Human experience has shown how great cities, nations, and empires have either collapsed or retired from their predominant stature when natural resources are depleted to an extent that exceeds the ability of the environment to restore or replenish their supply. This book explores the challenges facing coastal areas during the next few decades and the difficult decisions needed to prevent a repeat of the past. Establishing, maintaining or enhancing a sense of environmental security in different coastal regions and improving the management of critical infrastructure will require (i) matching human demands with available environmental resources; (ii) recognition of environmental security threats and infrastructure vulnerabilities; and, (iii) identification of the range of available options for preventing and/or minimizing natural disasters, technological failures, and/or terror actions.

The Mekong Basin in Southeast Asia is one of the largest international river basins in the world. Its abundant natural resources are shared by six riparian countries and provide the basis for the livelihoods of more than 75 million people. However, ongoing socio-economic growth and related anthropogenic interventions impact the region's ecosystems, and there is an urgent need for the monitoring of the basin's land surface dynamics. Remote sensing has evolved as a key tool for this task, allowing for up-to-date analyses and regular monitoring of environmental dynamics beyond physical or political boundaries and at various temporal and spatial scales. This book serves as a forum for remote-sensing scientists with an interest in the Mekong River Basin to present their recent basin-related works as well as applied case studies of the region. A broad range of sensors from high to medium resolution, and from multispectral to SAR systems, are applied, covering topics such as land cover/land use classification and comparison, time series analyses of climate variables, vegetation structure and vegetation productivity, as well as studies on flood mapping or water turbidity monitoring. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Remote Sensing.

Through stories of diverse landscapes from around the world, this book captures human cultures and their land use practices in the environments they inhabit. The chapters cover topics from heritage in the 21st Century, appreciating and safeguarding values while facing challenges wrought by change. This title will lead readers through fascinating stories of landscapes and people. We learn of the physical and spiritual structure of rice terraces of the Honghe Mountains in China maintained by following a 1300 year sustainable practice of water allocation, while the colonial tea plantations of the Sri Lankan highlands are managed by Indian Tamils who now seek tourism as a means of additional income. Sustainable agricultural methods in the USA are being introduced to prevent landscape loss while in Australia a challenge confronting family farms is progressing to rural industrialisation. Challenges are further outlined in the mythical story of Finland's Saint Henrik pilgrimage and in the intangible Ui-won gardens of Korea. The huge challenge for Japan's landscapes is the legacy from fierce natural 21st Century disasters while in Australia's Dampier Archipelago, an avoidable yet brutal development on a unique Aboriginal rock sculptured landscape highlights serious concerns about heritage governance. These remarkable stories of landscapes and their management are inseparable from the communities that inhabit them. This book was originally published as a special issue of Landscape Research.

The evidence for the Little Ice Age, the most important fluctuation in global climate in historical times, is most dramatically represented by the advance of mountain glaciers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and their retreat since about 1850. The effects on the landscape and the daily life of people have been particularly apparent in Norway and the Alps. This major book places an extensive body of material relating to Europe, in the form of documentary evidence of the history of the glaciers, their portrayal in paintings and maps, and measurements made by scientists and others, within a global perspective. It shows that the glacial history of mountain regions all over the world displays a similar pattern of climatic events. Furthermore, fluctuations on a comparable scale have occurred at intervals of a millennium or two throughout the last ten thousand years since the ice caps of North America and northwest Europe melted away. This is the first scholarly work devoted to the Little Ice Age, by an author whose research experience of the subject has been extensive. This book includes large numbers of maps, diagrams and photographs, many not published elsewhere, and very full bibliographies. It is a definitive work on the subject, and an excellent focus for the work of economic and social historians as well as glaciologists, climatologists, geographers, and specialists in mountain environment.

