Volume 3 covers recent research with expanded coverage on this important area of remediation. Mycoremediation is the form of bioremediation in which fungi-based technology is used to decontaminate the environment. Fungi are among the primary saprotrophic organisms in an ecosystem, as they are efficient in the decomposition of organic matter. Wood-decay fungi, especially white rot, secretes extracellular enzymes and acids that break down lignin and cellulose. Fungi have been proven to be a very cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way for helping to remove a wide array of toxins from damaged environments or wastewater. These toxins include heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, textile dyes, leather tanning industry chemicals and wastewater, petroleum fuels, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides and herbicides, in land, fresh water and marine environments. Bioremediation of toxic organics by fungi is the most sustainable and green route for cleanup of contaminated sites and we discuss the multiple modes employed by fungi for detoxification of different toxic and recalcitrant compounds including prominent fungal enzymes viz., catalases, general lipase, laccases, peroxidases and sometimes intracellular enzymes, especially the cyrochrome P450 monooxygeneses. Fungi play an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of manganese and other redox-active metals, which is related to their ability to survive radiation and other oxidative challenges. This book covers recent research with more detail on the various types of fungi and associated fungal processes used to clean up wastes and wastewaters in contaminated environments, and discusses their potential for environmental applications.

Since 2008, the Global Center of Excellence (COE) at Kyoto University, Japan, has been engaged in a program called "Energy Science in the Age of Global Warming-Toward a CO2 Zero-Emission Energy System." Its aim is to establish an international education and research platform to foster educators, researchers, and policy makers who can develop technologies and propose policies for establishing a CO2 zero-emission society no longer dependent on fossil fuels. It is well known that the energy problem cannot simply be labeled a technological one, as it is also deeply involved with social and economic issues. The establishment of a "low-carbon energy science" as an interdisciplinary field integrating social sciences with natural sciences is necessary. The Global COE is setting out a zero-emission technology roadmap and is promoting socioeconomic studies of energy, studies of new technologies for renewable energies, and research for advanced nuclear energy. It has also established the Global COE Unit for Energy Science Education to support young researchers as they apply their skills and knowledge and a broad international perspective to respond to issues of energy and the environment in our societies. Comprising the proceedings of the Third International Symposium of the Global COE Program, this book follows on the earlier volumes Zero-Carbon Energy Kyoto 2009 and 2010, published in March 2010 and February 2011, respectively.

The assessment of greenhouse gases emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on the international political and scientific agendas. Growing international concern and cooperation regarding the climate change problem have increased the need for policy-oriented solutions to the issue of uncertainty in, and related to, inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed here reflect attempts to improve national inventories, not only for their own sake but also from a wider, systems analytical perspective - a perspective that seeks to strengthen the usefulness of national inventories under a compliance and/or global monitoring and reporting framework. These approaches demonstrate the benefits of including inventory uncertainty in policy analyses. The authors of the contributed papers show that considering uncertainty helps avoid situations that can, for example, create a false sense of certainty or lead to invalid views of subsystems. This may eventually prevent related errors from showing up in analyses. However, considering uncertainty does not come for free. Proper treatment of uncertainty is costly and demanding because it forces us to make the step from "simple to complex" and only then to discuss potential simplifications. Finally, comprehensive treatment of uncertainty does not offer policymakers quick and easy solutions.

Flash floods typically develop in a period a few hours or less and can arise from heavy rainfall and other causes, such as dam or flood defence breaches, and ice jam breaks. The rapid development, often associated with a high debris content, can present a considerable risk to people and property. This book describes recent developments in techniques for monitoring and forecasting the development of flash floods, and providing flood warnings. Topics which are discussed include rainfall and river monitoring, nowcasting, Numerical Weather Prediction, rainfall-runoff modelling, and approaches to the dissemination of flood warnings and provision of an emergency response.

The book is potentially useful on civil engineering, water resources, meteorology and hydrology courses (and for post graduate studies) but is primarily intended as a review of the topic for a wider audience.

This book presents a global overview examining monsoon variability in South Asia, Australian, South America and North American, as well as a focus on glaciers and monsoon systems. Monsoon systems are important components of the Earth's climate and play fundamental roles in water and energy balances. The variability and changes in the monsoons affect millions of people and the economies of many countries. This book presents the physical mechanisms involved with monsoon systems, including recent modeling advances addressing climate changes and future projections. The Monsoons and Climate Change will be of interest to both graduate students and researchers.

Nitrous oxide gas is a long-lived relatively active greenhouse gas (GHG) with an atmospheric lifetime of approximately 120 years, and heat trapping effects about 310 times more powerful than carbon dioxide per molecule basis. It contributes about 6% of observed global warming. Nitrous oxide is not only a potent GHG, but it also plays a significant role in the depletion of stratospheric ozone. This book describes the anthropogenic sources of N2O with major emphasis on agricultural activities. It summarizes an overview of global cycling of N and the role of nitrous oxide on global warming and ozone depletion, and then focus on major source, soil borne nitrous oxide emissions. The spatial-temporal variation of soil nitrous oxide fluxes and underlying biogeochemical processes are described, as well as approaches to quantify fluxes of N2O from soils. Mitigation strategies to reduce the emissions, especially from agricultural soils, and fertilizer nitrogen sources are described in detail in the latter part of the book.

