Wetlands are vital for human survival. They are among the world's most productive environments as they are cradles of biological diversity that provide the water and productivity upon which countless species of plants and animals depend for survival. Wetlands provide habitat for thousands of species of aquatic and terrestrial plants and animals as well as a number of societal benefits such as food and habitat for fish and wildlife, water quality improvement, flood storage, shoreline erosion control, economically beneficial natural products for human use, and opportunities for recreation, education, and research. According to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Wetlands, more than one-third of the United States' threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands, and nearly half use wetlands at some point in their lives. This book offers a comprehensive look at the importance of wetland conservation, its challenges, and future aspects. The book highlights the challenges of wetland conservation and current scenarios of existing wetlands; the importance of the inland wetland and its conservation is particularly highlighted as it is critical and very important in the current existing wetland scenario. This book is critical for industries, academics, research scholars, and environmental consultants who are practicing wetland management.

Coastal Reservoir Technology and Applications presents the analyses showing that the world is not running out of water, but water is running out of river mouths-we need to work to harness this resource. Compared with inland water storages and desalination technology, coastal reservoirs are a nature-based water solution without disturbing the environment. This book mainly answers the questions of what the coastal reservoir technology is, where we should construct coastal reservoirs, and how to supply sufficient, high-quality and affordable water to the world with minimum environmental/social impacts. Chapter 1 reviews modes of water resources development in the history along with current problems and reasons. Chapter 2 discusses the definition of coastal reservoirs, its classifications and applications, and the SPP/downstream water management strategy. Other chapters analyse water crisis in every continent, as well as their water solutions. The possible coastal reservoir for each major river is suggested as well. Without freshwater, no one can survive. Likewise, without sufficient, high-quality and affordable freshwater, no community can achieve sustainable development. However, water is also a killer when it is too much (floods), too dirty (pollution), and too turbid. Different from other books, this resource shows how to solve these water problems. Coastal reservoirs and SPP strategy are suggested to develop floodwater in a safe way in coastal and inland regions, respectively. Solution of water-food-energy-ecosystem nexus needs a paradigm shift from upstream to downstream water management, i.e., from mountainous dams to coastal reservoirs, which conserves the precious, clean freshwater in seawater environment.

Pharmaceuticals in Marine and Coastal Environments: Occurrence, Effects, and Challenges in a Changing World is divided into three sections that address a) coastal areas as the main entrance of pharmaceuticals into the ocean, b) the occurrence and distribution of pharmaceuticals in the environmental compartments of the ocean media, and c) the effects that such pollutants may cause to the exposed marine organisms. With its comprehensive discussions, the book provides a wide depiction of the current state-of-the-art on these topics in an effort to open new sources of investigation and find suitable solutions.

'A true masterpiece.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Simply beautiful.' STEPHEN MOSS 'Quietly courageous.' PATRICK BARKHAM 'Lyrical, wholehearted and wise.' LEE SCHOFIELD 'A knockout. I loved it.' MELISSA HARRISON 'Honest, raw and moving.' SOPHIE PAVELLE 'An extraordinary book by an extraordinary author.' CHRIS JONES 'A book of wit, wonder and of wisdom.' NICK ACHESON 'Beautiful.' NICOLA CHESTER - A visit to the rapid where she lost a cherished friend unexpectedly reignites Amy-Jane Beer’s love of rivers setting her on a journey of natural, cultural and emotional discovery. On New Year’s Day 2012, Amy-Jane Beer’s beloved friend Kate set out with a group of others to kayak the River Rawthey in Cumbria. Kate never came home, and her death left her devoted family and friends bereft and unmoored. Returning to visit the Rawthey years later, Amy realises how much she misses the connection to the natural world she always felt when on or close to rivers, and so begins a new phase of exploration. The Flow is a book about water, and, like water, it meanders, cascades and percolates through many lives, landscapes and stories. From West Country torrents to Levels and Fens, rocky Welsh canyons, the salmon highways of Scotland and the chalk rivers of the Yorkshire Wolds, Amy-Jane follows springs, streams and rivers to explore tributary themes of wildness and wonder, loss and healing, mythology and history, cyclicity and transformation. Threading together places and voices from across Britain, The Flow is a profound, immersive exploration of our personal and ecological place in nature.

