This book offers a conceptual framework for the critical understanding of the present socio-environmental conflicts. It reflects on the evolution of subject and thought, a shift in environmental thinking triggered by the development of eco-territorial conflicts and the social responses given to the environmental question. Bringing together 40 years of the authors writing and research, the book explores the transition from ecological economics and historical materialism to ecological Marxism. It unpacks the forging of political ecology from value theory in political economy, to ecological distribution and ecologies of difference; a transition to an environmental rationality grounded in the ontology of diversity, a politics of difference and an ethics of otherness. This evolution in thinking gives consistency to a theoretical discourse able to respond to the territorial conflicts generated by the radicalization of the environmental question as a key social issue of our times. The book is a call to respond to the urgent challenge of reversing the tendency towards the entropic death of the planet and to building a sustainable world order.

Following a comprehensive overview by the editors, this volume's expert contributors provide detailed discussion of important legal, ecological and social issues associated with coastal resource management, as well as the most significant challenges confronting land use planners and resource managers in coastal communities. Using an interdisciplinary approach to perplexing questions surrounding the issue of development versus protection, the volume presents a broad approach to coastal issues involving private rights and public trust.Part I: The Law and Coastal Environments provides background information on the more recent federal and state lawsuits, statutes and regulations that impact coastal environments. In Part II: Ecological Consequences for Coastal Development, scientists discuss threats posed by elevated nitrogen levels and heavy metal contamination in coastal waters, followed by descriptions of the impact of development on habitats essential to estuarine-dependent fish and migratory shorebirds. In Part III: Private Use, Public Trust and Coastal Protection the authors explore ways to balance private use of the coast with public rights of access and preservation. They discuss the concept of stewardship by both public and private landowners, factors affecting environmental values in coastal communities, and facilitation of enlightened public policies for growth management and resource protection. Appropriate for courses pertaining to coastal ecology, coastal management or land-use planning, this book will also appeal to a diverse audience of economists, concerned citizens, environmental lawyers and policymakers.

This book provides a solid scientific basis for researchers, practitioners and students interested in the application of genetic principles to tropical forest ecology and management. It presents a concise overview of genetic variation, evolutionary processes and the human impact on forest genetic resources in the tropics. In addition, modern tools to assess genetic diversity patterns and the dynamics of genetic structures are introduced to the non-specialist reader.

This book offers an extended case study of the urban community of Bushwick, located in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The authors begin with a broad review of the history of Bushwick and Brooklyn, from before the earliest European settlements of the 1600s, through the 18th and 19th centuries and up the 1960s. Chapter Two begins by tracing the steep decline of the community, which culminated in catastrophic fires and looting in the wake of New York s electrical blackout of 1977 and goes on to describe the beginnings of urban planning and renewal efforts which launched the recovery of Bushwick in the 1980s to early 2000s. Chapter Three steps back from the immediacy of the community to discuss urban change from a theoretical perspective. The authors outline advances in sustainable urban planning and describe how these apply to Bushwick and the wider Brooklyn community.

Chapter Four offers a detailed examination of the intent and function of New York s community board planning system, known as the Charter 197-a program. In Chapter Five the authors examine the 197-a planning process and its application in the areas of Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Northeast Brooklyn; Brooklyn Downtown and in Southeast Brooklyn including Coney Island.The following chapter examines a number of innovative Bushwick high schools that offer practical experience in urban planning. Drawing the urban planning experiences together, the book concludes with a look at future directions in city renewal. Emphasis here is placed on sustainable urban planning and the lessons to be learned from the experience of Bushwick and Brooklyn.

The specifics of urban planning and renewal are illustrated with tables and figures. The details of planning are informed by an overarching sense of history, beginning with the dedication of the book to the memory of six Universalist writers associated with New York: Henry Thoreau, Helena Blavatsky, Henry George, Henry Miller, Arthur Miller and Walt Whitman. A rich trove of historical materials, ranging from family sketches to school rosters to rarely seen photographs, helps to keep the survey and analysis of urban planning grounded in the lives of Bushwick s residents, past, present and future."

This book presents a detailed analysis and synthesis of the processes affecting sediments fluxes from watershed to worldwide coastal systems. The volume provides a comprehensive overview and constitutes a systematic description of the response of coastal systems to global and local changes, like climate change, sea level, land use and land cover change. The case studies cover a sequence of coastal environments such as lagoons, bays, estuaries, deltas and beaches. Sediment Fluxes in Coastal Areas is designed for researchers, professionals and for course-use in hydrology, oceanography, geography, geology, geomorphology and environmental science.

