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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Pollution & threats to the environment
This book provides a comprehensive approach to all aspects of water-related subjects affected by climate change that expand readers' attitudes toward future of the management strategies and improve management plans. It summarizes climate change scenarios, models, downscaling methods, and how to select the appropriate method. It also introduces practical steps in assessing climate change impacts on water issues through introducing hydrological models and climate change data applications in hydrologic analysis. The book caters to specialist readers who are interested in analyzing climate change effects on water resources, and related issues can gain a profound understanding of the practical concepts and step-by-step analysis, which is enriched with real case studies all around the world. Moreover, readers will be familiar with potential mitigation and adaptation measures in sustainable water engineering, considering the results of hydrologic modeling.
This book provides comprehensive description of polymeric membranes in water treatment and remediation. It describes both the sustainability challenges and new opportunities to use membranes for water decontamination. It also discusses the environmental-related issues, challenges and advantages of using membrane-based systems and provides comprehensive description of various polymeric membranes, nanomaterials, biomolecules and their integrated systems for wastewater treatment. Various topics covered in this book are direct pressure-driven and osmotic-driven membrane processes, hybrid membrane processes (such as membrane bioreactors and integrating membrane separation with other processes), and resource recovery-oriented membrane-based processes. The book will be useful for students, researchers and professionals working in the area of materials science and environmental chemistry.
Managing Global Warming: An Interface of Technology and Human Issues discusses the causes of global warming, the options available to solve global warming problems, and how each option can be realistically implemented. It is the first book based on scientific content that presents an overall reference on both global warming and its solutions in one volume. Containing authoritative chapters written by scientists and engineers working in the field, each chapter includes the very latest research and references on the potential impact of wind, solar, hydro, geo-engineering and other energy technologies on climate change. With this wide ranging set of topics and solutions, engineers, professors, leaders and policymakers will find this to be a valuable handbook for their research and work.
In this thesis, a new lidar (light detection and ranging) ceilometer capable of monitoring cloud base and sensitive to boundary layer aerosols is introduced. The key to this novelty lies in its divided-lens design that addresses a classical lidar problem of balancing transmitter-receiver overlap and signal-to-noise ratio, along with a method for characterizing overlap in the laboratory. Enhanced sensitivity in the near-range of the instrument is achieved without compromising signal-to-noise in a design that is straightforward to manufacture for broad deployment. The instrument, its optical characterization, and its performance in the field are described. The prototype instrument described here has since formed the basis of a commercial sensor for monitoring clouds and aerosols. High-resolution, continuous observations of clouds and aerosols are needed to reduce the large uncertainties in our current understanding of their influence on climate that have been highlighted by the International Panel on Climate Change. And as international health organizations indicate growing public health threats over the coming decades resulting from poor air quality, extensive aerosol monitoring is required to assess personal exposure to and the health impacts of anthropogenic particulates. Ground-based optical remote sensing measurements made by well-characterized instruments, such as that described in these pages, are critical to this.
Since their first industrial use polymers have gained a tremendous success. The two volumes of "Polymers - Opportunities and Risks" elaborate on both their potentials and on the impact on the environment arising from their production and applications. Volume 11 "Polymers - Opportunities and Risks I: General and Environmental Aspects" is dedicated to the basics of the engineering of polymers - always with a view to possible environmental implications. Topics include: materials, processing, designing, surfaces, the utilization phase, recycling, and depositing. Volume 12 "Polymers - Opportunities and Risks II: Sustainability, Product Design and Processing" highlights raw materials and renewable polymers, sustainability, additives for manufacture and processing, melt modification, biodegradation, adhesive technologies, and solar applications. All contributions were written by leading experts with substantial practical experience in their fields. They are an invaluable source of information not only for scientists, but also for environmental managers and decision makers.
This book presents detailed discussions concerning the environmental footprints of various packaging systems and materials, life cycle assessments of packaging, sustainable design of various packaging systems and materials, as well as the biodegradation of various packaging materials.
This book investigates radiocesium movement in all major components of forest ecosystems, e.g. the plants, animals, insects, microorganisms, and soils, during the initial stage of contamination after the incident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Most of the work was conducted at a common research site. More specifically, the book examines the contribution of surface uptake by trees in the dynamics of radiocesium during the initial contamination stage; the movement of radiocesium in the form of small organic fragments that are essential to the radiocesium dynamics in forest ecosystems; and the upward movement of radiocesium due to microorganism activity, which promotes the effective decontamination of the forest floor. Lastly, it explains why spiders could be a valuable indicator of the contamination level in forest ecosystems.
