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.

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.

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.

This book explores conservation practices on private land, based on research conducted with landholders in the hinterlands of Melbourne, Australia. It examines how conservation is pursued as an intimate interaction between people and ecologies, suggesting that local ecologies are lively participants in this process, rather than simply the object of conservation, and that landholders develop their ideas of environmental stewardship through this interaction. The book also explores the consequences of private property as a form of spatial organisation for conservation practice; the role of formative interactions with ecologies in producing durable experiential knowledge; how the possibilities for contemporary conservation practice are shaped by historical landscape modification; and how landholders engage with conservation covenants and payment schemes as part of their conservation practice. The authors conclude with ideas on how goals and approaches to private land conservation might be reframed amid calls for just social and ecological outcomes in an era of rapid environmental change.

One word binds us all: geography. We are all geographers, human beings who care about the places we think of as 'home' - our habitat. And yet we have lost touch with the connection between our actions and the state of the planet that we all share. We need a new narrative that restores the connections between humanity and the Earth. We are being confronted by a daily barrage of geographical stories on climate change, geopolitics, population growth, migration, dwindling resources, polluted oceans and natural hazards. These are planetary concerns affecting all people and all places. They are challenges which can be addressed through geography. In this distillation of a lifetime's work, Nicholas Crane makes the compelling case that never has geography been so important. On this finite orb, with its battered habitat, sustained in dark space by a thin, life-giving atmosphere, we have reached a point in our collective geographical journey where knowledge is the best guarantor of the future.

Spatial Thinking in Environmental Contexts: Maps, Archives, and Timelines cultivates the spatial thinking "habit of mind" as a critical geographical view of how the world works, including how environmental systems function, and how we can approach and solve environmental problems using maps, archives, and timelines. The work explains why spatial thinking matters as it helps readers to integrate a variety of methods to describe and analyze spatial/temporal events and phenomena in disparate environmental contexts. It weaves together maps, GIS, timelines, and storytelling as important strategies in examining concepts and procedures in analyzing real-world data and relationships. The work thus adds significant value to qualitative and quantitative research in environmental (and related) sciences. Features Written by internationally renowned experts known for taking complex ideas and finding accessible ways to more broadly understand and communicate them. Includes real-world studies explaining the merging of disparate data in a sensible manner, understandable across several disciplines. Unique approach to spatial thinking involving animated maps, 3D maps, GEOMATs, and story maps to integrate maps, archives, and timelines—first across a single environmental example and then through varied examples. Merges spatial and temporal views on a broad range of environmental issues from traditional environmental topics to more unusual ones involving urban studies, medicine, municipal/governmental application, and citizen-scientist topics. Provides easy to follow step-by-step instructions to complete tasks; no prior experience in data processing is needed.

Raised on its banks and an avid sailor, Caroline Crampton sets out to rediscover the enigmatic pull of the Thames by following its course from the river's source in a small village in Gloucestershire, through the short central stretch beloved of Londoners and tourists alike, to the point where it merges with the North Sea. As she navigates the river's ever-shifting tidal waters, she seeks out the stories behind its unique landmarks, from the vast Victorian pumping stations that carried away the capital's waste and the shiny barrier that holds the sea at bay, to the Napoleonic-era forts that stand on marshy ground as eerie relics of past invasions. In spellbinding prose, she reveals the histories of its empty warehouses and arsenals; its riverbanks layered with Anglo-Saxon treasures; and its shipwrecks, still inhabited by the ghosts of the drowned. The Way to the Sea is at once a fascinating portrait of an iconic stretch of water and a captivating introduction to a new voice in British non-fiction.

