNC2016 is Smart Sensing, Smart Perception. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 12 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2016, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

Space weather is one of the most significant natural hazards to human life and health. Conditions of the sun and in the solar wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems. If conditions in the space environment are adverse, they can cause disruption of satellite operations, communications, navigation, and electric power distribution grids, leading to a variety of socioeconomic losses. This book provides an overview of our current knowledge and theoretical understanding of space weather formation and covers all major topics of this phenomena, from the sun to the Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere, thus providing a fully updated review of this rapidly advancing field. The book brings together an outstanding team of internationally recognised contributors to cover topics such as solar wind, the earth's magnetic field, radiation belts, the aurora, spacecraft charging, orbital drag and GPS.

Building on the success of T.J.T. Spanos's previous book The Thermophysics of Porous Media, The Physics of Composite and Porous Media explains non-linear field theory that describes how physical processes occur in the earth. It describes physical processes associated with the interaction of the various phases at the macroscale (the scale at which continuum equations are established) and how these interactions give rise to additional physical processes at the megascale (the scale orders of magnitude larger at which a continuum description may once again be established). Details are also given on how experimental, numerical and theoretical work on this subject fits together. This book will be of interest to graduate students and academic researchers working on understanding the physical process in the earth, in addition to those working in the oil and hydrogeology industries.

This book collects the papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Risk Analysis and Crisis Response (RACR-2019) held in Athens, Greece, on October 15-19, 2019. The overall theme of the seventh international conference on risk analysis and crisis response is Risk Analysis Based on Data and Crisis Response Beyond Knowledge, highlighting science and technology to improve risk analysis capabilities and to optimize crisis response strategy. This book contains primarily research articles of risk issues. Underlying topics include natural hazards and major (chemical) accidents prevention, disaster risk reduction and society resilience, information and communication technologies safety and cybersecurity, modern trends in crisis management, energy and resources security, critical infrastructure, nanotechnology safety and others. All topics include aspects of multidisciplinarity and complexity of safety in education and research. The book should be valuable to professors, engineers, officials, businessmen and graduate students in risk analysis and risk management.

Originally published in 1983, Interpretations of Calamity provides a provocative critique of the 'dominant view' of research into natural hazards. Throughout the world, there are now many people professionally engaged in the mitigation and control of risks & hazards, and the impact of continuing economic development will ensure that they are fully employed. There is a wealth of perspectives in the book, including weather and wheat yields in the Soviet Union and Canada, an historical view of underdevelopment and hazards in Ireland and the impact of a response to drought in southern Africa, the Sahel and the Great Plains of the USA. The book reflects the major themes of hazards in the context of economic development and social change. Most of the case studies are from the rural and agriculture scene. This book provides a unique view of the vital importance of food production and of the considerable, and sometimes calamitous, impact that frost, flood, storm and drought have on the wellbeing of millions of people and on the stability of the international economic system.

A wide-ranging compilation of techniques, Extrapolation Practice for Ecotoxicological Effect Characterization of Chemicals describes methods of extrapolation in the framework of ecological risk assessment. The book, informally known as EXPECT, identifies data needs and situations where these extrapolations can be most usefully applied, making it a practical guide to the application of extrapolation procedures. It focuses on the extrapolation of chemical effects and covers the extrapolation of exposures in the context of interactions between toxicants and the matrix.

Given the essential role that primary producers play in aquatic ecosystems, it is imperative that the potential risk of pesticides to the structure and functioning of aquatic plants is adequately assessed. An integration of regulatory and research information from key specialists in the area of environmental regulation, Aquatic Macrophyte Risk Assessment for Pesticides provides a state-of-the-art guide to ecotoxicological risk assessment. Written by well-known experts in the field of aquatic risk assessment, this book is a practical reference for the assessment of the risk of pesticides with herbicidal activity to aquatic macrophytes. The book supplies a concise, coherent, and science-based view from influential regulators, academics, and industry scientists. They address the selection of additional species, critical regulatory endpoints, and assessing the risk of plant protection products to aquatic macrophytes. They also present a clear description of key issues in macrophyte risk assessment, information on macrophyte test methods, suitable measurement endpoints, and data evaluation and interpretation. Filled with recommendations distilled from existing regulatory experiences of aquatic macrophyte risk assessment, the book includes case studies to identify issues, data gaps, and inadequacies in study design. It also identifies improvements to risk assessment that could be implemented immediately and those for which further research is needed. An authoritative resource, the book points the way to an improved approach to aquatic macrophyte risk assessment.

