In the continued quest for increased economic benefits from our water resources, numerous structures and operating policies for controlling the river flow have been built and implemented. These structures and associated operating policies can facilitate navigation; they can provide greater quantities of reliable water supplies to meet agricultural, industrial and municipal water demands; they can generate hydroelectric power and energy; and they can provide increased flood protection, recreation, and other benefits. Over the past half-century we have converted many of our rivers into engineered waterways. These straightened, often periodically dredged, engineered rivers are complete with dikes, reservoirs, weirs, and diversion canals. All this engineering has enhanced economic development. However, as rivers and their floodplains become stressed from the excessive use and misuse of their resources, their contribution to economic development can be threatened. Evidence of economic and ecological degradation, especially in relatively large river systems such as the Danube, the Mississippi, the Rhine, and the Volga, has increased our appreciation of beneficial roles natural aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems play in water quantity and quality management. We have recognized the need to pay more attention to letting nature help us regulate water quantity and quality rather than working against nature and its variabilities and uncertainties. Today there are efforts underway in many developed river basins to 'de engineer' or return these straightened and controlled rivers to a more natural state."

This book examines the key aspects that will define future sustainable energy systems: biofuels, green nanomaterials and the production of bioethanol and bio-hydrogen from bio-waste. Bio-based fuels are the future energy carriers for internal combustion engines as they have lower environmental impact and higher efficiency. The book clearly illustrates the requirement for a unified engineering approach based on solid mathematical and engineering principles. Aside from the ecological advantages, support for sustainable energy can help the socioeconomic situation of developing countries by providing a consistent supply of new energy along with the generation of new job opportunities. The sustainable energy applications and existing contextual investigations provide useful guidance for the broad comprehension of the significance of sustainable energy. Technical topics discussed in the book include: - Thermochemical Conversion process; - Catalytic conversion process; - Rankine cycle; - Nanomaterials;

This book examines the policy and politics of two health risks, which have recently become prominent social issues in many countries. One is the issue of asbestos as an environmental risk to humans, and another is that of bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE), or mad cow disease as an animal disease, and of its variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) as a human food risk. Employing a set of analytical frameworks in political science, each case study explores how the issues emerged, agendas got set, alternatives were chosen, and policies were implemented. Through the analysis, it is examined how safety and public reassurance were pursued in the countries studied (Japan, the UK, France the USA, and Korea). Exploration of the successes and failures in their efforts discloses the key elements to successful health risk management.

As resource scarcity threatens and the economic gap between affluent and poorer nations continues to widen, conflict over natural resources is assuming critical dimensions. Mandel analyzes the causes and consequences of present tensions and offers case studies of five recent or ongoing resource conflicts illustrating major areas of confrontation and identifying the range of policy issues we need to confront. Synthesizing his findings, Mandel demonstrates the need for rethinking current policy and suggests alternative approaches that may help to reduce international conflict. The author first describes worldwide scarcity trends and trends in resource conflict and their relation to international conflict as a whole. He looks at the dynamics of resource competition, assessing the impact of scarcity, declining economic development, environmental awareness, resource interdependence, and other factors. The first case study, centering on the protection of an endangered species, examines the whaling confrontation that began in 1972. The oil crisis and the continuing conflict over fossil fuels is considered next. Other case studies focus on political coercion in the conflict over food; the scarcity of strategic minerals and competition to control them; and the conflict arising from nuclear pollution in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. The concluding chapter, dealing with policy implications, explains why prevailing attitudes toward resources are counterproductive, and suggests ways of working more effectively to minimize international resource conflict. Combining solid empirical analysis with a thorough understanding of environmental theory and comparative resource issues, Mandel's study willbe important reading for students and specialists concerned with resource policy, development, international relations, and conflict resolution.

