Urbanisation and climate change are among the major challenges for sustainable development in Africa. The overall aim of this book is to present innovative approaches to vulnerability analysis and for enhancing the resilience of African cities against climate change-induced risks. Locally adapted IPCC climate change scenarios, which also consider possible changes in urban population, have been developed. Innovative strategies to land use and spatial planning are proposed that seek synergies between the adaptation to climate change and the need to solve social problems. Furthermore, the book explores the role of governance in successfully coping with climate-induced risks in urban areas. The book is unique in that it combines: a top-down perspective of climate change modeling with a bottom-up perspective of vulnerability assessment; quantitative approaches from engineering sciences and qualitative approaches of the social sciences; a novel multi-risk modeling methodology; and strategic approaches to urban and green infrastructure planning with neighborhood perspectives of adaptation.

This book contributes to the current discussion on global environmental changes by discussing modifications in marine ecosystems related to global climate changes. In marine ecosystems, rising atmospheric CO2 and climate changes are associated with shifts in temperature, circulation, stratification, nutrient input, oxygen concentration and ocean acidification, which have significant biological effects on a regional and global scale. Knowing how these changes affect the distribution and abundance of plankton in the ocean currents is crucial to our understanding of how climate change impacts the marine environment. Ocean temperatures, weather and climatic changes greatly influence the amount and location of nutrients in the water column. If temperatures and currents change, the plankton production cycle may not coincide with the reproduction cycle of fish. The above changes are closely related to the changes in radiative forcing, which initiate feedback mechanisms like changes in surface temperature, circulation, and atmospheric chemistry.

This collected volume deals with emerging issues related to climate variation, climate change and adaptation technologies, with a special focus on Latin American countries. Presenting a variety of adaptation strategies and projects currently being undertaken and implemented, the book showcases how Latin American nations are struggling to meet the challenges of climate change. Latin America as a whole and Central America in particular is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world and is severely affected by recurrent extreme climate-related events. This volume documents and analyzes the main challenges and lessons learned, serving to disseminate knowledge beyond the region and enhance international research and policy cooperation.

This book focuses on an important technology for mineralizing and utilizing CO2 instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. CO2 mineralization and utilization demonstrated in the waste-to-resource supply chain can "reduce carbon dependency, promote resource and energy efficiency, and lessen environmental quality degradation," thereby reducing environmental risks and increasing economic benefits towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In this book, comprehensive information on CO2 mineralization and utilization via accelerated carbonation technology from theoretical and practical considerations was presented in 20 Chapters. It first introduces the concept of the carbon cycle from the thermodynamic point of view and then discusses principles and applications regarding environmental impact assessment of carbon capture, storage and utilization technologies. After that, it describes the theoretical and practical considerations for "Accelerated Carbonation (Mineralization)" including analytical methods, and systematically presents the carbonation mechanism and modeling (process chemistry, reaction kinetics and mass transfer) and system analysis (design and analysis of experiments, life cycle assessment and cost benefit analysis). It then provides physico-chemical properties of different types of feedstock for CO2 mineralization and then explores the valorization of carbonated products as green materials. Lastly, an integral approach for waste treatment and resource recovery is introduced, and the carbonation system is critically assessed and optimized based on engineering, environmental, and economic (3E) analysis. The book is a valuable resource for readers who take scientific and practical interests in the current and future Accelerated Carbonation Technology for CO2 Mineralization and Utilization.

There are significant pressures from climate change and air pollution that forests currently face. This book aims to increase understanding of the state and potential of forest ecosystems to mitigate and adapt to climate change in a polluted environment. Itreconciles process-oriented research, long-term monitoring and applied modeling through comprehensive forest ecosystem research. Furthermore, it introduces "forest super sites for research for integrating soil, plant and atmospheric sciences and monitoring. It also provides mechanistic and policy-oriented modeling with scientifically sound risk indications regarding atmospheric changes and ecosystem services.
Identifies current knowledge gaps and emerging research needsHighlights novel methodologies and integrated research conceptsAssesses ecological meaning of investigations and prioritizing research need"

This book gives a comprehensive presentation of our present understanding of the Earth's Hydrological cycle and the problems, consequences and impacts that go with this topic. Water is a central component in the Earth's system. It is indispensable for life on Earth in its present formand influences virtually every aspect of our planet's life support system. On relatively short time scales, atmospheric water vapor interacts with the atmospheric circulation and is crucial in forming the Earth's climate zones. Water vapor is the most powerful of the greenhouse gases and serves to enhance the tropospheric temperature. The dominant part of available water on Earth resides in the oceans. Parts are locked up in the land ice on Greenland and Antarctica and a smaller part is estimated to exist as groundwater. If all the ice over the land and all the glaciers were to melt, the sea level would rise by some 80 m. In comparison, the total amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is small; it amounts to 25 kg/m2, or the equivalent of 25 mm water for each column of air. Yet atmospheric water vapor is crucial for the Earth s energy balance. The book gives an up to date presentation of the present knowledge.Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 35, No. 3, 2014"

This book provides historical perspectives on the climate apprehensions of scientists and the general public from the Englightenment to the late twentieth century. Issues discussed include what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past; how privileged and authoritative positions on climate have been established; the paths by which we have arrived at our current state of knowledge and apprehension; and what a study of the past has to offer to the interdisciplinary investigation of environmental problems.