An extensive evaluation of emission control technologies, models for estimating air emissions, and properties and categorization of wastes.

Personal Sustainability Practices is a collection of 19 academic and practitioner perspectives on the topic of faculty personal sustainability. The book addresses the issues of whether, how, where, and when faculty who teach, research, consult, and perform academic and community service are, or need to be, practicing and communicating their own sustainability behaviors to students and other stakeholders. The contributors represent multiple countries, disciplines, academic levels and affiliations, and orientations on those issues and on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to their personal sustainability practices. The chapter contributions highlight the several main concepts of systems, internal and external integration, curriculum development, and social movements. The key takeaway is that many sustainability scholars are practicing and communicating a wide variety of sustainability actions but that greater consistency and frequency among faculty sustainability values, expression, and actions are generally possible and necessary, and that further exploration of this overall topic is encouraged. Current faculty and doctoral students in the field of environmental or socio-economic sustainability, as well as business, government and nonprofit organization executives who interact with said faculty, will be inspired by the examination of values and personal practices.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

Urban areas in Arctic Russia are experiencing unprecedented social and ecological change. This collection outlines the key challenges that city managers will face in navigating this shifting political, economic, social, and environmental terrain. In particular, the volume examines how energy production drives a boom-bust cycle in the Arctic economy, explores how migrants from Muslim cultures are reshaping the social fabric of northern cities, and provides a detailed analysis of climate change and its impact on urban and industrial infrastructure.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

Most of the world s mountains are rich in water and, as such, play a pivotal role in the global water cycle. They provide water for diverse human uses and ecosystems. Growing water demands as well as climate change will lead to ever-increasing pressure on mountain waters. Overcoming water-use conflicts and maintaining the ecological functioning of mountain waters presents a highly challenging task and is indispensable for sustainable development.
This book extensively portrays the highly diverse attributes of mountain waters and demonstrates their paramount importance for ecological and societal development. The extensive summaries on the scientific basics of mountain waters are supplemented with considerations on the diverse water uses, needs for management actions, and challenges regarding sustainable water management. This overview concerns not only the mountain areas themselves but also downriver reaches and their surrounding lowlands, and, therefore, the relationship between mountain and lowland water issues."

This book describes the concepts, strategies and techniques for pulse-crop improvement in the era of climate change, highlighting the latest advances in plant molecular mapping and genome sequencing. Genetic mapping of genes and QTLs has broadened the scope of marker-assisted breeding and map-based cloning in almost all major pulse crops. Genetic transformation, particularly using alien genes conferring resistance to herbicide, insects and diseases has facilitated the development of a huge number of genetically modified varieties of the major pulse crops. Since the genome sequencing of rice in 2002, genomes of over 7 pulse crops have been sequenced. This has resulted in the possibility of deciphering the exact nucleotide sequence and chromosomal positions of agroeconomic genes. Most importantly, comparative genomics and genotyping-by-sequencing has opened up a new vista for exploring wild crop relatives for identification of useful donor genes.

This is the first book combining research on the Global Environment, Catastrophic Risks and Economic Theory and Policy. Modern economic theory originated in the middle of the twentieth century when industrial expansion coupled with population growth led to a voracious use of natural resources and global environmental concerns. It is uncontested that, for the first time in recorded history, humans dominate the planet, changing the planet's atmosphere, its bodies of water, and the complex web of species that makes life on earth. This radical change in circumstances led to rethinking of the foundations of human organization and, in particular, the industrial economy and the economic theory behind it. This book brings together new approaches on multiple levels: environmental sustainability requires rethinking in terms of economic theory and policy as well as the considerations of catastrophic risk and extremal events. Leading experts address questions of economic governance, risk management, policy decision making and distribution across time and space.

Because we are living in an era of Green Science and Technology, developments in the field of bio- and nano- polymer composite materials for advanced structural and medical applications is a rapidly emerging area and the subject of scientific attention. In light of the continuously deteriorating environmental conditions, researchers all over the world have focused an enormous amount of scientific research towards bio-based materials because of their cost effectiveness, eco-friendliness and renewability. This handbook deals with cellulose fibers and nano-fibers and covers the latest advances in bio- and nano- polymer composite materials. This rapidly expanding field is generating many exciting new materials with novel properties and promises to yield advanced applications in diverse fields. This book reviews vital issues and topics and will be of interest to academicians, research scholars, polymer engineers and researchers in industries working in the subject area. It will also be a valuable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students at institutes of plastic engineering and other technical institutes.