This book offers an overview of solar physics with a focus on solar activity, particularly the activity cycle. It is known that solar activity varies periodically, but there are also phases of intermittency, such as the Maunder minimum, during which solar activity is very low or high over several decades. The book provides a brief introduction to chaos theory and investigates solar activity in terms of its chaotic behavior. It also discusses how intermittent phases of solar activity have affected and can affect Earth's climate and long-term space weather, and reviews the underlying theories relating to the solar dynamo mechanism. Furthermore, each chapter includes references to scientific literature (review articles and papers) so that readers can delve deeper into the subjects covered. This richly illustrated book will appeal to a wide readership, and is also useful as a textbook for courses in solar physics and astrophysics.

These three works cover the entire field of formation evaluation, from basic concepts and theories, through standard methods used by the petroleum industry, on to new and exciting applications in environmental science and engineering, hydrogeology, and other fields. Designed to be used individually or as a set, these volumes represent the first comprehensive assessment of all exploration methodologies. No other books offer the breadth of information and range of applications available in this set. The first volume, Introduction to Geophysical Formation Evaluation, is the perfect introductory reference for environmental professionals without previous training in the field. It explains the fundamentals of geophysical exploration and analysis, illuminates the underlying theories, and offers practical guidance on how to use the available methodologies. General information on material behavior, porosity, tortuosity, permeability, cores, resistivity, radioactivity, and more provides a solid foundation for more advanced studies. The second volume, Standard Methods of Geophysical Formation Evaluation builds on the basic precepts presented in the first work but can be used alone as a self-contained reference. It covers all the petroleum-oriented standard methods which, until recently, have comprised the majority of applications of geophysical formation evaluation. It also points out non-hydrocarbon uses of petroleum methods. This volume provides complete practical information and instructions on using the standard exploration and evaluation methods. It presents comprehensive, painstakingly detailed instructions for resistivity, radiation, and acoustic methods. The third volume, Non-Hydrocarbon Methods of Geophysical Formation Evaluation, discusses uses of formation evaluation in environmental science and engineering, hydrogeology, and other fields outside the petroleum industry, and demonstrates how the standard methods can be adapted to these non-hydrocarbon purpos

Market: Researchers in solid earth geophysics and planetary geophysics. This book is a record of the one-day symposium organized by the Space Policy Institute of the George Washington University's Elliot School of International Affairs, in cooperation with NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth. The meeting provided an authoritative overview of the progress that had been made to date in the study of Earth from space and identified the steps being taken to ensure that future space-based Earth observation missions make as great a scientific contribution as possible in support of the Earth system science concept.

This book integrates concepts from physical acoustics with those from linear viscoelasticity and fractional linear viscoelasticity. Compressional waves and shear waves in applications such as medical ultrasound, elastography, and sediment acoustics often follow power law attenuation and dispersion laws that cannot be described with classical viscous and relaxation models. This is accompanied by temporal power laws rather than the temporal exponential responses of classical models. The book starts by reformulating the classical models of acoustics in terms of standard models from linear elasticity. Then, non-classical loss models that follow power laws and which are expressed via convolution models and fractional derivatives are covered in depth. In addition, parallels are drawn to electromagnetic waves in complex dielectric media. The book also contains historical vignettes and important side notes about the validity of central questions. While addressed primarily to physicists and engineers working in the field of acoustics, this expert monograph will also be of interest to mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and geophysicists.

Geophysical and Astrophysical Convection collects important papers from an international group of the world's foremost researchers in geophysical and astrophysical convection to present a concise overview of recent thinking in the field. Topics include: Atmospheric convection, solar and stellar convection, unsteady non-penetrative thermal convection, astrophysical convection and dynamos, dynamics of cumulus entertainment, turbulent convection: helical buoyant convection, transport phenomena, potential vorticity, rotating convective turbulence, and the modeling and simulation various types of convection and turbulence.