Hundreds of millions of people live and work in forests across the world. A vital, yet largely unexamined, aspect of their lives are the issues and challenges of protecting and enhancing human health in forested areas and the unique relationship between the health of forests and the health of people. This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa. Part I is a set of synthesis chapters, addressing policy, public health, environmental conservation, and ecological perspectives on health and forests including women and child health, medicinal plants and viral diseases such as Ebola, SARS and Nipah Encephalitis. Part II takes a multi-lens approach to lead the reader to a more concrete and holistic understanding using case studies from around the world that cover issues as important as the links between HIV/AIDs and the forest sector and diet and health. Part III looks at the specific challenges to health care delivery in forested areas including remoteness and the integration of traditional medicine with modern health care. Generous use of boxes with specific examples add layers of depth to the analyses and the book concludes with a synthesis designed for use by practitioners and policymakers to work with forest dwellers to improve their health and their ecosystems. This book a vital addition to the knowledge base of all professionals, academics and students working on forests, natural resources management, health and development world-wide. Published with People and Plants International

Risk is a popular topic in many sciences - in natural, medical, statistical, engineering, social, economic and legal disciplines. Yet, no single discipline can grasp the full meaning of risk. Investigating risk requires a multidisciplinary approach. The authors, coming from two very different disciplinary traditions, meet this challenge by building bridges between the engineering, the statistical and the social science perspectives. The book provides a comprehensive, accessible and concise guide to risk assessment, management and governance. A basic pillar for the book is the risk governance framework proposed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC). This framework offers a comprehensive means of integrating risk identification, assessment, management and communication. The authors develop and explain new insights and add substance to the various elements of the framework. The theoretical analysis is illustrated by several examples from different areas of applications.

Antimicrobial resistance is recognised among the world’s most challenging problems. Despite its global spread, Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa, is the most affected by this malaise. Poor living conditions and inadequate access to sanitation and potable water supplies are among contributing factors that have influenced a high disease burden on the continent, requiring extensive antimicrobials. Weak health systems and the absence of firm policies further aggravate the problem, as the use of antimicrobials is mostly unregulated. The increasing demand for animal protein to meet the starving populations’ demands has also influenced the use of these antimicrobials, including those banned on other continents, for food animal production. The ripple effect of indiscriminate use in humans and animals is the massive discharge of antimicrobials, their residues, antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms and their associated genes into the environment.  This 14-chapter unique masterpiece presents the AMR problem in African, addressing the various compartments of the One Health – humans, animals, and the environment, to illustrate the need for concerted efforts in the fight against AMR, especially in Africa. Authors from the four cardinal points present diverse aspects of AMR in Africa, starting with behavioural and social drivers of AMR in Africa. Antimicrobial stewardship in an African context is also discussed. AMR in humans is presented through studies on antibiotic-resistant neonates and nontyphoidal Salmonella infections and the clinical relevance of the genetics of viral resistance. Topics on AMR in mastitis, biosecurity in animal farming and the linkage between disinfectants and AMR are discussed. The environmental dimension of AMR is discussed, notably in the aquatic environment, and its implication for aquaculture and irrigation and using nanomaterials to treat polluted waters from such environments are highlighted. Finally, Africa’s rich floral diversity is portrayed as an eco-friendly and cost-effective approach to combat AMR. Hopefully, the work presented will spur greater collaboration between scientists, environmental, animal and human health practitioners, the general population, and policymakers to assimilate and implement the One Health approach to combating AMR, rather than working in silos on their various sectors

In 1989 the Dutch government published a National Environmental Policy Plan (Dutch abbreviation NMP). This NMP is based on the book Concern for Tomorrow. a national environmental survey by RIVM (the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection). A major conclusion of the RIVM study was that emissions of many pollutants had to be cut by 70 - 90 % in order to reach environmental quality goals. The government accepted the RIVM analysis and consequently ClUTent Dutch environmental policy aims at large reduction of pollutants. Another conclusion of the RIVM study was that such high reduction goals would not be easy to achieve by technological means alone, and that thus structural changes would be required. These changes could eventually lead to sustainable development, which now forms the major focus of Dutch government national environmental policy. This being so, the Dutch government requested that RIVM in subsequent issues of Concern for Tomorrow should investigate the options for sustainable development.