Reef Life is the story of how Callum Roberts, Britain's pre-eminent marine conservation scientist, fell in love with coral reefs and embarked on a thirty-year career. He began as a young university student who had never been abroad, spending a summer helping to map the unknown reefs of Saudi Arabia. And from that moment, when Callum first cleared his mask, he's never looked back, moving on to survey Sharm El Sheikh, and from there diving and researching all over the world, including Australia's imperilled Great Barrier Reef and the more resilient reefs of the Caribbean. His stories are astonishing, lyrical and laced with a wonderful wry humour - and they allow us privileged access to, and understanding of, the science of our oceans and reefs. Reading this book will also commit readers to support Callum's goal to get marine reserve status for ten percent of the world's ocean.

Recent studies indicate that - due to climate change - the Earth is undergoing rapid changes in all cryospheric components, including polar sea ice shrinkage, mountain glacier recession, thawing permafrost, and diminishing snow cover. This book provides a comprehensive summary of all components of the Earth's cryosphere, reviewing their history, physical and chemical characteristics, geographical distributions, and projected future states. This new edition has been completely updated throughout, and provides state-of-the-art data from GlobSnow-2 CRYOSAT, ICESAT, and GRACE. It includes a comprehensive summary of cryospheric changes in land ice, permafrost, freshwater ice, sea ice, and ice sheets. It discusses the models developed to understand cryosphere processes and predict future changes, including those based on remote sensing, field campaigns, and long-term ground observations. Boasting an extensive bibliography, over 120 figures, and end-of-chapter review questions, it is an ideal resource for students and researchers of the cryosphere.

This volume consists of twenty chapters addressing different aspects of the theme of fluvial processes and environmental change. The overall coverage is broad; scientifically, (from modelling to alluvial dating), geographically (from arid zone flash-flooding to glacial meltwaters) and in time (from contemporary process studies to the Quaternary). The introductory chapter sets the context, which is an attempt to show how studies of fluvial processes can help us in understanding and therefore predicting the impact of environmental change on our rivers, riverine resources and landscapes. Environmental change includes both climatic factors, however caused, and human impacts on river basins. The differentiation of these two factors is discussed in several chapters whilst others take a more holistic approach. Both climatic and human factors have, and will remain, to act together and so their interactions need to be understood. Fluvial Processes and Environmental Change is divided into five sections, commencing with the slope-catchment scale and proceeding to studies of channel response, then floodplain processes and floodplain response and finally two studies from glacierised basins. The volume originated as a two-day session of the British Geomorphological Research Group and contributors from Europe, the USA and Australia were included in order to provide a wide perspective on the topic. This book will be a valuable reference for postgraduates and researchers in fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, Quaternary science, geology and environmental science.

Global warming usually seems to happen far away, but one catastrophic effect of climate change is underway right now in the Rocky Mountains. In "The Melting World," Chris White travels to Montana to chronicle the work of Dan Fagre, a climate scientist and ecologist, whose work shows that alpine glaciers are vanishing rapidly close to home. For years, Fagre has monitored the ice sheets in Glacier National Park proving that they--and by extension all Rocky Mountain ice--will melt far faster than previously imagined. How long will the ice fields survive? What are the consequences on our environment? "The Melting World" chronicles the first extinction of a mountain ecosystem in what is expected to be a series of such global calamities as humanity faces the prospect of a world without alpine ice.

The Russian Far North is immensely rich in resources, both energy and other resources, and is also one of the least developed regions of Russia. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the region. It examines resource issues and the related environmental problems, considers the Arctic and the problems of sea routes, maritime boundaries and military build-up, assesses economic development, and considers the ethnic peoples of the region and also cultural and artistic subjects. Overall, the book provides a rich appraisal of how the region is likely to develop in future.

Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) is the current state-of-art methodology to provide weather prediction at different spatial and time scales to serve user community. The NWP uses a modeling system built up adopting the mathematical equations governing atmospheric motion, incorporating the physical processes through parameterization methods, solved applying numerical methods and carrying out large number-crunching calculations on high speed computers. The NWP products have their application in agriculture, aviation, transport, tourism, sports, industry, health, energy and many other social sectors. Several decision support systems of disaster management and risk assessment are dependent on meteorological information from NWP products. The purpose of this book is to present the basics of NWP in lucid form to those who seek an overview of the science of modern weather prediction. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan).