This book pursues a comprehensive approach so as to arrive at a better understanding of the implications of climate change on sustainable development, focusing on the perspective of water. Climate change is one of today’s most pressing global issues and will become increasingly important in the decades to come, as societies will feel its pervasive impacts in many aspects of their lives. Given that the majority of these climate change impacts will be felt through the medium of water, the book explores the interrelationships and inter-linkages between water, climate change and sustainable development.

This thesis presents research focusing on the improvement of high-resolution global black carbon (BC) emission inventory and application in assessing the population exposure to ambient BC. A particular focus of the thesis is on the construction of a high-resolution (both spatial and sectorial) fuel consumption database, which is used to develop the emission inventory of black carbon. Above all, the author updates the global emission inventory of black carbon, a resource subsequently used to study the atmospheric transport of black carbon over Asia with the help of a high-resolution nested model. The thesis demonstrates that spatial bias in fuel consumption and BC emissions can be reduced by means of the sub-national disaggregation approach. Using the inventory and nested model, ambient BC concentrations can be better validated against observations. Lastly, it provides a complete uncertainty analysis of global black carbon emissions, and this uncertainty is taken into account in the atmospheric modeling, helping to better understand the role of black carbon in regional and global air pollution.

Climate change is the main challenge facing developed countries in the 21st century. To what extent does this agenda converge with issues of poverty and social exclusion? Climate change and poverty offers a timely new perspective on the 'ecosocial' understanding of the causes and symptoms of, and solutions to, poverty and applies this to recent developments across a number of areas, including fuel poverty, food poverty, housing, transport and air pollution. Unlike any other publication, the book therefore establishes a new agenda for both environmental and social policies which has cross-national relevance. It will appeal to students in social policy, public policy, applied social studies and politics and will also be of interest to those studying international development, economics and geography

The book presents detailed case studies examining the Rhone Basin in the Canton Valais, Switzerland and the Aconcagua Basin in Valparaiso, Chile. In order to understand and assess the interplay of complex and interlinked environmental and socio-economic issues, the author looks beyond the technology, modelling, engineering and infrastructure associated with water resources management and climate change adaptation, to assess the decision-making environment within which water and adaptation policy and practices are devised and executed."

Climate Change and Social Movements is a riveting and thorough exploration of three important campaigns to influence climate change policy in the United Kingdom. The author delves deep into the campaigns and illuminates the way policymakers think about and respond to social movements.

This volume provides a comprehensive perspective on geomorphic approaches to management of lowland alluvial rivers in North America and Europe. Many lowland rivers have been heavily managed for flood control and navigation for decades or centuries, resulting in engineered channels and embanked floodplains with substantially altered sediment loads and geomorphic processes. Over the past decade, floodplain management of many lowland rivers has taken on new importance because of concerns about the potential for global environmental change to alter floodplain processes, necessitating revised management strategies that minimize flood risk while enhancing environmental attributes of floodplains influenced by local embankments and upstream dams. Recognition of the failure of old perspectives on river management and the need to enhance environmental sustainability has stimulated a new approach to river management. The manner that river restoration and integrated management are implemented, however, requires a case study approach that takes into account the impact of historic human impacts to the system, especially engineering. The river basins examined in this volume provide a representative coverage of the drainage of North America and Europe, taking into account a range of climatic and physiographic provinces. They include the 1) Sacramento (California, USA), 2) San Joaquin (California), 3) Missouri (Missouri, USA), 4) Red (Manitoba, Canada and Minnesota, USA), 5) Mississippi (Louisiana, USA), 6) Kissimmee (Florida, USA), 7) Ebro (Spain), 8) Rhone (France), 9) Rhine (Netherlands), 10) Danube (Romania), and 11) Volga (Russian Federation) Rivers. The case studies covered in these chapters span a range of fluvial modes of adjustment, including sediment, channel, hydrologic regime, floodplains, as well as ecosystem and environmental associations.