Fully updated and expanded into two volumes, the new edition of Groundwater Contamination explains in a comprehensive way the sources for groundwater contamination, the regulations governing it, and the technologies for abating it. This volume discusses aquifer management and strategies for stormwater control and groundwater restoration. A number of case histories on site analysis and remediation based on DOE and state documents are included. Among the many new features of this edition are a full discussion of risk assessment, the preparation of groundwater protection plans, and references linking the text to over 2,300 water-related Web sites.

Despite the esteemed nature of gold in society, evidence of adverse ecotoxicological effects and risk to human health in various mining and extraction techniques has generated increasing interest in the biological and environmental implications of gold. Biogeochemical, Health, and Ecotoxicological Perspectives on Gold and Gold Mining is the first comprehensive book to evaluate the effect of gold production and use on human health as well as the environmental impact of gold mining and extraction. Dr. Ronald Eisler, a well-known senior research biologist and expert in the chemical and biological effects of various compounds on wildlife, provides a thorough risk assessment of gold, including its geology and sources and physical, chemical, and metabolic properties. The author documents gold concentrations and field collections of abiotic materials and biota and presents research on the lethal and sublethal effects of gold on plants and animals. Supported by case histories, the book examines health risks in gold miners, human sensitivity to jewelry and dental implants, and medicinal uses. It uses examples in several countries to thoroughly explore the environmental effects of gold extraction, including tailings disposal, acid mine drainage, cyanide, arsenic, and mercury contamination, water management issues, and abandoned mines. Unlike traditional risk assessments, the author also takes into account social, political, economic, medicinal, and psychological variables for a more complete perspective on gold's impact on health and the environment. Biogeochemical, Health, and Ecotoxicological Perspectives on Gold and Gold Mining concludes with a discussion on mining legislation, safety, and procedures.

Although upwards of 50,000 Environmental Assessments (EA) are prepared annually, the focus of the National Environmental Policy Acts (NEPA) Regulations is clearly on defining requirements for preparing environmental impact statements. Surprisingly, until now, there has been no authoritative and comprehensive guide on how to prepare Environmental Assessments (EAs). Effective Environmental Assessments: How to Manage and Prepare NEPA EAs fills that gap. Authored by one of the nations leading experts, and recipient of the President's Award for Outstanding Performance by the National Association of Environmental Professionals, the book provides you with de facto direction and best professionals standards for preparing publicly defensible EAs. The result is an indispensable source of practical information. No other book available come close to providing the wealth of information provided in Effective Environmental Assessments: How to Manage and Prepare NEPA EAs.

Love Canal. Exxon Valdez. Times Beach. Sacramento River Spill. Amoco Cadiz. Seveso. Every area of the world has been affected by improper waste disposal and chemical spills. Common hazardous waste sites include abandoned warehouses, manufacturing facilities, processing plants, and landfills. These sites poison the land and contaminate groundwater and drinking water. A sequel to the bestselling Ecological Risk Assessment, Ecological Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites focuses on how to perform ecological risk assessments for Superfund sites and locations contaminated by improper disposal of wastes, or chemical spills. It integrates the authors' extensive experience in assessing ecological risks at U.S. government sites with techniques and examples from assessments performed by others. Conducting an ecological risk assessment on a contaminated site provides the information needed to make decisions concerning site remediation. The first rule of good risk assessment is "don't do anything stupid". With the practical preparation you get from Ecological Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites you won't.

The collapse of the Soviet Union has seen the emergence of its unprecedentedly comprehensive global secret military mapping project and the commercial availability of a vast number of detailed topographic maps and city plans at several scales. This thesis provides an in-depth examination of the series of over 2,000 large-scale city plans produced in secret by the Military Topographic Directorate ( ) of the General Staff between the end of the Second World War and the collapse of the USSR in 1991. After positioning the series in its historical context, the nature and content of the plans are examined in detail. A poststructuralist perspective introduces possibilities to utilise and apply the maps in new contexts, which this thesis facilitates by providing a systematic, empirical analysis of the Soviet map symbology at 1:10,000 and 1:25,000, using new translations of production manuals and a sample of the city plans. A comparative analysis with the current OpenStreetMap symbology indicates scope for Soviet mapping to be used as a valuable supplementary topographic resource in a variety of existing and future global mapping initiatives, including humanitarian crisis mapping. This leads to a conclusion that the relevance and value of Soviet military maps endure in modern applications, both as a source of data and as a means of overcoming contemporary cartographic challenges relating to symbology, design and the handling of large datasets.

