This book presents the spatial and temporal dynamics of land use and land cover in the central Tibetan Plateau during the last two decades, based on various types of satellite data, long-term field investigation and GIS techniques. Further, it demonstrates how remote sensing can be used to map and characterize land use, land cover and their dynamic processes in mountainous regions, and to monitor and model relevant biophysical parameters. The Tibetan Plateau, the highest and largest plateau on the Earth and well known as "the roof of the world," is a huge mountainous area on the Eurasian continent and covers millions of square kilometers, with an average elevation of over 4000 m. After providing an overview of the background and an introduction to land use and land cover change, the book analyzes the current land use status, dynamic changes and spatial distribution patterns of different land-use types in the study area, using various types of remotely sensed data, digital elevation models and GIS spatial analysis methods to do so. In turn, it discusses the main driving forces, based on the main physical environment variables and socioeconomic data, and provides a future scenario analysis of land use change using a Markov chain model. Given its scope, it provides a valuable reference guide for researchers, scientists and graduate students working on environmental change in mountainous regions around the globe, and for practitioners working at government and non-government agencies.

Climate Change: Alternate Governance Policy for South Asia provides an assessment of climate change issues through the socioeconomic lens of one of the world's poorest, most populous regions. Although climate change is a global issue, localized solutions have become increasingly necessary to address political, economic and cultural factors in underdeveloped regions. Identifying successes, gaps and shortcomings in existing policies and regional laws relating to climate change, this book evaluates the sustainability of current practices, examining mitigation strategies and suggesting a comprehensive, innovative model of sustainable policies and governance strategy specific to the region. While the book approaches climate change, policy and mitigation from a regionally-focused standpoint, it has an underlying philosophy of Think Global, Act Local, making it universally applicable to anyone interested in climate change and its effects.

This book provides a unique and comprehensive assessment of the changes that have been taking place in the Himalayas. It describes in detail all the aspects of change, both natural and cultural, along with their implications, and suggests policy measures to help mitigate them. The book is divided into two major sections - on natural changes and cultural changes - and 11 chapters: an introduction, six addressing changes that concern natural aspects, and four exploring cultural changes and presenting the book's conclusions. The content is based on a study conducted using a participatory observation/empirical method. Time series data from secondary sources is also included, helping to analyze the various changes. The findings are presented in the form of color graphs, models, maps, photographs, and tables. The book offers a valuable resource for policymakers, and will prove equally useful for all other stakeholders, e.g. researchers, students and development agents.

The book principally addresses climate change and describes the remedial strategies for developing countries based on the 'Clean Development Mechanism' of the 'Kyoto Protocol'. It provides a very comprehensive account of the array of proposals and economic instruments devised by the international community - including the Joint Implementation and Emissions Trading initiatives of the Protocol - to abate global warming. The effects of other major atmospheric, land and water pollutants from industries and domestic sources are also covered.

This book systematically introduces readers to the framework of China's ETS pilots, exploring their design and operating process, the current state of the carbon market, and various barriers encountered. To do so, it deconstructs the Guangdong ETS, which is the largest and most representative of China's seven ETS pilots. The book subsequently describes and evaluates all seven pilots in terms of their efficiency, macro and micro effects, the method involved in the DEA model, the CGE model, and cost-benefit analysis. In turn, in the assessment section it demonstrates how some ETS pilots have failed to control carbon emissions due to inordinately high emissions quotas issued by the local government etc. Further, it argues that ETS should focus on those industries with large emissions and high mitigating potential for the time being, and then gradually expand the scale of its coverage. As China's national ETS is slated for launch on the basis of the lessons learned from the ETS pilots, the book offers a timely and valuable resource for all those who want to understand and forecast the development of China's ETS. It includes a wealth of descriptions and explanations of Chinese government policies involving carbon emissions control, making it a unique resource.

This book focuses on the role of higher education institutions in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges, contributing to the development of this fast-growing field. Further, it includes the results of empirical research and offers ideas regarding on-going and future research initiatives. The contributions also * showcase the research and projects on issues pertaining to climate change at universities from across the globe; * document and promote ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of research projects, especially successful initiatives and best practices; and * introduce methodological approaches and projects that offer a better understanding of climate change across society and economic sectors. The book is structured around two parts: lessons learned from climate change research, education, studies and projects. Each part focuses on mitigation and adaptation respectively, with many responses of the two modalities overlapping. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in the fields of environment, human geography, business and economics, as well as academics and students, as it presents education, communication and awareness-raising projects on matters related to climate change at universities in both industrialised and developing countries, often in cooperation with government bodies, NGOs and other stakeholders.

