Modeling and Mitigation Measures for Managing Extreme Hydrometeorological Events Under a Warming Climate explores the most recent computational tools, modeling frameworks, and critical data analysis measures for managing extreme climate events. Extreme climate events-primarily floods and droughts-have had major consequences in terms of loss of life and property around the world. Managing extreme occurrences, reducing their effects, and establishing adaptation strategies requires significant policy and planning improvements. This practical guide explores the latest research literature, recent advanced modeling approaches, and fundamental ideas and concepts to provide a variety of solutions for managing extreme events.

Identification and Ecology of Freshwater Arthropods in the Mediterranean Basin covers the entire Mediterranean basin, including parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean islands, but excluding other biogeographic locations with Mediterranean climates located outside the region. The book provides an extensive description of the taxonomy and ecology of aquatic arthropods encountered in lentic and lotic habitats, as well as in less studied underground and estuarine habitats. It offers expanded taxonomic identification keys to major groups of arthropods with a description of their ecology and distribution. Keys for insects include aquatic larval stages and water-dwelling adults of Coleoptera and Heteroptera. Additional sections focus on taxa that can be encountered in adjacent brackish and estuary ecosystems as long as the taxon primarily occurs in freshwaters. This is a much-needed, comprehensive resource on the taxonomy and ecology of freshwater arthropods with an introduction to recent molecular tools for identifications. It will be particularly useful for freshwater ecologists, limnologists, environmentalists and students in the ecological sciences.

The evolution of deep learning models, combined with with advances in the Internet of Things and sensor technology, has gained more importance for weather forecasting, plant disease detection, underground water detection, soil quality, crop condition monitoring, and many other issues in the field of agriculture. agriculture. Deep Learning for Sustainable Agriculture discusses topics such as the impactful role of deep learning during the analysis of sustainable agriculture data and how deep learning can help farmers make better decisions. It also considers the latest deep learning techniques for effective agriculture data management, as well as the standards established by international organizations in related fields. The book provides advanced students and professionals in agricultural science and engineering, geography, and geospatial technology science with an in-depth explanation of the relationship between agricultural inference and the decision-support amenities offered by an advanced mathematical evolutionary algorithm.

Advanced Organic Waste Management: Sustainable Practices and Approaches provides an integrated holistic approach to the challenges associated with organic waste management, particularly related to sustainability, lifecycle assessment, emerging regulations, and novel approaches for resource and energy recovery. In addition to traditional techniques, such as anaerobic digestion, composting, innovative and emerging techniques of waste recycling like hydrothermal carbonization and vermicomposting are included. The book combines the fundamentals and practices of sustainable organic waste management with successful case studies from developed and developing countries, highlighting practical applications and challenges. Sections cover global organic waste generation, encompassing sources and types, composition and characteristics, focus on technical aspects related to various resource recovery techniques like composting and vermicomposting, cover various waste-to-energy technologies, illustrate various environmental management tools for organic waste, present innovative organic waste management practices and strategies complemented by detailed case studies, introduce the circular bioeconomy approach, and more.

Resource Recovery in Industrial Waste Waters provides a holistic approach for discovering and harnessing valuable resources from industrial wastewaters, the cutting-edge technologies required, and a discussion on the new findings. In three volumes, the books stress the importance of contaminated waters' remediation, including surface waters, municipal or industrial wastewaters and treating these waters as a new source of nutrients, minerals and energy. It introduces polluted waters as new and sustainable sources, rather than seeing wastewaters as only a source of hazardous organic and inorganic matters. Sections discuss wastewater treatment and recovery and contribute to generate a sustainable approach of wastewater by providing the main advantages and disadvantages of both wastewater/polluted water treatment and recovery.

Resource Recovery in Drinking Water Treatment concentrates on techniques and methods for water purification. The book develops a new approach—resource recovery—toward drinking water, including the role of methods (adsorption, membrane, ion – exchange, biosorption, coagulation, etc.) and nanocomposites (such as biochar, sludge-based composites, chitosan, polymer, magnetic particles, etc.) in water resource recovery. It provides an in-depth overview on emerging water treatment techniques and the resource recovery of materials during the treatment process. Finally, the book aims to introduce polluted waters as new and sustainable sources rather than seeing wastewaters only a source of hazardous organic and inorganic matters. This book is part of a three-volume set that stresses the importance of contaminated water remediation, including surface waters, municipal or industrial wastewaters, and waters as a new source of nutrients, minerals and energy.