Transport causes a wide range of damage to human health, ecosytems and materials which are not reflected in the prices for transport. Thus, the damage caused by cars, planes, ships and trains should be known and transformed into monetary values, so called external costs. Within this book, a method to estimate the external costs stemming from the emissions of atmospheric pollutants of transport, including damage from greenhouse gases, fine particles, ozone, nitrous oxides, benzene and other carcinogenic substances, is described and applied to calculate the external costs of a huge number of current and future transport techniques operating in different locations all over Europe. A number of case studies demonstrate how the results can be used to aid policy decisions. The book is an important basis for assessing transport techniques, discussing transport taxes and charges and implementing ecopolitical instruments.
This book examines ways of conserving, managing, and interacting with plant and animal resources by Native American cultural groups of the Pacific Coast of North America, from Alaska to California. These practices helped them maintain and restore ecological balance for thousands of years. Building upon the authors' and others' previous works, the book brings in perspectives from ethnography and marine evolutionary ecology. The core of the book consists of Native American testimony: myths, tales, speeches, and other texts, which are treated from an ecological viewpoint. The focus on animals and in-depth research on stories, especially early recordings of texts, set this book apart. The book is divided into two parts, covering the Northwest Coast, and California. It then follows the division in lifestyle between groups dependent largely on fish and largely on seed crops. It discusses how the survival of these cultures functions in the contemporary world, as First Nations demand recognition and restoration of their ancestral rights and resource management practices.
This book is one of the outcomes of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop "Approaches to handling environmental problems in the mining and metallurgical regions of NIS countries" held in Mariupol, Ukraine on 5-7 September 2002. It include papers written by some of the leading specialists in the field of mining and metallurgy, and by environment specialists who are active in this sector. Readers will notice that some common environmental problems seen in the mining and metallurgical industries are described and that their influence on the health of the population are discussed. Examples of best practice in the field are given both from EU countries and from Central and Eastern European nations, especially from the Newly Independent States (NIS). Some of the latest technologies involved in the elimination of hazardous emissions, in sewage treatment and the handling of wastes in the metallurgical and mining industries are presented and we hope that they may open the way for more West-East, East-West and East-East technology and know-how exchange. In preparing this book, thanks are due to Marina Butorina, Linda Doring and Olaf Gramkow for their competent advice in respect of translations, lay-out and handling of the texts. We also grateful to NATOs Scientific Affairs Division for the support with the workshop, whose benefits are already being felt in both Mariupol and elsewhere in Eastern Europe."
The main purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the subject of solar activity and the connection with Earth's climate. It commences with a brief review of the historical progress on the understanding of the solar-terrestrial connection and moves on to an objective scrutiny of the various hypothesis. The text focuses on how knowledge about the solar cycle and Earth's climate is obtained. It includes discussion of observations, methods and the physics involved, with the necessary statistics and analysis also provided, including an examination of empirical relations between sunspots and the Earth's climate. The author reviews plausible physical mechanisms involved in any links between the solar cycle and the Earth's climate, emphasizing the use of established scientific methods for testing hypothesized relationships.
Around the world, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly "the new normal" and are expected to increase in the 21st century as a result of climate change. Extreme weather events have devastating impacts on human lives and national economies. This book examines ways to protect people from hazards using early warning systems, and includes contributions from experts from four different continents representing 14 different universities, 8 government agencies and two UN agencies. Chapters detail critical components of early warning systems, ways to identify vulnerable communities, predict hazards and deliver information. Unique satellite images illustrate the transnational impact of disasters, while case studies provide detailed examples of warning systems. With contributors from the fields of economics, ethics, meteorology, geography and biology, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in disaster risk reduction or climate change.
The soil is the medium through which pollutants originating from human activities, both in agriculture and industry, move from the land surfaces to groundwater. Polluting substances are subject to complex physical, chemical and biological transformations during their movement through the soil. Their displacement depends on the transport properties of the water-air-soil system and on the molecular properties of the pollutants. Prediction of soil pollution and restoration of polluted soils requires an under standing of the processes controlling the fate of pollutants in the soil medium and of the dynamics of the contaminants in the un saturated zone. Our book was conceived. as a basic overview of the processes governing the behavior of pollutants as affected by soil constituents and environmental factors. It was written for the use of specialists working on soil and unsaturated zone pollution and restoration, as well as for graduate students starting research in this field. Since many specialists working on soil restoration lack a back ground in soil science or a knowledge of the properties of soil pollutants, we have included this information which forms the first part of the book. In the second part, we discuss the partitioning of pollutants between the aqueous, solid and gaseous phase of the soil medium. The retention, transformation and transport of pollutants in the soils form the third section."