This book focuses on managing risks and building resilience to climate change, showcasing experiences from research, field projects and best practices to foster climate change adaptation in Eastern Europe that can be implemented elsewhere. Climate change affects countries in Eastern Europe, i.e. the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe in a variety of ways. Apart from severe floods, there are reports of decreasing water reserves in the southern regions, and of gradual changes in biodiversity and agricultural production. In the South Caucasus area, for instance, climate change models project a decline in precipitation and suggest that it will continue to become drier this century. Many Eastern European countries, especially the non-EU ones, have weak national climate policies, and transboundary collaborations, as well as limited public engagement in matters related to climate change. As a result, climate change poses a serious threat to their economic stability and development and to the sustainable development of the region. The above state of affairs illustrates the need for a better understanding of how climate change influences Eastern Europe, and for the identification of processes, methods and tools that may help the countries and the communities in the region to adapt. There is also a perceived need to showcase successful examples of how to cope with the social, economic and political problems posed by floods/droughts in the region, especially ways of increasing the resilience of agriculture systems and of communities. Addressing this need, the book presents papers written by scholars, social practitioners and members of government agencies involved in research and/or climate change projects in Eastern Europe.

Adapting to Climate Change in Europe: Exploring Sustainable Pathways - From Local Measures to Wider Policies is a scientific synthesis of a four-year project on adaptation activities in Europe. It combines scientific assessments with real-world case descriptions to present specific tools and methods. This book aims at ensuring sustainable solutions in adaptation to climate change. The challenge of adaptation is still at an early stage; this book fills relevant gaps in current knowledge on climate adaptation, providing a crucial set of tools to support effective decision-making. It acts as a guide to practitioners and decision-makers along different steps of on-going adaptation processes. Adapting to Climate Change in Europe contains methods and tools for improving stakeholder's participation and analyzing costs and benefits of different adaptation measures. It is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, and experts and policymakers working in climate change and adaptation.

This book provides the most recent understanding about climate change and its effects on agriculture in India. Further in-depth research is showcased regarding important allied sectors such as horticulture and fisheries, and examines the effect of climate change on different cereal crops. The individual chapters discuss the different mitigation strategies for climate change impacts and detail abiotic and biotic stresses in relation to climate change. The book provides an insight into environmentally safe and modern technologies approaches such as nanotechnology and utilization of underutilized crops under a changing climate. This book provides a solid foundation for the discussion of climate resilience in agricultural systems and the requirements to keep improving agricultural production. This book is an excellent resource for researchers, instructors, students in agriculture, horticulture and environmental science.

Macroeconomics of Climate Change in a Dualistic Economy: A Regional General Equilibrium Analysis generates significant, genuinely novel insights about dual economies and sustainable economic growth. These insights are generalize-able and applicable worldwide. The authors overcome existing limitations in general equilibrium modeling. By concentrating on tensions between green growth and dualism, they consider the global efforts against climate change and opposition by specific countries based on economic development needs. Using Turkey as their primary example, they address these two most discussed and difficult issues related to policy setting, blazing a path for those seeking an applied economic research framework to study such economic considerations.

This book identifies the challenges, solutions, and opportunities offered by smart energy grids (SEGs) with regard to the storage and regulation of diversified energy sources such as photovoltaic, wind, and ocean energy. It provides a detailed analysis of the stability and availability of renewable sources, and assesses relevant socioeconomic structures. The book also presents case studies to maximize readers’ understanding of energy grid management and optimization. Moreover, it offers guidelines on the design, implementation, and maintenance of the (SEG) for island countries.

When taxes are introduced on carbon and energy, and the revenue is used to reduce other taxes, will a positive effect be achieved both for the environment and for the economy? In 1990 Finland was the first country to introduce a tax on CO2. Later, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany and the UK followed suit with tax reforms that shifted taxation from labour to carbon and energy. Over the years, CO {2} and energy taxes have gradually been raised, so that in Europe taxes of more than 25 billion Euros a year have been shifted.
This book examines carbon-energy taxation in detail and looks at tax shifting programmes for lowering other taxes. It offers extensive analysis on the basis of historical data and seeks to answer important questions for policy-making, such as: What was the impact of tax shifting for economic performance and competitiveness? By how much were emissions of CO {2} reduced? Could energy-intensive industries cut further down on their fuel demand or did they loose market shares? To what extent was there "leakage" from Europe, so that production and CO {2} emissions were shifted to other countries or regions without CO {2} -abatement policy? The use of unique and original data, including sector-specific energy prices and taxes, as well as the use of advanced statistical techniques, such as co-integration analysis and panel-regression techniques along with the time-series estimated macro-economic model E3ME, make this a truly comprehensive volume.
On the basis of the lessons learned in Europe, this volume indicates how carbon-energy taxation could usefully be combined with emissions trading, and discusses implications for future international climate policy, including how the IPCC recommendations for a gradual escalation in carbon price could be accomplished while preventing carbon leakage.