Resource Recovery in Municipal Waste Waters provides various municipal wastewater remediation methods and techniques to recover materials from such wastewaters. Sections cover the basic principles of resource recovery, along with the recovery of methane, phosphorous, electricity and metals. The volume covers comprehensive cutting-edge techniques for resource recovery and municipal wastewater treatment and reports on new findings in these areas. It also introduces polluted waters as new and sustainable sources rather than seeing wastewaters as a source of hazardous organic and inorganic matters. The main advantages and disadvantages of both wastewater/polluted water treatment and recovery are also discussed. This three-volume set stresses the importance of contaminated waters remediation, including surface waters, municipal or industrial wastewaters, treating these waters as a new source of nutrients, minerals and energy.

Electricity Decentralization in the European Union: Towards Zero Carbon and Energy Transition, Second Edition examines progress in decentralization across the European Union, with each chapter focusing on developments and innovations in a specific country. Sections provide an overview of the current role and state of smart grids, the conceptualization of energy transition, and specific cases across all EU states. Across the chapters, regulatory frameworks are assessed to identify to what extent it is conducive to decentralization, with specific outcomes of decentralization covered in detail, including deployment of smart grids and meters, demand response, electric vehicles, and storage. The book highlights how specific EU member states are progressing towards deployment of these tools and technologies, along with the specific needs and regulatory barriers in each and recommendations for how regulation can be more encouraging. In addition, electricity interconnections in the EU are considered as a vital step towards decentralization in order to boost energy security and energy efficiency. Finally, the book includes a detailed examination of data protection concerns that arise from the advent of new technologies that collect personal information, such as smart grids, assessing current regulation on data protection and identifying areas for improvement, as well as innovative finance options for sustainable energy.

Emerging Contaminants in Soil and Groundwater Systems: Occurrence, Impact, Fate and Transport addresses the current need for comprehensive and detailed information on emerging contaminants in the environment. Due to increasing industrial expansion and evolving technologies, novel contaminants are being found in the environment with little information on their analysis, fate and transport. This book covers pharmaceuticals and personal care products, perfluorinated compounds, engineered nanoparticles and microplastics, providing the information environmental scientists require to study their occurrence and interactions, including case studies for each contaminant. This book is a valuable read for postgraduate students, academics, researchers, engineers and other professionals in the fields of Environmental Science, Soil Science, and Hydrology who need the most up-to-date information and analytical methods for analyzing newly emerging contaminants in soil and groundwater.

The image of western ranchers making a stand for their "rights"-against developers, the government, "illegal" immigrants-may be commonplace today, but the political power of the cowboy was a long time in the making. In a book steeped in the culture, traditions, and history of western range ranching, Michelle K. Berry takes readers into the Cold War world of cattle ranchers in the American West to show how that power, with its implications for the lands and resources of the mountain states, was built, shaped, and shored up between 1945 and 1965. After long days working the ranch, battling human and nonhuman threats, and wrestling with nature, ranchers got down to business of another sort, which Berry calls "cow talk." Discussing the best new machinery; sharing stories of drought, blizzards, and bugs; talking money and management and strategy: these ranchers were building a community specific to their time, place, and work and creating a language that embodied their culture. Cow Talk explores how this language and its iconography evolved and how it came to provide both a context and a vehicle for political power. Using ranchers' personal papers, publications, and cattle growers association records, the book provides an inside view of how range cattle ranchers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana created a culture and a shared identity that would frame and inform their relationship with their environment and with society at large in an increasingly challenging, modernizing world. A multifaceted analysis of postwar ranch life, labor, and culture, this innovative work offers unprecedented insight into the cohesive political and cultural power of western ranchers in our day.