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

This updated and revised new edition of Assessing Climate Change deals with the full gamut of essential questions in relation to global warming and climate change, uniquely providing a balanced and impartial discussion of this controversial subject. It shows that most of what is "known"about the Sun, historical climates and projections for the future lacks foundation and leaves great room for doubt. Assessing Climate Change (3rd Edition) examines the credibility of the global climate models which accuse greenhouse gases of causing the temperature rise of the 20th century, and provides a better understanding of the uncertainties regarding what might lie ahead in the future. Carefully considering the "evidence" brought forward by both alarmists and skeptics, this book: * has been brought completely up to date to end 2013; * examines the measurements of near surface temperatures on Earth and how much we can rely on them; * includes hundreds of graphs showing the data; * compares the current global warming trend with past climate fluctuations; * provides a systematic review of climate change in nearly all of its aspects; * expands the discussion of potential impacts of global warming (from whatever cause); * includes nearly 1000 references specific to the climate literature.

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

This edited book responds to the need for a better understanding of how climate change affects North America and for the identification of processes, methods and tools that may help countries and communities to develop a more robust adaptive capacity. It showcases successful examples of how to manage the social, economic and environmental complexities posed by climate change. The book attempts to synthesize various branches of resilience and adaptation scholarship into a cohesive text that highlights field research and best practices that are shaping policy and practice in a wide geography from the coastal conditions of the Caribbean to the thawing landscape of the Arctic Circle.

A Guardian 'Top 10 Nature Memoirs' pick 'Poetic and heartful' Guardian Icelandic author and activist Andri Snaer Magnason's 'Letter to the Future', an extraordinary and moving eulogy for the lost Okjoekull glacier, made global news and was shared by millions. Now he attempts to come to terms with the issues we all face in his new book On Time and Water. Magnason writes of the melting glaciers, the rising seas and acidity changes that haven't been seen for 50 million years. These are changes that will affect all life on earth. Taking a path to climate science through ancient myths about sacred cows, stories of ancestors and relatives and interviews with the Dalai Lama, Magnason allows himself to be both personal and scientific. The result is an absorbing mixture of travel, history, science and philosophy.

In 2013 several scientific activities have been devoted to mathematical researches for the study of planet Earth. The current volume presents a selection of the highly topical issues presented at the workshop "Mathematical Models and Methods for Planet Earth", held in Roma (Italy), in May 2013. The fields of interest span from impacts of dangerous asteroids to the safeguard from space debris, from climatic changes to monitoring geological events, from the study of tumor growth to sociological problems. In all these fields the mathematical studies play a relevant role as a tool for the analysis of specific topics and as an ingredient of multidisciplinary problems. To investigate these problems we will see many different mathematical tools at work: just to mention some, stochastic processes, PDE, normal forms, chaos theory.

in Congress - are not considered, they may affect future energy programs just as they have past programs. Finally, potentially ruinously costly increases in energy imports force attention to the problem of how major public policy plans have been and are prepared in the United States. A witches' brew of some 500 energy bills proposed in the 110th C ongress in the House and Senate is now being stirred up. This "inspirational" approach to public policymaking bears little resemblance to the thoughtful way critical policies have been developed in the EU. A change of the way major national planning is undertaken may do more than anything else to bring facts and reality into play, reduce hostilities, open up cooperation, new resources, technologies, creative energies, and productivity toward energy policy transitions. Chapter 6 Foreign Experience 6. 1 The European Union and Other Nations Take the Lead "The EU has pioneered a new form of post-national government, in which nation-states pool some of their sovereignty for the common good. Many of its admirers see this as a useful potential model for Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China-Taiwan, Latin America, parts of Africa and so on. The EU takes some issues, like human rights, global warming and the fostering of an international system of justice, with admirable seriousness . . . . . . Considering the kind of Europe it replaced, the EU has been an almost miraculous success (Walker, 2007).

Urbanization drastically alters the ecosystems structure and functions, disrupts cycling of C and other elements along with water. It alters the energy balance and influences climate at local, regional and global scales. In 2008, urban population exceeded the rural population. In 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban centers. The number of megacities (10 million inhabitants) increased from three in 1975 to 19 in 2007, and is projected to be 27 in 2025. Rapid urbanization is altering the ecosystem C budget. Yet, urban ecosystems have a large C sink capacity in soils and biota. Judicious planning and effective management can enhance C pool in urban ecosystems, and off-set some of the anthropogenic emissions. Principal components with regards to C sequestration include home lawns and turfs, urban forests, green roofs, park and recreational/sports facilities and urban agriculture.

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

In its latest Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) projects that without further action the global average surface t- perature would rise by a further 1. 8-4. 0 DegreesC until the end of this century. But even if the rise in temperature could be limited to the lower end of this range, irreversible and possibly catastrophic changes are likely to occur. Consequently, the protection of the earth's atmosphere requires substantial efforts to reduce CO and other green- 2 house gas emissions - especially in countries with very high per capita emissions. To limit the imminent rise in temperature, in the Kyoto-Protocol, the European Union has committed itself to reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases by 8% up to 2008-2012 compared to 1990 levels. Within the EU burden sharing agr- ment, some countries have to achieve even higher emissions reductions. Germany was assigned a reduction target of 21%. The entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in February 2005 marks a first step towards meting global climate targets, but more ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed after 2012, when the Kyoto targets expire. Under German presidency, the EU has committed itself to unilaterally reduce its greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 by 20%. In case a Post- Kyoto agreement can be reached, the EU reduction target would be 30% (CEU, 2007).