Building a Survival Kit will help you to survive adverse outdoor conditions: heat, cold or extreme weather. Staying warm and dry is essential and you'll learn how to protect your Core Temperature (CTC) while saving (heat) calories through less energy output. Tips will include essential supplies to bring should an emergency occur. This guide is waterproof and nearly indestructible. It can fit in a back pocket so you can have vital information when you need it. A must-have for the serious wilderness explorer. Co-authored by noted survival expert and woodsman Dave Canterbury, this is one of a 10-part series on survival skills.

The Amazon region is the focus of intense conflict between conservationists concerned with deforestation and advocates of agro-industrial development. This book focuses on the contributions of environmental organizations to the preservation of Brazilian Amazonia. It reveals how environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and others have fought fiercely to stop deforestation in the region. It documents how the history of frontier expansion and environmental struggle in the region is linked to Brazil's position in an evolving capitalist world-economy. It is shown how Brazil's effort to become a developed country has led successive Brazilian governments to devise development projects for Amazonia. The author analyses how globalization has led to the expansion of international commodity chains in the region, particularly for mineral ores, soybeans and beef. He shows how environmental organizations have politicized these commodity chains as weapons of conservation, through boycotting certain products, while other pro-development groups within Brazil claim that such organizations threaten Brazil's sovereignty over its own resources.

The Great Lakes Basin in North America holds more than 20 percent of the world's fresh water. Threats to habitats and biodiversity have economic, political, national security, and cultural implications and ramifications that cross the US-Canadian border. This multidisciplinary book presents the latest research to demonstrate the interconnected nature of the challenges facing the Basin. Chapters by U.S. and Canadian scholars and practitioners represent a wide range of natural science and social science fields, including environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, environmental history and communication, public health, and economics. The book covers threats from invasive species, industrial development, climate change, agricultural and chemical runoff, species extinction, habitat restoration, environmental disease, indigenous conservation efforts, citizen engagement, environmental regulation, and pollution.Overall the book provides political, cultural, economic, scientific, and social contexts for recognizing and addressing the environmental challenges faced by the Great Lakes Basin.

In Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape Dana Fritz traces the evolution of the Bessey Ranger District and Nursery of the Nebraska National Forest and Grasslands. Fritz’s contemporary photographs of this unique ecosystem, with provocative environmental essays, maps, and historical photographs from the U.S. Forest Service archives, illuminate the complex environmental and natural history of the site, especially as it relates to built environments, land use, and climate change. The Nebraska National Forest at Halsey, as it is known colloquially, is the largest hand-planted forest in the Western Hemisphere, and formerly in the world. This hybrid landscape of a conifer forest overlaid onto a semiarid grassland just west of the one-hundredth meridian was an ambitious late nineteenth-century idea to create a timber industry, to reclaim a landscape considered disordered and unproductive, and to change the local climate in northcentral Nebraska. While the planners seemed not to appreciate the native grasslands that form the ecosystem of the Nebraska Sandhills, they did recognize the reliable water from the Dismal and Middle Loup Rivers that border the site. In 1902 the first federal nursery was established as part of the Dismal River Forest Reserve to produce seedlings for plains homesteads and the adjacent treeless tract of land. At that time tree planting was not used for carbon sequestration but to mitigate the wind and evaporation of moisture. The Bessey Nursery now produces replacement seedlings for burned and beetle-damaged forests in the Rocky Mountains and for the Nebraska Conservation Trees Program. This constructed landscape of row-crop trees that were protected from fire for decades, yet never commercially harvested for timber, provides a rich metaphor for current environmental predicaments. The late nineteenth-century effort to reclaim with trees what was called the Great American Desert has evolved to a focus on twenty-first-century conservation, grassland restoration, and reforestation, all of which work to sequester carbon, maintain natural ecosystem balance, and mitigate large-scale climate change. Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape offers a visual and critical examination of this unique managed landscape, which has implications far beyond its borders.