This book presents relevant and timely endogenous procedures for addressing the challenge of transforming ideas into sustainable opportunities in Africa. It explores how Africa could be understood in the context of emerging global realities, providing alternative frameworks that will not just be participatory in conception and practice, but equally show a contextual workability for the varying aspects of the developmental enterprise in Africa. Despite having alternative and less cumbersome sources of funding, with commendable economic growth indices, and several economies among the fastest growing globally, African countries have been unable to transmute related opportunities into sustainable human development outcomes for majority of its citizenry. Over four rich sections the authors cover subjects ranging from environment and natural resource management, to governance, economy and sustainable development. The book continues with a section on Education and Human Development and a case study in transnationalism. The final section discusses crime, conflict and regional dynamics, including highly disputed topics such as forced migration and sex trade. This indispensable resource will be of great use to students and researches globally in fields such as sociology, anthropology, environmental studies, politics and economics with a focus on contemporary Africa, as well as to policy planners and human rights activists invested in the future development of Africa.

This book brings together information on road planning, location, design, construction and maintenance to support environmentally acceptable operations in tropical forests. It highlights the challenges of road operations in the tropics, includes techniques that have been shown to be successful, and discusses newer technologies. Numerical examples are included to provide clarity for interpreting graphs, procedures, and formulas.

Contemporary Human Geography shows what geographers actually do, how they conduct research, develop new insights, teach us about the world from a geographer's perspective, and apply their skills in a wide range of academic and professional pursuits. With each chapter organized by five themes (region, mobility, globalization, nature-culture, cultural landscape), Contemporary Human Geography introduces students to geography concepts through fascinating topics such as the distribution of college sports, the relationship of beauty pageants and cultural identity, texting and language modification, and more, continually reinforcing geographers' contributions to our understanding of how we live in a globalized, modern world. The authors frame this coverage using specific learning objectives to help students focus on essential concepts and prepare for class discussions, assignments, and exams. Contemporary Human Geography is now supported in Achieve, Macmillan's new online learning platform. Achieve is the culmination of years of development work put toward creating the most powerful online learning tool for Geography students. It houses all of our renowned assessments, multimedia assets, e-books, and instructor resources in a powerful new platform.

The Future of Arid Lands, edited by Gilbert White and published in 1956, comprised papers delivered at the "International Arid Lands Meetings" held in New Mexico in 1955. At these meetings, sponsored by UNESCO and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, experts considered the major issues then confronting the worlda (TM)s arid lands and developed a research agenda to address these issues.

The Future of Arid Lands a" Revisited, commissioned by UNESCO in 2005, reexamines this earlier work. Written by researchers from the University of Arizona, this volume first looks at the state of science in 1956 and attendant contemporary views of arid lands development. It then considers how scientific understanding of the processes governing arid lands has since evolved, before extracting lessons from these comparisons that might guide current and future arid land managers and speculating on what the future might hold for arid lands.

Reflecting the shift in drylands thinking from a piecemeal or a a ~magic bulleta (TM) approach to a systems-based approach that considers people as integral to solving problems, this volume will appeal not just to land managers, but to everyone involved in environmental issues who wishes to gain a better understanding of the state of arid lands science today.

Presented in an accessible, user-friendly format, this atlas sets out all the major features revealed during one of the largest ever deep-sea mapping campaigns. A unique insight into the morphology of the seabed along the continental margin of the North-East Atlantic, it reveals for the first time many features that have hitherto been hidden beneath the waves. It is organised both thematically and by region, with the sea floor and its biological hotspots - areas of high biodiversity such as seamounts - shown at a resolution not possible before. The atlas presents everything from submarine canyons to coral carbonate mounds, using digital terrain models generated from multibeam data and photographs taken from unmanned deep-water vehicles (ROVs).

The full-colour imagery includes digital three-dimensional seabed maps as well as the photographs, with concise text descriptions and topic boxes used to highlight and explain the geological, biological and hydrographical features, in addition to their importance and context in the deep-sea realm. Alongside the wealth of background information and topic boxes on special highlights, extensive on-line resources link the reader to full data sets and GIS locations, while suggestions for further reading point to ongoing research highlights. This is a fascinating resource that will be of use to anyone involved in off-shore and underwater activities, whether scientific or commercial.