This book analyses the state of the natural environment and the causes of its degradation using the biosphere approach. Further, those issues that must be resolved immediately on the global level are identified following the ideas defined by V.I. Vernadsky, and new principles of Man-Nature interaction are pursued. The modern world currently faces three global trends inducing biosphere degradation and the aggravation of ecological hazards, namely: a) rapid and uncontrolled growth of human population on the Earth and insufficient natural resources to sustain it; (b) technogenesis development; and (c) global climate change and the aggravation of natural disasters. Ecological safety and military security are becoming the crucial conditions for the survival of modern civilization. To mitigate the ecological strain on the Earth, the technogenesis strategy should be changed and many other pressing issues must be resolved. These problems should be addressed using the biosphere approach, because the individual human being is the biosphere constituent, and his or her safety cannot be provided without maintaining the entire natural system on our planet.

New technologies and assessment methods create improved opportunities to monitor and predict the onset of natural disasters in the era of global warming. Researchers continue to evaluate the changes in weather patterns in order to better understand natural phenomena. Extreme Weather and Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources in the Dobrogea Region presents a descriptive environmental resource focused on a Romanian region affected by the changing climate. In discussing methods of assessment, monitoring, and prediction, the research included in this publication is an essential resource for policymakers, academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, technology developers, and government officials who wish to expand their research exposure to pertinent topics related to flooding and droughts due to climate change.

This edited volume gathers contributions focused on understanding the environment through the lens of Historical Archaeology. Pressing issues such as climate change, global warming, the Anthropocene and loss of biodiversity have pushed scholars from different areas to examine issues related to the causes, processes, and consequences of these phenomena. While traditional barriers between natural and social sciences have been torn down, these issues have gradually occupied a central place in the field of anthropology. As archaeology involves the transdisciplinary study of cultural and natural evidence related to the past, it is in a privileged position to discuss the historical depth of some of the processes related to environment that are deeply affecting the world today. This volume brings together substantial and comprehensive contributions to the understanding of the environment in a historical perspective along three lines of inquiry: Theoretical and methodological approaches to the environment in Historical Archaeology Studies on environmental Historical Archaeology Historical Archaeology and the Anthropocene Historical Archaeology and Environment will be of interest to researchers in both social and environmental sciences, working in different disciplines and research areas, such as archaeology, history, geography, anthropology, climate change studies, environmental analysis and sustainable development studies.

This is a unique book addressing the integration of risk methodology from various fields. It will stimulate intellectual debate and communication across disciplines, promote better risk management practices and contribute to the development of risk management methodologies. Individual chapters explain fundamental risk models and measurement, and address risk and security issues from diverse areas such as finance and insurance, the health sciences, life sciences, engineering and information science. Integrated Risk Sciences is an emerging discipline that considers risks in different fields, aiming at a common language, and at sharing and improving methods developed in different fields. Readers should have a Bachelor degree and have taken at least one basic university course in statistics and probability. The main goal of the book is to provide basic knowledge on risk and security in a common language; the authors have taken particular care to ensure that all content can readily be understood by doctoral students and researchers across disciplines. Each chapter provides simple case studies and examples, open research questions and discussion points, and a selected bibliography inviting readers to further study.

The most comprehensive and richest study undertaken so far of the factors and conditions that will determine the scope and range of shipping and shipping activities in Arctic waters now and in the future. Furthermore, it is the first study comparing the three Arctic transportation corridors, covering a variety of interacting and interdependent factors such as: - geopolitics, military affairs, global warming, sea ice melting, international economic trends, resources, competing modes of transportation, environmental challenges, logistics, ocean law and regulations, corporate governance, jurisdictional matters and rights of indigenous peoples, arctic cruise tourism and marine insurance.

Drawing on concepts in political economy, political ecology, justice theory, and critical development studies, the authors offer the first comprehensive, systematic exploration of the ways in which adaptation projects can produce unintended, undesirable results. This work is on the Global Policy: Next Generation list of six key books for understanding the politics of global climate change.

This important compendium deals with the primary world problems of global warming and the coming energy crisis. In alternating chapters, it lays out the nature of the two interrelated problems, and specifies the various economic considerations. Thus, it describes the coming shortfall of fossil fuel energy in detail and then presents the economic factors governing possible solutions.Written by two world renowned academics - a physicist who writes about the nature of the problem, and an economist who discusses various scenarios and solutions, this unique must-have book highlights the problem from the point of view of a scientist and an economist.

In tropical latitudes, monsoons trigger regimes of strong seasonal rainfall over the continents. Over the West African region, the rainfall has shown a strong variability from interannual to decadal time scales. The atmospheric response to global sea surface temperatures is the leading cause of rainfall variability in the West African Sahel. This thesis explores changes in the leading ocean forcing of Sahelian rainfall interannual variability. It anaylzes the dynamical mechanisms at work to explain the non-stationary sea surface temperature-forced response of anomalous rainfall. The underlying multidecadal sea surface temperature background is raised as a key factor that favors some interannual teleconnections and inhibits others. Results of this thesis are relevant for improving the seasonal predictability of summer rainfall in the Sahel.