To this day, there is a great amount of controversy about where, when and how the so-called supercontinents--Pangea, Godwana, Rodinia, and Columbia--were made and broken. Continents and Supercontinents frames that controversy by giving all the necessary background on how continental crust is formed, modified, and destroyed, and what forces move plates. It also discusses how these processes affect the composition of seawater, climate, and the evolution of life.
Rogers and Santosh begin with a survey of plate tectonics, and go on to describe the composition, production, and destruction of continental and oceanic crust, and show that cratons or assemblies of cratons became the first true continents, approximately one billion years after the earliest continental crust evolved. The middle part of the book concentrates on supercontinents, beginning with a discussion of types of orogenic belts, distinguishing those that formed by closure of an ocean basin within the belt and those that formed by intracontinental deformation caused by stresses generated elsewhere. This information permits discrimination between models of supercontinent formation by accretion of numerous small terranes and by reorganization of large old continental blocks.
This background leads to a description of the assembly and fragmentation of supercontinents throughout earth history. The record is most difficult to interpret for the oldest supercontinent, Columbia, and also controversial for Rodinia, the next youngest supercontinent. The configurations and pattern of breakup of Gondwana and Pangea are well known, but some aspects of their assembly are unclear. The book also briefly describes the histories ofcontinents after the breakup of Pangea, and discusses how changes in the composition of seawater, climate, and life may have been affected by the sizes and locations of continents and supercontinents.

One of the fundamental goals of earth system science research is to adopt a more holistic view of the earth as a 'system' comprising different domains. The Society of Earth Scientists has brought out this multidisciplinary publication to emphasize the need of an integrated approach to understand the Earth system. It focuses on natural disasters and, in particular, on climate change and its effects in Asia and understanding the significance of these developments within the context of the paleo-climatic record. The later sections of the book then focus on other types of natural disasters as well as those induced by human interaction with our environment.

Genetic engineering suggests new avenues for constructing useful products, but it also poses hazards to the health of the environment and the public. Delineating those hazards is complicated, difficult, and important at every level of risk assessment and risk management decision-making. Risk assessment and risk management may be further complicated by the need to discover more detailed information than is usually available. Genetically Engineered Organisms: Assessing Environmental and Human Health Effects gives credence to good science and to the notion that we do not have to argue about the ecological and human health effects of genetic engineering. Instead, it supports the position that we can undertake the painstaking science necessary to identify and understand those effects. Written by researchers who have done cutting edge research in disciplines such as botany, entomology, plant pathology, and other agricultural and environmental sciences, this book elaborates critical research on pollen movement, spread of transgenes in natural communities, fitness effects, resistance development, and unpredicted impacts on target and non-target organisms. These topics are explored in contexts ranging from Bt corn events and viral resistant oats to transgenic salmon and altered malarial vectors. Many chapters address theoretical and informational gaps that research presents to questions of biosafety, and some offer historical insights into factors that may affect risk assessment and risk management decision-making at the community, national, and international levels.

This book describes numerical simulations of collisions between asteroids, based on a unique numerical code developed by the author. The code accurately solves the elastic dynamic equations and describes the effects of fracture and friction, which makes it possible to investigate the shapes of impact outcomes produced by asteroid collisions and subsequent gravitational accumulation of fragments. The author parallelizes the code with high parallelization efficiency; accordingly, it can be used to conduct high-resolution simulations with the aid of supercomputers and clarify the shapes of small remnants produced through the catastrophic destruction of asteroids. The author demonstrates that flat asteroids can only be produced by impacts involving objects with similar mass and low velocity, which suggests that the flat asteroids in our solar system were created in the planet formation era and have kept their shapes until today. The author also shows that asteroid collisions under certain conditions can produce the extremely elongated shape of an interstellar minor body, 1I/'Oumuamua. In brief, the book offers a comprehensive investigation of asteroid impacts and shapes, making it a uniquely valuable resource.