Identifying efficient solutions to protect coastal regions from marine pollution requires expertise from a range of specialties and strategic approaches. This book gathers information on the impact of oil spills at a coastal level from different experts' points of view, identifying synergies between domains such as mathematics, numerical modeling, mechanics, biology, economics and law. The collaborative research presented here is based on the 4th International Workshop on Anti-Pollution and Marine Coastal Water Pollution, held in La Rochelle, France at the Engineering School EIGSI, in April 2012. The areas addressed include: materials and structures (fluid-structure and capture interaction, cable and membrane equations, optimization); coastal hydrodynamics (computational fluid dynamics, numerical analysis of shallow water equations, analytical and numerical derivatives); biological impacts (biology, multivariate analysis, indicators); and economics and law (compensation costs, insurance coverage, coastal vulnerability).

Interest in the environment has never been greater and yet most of us have little knowledge of the 4 billion years of history that formed it. This book explains the principles of geology, geography and geomorphology, and shows how a basic understanding of geological timescales, plate tectonics and landforms can help you 'read' the great outdoors. This is a highly illustrated book with a very accessible text that beautifully illuminates the landscape around us.

Further Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography, Third Edition, Volume Nine, presents a substantively updated edition of a classic text on cybercartography, presenting new and returning readers alike with the latest advances in the field. The book examines the major elements of cybercartography and embraces an interactive, dynamic, multisensory format with the use of multimedia and multimodal interfaces. Material covering the major elements, key ideas and definitions of cybercartography is newly supplemented by several chapters on two emerging areas of study, including international dimensions and language mapping. This new edition delves deep into Mexico, Brazil, Denmark, Iran and Kyrgyzstan, demonstrating how insights emerge when cybercartography is applied in different cultural contexts. Meanwhile, other chapters contain case studies by a talented group of linguists who are breaking new ground by applying cybercartography to language mapping, a breakthrough that will provide new ways of understanding the distribution and movement of language and culture.

Cybercartography in a Reconciliation Community: Engaging Intersecting Perspectives, Volume Eight gathers perspectives on issues related to reconciliation-primarily in a residential / boarding school context-and demonstrates the unifying power of Cybercartography by identifying intersections among different knowledge perspectives. Concerned with understanding approaches toward reconciliation and education, preference is given to reflexivity in research and knowledge dissemination. The positionality aspect of reflexivity is reflected in the chapter contributions concerning various aspects of cybercartographic atlas design and development research, and related activities. In this regard, the book offers theoretical and practical knowledge of collaborative transdisciplinary research through its reflexive assessment of the relationships, processes and knowledge involved in cybercartographic research. Using, most specifically, the Residential Schools Land Memory Mapping Project for context, Cybercartography in a Reconciliation Community provides a high speed tour through the project's innovative collaborative approach to mapping institutional material and volunteered geographic information. Exploring Cybercartography through the lens of this atlas project provides for a comprehensive understanding of both Cybercartography and transdisciplinary research, while informing the reader of education and reconciliation initiatives in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Italy.

Coastal Zone Management: Global Perspectives, Regional Processes, Local Issues brings together a vast range of interdisciplinary data on coastal zones in a concise, yet exhaustive format that will be useful to students, researchers, and teachers. The book contains several focused sections, all of which include individual chapters written by subject experts with considerable experience in their fields of research. Each chapter presents the latest research and status of its focus, with a concluding endnote on future trends. Topics covered in the book include the sea level and climate changes, evolution of coastlines, land-use dynamics and coastal hazards mitigation and management. The global coast has faced the force of both climate hange and natural disasters, which continue to result in the loss of human life and degradation of quality of the coastal environment. Coastal Zone Management: Global Perspectives, Regional Processes, Local Issues provides the latest developments and key strategies to tackle this in a single comprehensive volume. It is an essential reference for scientists and researchers well-read on coastal zones, as well as those new to the subject.