Praise for "AC/DC"

"You'll never look at your wall socket the same again."
--Evan Ratliff, coauthor, "Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World"

"From the twisted copper wires of electricity's early years McNichol spins a story buzzing with genius and fraud, ambition and infamy, hilarity and humiliation. It's a joy to read: a comic operetta of American industrial history, full of great men, small minds and an alarming number of dead dogs."
--Craig Stoltz, health editor, "Washington Post"

"Few writers explain technology as well as Tom McNichol. No one's as good at finding the humor in it."
--Jeffrey O'Brien, senior editor, "Wired" magazine

"A fascinating history of the battle that decided what comes through the wires when we flick a switch. A great story of how far people will go to prove they're 'right' - and make a buck."
--J. J. Yore, executive producer, public radio's Marketplace

"A tale of astonishing genius and greed, a perfect reflection of the competing forces that built corporate America. McNichol offers us a ringside seat at the birth of a superpower, and it's a bloody, messy, and altogether fascinating spectacle."
--Brooke Gladstone, cohost, NPR's "On the Media"

A Tradition in Transition presents an in-depth assessment of the century-old Wadi Laba indigenous spate irrigation system in Eritrea. This system has relied on earthern and brushwood structures and customary water rules to support subsistence livelihoods of the Wadi Laba communities for many years. The book presents original research, which analyzes the effectiveness of contemporary water laws and a new headwork in improving production and standard of living. It also compares the lack of success of these new approaches with traditional methods of water management.

Wetlands are complex and dynamic ecological systems incorporating two important, inter-linked components: hydrology and vegetation. Modelling wetland components and processes reveals the nature of wetland systems and helps to predict the effects of environmental change. The main goal of much current research is the construction of a vigorous and spatially-explicit model which describes the dynamics of wetland vegetation in relation to environmental variables, including hydrological regimes, sediment type and nutrient availability. Knowledge about ecological functions, environmental services and societal values associated with wetlands has increased rapidly. How to turn this knowledge into practical benefits for sustainable and integrated wetland management is a key question. Individual chapters address the ethics and sociology of wetlands, and the ecology, ecohydrology and conservation practice of a variety of landscapes and countries. It will be useful to students, teachers and scientists involved in wetland research and informative for the staff of governmental bodies and other organizations engaged in wetland management.

Recognizing the increasing importance of environmental issues, energy prices, material availability and efficiency and the difficulty of adequately managing these issues in traditional accounting systems, several companies all over the world have started implementing Environmental and Material Flow Cost Accounting (EMA and MFCA).

Environmental and Material Flow Costs Accounting explains and updates the approach developed for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSD/UNDESA) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and in addition includes experiences of several case studies and recent developments regarding EMA and MFCA in national statistics and ISO standardization."

With growing concern about the oceans and the resources of this realm has come a proliferation of international and national efforts aimed at protecting this environment. This volume constitutes the initial effort to reflect on the outcomes associated with the third Law of the Sea Conference and to assess how the reforms and changes brought on by this conference have performed.

The establishment of 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZa (TM)s) constitutes one of the most far-reaching distributional and institutional changes in the history of the world. They brought over 20 % of the worlda (TM)s oceans, a substantial proportion of its productivity, and 90 to 95 % of world fisheries under the national jurisdiction of coastal states. At this time, 145 states have ratified the Law of the Sea Convention and most have established EEZs. Some have established only a legal framework, while other countries have elaborated EEZ regimes. This volume focuses on the specific nature of the EEZ and the construction and evolution of institutions stemming from its introduction, specifically examining developments at local, national and international levels.

The analytical core of the volume focuses on the development of institutional arrangements for the management of living marine resources, occurring at different levels of social organization, that have developed from the introduction of the EEZs. The chapters cover case studies from both the north and south, in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. The case studies critically examine the impact of the EEZ regime on institutions at local, national, regional and international levels of social organization. The broad range of contributions by theauthors highlights the diversity of institutions and outcomes that have emerged from the implementation of the EEZs, providing a rich opportunity for comparative analysis. By doing so, we seek to address three broad questions:

-What is the nature of the institutions that coastal states have created within the framework provided by the EEZs?
-How has the creation of the EEZs affected the vertical interplay among institutions at different levels of social organisation (i.e., international, national, traditional and co-management regimes) and the horizontal interplay among institutions focused on different functional arenas (i.e., trade, environment and fisheries)?
-How has the development of EEZ-based regimes affected the fit of marine resource management institutions with biophysical systems?