"Models are often the only way of interpreting measurements to in vestigate long-range transport, and this is the reason for the emphasis on them in many research programs." B. E. A. Fisher: "A review of the processes and models of long-range transport of air pollutants," Atmospheric Environment, 17(1983), p. 1865. Mathematical models are (potentially, at least) powerful means in the efforts to study transboundary transport of air pollutants, source-receptor relationships and efficient ways of reducing the air pollution to acceptable levels. A mathematical model is a complicated matter, the development of which is based on the use of (i) various mechanisms describing mathematically the physical and chemical properties of the studied phenomena, (ii) different mathematical tools (first and foremost, partial differenti al equations), (iii) various numerical methods, (iv) computers (especially, high-speed computers), (v) statistical approaches, (vi) fast and efficient visualization and animation techniques, (vii) fast methods for manipulation with huge sets of data (input data, intermediate data and output data)."
This book provides relevant findings on nanoparticles' toxicity, their uptake, translocation and mechanisms of interaction with plants at cellular and sub-cellular level. The small size and large specific surface area of nanoparticles endow them with high chemical reactivity and intrinsic toxicity. Such unique physicochemical properties draw global attention of scientists to study potential risks and adverse effects of nanoparticles in the environment. Their toxicity has pronounced effects and consequences for plants and ultimately the whole ecosystem. Plants growing in nanomaterials-polluted sites may exhibit altered metabolism, growth reduction, and lower biomass production. Nanoparticles can adhere to plant roots and exert physicochemical toxicity and subsequently cell death in plants. On the other hand, plants have developed various defense mechanisms against this induced toxicity. This books discusses recent findings as well as several unresolved issues and challenges regarding the interaction and biological effects of nanoparticles. Only detailed studies of these processes and mechanisms will allow researchers to understand the complex plant-nanomaterial interactions.
This text offers information on the theory of major drinking water treatment processes and contains real-life practical examples. It aims to create guidelines for the design of unit processes that operate within an overall framework for water treatment plants.
The central topic of the book is to present the state of the art and future development of environmental enantioselective trace analysis. Areas such as toxicology, ecotoxicology, synthetic chemistry, biology, physics are also covered in detail in order to explain the different properties of enantiomers in environmental samples. This monograph delivers a comprehensive survey for environmental trace analysts, analytical chemists, ecotoxicologists, food scientists and experienced laboratory personnel.
The book focuses on the key contemporary issue of Climate change, constructing the narrative from traditions' of Urbanism through its Axiology and Epistemology. The book is a rich collection of seven chapters and attempts to address each of the aspects and building further for traditional Urbanism. The book further explores the synergies of traditional urbanism for Climate change through climate responsive practices with main thrust on Energy use. The said understanding is validated through the case example of walled city of Jaipur: World Heritage Site 2019. The chapters enumerate how the traditional urbanism of Jaipur was designed that evolved as climate responsive typology for the respective geography.
This book is an original, accessible, and thought-provoking introduction to the severe and broad-ranging challenges that climate change presents and how societies can respond. It synthesizes and deploys cutting-edge scholarship on the range of social, economic, political, and philosophical issues surrounding climate change. The treatment is introductory, but the book is written "with attitude", for nobody has yet charted in coherent, integrative, and effective fashion a way to move societies beyond their current paralysis as they face the challenges of climate change. The coverage begins with an examination of science, public opinion, and policy making, with special attention to organized climate change denial. The book then moves to economic analysis and its limits; different kinds of policies; climate justice; governance at all levels from the local to the global; and the challenge of an emerging "Anthropocene" in which the mostly unintended consequences of human action drive the earth system into a more chaotic and unstable era. The conclusion considers the prospects for fundamental transition in ideas, movements, economics, and governance.
This book theorizes the role of optimism in anthropological thinking, research, writing, and practice. It sets out to explore optimism's origins and implications, its conceptual and practical value, and its capacity to contribute to contemporary anthropological aims. In an era of extensive ecological disruption and social distress, this volume contemplates how an optimistic anthropology can energize the discipline while also contributing to bettering the lives, communities, and environments of those we study. It brings together scholars diverse in background, career stage, and theoretical approach in a collective attempt to comprehend the myriad intersections of anthropology and optimism. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have recently underscored the larger, longer-term catastrophes of climate change, ecosystemic collapse, social injustice, and antipathy towards scientific knowledge and those who produce it. In this context, exceedingly few anthropologists feel comfortable observing and documenting passively while their research communities face unrelenting waves of (un)natural disasters. We need to act. But we also need to hope. Discontent with the state of the world and cultural anthropology's turn to increasingly positive, future-oriented, and engaged work have converged to unleash a courageously optimistic anthropology. This book is a timely springboard for this impactful and emergent approach. |
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