Coastal Management: Global Challenges and Innovations focuses on the resulting problems faced by coastal areas in developing countries with a goal of helping create updated management and tactical approaches for researchers, field practitioners, planners and policymakers. This book gathers, compiles and interprets recent developments, starting from paleo-coastal climatic conditions, to current climatic conditions that influence coastal resources. Chapters included cover almost all aspects of coastal area management, including sustainability, coastal communities, hazards, ocean currents and environmental monitoring.

Coastal Wetlands, Second Edition: An Integrated and Ecosystem Approach provides an understanding of the functioning of coastal ecosystems and the ecological services that they provide. As coastal wetlands are under a great deal of pressure from the dual forces of rising sea levels and the intervention of human populations, both along the estuary and in the river catchment, this book covers important issues, such as the destruction or degradation of wetlands from land reclamation and infrastructures, impacts from the discharge of pollutants, changes in river flows and sediment supplies, land clearing, and dam operations.

Peatlands form important landscape elements in many parts of the world and play significant roles for biodiversity and global carbon balance. This new edition has been fully revised and updated, documenting the latest advances in areas such as microbial processes and relations between biological processes and hydrology. As well as thoroughly referencing the latest research, the authors expose a rich older literature where an immense repository of natural history has accumulated. The Biology of Peatlands starts with an overview of the main peatland types (marsh, swamp, fen, and bog), before examining the entire range of biota present (microbes, invertebrates, plants, and vertebrates), together with their specific adaptations to peatland habitats. Detailed coverage is devoted to the genus Sphagnum, the most important functional plant group in northern peatlands, although tropical and southern hemisphere peatlands are also covered. Throughout the book the interactions between organisms and environmental conditions (especially wetness, availability of oxygen, and pH) are emphasized, with chapters on the physical and chemical characteristics of peat, the role of peat as an archive of past vegetation and climate, and peatland succession and development. Several other key factors and processes are then examined, including hydrology and nutrient cycling. The fascinating peatland landforms in different parts of the world are described, together with theories on how they have developed. Human interactions with peatlands are considered in terms of management, conservation, and restoration. A final chapter, new to this edition, focuses on the role of peatlands as sources or sinks for the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, and the influences of climate change on peatlands. This timely and accessible text is suitable for students and researchers of peatland ecology, as well as providing an authoritative overview for professional ecologists and conservation biologists.

Nestled between the Pennines and the Lake District Fells, the beautiful Eden Valley combines lush green countryside, abundant wildlife in hedgerows and woodlands, fertile farmland, ancient landmarks, and historic market towns and villages. Much like the valley itself, this book is a meeting of the natural world, the people who inhabit it, and their stories, history and skills - traditional and modern. Dick Capel takes us on a series of introspective ramblings from the source of the river in Mallerstang to the Solway Firth at Carlisle. He follows the Poetry Path, the Eden Benchmarks and the Goldsworthy Sheepfolds, and ventures into history with enchanting stories of old churches, hidden artefacts, and signs of ancient cultivation. As a long-time countryside manager for the Eden Valley, few people know this area quite as intimately as Dick Capel - and even fewer have worked as hard to protect the natural and built heritage of this unspoiled part of Cumbria. Covering natural history, myth and legend, this is an unrivalled companion to an unspoiled gem of the English countryside.

LiDAR Principles, Processing and Applications in Forest Ecology introduces the principles of LiDAR technology and explains how to collect and process LiDAR data from different platforms based on real-world experience. The book provides state-of the-art algorithms on how to extract forest parameters from LiDAR and explains how to use them in forest ecology. It gives an interdisciplinary view, from the perspective of remote sensing and forest ecology. Because LiDAR is still rapidly developing, researchers must use programming languages to understand and process LiDAR data instead of established software. In response, this book provides Python code examples and sample data. Sections give a brief history and introduce the principles of LiDAR, as well as three commonly seen LiDAR platforms. The book lays out step-by-step coverage of LiDAR data processing and forest structure parameter extraction, complete with Python examples. Given the increasing usefulness of LiDAR in forest ecology, this volume represents an important resource for researchers, students and forest managers to better understand LiDAR technology and its use in forest ecology across the world. The title contains over 15 years of research, as well as contributions from scientists across the world.