Beyond the Biophysical provides a broad overview of agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) scholarship and practice that lies beyond the biophysical, emphasizing instead epistemological, cultural, and political foundations of NRM. The volume is oriented toward professionals with expertise in agriculture and natural resource management scholarship and practice, but who lack exposure to the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of critical theory, the anthropology of development, ecological anthropology, and other relevant scholarship. It therefore follows common standards of academic rigour, but minimizes the use of jargon, integrates detailed case studies with conceptual syntheses, and attempts to move from critique to concrete recommendations for scholarship and practice. The volume seeks to foster a more nuanced and responsible engagement with local communities and the natural world among NRM scholars and practitioners.

For a long time, resource conservationists have viewed environmental conservation as synonymous with wilderness and wildlife resources only, oblivious to the contributions made by cultural and heritage resources. However, cultural heritage resources in many parts of the developing world are gradually becoming key in social (e.g. communities' identities and museums), economic (heritage tourism and eco-tourism), educational (curriculum development), civic (intergenerational awareness), and international resources management (e.g. UNESCO). In universities, African cultural heritage resources are facing a challenge of being brought into various academic discourses and syllabi in a rather reactive and/or haphazard approach, resulting in failure to fully address and research these resources' conservation needs to ensure that their use in multiple platforms and by various stakeholders is sustainable. This book seeks to place African cultural heritage studies and conservation practices within an international and modern world discourse of conservation by presenting its varied themes and topics that are important for the development of the wider field of cultural heritage studies and management.

This book highlights the relationship between the water sector and various other sectors in order to establish an improved understanding of the importance of water resources as an essential cross-cutting vector of socio-economic development. The book is both policy and practice oriented and is not constrained by existing definitions on water security. It includes actual experiences of policy, management, development and governance decisions taken within the water sector, and examples on how these have affected the energy and agricultural sectors as well as impacted the environment, and vice versa, as appropriate. It also discusses trade-offs, short and long-term implications, lessons learnt, and the way forward. The book includes case studies on cities, countries and regions such as Australia, China, Singapore, Central Asia, Morocco, Southern Africa, France, Latin America, Brazil and California.

As the National Park Service prepares for its centennial in 2016, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the role of philanthropy in national parks, with a focus on non-profit organizations known as friends groups and cooperating associations. Providing a historical review of partnerships through the lifetime of the NPS, up to a contemporary analysis of the legal and organizational framework under which non-profit philanthropic partners operate, Jacqueline Vaughn and Hanna J. Cortner explore the challenges the National Park Service faces in dealing with non-profit partners. Based on personal interviews with more than 50 non-profit leaders and National Park Service staff, financial data, and comprehensive site visits, Vaughn and Cortner offer a unique and informative view of the landscape in which philanthropy groups succeed - and sometimes fail.

Mitigation will not be sufficient for us to avoid climate change and we will need to adapt to its consequences. This book targets the development of adaptation policy in European countries with different relations between central and regional/local government.

This landmark study is the result of a collaborative research effort among the East-West Center and a group of institutions in China (Taipei), Japan, and Korea, in consultation with experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Electric Power Research Institute of California. The first project of its kind to mobilize senior power experts in the three major countries of Northeast Asia for cooperative electric future assessment, Electricity in Economic Development highlights the critical role of the electric power sector in influencing a nation's future industrial development and its energy supply-demand pattern in the post-oil-crisis era.

More than 2.6 billion people in the developing world lack access to safe water and sanitation service. The Millennium Development Goal's (MDG) target is to halve the number of people without access to a sustainable source of water supply and connection to a sewer network by 2015. That target is unlikely to be met. If there is anything that can be learnt from European experience it is that institutional reform occurs incrementally when politically enfranchised urban populations perceive a threat to their material well-being due to contamination of water sources.