This book analyses the threat posed by the continued use of fossil fuels. By utilizing Elizabeth Shove's social practices approach and Murphy's own social closure framework, the book examines the accelerating treadmill of carbon-polluting practices. It incorporates externalities theory to investigate how the full cost of fossil fuels is paid by others rather than users, and to demonstrate that the environmental commons is a medium for conveying intergenerational monopolisation and exclusion in the Anthropocene. Murphy uncovers a pattern of opposition to change when exploiting valuable but dangerous resources. He argues that a new faith in mastering nature is emerging as a belief in just-in-time technological solutions to circumvent having to change fossil-fuelled practices. The book then moves on to assess proposed solutions, including Beck's staging of risk and his hypothesis that the anticipation of global catastrophe will incite emancipation. It proposes a novel approach to enhancing foresight and avoid incubating disaster. It will appeal to readers interested in an original social science analysis of this creeping crisis and its resolution.

Tropical rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate, causing unprecedented losses in biodiversity and ecosystem services. This book contributes to an improved understanding of the processes that have destabilizing effects on ecological and socio-economic systems of tropical rain forest margins, as well as striving to integrate environmental, technological and socio-economic issues in their solution.

Fire Ecology of Tropical Ecosystems gives an extensive explanation of historic and current fire situations in the tropics, describing the fire ecology of tropical ecosystems from around the globe. Eighteen groups of leading researchers explain the many different aspects and roles of fire in tropical ecosystems. Regional chapters address a set of common subjects including the causes of fire, typical fire behavior, and elements of the fire regime. In addition, they study the impacts of human land use, landscape fragmentation and climate change on the fire environment and the challenges of fire management in these ecosystems. The common set of topics provides consistency among the chapters and facilitates comprehensive understanding of fire s place in tropical ecology. This cohesive book covers unique aspects of fire in each ecosystem and includes a discussion of common elements to enable comparisons and syntheses of fire effects in disparate tropical ecosystems. Current scientific literature is too fragmented: it hampers the understanding of tropical fire ecology and degrades all global studies of land cover change and global carbon emissions. Fire

Ecology of Tropical Ecosystems fills a large void in our current understanding of how fire affects terrestrial biota.

The book opens with a general explanation of fire in the tropics, giving the examples of Oazaca, Mexico in 1998 and Roraima, Brazil in 1997-1998. It follows with the concepts and principles of wildland fire, including heat transfer, fire behavior, fuels, weather and climate.

Chapters 3-19 cover the implications of fire in Asia, Africa, Australia, Central and South America, Pacifica and Pantropical, addressing the causes, fire behavior, severity, fire and land use, fire and landscapes (fragmentation and connectivity), fire, climate and climate change, fire regimes (why frequency matters), issues for fire management and regional issues of specific importance or interest. An overview at the end of the book considers the global fire regime conditions, threats, and opportunities for fire management in the tropics."

England & Wales Island Bagging by Lisa Drewe is a stunning and informative guide to the islands of England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is ideal for swimmers, kayakers, adventure travellers, wildlife spotters and ice cream connoisseurs. Go on an inspirational and fascinating coastline journey - familiar islands are visited, such as Lundy and the Isle of Wight; others are less well known, such as Gewni in Pembrokeshire and Coquet Island in Northumberland. Almost 300 islands are included, from larger, populated islands to remote, uninhabited islets - some can be reached by foot at low tide, others have ferry services, and some you will need your own transport, or be content to view them from the mainland. Once you've found your island this book introduces you to the best sites on the island to appreciate: hidden beaches and coves, the tastiest local food and the wildlife that can be seen in the locality. Watch the Cemlyn Bay terns on Anglesey, go paddleboarding around Mersea Island in Essex, walk in the footsteps of pilgrims on Lindisfarne in Northumberland, or enjoy ice cream from one of the smallest dairy herds in the country on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly ... it's all there to be enjoyed in England & Wales Island Bagging.

This book presents studies on current vegetation topics, from polar to tropical regions. It is a festschrift to mark the 70th birthday of Prof. Elgene O. Box, who has studied vegetation all over the world, both through fieldwork and modeling. It reflects a number of his interests, including basic ecological plant forms (cf 'plant functional types'), temperate-zone forests, and evergreen versus seasonal patterns. Section 1 discusses the concept of vegetation series, while Section 2 has two global-scale chapters on plant functional traits and whether they are related more to climate or phylogeny. Section 3 has nine chapters focusing on vegetation history, regional vegetation, and how these have influenced current species organizations and distributions. Regions treated include Russia, China, the USA, Mexico and Mediterranean areas. Lastly, Section 4 addresses aspects of vegetation change and plant ecology. Every chapter in this unique book offers original ideas on the topic of vegetation, as the authors are assembled from a world-wide population of leading vegetational ecologists, whose interests range from local communities to global theoretical questions.