The Nile River and its basin extend over a distinctive geophysical cord connecting eleven sovereign states from Egypt to Tanzania, which are home to an estimated population of 422.2 million people. The Nile is an essential source of water for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses throughout the basin, yet for more than a century it has been at the centre of continuous and conflicting claims and counter-claims to rights of utilization of the resource. In this book the author examines the multifaceted legal regulation of the Nile. He re-constructs the legal and historical origin and functioning of the British Nile policies in Ethiopia by examining the composition of the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1902, and analyses its ramifications on contemporary riparian discourse involving Ethiopia and Sudan. The book also reflects on two fairly established legal idioms - the natural and historical rights expressions - which constitute central pillars of the claims of downstream rights in the Nile basin; the origin, essence and legal authority of the notions has been assessed on the basis of the normative dictates of contemporary international watercourses law. Likewise, the book examines the non-treaty based claims of rights of the basin states to the Nile waters, setting out what the equitable uses principle entails as a means of reconciling competing riparian interests, and most importantly, how its functioning affects contemporary legal settings. The author then presents the concentrated diplomatic movements of the basin states in negotiations on the Transitional Institutional Mechanism of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) - pursued since the 1990's, and explains why the substance of water use rights still continued to be perceived diversely among basin states. Finally, the specific legal impediments that held back progress in negotiations on the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework are presented in context.

Landscapes are being degraded and simplified across the globe. This book explores how forest restoration might be carried out to increase landscape heterogeneity, improve ecological functioning and restore ecosystem services in such landscapes. It focuses on large, landscape-scale reforestation because that is the scale at which restoration is needed if many of the problems that have now developed are to be addressed. It also shows how large-scale forest restoration might improve human livelihoods as well as improve conservation outcomes. A number of governments have undertaken national reforestation programs in recent years; some have been more successful than others. The author reviews these to explore what type of reforestation should be used, where this should be carried out and how much should be done. For example, are the traditional industrial forms of reforestation necessarily the best to use in all situations? How can forest restoration be reconciled with the need for food security? And, are there spatial thresholds that must be exceeded to generate economic and environmental benefits? The book also examines the policy and institutional settings needed to encourage large-scale reforestation. This includes a discussion of the place for incentives to encourage landholders to undertake particular types of reforestation and to reforest particular locations. It also considers forms of governance that are likely to lead to an equitable sharing of the costs and benefits of forest restoration.

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is an integrated and comprehensive approach to ocean governance and is used to establish a rational use of marine space and reconcile conflicting interests of its users. MSP allows both a high level of environmental protection and a wide range of human activities and emphasizes coordinated networks of national, regional and global institutions. This book focuses on the framework of international law behind MSP and especially on the transboundary aspects of MSP. It first sets out a general framework for transboundary MSP and then moves on to compare and assess differences and similarities between different regions. Specific detailed case studies include the EU with the focus on the Baltic Sea and North Sea, the Bay of Bengal and Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The authors examine the national and regional significance of MSP from an integrated and sustainable ocean governance point of view. They also show how transboundary MSP can create opportunities and positive initiatives for cross-border cooperation and contribute to the effective protection of the regional marine environment.