The Contested Floodplain tells the story of institutional changes in the management of common pool resources (pasture, wildlife, and fisheries) among Ila and Balundwe agro-pastoralists and Batwa fishermen in the Kafue Flats, in southern Zambia. It explains how and why a once rich floodplain area, managed under local common property regimes, becomes a poor man's place and a degraded resource area. Based on social anthropological field research, the book explains how well working institutions in the past, regulating communal access to resources, have turned into state property and open access or privatization. As a basis for analysis, the author uses Elinor Ostrom's design principles for well working institutions and the approach of the New Institutionalism by Jean Ensminger. The latter approach focuses on external factors and change in relative prices. It explains how local actors face changing bargaining power and use different ideologies to legitimize and shape resource use regulations. The study focuses on the historic developments taking place since pre-colonial and colonial times up to today. Haller shows how the commons had been well regulated by local institutions in the past, often embedded in religious belief systems. He then explains the transformation from common property to state property since colonial times. When the state is unable to provide well functioning institutions due to a lack in financial income, it contributes to de facto open access and degradation of the commons. The Zambian copper-based economy has faced crisis since 1975, and many Zambians have to look for economic alternatives and find ways to profit from the lack of state control (a paradox of the present-absent state). And while the state is absent, external actors use the ideology of citizenship to justify free use of resources during conflicts with local people. Also within Zambian communities, floodplain resources are highly contested, which is illustrated through conflicts over a proposed irrigation scheme in the area. The different actors and interest groups use ideologies such as citizenship vs. being indigenous, ethnic identity vs. class conflict, and modernity vs traditional way of life to legitimize land claims.

Process-based models open the way to useful predictions of the future growth rate of forests and provide a means of assessing the probable effects of variations in climate and management on forest productivity. As such they have the potential to overcome the limitations of conventional forest growth and yield models, which are based on mensuration data and assume that climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations will be the same in the future as they are now. This book discusses the basic physiological processes that determine the growth of plants, the way they are affected by environmental factors and how we can improve processes that are well-understood such as growth from leaf to stand level and productivity. A theme that runs through the book is integration to show a clear relationship between photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrient requirements, transpiration, water relations and other factors affecting plant growth that are often looked at separately. This integrated approach will provide the most comprehensive source for process-based modelling, which is valuable to ecologists, plant physiologists, forest planners and environmental scientists.

A clear, concise discussion of today's hottest topics in climate change, including adapting to climate change and geo-engineering to mitigate the effects of change, Engineering Response to Climate Change, Second Edition takes on the tough questions of what to do and offers real solutions to the practical problems caused by radical changes in the Earth's climate. From energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions reduction, to climate-altering technologies, this new edition explores the latest concerns such as acidification of the ocean, energy efficiency, transportation, space solar power, and future and emerging possibilities. The editors set the stage by discussing the separate issues of the emissions of radiatively important atmospheric constituents, energy demand, energy supply, agriculture, water resources, coastal hazards, adaption strategies, and geo-engineering. They explain the difference between the natural and human drivers of climate change and describe how humans have influenced the global climate during past decades. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions, calculations, and possible research topics. See What's in the Second Edition: New conceptual tools and research necessary for problems associated with fossil fuels Cutting-edge topics such as adaption and geo-engineering The latest concerns such as acidification of the ocean, energy efficiency, transportation, and space solar power Solutions to problems caused by changes in the Earth's climate So much has changed in the 15 years since the publication of the first edition, that this is, in effect, a completely new book. However, the general theme is the same: the climate energy problem has become largely an engineering problem. With this in mind, the book explores what engineers can do to prevent, mitigate, or adapt to climate change.

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.

Living Shorelines: The Science and Management of Nature-based Coastal Protection compiles, synthesizes and interprets the current state of the knowledge on the science and practice of nature-based shoreline protection. This book will serve as a valuable reference to guide scientists, students, managers, planners, regulators, environmental and engineering consultants, and others engaged in the design and implementation of living shorelines. This volume provides a background and history of living shorelines, understandings on management, policy, and project designs, technical synthesis of the science related to living shorelines including insights from new studies, and the identification of research needs, lessons learned, and perspectives on future guidance. Makes recommendations on the correct usage of the term living shorelines Offers guidance for shoreline management in the future Includes lessons learned from the practice of shoreline restoration/conservation Synthesizes regional perspectives to identify strategies for the successful design and implementation of living shorelines Reviews specific design criteria for successful implementation of living shorelines Provides detailed discussions of social, regulatory, scientific and technical considerations to justify and design living shoreline projects International perspectives are presented from leading researchers and managers in the East, West and Gulf coasts of the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia that are working on natural approaches to shoreline management. The broad geographic scope and interdisciplinary nature of contributing authors will help to facilitate dialogue and transfer knowledge among different disciplines and across different regions. This book provides coastal communities with the scientific foundation and practical guidance necessary to implement effective shoreline management that enhances ecosystem services and coastal resilience now and into the future.