Freezing and thawing of soils is a common phenomenon in the winter-cold zone. The thesis titled "Material Cycling of Wetland Soils Driven by Freeze-Thaw Effects" systematically explores the freeze-thaw effects on the accumulation and release processes of carbon and nitrogen in wetland soils, which is a good step toward the investigation of biogeochemical processes in wetlands in seasonal freeze-thaw areas. It is also developing strategies aimed at global warming effects on the accumulation and release of carbon and nitrogen in wetlands. Dr. Xiaofei Yu works at the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

This book focuses on essential theories, methods and techniques in the field of environmental and engineering geophysics that can contribute to resource detection and environmental protection. Geophysics has been playing an important role in exploring the earth, locating vital resources and promoting the development of society. This book covers a range of topics including the exploration of modern resources, such as ore deposits, coal mines, shale gas and geothermal power, and the monitoring of geological disasters, including the rock-soil body, ground deformation, mines, specific rock-soil engineering disasters, desertification of land and environmental abnormalities. This book not only offers a valuable resource for geophysical researchers; it also demonstrates how geophysics theories and methods can be practically implemented to protect our environment and promote the development of human society.

This thesis constitutes an extraordinary innovative research approach in transferring the concepts and methods of complex systems to risk research. It ambitiously bridges the barriers between theoretical, empirical and methodical research work and integrates these fields into one comprehensive approach of dealing with uncertainty in socio-ecological systems. The developed agent-based simulation aims at the dynamics of social vulnerability in the considered system of the German North Sea Coast. Thus, the social simulation provides an analytical method to explore the individual, relational, and spatial aspects leading to dynamics of vulnerability in society. Combining complexity science and risk research by the method of agent-based simulation hereby emphasizes the importance of understanding interrelations inside the system for the system's development, i.e. for the evolving. Based on a vulnerability assessment regarding vulnerability characteristics, present risk behavior and self-protection preferences of private households against the impacts of flooding and storm surges, possible system trajectories could be explored by means of simulation experiments. The system-analytical approach therefore contributes to an integrated consideration of multi-dimensional and context-sensitv social phenomena such as vulnerability. Furthermore it achieves conceptually and strategically relevant implications for risk research and complex systems research.

This book offers comprehensive information on the theory, models and algorithms involved in state-of-the-art multivariate time series analysis and highlights several of the latest research advances in climate and environmental science. The main topics addressed include Multivariate Time-Frequency Analysis, Artificial Neural Networks, Stochastic Modeling and Optimization, Spectral Analysis, Global Climate Change, Regional Climate Change, Ecosystem and Carbon Cycle, Paleoclimate, and Strategies for Climate Change Mitigation. The self-contained guide will be of great value to researchers and advanced students from a wide range of disciplines: those from Meteorology, Climatology, Oceanography, the Earth Sciences and Environmental Science will be introduced to various advanced tools for analyzing multivariate data, greatly facilitating their research, while those from Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, and the Computer Sciences will learn how to use these multivariate time series analysis tools to approach climate and environmental topics.

This book presents recent results of collaborative studies in geophysics and ecology, focusing on the relationship between the physical environment and the distribution of the marine coastal ecosystems. The study area, the Sakiyamawan-Amitoriwan nature conservation area in Iriomote Island of Japan, is the only oceanic nature conservation area in the country. The area has no access roads, and the bay perimeter is uninhabited; therefore, it preserves the natural environment with very little human impact. In addition, it has various environmental gradients such as topography and inflows from rivers with mangrove forests which affect the distribution of marine coastal ecosystems such as those containing reef-building corals, sea grasses, and hermit crabs. For these reasons, the area is one of the best places for the study of the relationship between the physical environment and the distribution of the marine coastal ecosystems, a relationship that is important for their conservation but has not been investigated fully. This book is aimed at students and researchers in the fields of oceanography and marine coastal ecology as well as general readers who are interested in coral reefs, diving, and nature conservation.