Water scarcity is an increasing problem in many parts of the world, yet conventional supply-side economics and management are insufficient to deal with it. In this book the role of water trading as an instrument of integrated water resources management is explored in depth. It is also shown to be an instrument for conflict resolution, where it may be necessary to reallocate water in the context of increasing scarcity. Recent experiences of implementation in different river basins have shown their potential as instruments for improving allocation. These experiences, however, also show that there are implementation challenges and some limitations to trading that need to be considered. This book explores the various types of water trading formulas through the experience of using them in different parts of the world. The final result is varied because, in most cases, trading is conditioned by the legal and institutional framework in which the transactions are carried out. The role of government and the definition of water rights and licenses are critical for the success of water trading. The book studies the institutional framework and how transactions have been undertaken, drawing some lessons on how trading can improve. It also analyses whether trading has really been a positive instrument to manage scarcity and improve water ecosystems and pollution emission problems in those parts of the world which are most affected. The book concludes by making policy proposals to improve the implementation of water trading.

The key aim of this book is to explore the global conservation and management of sharks. There has been a rapid decline in populations of many shark species, while new science has emerged of the critical role they play in marine ecosystems. However, the authors show that conservation law and policy have been slow to develop, with only a small number of iconic species being protected worldwide. The increase in fishing impact - primarily through shark finning and by-catch - has led to shark conservation receiving greater international attention in recent years. The book explores our current knowledge and status of the law and science in relation to sharks with a particular focus on improving frameworks for their conservation and management. Recent trends are analysed, including shark finning bans that have been put in place in several countries, the widening number of nations establishing shark sanctuaries and the growth of shark-based tourism. The efficacy of current listing processes for endangered species and fisheries regulations is also examined. Tourism is explored as an alternative to fishing and the risks and impacts associated with this industry are analysed. Contributors include leading authorities from universities and conservation organizations in North America, Europe and Australia. A common theme is to emphasise the importance of collaborative governance between various interest groups and the need for inter-disciplinary research and management approaches that are necessary to address the decline in sharks.

Fingerponds are earthen ponds dug at the edge of natural wetlands and stocked naturally with wild fish during flooding. They preserve the wetland environment in which they are situated while maintaining a productive culture system. In this study, the importance of organic manure applications in enhancing nutrient levels, phytoplankton and periphyton productivities and ultimately fish production was examined in experimental Fingerponds set up with the participation of local communities in Uganda. Results show that organic manures enhance algal development and fish production in Fingerponds, but close monitoring and control are needed. Fish yields in Fingerponds can be enhanced to 1500 - 2800 kg/ha over a functional period of 200 to 300 days using animal manure (e.g. chicken), fermented green manure and artificial substrates for periphyton development. Good management practices are required to regulate pond inputs and conditions. High clay turbidity, nitrogen limitation and high recruitment of fish can limit fish production. Overall, Fingerponds were shown to be an effective addition to protein production for poor riparian communities in East Africa and are recommended for adoption.

The Allegheny National Forest exists on what might have been the most heavily exploited landscape in the history of civilization. Careful stewardship over the last eight decades has transformed it into a beautiful forest that contains countless wildlife species and some of the world's most valuable timber. Local communities are steeped in pride for having written that unprecedented environmental success story. Unfortunately, the Allegheny is now the focus of a caustic new timber war that will ultimately test the limits of American environmentalism. No longer satisfied with protecting the pristine old growth that captured the national imagination in the early 1990s, activists have embarked on campaign to put an end to the Allegheny timber program. Litigation and protests have shaken the region for a decade. More recently, it has become a hotbed of eco-terrorism. But restoring the Allegheny to something activists accept will be far more difficult, expensive, and explosive than setting aside a few million acres for the northern spotted owl. This book examines the communities caught in the middle of that political crossfire and forces Americans to decide if they are ready to accept the new activist agenda: In their own words, 'If we can stop logging on the Allegheny, we can stop it everywhere.'