This book breaks the ground in Geographical texts by transcending a strictly regional or topical focus. It presents the opportunities and constraints that mountains and their resources offer to local and global populations; the impacts of environmental and economic change, development and globalisation on mountain environments. Part of the Ecogeography series edited by Richard Hugget

Weather provides a wide variety of stimuli for our senses. The sound of thunder and gales, the smell of damp soil at the start of a summer thunderstorm are but temporary phenomena while the visual panorama of the changing sky that provides a more revealing insight into the workings of the dynamic atmosphere. Understanding Weather shows how it is possible to understand weather and climate by combining our ability to observe weather systems from the earth's surface with visualisation from above - notably by means of satellite imagery. This fusion of human observation with the contrasting capabilities of remote sensing gives us a new perspective for exploring the three dimensional atmosphere. Remote sensing imagery and real-time weather information are now widely available through the internet, allowing the reader to relate the case studies to today's weather situation. As with all sciences, understanding starts with careful observation. This books aims to show that it is possible to analyse global weather systems through a visual approach rather than the traditional use of mathematics and physics. After examining the interaction of atmospheric heat, moisture and motion in a non-technical style, the contrasting but complementary techniques of weather observation from 'below' and 'above' are compared. The world's climates are then surveyed with key weather features illustrated by satellite imagery, highlighting the way in which weather events may develop into atmospheric hazards.

This book offers a comprehensive and detailed summary of our knowledge and understanding of glaciers and sets them within a global environment context. The text explains the significance both of recent advances in glaciology, and of teh many research problms that remain to be solved. The accessible style adopted in the text facilitates a clear understanding of glaciers and the role they play in global issues such as environmental change, geoorphology and hydrology. The use of complex mathematics is avoided as the reader is introduced to important concepts and techniques in modern glaciology such as deforming beds, migrating ice-divides and stable isotope analysis. This is an essential reference book for sutdents, professional geologists and researchers and would be ideal for those who want either a rapid up-date or an introduction to the subject. The books' discussion of recent discoveries and of reserch issues for the future, supported by a thorough reference list, enables readers to pursue their own areas of particular interest.

The book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the physical processes which, according to the present state of knowledge, determine the evolution of coastal systems and their response to human interventions. This response depends to a large degree on the self-organising properties of coastal dynamics, which form a leading theme throughout the book. The basic theoretical ideas are explained in text and figures and also in formulas for the more mathematically inclined reader. Theories are illustrated with examples from estuaries, coastal lagoons, beaches and tidal flat systems from all over the world. The rules and simple models can be used directly without relying on complex computations; much attention is given to the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying theories and their limits of applicability. The book is fully self-contained; some knowledge of basic physics and mathematics is recommended. The book is an upgrade of the first edition. Most parts are rewritten and chapters are added to incorporate research results, new insight and experience of the past ten years. This book is intended for everyone interested in coastal systems for professional or educational reasons.

The book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the physical processes which, according to the present state of knowledge, determine the evolution of coastal systems and their response to human interventions. This response depends to a large degree on the self-organising properties of coastal dynamics, which form a leading theme throughout the book. The basic theoretical ideas are explained in text and figures and also in formulas for the more mathematically inclined reader. Theories are illustrated with examples from estuaries, coastal lagoons, beaches and tidal flat systems from all over the world. The rules and simple models can be used directly without relying on complex computations; much attention is given to the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying theories and their limits of applicability. The book is fully self-contained; some knowledge of basic physics and mathematics is recommended. The book is an upgrade of the first edition. Most parts are rewritten and chapters are added to incorporate research results, new insight and experience of the past ten years. This book is intended for everyone interested in coastal systems for professional or educational reasons.