This book investigates the multifaceted nature of change in today's Nordic Arctic and the necessary research and policy development required to address the challenges and opportunities currently faced by this region. It focuses its attention on the recent efforts of the Nordic community to create specialized Centers of Excellence in Arctic Research in order to facilitate this process of scientific inquiry and policy articulation. The volume seeks to describe both the steps that lead to this decision and the manner in which this undertaking as evolved. The work highlights the research efforts of the four Centers and their investigations of a variety of issues including those related to ecosystem and wildlife management, the revitalization resource dependent communities, the emergence of new climate-born diseases and the development of adequate modeling techniques to assist northern communities in their efforts at adaptation and resilience building. Major discoveries and insights arising from these and other efforts are detailed and possible policy implications considered. The book also focuses attention on the challenges of creating and supporting multidisciplinary teams of researchers to investigate such concerns and the methods and means for facilitating their collaboration and the integration of their findings to form new and useful perspectives on the nature of change in the contemporary Arctic. It also provides helpful consideration and examples of how local and indigenous communities can be engaged in the co-production of knowledge regarding the region. The volume discusses how such research findings can be best communicated and shared between scientists, policymakers and northern residents. It considers the challenges of building common concern not just among different research disciplines but also between bureaucracies and the public. Only when this bridge-building effort is undertaken can true pathways to action be established.

This book introduces state-of-the-art approaches, methods and research, focusing on smart management of rainwater. In addition, it provides an overview of projects from across the world, illustrating how rainwater-smart management has been implemented in drylands. Focusing on the scientific perspective it demonstrates how rural dryland agriculture can be improved. It also documents the wealth of rainwater-smart know-how available today, and replicates and transfers results to other countries and regions, to encourage cross-sector interactions among various stakeholders, such as practitioners from governmental and public organisations, policy- and decision-makers, and teaching staff from academic scientific institutions. The contributors showcase vital lessons learned from research, field projects and best-practice examples. They address the integrated use of rainwater harvesting management with landscape restoration practices and water-, and climate-smart agriculture for food security and poverty alleviation in arid and semi-arid areas. Original research, combined with the contributors' synthetic approach, lays a foundation for new concepts and ideas. Through case studies and research reports, the book discusses all the relevant issues necessary for the comprehensive analysis and successful implementation of the technologies in rainwater management. Highlighting the working principles and technical recommendations with regard to cost-efficient rainwater-smart solutions, it is of interest to practitioners. It is also a valuable resource for academic specialists, professionals and students, since many development agencies are funding rainwater harvesting for irrigation purposes.

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week ‘Magnificent’ Guardian ‘Remarkable … A compact classic!’ Bill McKibben ‘I learned something new – and found something amazing – on every page’ Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth’s most desirable and dependable resources. Here, Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment, and their systemic destruction in the pursuit of profit. Travelling from the fens of sixteenth-century England to America’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Fen, Bog and Swamp is both a revelatory history and an urgent plea for wetland reclamation, from one of our greatest prose stylists. ‘A rousing call to action’ Esquire ‘Sparklingly furious … it has a profoundly positive message’ Richard Mabey, Telegraph ‘This haunting tribute … is a pleasure to read’ Financial Times

This book provides in-depth information on Caatinga's geographical boundaries and ecological systems, including plants, insects, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. It also discusses the major threats to the region's socio-ecological systems and includes chapters on climate change and fast and large-scale land-use changes, as well as slow and small-scale changes, also known as chronic human disturbances. Subsequent chapters address sustainable agriculture, conservation systems, and sustainable development. Lastly, the book proposes 10 major actions that could enable the transformation of Caatinga into a place where people and nature can thrive together. "I consider this book an excellent example of how scientists worldwide can mobilize their efforts to propose sound solutions for one of the biggest challenges of modern times, i.e., how to protect the world's natural ecosystems while improving human well-being. I am sure this book will inspire more research and conservation action in the region and perhaps encourage other groups of scientists to produce similar syntheses about their regions." Russell Mittermeier, Ph.D. Executive Vice-Chair, Conservation International

This work examines the valley of the Urubamba River in terms of vertical zonation, Incan impact on the environment, plant use, the history of exploration and the notion of discovery, the idea of land reform, and cultural contact with the European world. Winding its path northward from the Andean Highlands to the Amazon, the valley has served as the stage of pre-Columbian civilizations and focal point of Spanish conquest in Peru. "Gade left behind not only a superb body of scholarly work, but a network of colleagues and students who remain indebted to his example. This book should serve as an inspiration for all scholars who wish to pursue the Sauerian, counter enlightenment or post development agendas of understanding and respecting particular places in all their historical and cultural complexity, including ambiguities and contradictions." -- The Geographical Review, American Geographical Society