This multidisciplinary work analyses challenges to sustainable development amidst rapidly changing climate in the world's largest delta - the Sundarbans. Empirical evidence unpacks grounded vulnerabilities and reveals their temporal socio-economic impacts. A novel concept of 'everyday disasters' is proposed - supported by data and photographic evidence - that contests institutional disaster definition. Then it uncovers how the geopolitics of ecological governance and its hegemonic discourse dominate local policies, which in turn fail to address local socio-ecological concerns, adaptation needs and development aspirations. Absence of local vocabularies, cognitive values and socio-cultural contexts along with spatially constricted, exclusionary, top-down techno-science approaches further escalate knowledge-action gaps. Deconstruction of multiscalar conflicts between the global rhetoric and transformative postcolonial geographies offers an ethical, Southern perspective of sustainability.

This important book lays bare the dangers of global warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions stemming from fossil fuel use, and proposes pathways toward mitigation. A discussion of the current main uses of fossil fuels acts as a basis for presenting viable, economically sound alternatives. The author outlines a clear, practical strategy for establishing a carbon-free future by deploying proven policy structures and technologies that are already commercially available.

This book encompasses the body of available scientific information on the notothenioid fish Pleuragramma antarctica commonly known as Antarctic silverfish. This plankton-feeder of the intermediate trophic level is the most abundant fish in the coastal regions of high Antarctica, and plays a pivotal ecological role as the main prey of top predators like seals, penguins, whales and Antarctic toothfish. Broad circum-polar distribution, a key role in the Antarctic shelf pelagic ecosystem, and adaptations makes understanding the species' likely response to environmental change relevant to foresee the potential responses at the local ecosystem level. Additionally, a detailed understanding of the abundance and trophic interactions of such a dominant keystone species is a vital element of informing the development of marine spatial planning and marine protected areas in the Antarctic continental shelf region. Experts in the field provide here unique insights into the evolutionary adaptation, eco-physiology, trophic ecology, reproductive and population ecology of the Antarctic silverfish and provide new clues about its vulnerability in facing the challenges of the ongoing environmental changes.

This book presents the preservation principles and the current environmental challenges relating to monitoring heritage sites and buildings under the effects of climate change. It provides a clear overview of conservation action levels and the importance of participation and cooperation between them, and discusses evaluation and management methods, thermal comfort for the common usages, and conceptual methods for enhancing the built heritage. The research presented employed the "Zoom In, Zoom Out" approach for monitoring the Syrian coastal heritage sites threatened by the direct and indirect effects of climate change. Lastly, the book establishes the basic principles and conservation strategies for preserving the coastal heritage sites and buildings. As such, it is a valuable reference resource for researchers, developers, architects, and conservators involved in protecting the architectural heritage in coastal areas. It can also be used as a guidebook on preserving and monitoring built heritage sites at both macro and micro levels.

This book maps extreme temperature increase under dangerous climate change scenarios in Brazil and their impacts on four key sectors: agriculture, health, biodiversity and energy. The book draws on a careful review of the literature and climate projections, including relative risk estimates. This synthesis summarizes the state-of-the-art knowledge and provides decision-makers with risk analysis tools, to be incorporated in public planning policy, in order to understand climate events which may occur and which may have significant consequences.

Changes in the planet's climate in recent years have led to significant impacts on natural resources and ecosystems. New strategies must be adopted in order to support the protection and continued development of numerous natural resources. Reconsidering the Impact of Climate Change on Global Water Supply, Use, and Management is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on the relationship between global climate changes and the planet's water ecosystems. Highlighting relevant environmental, social, and economic issues, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, policy makers, students, and practitioners interested in the impacts of climate change on global water resources.

This book studies the East Asian world-system and its dynastic cycles as they were influenced by climate and demographic change, diseases, the expansion of trade, and the rise of science and technology. By studying the history of East Asia until the beginning of the 20th century and offering a comparative perspective on East Asian countries, including China, Japan and Korea, it describes the historical evolution of the East Asian world-system as being the result of good or poor management of the respective populations and environments. Lastly, the book discusses how the East Asian regions have become integrated into a single world-system by a combination of trade, commerce, and military action. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars of history, sociology, political science and environmental studies, and to anyone interested in learning about the effects of climate change on the dynamic development of societies.