The present work will discuss relevant theoretical frameworks and applications pertaining to enabling resilience within the risk, crisis and disaster management domain. The contributions to this book focus on resilience thinking along 4 broad themes: Urban Domain; Cyber Domain; Organizational/Social domain; and Socio-ecological domain. This book would serve as a valuable reference for courses on risk, crisis and disaster management, international development, social innovation and resilience. This will be of particular interest to those working in the risk, crisis and disaster management domain as it will provide valuable insights into enabling resilience. This book will be well positioned to inform disaster management professionals, policy makers and academics on strategies and perspectives regarding disaster resilience.

The dilemma facing Cyprus--that of limited water supplies (both in terms of quantity and quality) in the face of steadily increasing water demand, coupled with a fragmented institutional structure of the water sector--is characteristic of most arid and semi-arid countries all over the world. Another common characteristic of Cyprus is that the water management administrative boundaries there do not coincide with the hydrological ones, while the ongoing political problem of the island creates significant administration problems.

Geotechnologies and the Environment: Environmental Applications and Mana- ment presents an engaging and diverse array of physically-oriented GIScience applications that have been organized using four broad themes. While the book's themes are by no means mutually exclusive, Hoalst-Pullen and Patterson provide an elegant overview of the eld that frames the collection's subsequent thematic str- ture - Wilderness and Wildlife Response; Glaciers; Wetlands and Watersheds; and Human Health and the Environment. Over the course of the volume, the contrib- ing authors move beyond basic (and in some respects cliched) landscape ecology of land use change to explore human-environment dynamics heretofore not emp- sized in the applied literature. In doing so, the collection presents a compelling case for the importance of developing new physically-oriented GIScience applications that reside at the nexus of social and natural systems with the explicit intent of informing public policy and/or the decision making practices of resource managers. Individually, the chapters themselves are intentionally diverse. The diversity of the approaches, their spatial context, and emphases on management applications demonstrate the many ways in which geotechnologies can be used to address small and big problems in both developed and developing regions. The collection's int- nal coherence is derived - like the book series - from its explicit appeal to a wide variety of human-environment interactions with potential policy linkages.

We developed the first edition of this book because we perceived a need for a compilation on study design with application to studies of the ecology, conser- tion, and management of wildlife. We felt that the need for coverage of study design in one source was strong, and although a few books and monographs existed on some of the topics that we covered, no single work attempted to synthesize the many facets of wildlife study design. We decided to develop this second edition because our original goal - synthesis of study design - remains strong, and because we each gathered a substantial body of new material with which we could update and expand each chapter. Several of us also used the first edition as the basis for workshops and graduate teaching, which provided us with many valuable suggestions from readers on how to improve the text. In particular, Morrison received a detailed review from the graduate s- dents in his "Wildlife Study Design" course at Texas A&M University. We also paid heed to the reviews of the first edition that appeared in the literature.

The management of, and access to, water resources have been universally identified as a key aspect of poverty reduction, agriculture and food security and sustainable development in developing, transitional, and developed countries worldwide. Yet good "water governance," so eagerly sought, has in practice proven difficult to achieve. This book, edited and authored by leading authorities on water resource management, examines the recent changes in governance, institutions, economics, and policies of water, from a global point of view and a cross-country perspective, with special emphasis on African and Southern African case studies.The authors show that in recent years, water policies, institutions, and governance have shifted from technical, quantitative, supply-driven, centrally controlled management to more demand-sensitive, qualitative, decentralized, participatory, integrated approaches. Such a move also often supposes cost recovery principles, resource allocation among competing sectors, and privatization. In most developing countries, motivations for these changes have been increased resource scarcity, increased diversity of users and uses, urbanization, financial constraints and the need for sustainable development through renewed water management. Yet the creation and operation of new policies and legal frameworks often fall short of initial expectations since management transfer and decentralization processes, cost recovery principles and the emergence of new local organizations have proven difficult to implement. The book examines these issues through case studies at national, river basin, and local levels using accessible multidisciplinary approaches that integrate economics, institutional analysis, geography, and policy analysis. Ultimately the book untangles and presents best practices for policy and decision makers, governments and regulators, NGOs and user groups, farmers, water-supply companies, and researchers, and points towards how good water governance structures can be developed and implemented for the benefit of all.