From the natural geometry of the Giant's Causeway to the sarsen slabs used to build Stonehenge, we are surrounded by evidence for the extraordinary geological forces that shaped the British Isles. Running coast to coast through Devon is 'Sticklepath', Britain's 'San Andreas', a geological fault with the two sides displaced horizontally by several kilometres, all within the recent geological past. The Sticklepath Fault is just one manifestation of the rich tectonic history of the British region since the asteroid collision that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. Raised out of the Chalk Sea, the original Albion was a thickly forested island a thousand kilometres long, surrounded by chalk cliffs, punctuated with great volcanoes, and the site of two trial 'spreading ridge' plate-boundaries. As the volcanoes shifted west, and Greenland separated from Europe, the wind-blown volcanic ash laid the strata on which London was founded. The vertical Needles, known to every Isle of Wight sailor, are part of the northern foothills of the Pyrenees. When the collision subsided, rifting created a garland of Celtic lakes from Brittany to the Outer Hebrides. In This Volcanic Isle Robert Muir-Wood explores the rich geological history of the British Isles, and its resulting legacy. Along the way he introduces the personalities who shared a fascination for Britain's tectonic history, including Charles Darwin the geologist, Tennyson the science-poet, and Benoit Mandelbrot, the pure mathematician who labelled the west coast of Britain a fractal icon. Here is the previously untold story of how earthquakes and eruptions, plumes and plate boundaries, built the British Isles.

Globally rainforests are under threat on numerous fronts, including clearing for agriculture, harvesting for timber and urban expansion. Yet they have a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and providing other ecosystem services. As the term is used in this book, rainforests include both temperate and tropical, although the emphasis is on tropical rainforests. Rainforests are also attractive tourist spaces and where they have been used as a tourism resource have generated significant income for local communities. However not all use of rainforests as a tourism resource has been sustainable. This book argues that sustainability must be the foundation on which tourism use of this complex but ultimately fragile ecosystem must be built upon. It provides a multi-disciplinary perspective, incorporating rainforest science, management and tourism issues. The book is organized into four sections commencing with Rainforest Ecology and Management followed by People and Rainforests, Opportunities for Rainforest Tourism Development and finally Threats to Rainforests. Each major rainforest region is covered, including the Amazon, Central America, Africa, Australia and south-east Asia, in the context of a specific issue. For example rainforests in Papua New Guinea are examined in the context of community-based ecotourism development, while the rainforests in Borneo are discussed in an examination of wildlife issues. Other issues covered in this manner include governance, empowerment issues for rainforest peoples and climate change.

Originally published in 1988, Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries is an engaging and artfully illustrated history of an enigmatic assemblage of canyons and mesas tucked into the south-western corner of Colorado. Duane A. Smith recounts the dramatic 1888 "discovery" of the cliff dwellings and other Anasazi ruins and the ensuing twenty-year campaign to preserve them. Smith also details the resulting creation of a national park in 1906 and assesses the impact of more recent developments -- railroads and highways, air pollution, and the growing significance of tourism -- on the park's financial and ecological vitality. This revised and completely redesigned edition includes more than 50 illustrations and will be enjoyed by readers interested in environmental, Western, and Colorado history.

This book examines the political economy that governs the management of international transboundary river basins in the developing world. These shared rivers are the setting for irrigation, hydropower and flood management projects as well as water transfer schemes. Often, these projects attempt to engineer the river basin with deep political, socio-economic and environmental implications. The politics of transboundary river basin management sheds light on the challenges concerning sustainable development, water allocation and utilization between sovereign states. Advancing conceptual thinking beyond simplistic analyses of river basins in conflict or cooperation, the author proposes a new analytical framework. The Transboundary Waters Interaction NexuS (TWINS) examines the coexistence of conflict and cooperation in riparian interaction. This framework highlights the importance of power relations between basin states that determine negotiation processes and institutions of water resources management. The analysis illustrates the way river basin management is framed by powerful elite decision-makers, combined with geopolitical factors and geographical imaginations. In addition, the book explains how national development strategies and water resources demands have a significant role in shaping the intensities of conflict and cooperation at the international level. The book draws on detailed case studies from the Ganges River basin in South Asia, the Orange-Senqu River basin in Southern Africa and the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia, providing key insights on equity and power asymmetry applicable to other basins in the developing world.