As coastal populations burgeon, problems of erosion, pollution and coastal change are becoming ever more serious and necessitate scientifically informed management strategies. This authoritative new study discusses the causes of, and possible solutions to, some of the more pressing problems at the coast, against a background of the natural geomorphological and ecological workings of coastal environments. A holistic approach to the understanding of coastal problems is suggested, which integrates geomorphology, ecology and society through a consideration of the basic processes at work. Coastal problems are caused by both human and natural impacts, often working in conjunction with each other; thus drawing on their wide experience of temperate and tropical coasts the authors consider all types of coastal problems, ranging from those produced entirely naturally to those where the human impact dominates. Extensive use is made of case studies drawn from around the world, from beach erosion along the Nigerian coast to the recovery of the Vietnamese mangroves from war damage. A major theme of the book is that, given recent downgrading of predictions of future sea level rise, it is the distinctive geomorphological, ecological and societal aspects of each coast which are the vital factors. 'Coastal Problems' brings together material vital to any attempts to understand and manage our coasts and will be of interest to all those concerned with the environment and its management.

First Published in 1978, The Circumpolar North is designed for anyone with a more than superficial interest in the northern regions of our planet, geographical, economic, social, or political. The primary importance of North today is as a source of raw materials, as a world crossroads, and as a touchstone of the way nations behave towards their minority groups. Strategic considerations have led to the expenditure of vast sums of money; but world population expansion has not yet affected the northlands and their preservation in a natural state is still a feasible objective. The authors are experts in their own areas and have provided regional chapters on each of the land and ocean areas. The book compares the different approaches of the countries involved and deals also, in the context of the northern seas, with another political dimension – the relations between nations and their success in achieving international management of resources. This is an interesting read for scholars of geography, international relations and international economics.

The soil is a fundamental constituent of the Earth's system, maintaining a careful state of equilibrium within the biosphere. However, this natural balance is being increasingly disturbed by a variety of anthropogenic and natural processes, leading to the degradation of many soil environments. Soil Management provides a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the many problems, challenges and potential solutions facing soil management in the twenty-first century. Covering a range of topics, including erosion, desertification, salinization, soil structure, carbon sequestration, acidification and chemical pollution, the book also develops a prognosis for the future of soil management in the face of growing populations and global warming. Written with the needs of students in mind, each chapter provides a broad overview of a problem, analyses approaches to its solution and concludes with references and suggestions for further reading. Soil Management will be of great value to environmental science and geography undergraduates taking soil management courses in their second or third year.

Why do we travel? Are holidays good for our health? What are the social and psychological factors that drive us to move? The Psychology of Travel provides an eclectic introduction to the range of travel experiences from commuting, to going on holiday, to studying abroad. Travel is a near-universal experience and manifests itself in various forms, from everyday experiences to exotic adventure, although it varies across time and cultures. The book unpacks the concept of travel, and engages with topics including migration, wellbeing, acculturation, wayfinding, slow travel, place attachment and nostalgia, and brings them into sharp focus in relation to globalisation and climate change, By asking what drives us to journey and offering key insights into the psychological factors behind different kinds of travel, The Psychology of Travel introduces the reader to new ways of thinking about global mobility and movement.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Large river systems throughout the planet have been dramatically transformed due to river control projects such as large dams and embankments. Unlike other major human impacts like anthropogenic climate change, the alteration of river systems has been deliberate and planned by a small, powerful set of experts. Taking India as a case study, this book examines the way experts transform the planet through their discourse by their advocacy of river projects. This book identifies the spatial aspects of the norms through which the ideal river and the deficient river in need of control are produced. The role of governmental rationality in explaining the seemingly irrational and counter-productive effects of large projects like Kosi river embankments is considered. Finally using autobiographical material, the subjectivity of expert advice is examined, questioning its presumed objectivity. By examining the different subjective stances arising from the same body of expertise, this book discusses the consequences this has for river control specifically and for the relation between expertise and environmental change in general.