Databook of Surface Modification Additives, Second Edition contains data on ten groups of additives, including anti-scratch and mar-preventing additives, additives for surface tension reduction and wetting, hydrophobization additives, gloss enhancement and surface matting additives, additives for the formation of tack-free surface and tackifiers, and stain inhibiting additives. The information on each is divided into five sections, including General Information, Physical-Chemical Properties, Health and Safety, Ecological Properties, and Use and Performance. This data is provided for approximately 360 of the most important surface modification additives produced and used today. This databook will be an extremely useful resource for engineers, researchers and technicians interested in using additives to modify and improve the surface properties of materials.

Genome Engineering, Volume 52 in the Methods in Microbiology series, highlights new advances in the field with this new volume presenting interesting chapters written by an international board of authors. Topics covered include Whole genome transplantation in Mollicutes, Natural transformation as a tool in Acinetobacter baylyi: evolution by amplification of gene copy number, Natural transformation as a tool in Acinetobacter baylyi: streamlined engineering and mutational analysis, Methods to characterize cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters in Streptomyces, Genome engineering in bacteria: current and prospective applications, Tools for activation and identification of cryptic biosynthesis pathways in Streptomyces.

Emerging Trends to Approaching Zero Waste: Environmental and Social Perspectives thoroughly examines the impact of various technological innovations, current guidelines and social awareness on the reduction of waste, with the ultimate aim of achieving the zero-waste target. Insights in the book will help users adopt the best possible methodologies at grass-root levels and show how modern societal procedures are becoming sustainable, with a goal of zero waste. It comprehensively discusses the scientific contributions of the environmental and social sector, along with the tools and technologies available for achieving the zero-waste targets. This book is the first step toward understanding state-of-the-art practices in making the zero-waste goal a reality. It will be especially beneficial to researchers, academics, upper-level students, waste managers, engineers and managers of industries researching or hoping to implement zero-waste techniques.

In this contemporary world, urbanization, industrialization, and digitalization have drastically expanded to provide better living standards for human beings. The rate of change in technology is also very high, which introduces updated electronic devices very frequently in the market, which results in a huge garbage dump of e-waste. With the increase in the use of electronic devices, the e-waste generated over the globe is also increasing drastically, which becomes a barrier to sustainable development. Therefore, it is essential to formulate strategies and manage the e-waste generated from all sources to achieve sustainable goals. Sustainable Approaches and Strategies for E-Waste Management and Utilization assesses the activities involved in e-waste generation; identifies the potential impacts of e-waste on society, the economy, and the environment; and recommends appropriate e-waste handling and disposal measures following the rules of regulatory bodies. Covering key topics such as sustainable development, waste recovery, and innovation, this reference work is ideal for industry professionals, environmental scientists, administrators, policymakers, researchers, academicians, scholars, instructors, and students.

Transportation issues are often too complicated to be addressed by conventional parametric methods. Increasing data availability and recent advancements in machine learning provide new methods to tackle the challenging transportation problems. Readers will learn how to develop and apply different types of machine learning models to transportation related problems. Example applications include transportation data generations, traffic sensing, transportation mode recognition, transportation system management and control, traffic flow prediction, and traffic safety analysis.

An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping out planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI

When longtime AI expert and journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces.

But the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that it requires an unprecedented amount of proprietary resources: the ‘compute’ power of scarce high-end chips, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans on the ground ‘cleaning it up’ for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the need for energy and water underlying everything. We have entered a new, ominous age of empire with OpenAI setting a breakneck pace, as a small group of the most valuable companies in human history try to chase it down.

In exhilarating prose and with unparalleled access to those closest to Sam Altman, Hao recounts the meteoric rise of OpenAI and shows us the sinister impact that this industry is having on society.

Contaminants of emerging concern in the marine environment: current challenges in marine pollution reviews the available data in relation to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in the marine environment: main sources, transport pathways, distribution in seawater and sediments, bioaccumulation, and biological effects. Each chapter recaps the most relevant information about the main groups of CECs, describing the particularities and specificities of each group and focusing on the most relevant individual contaminants. CECs are not regulated substances, and therefore not considered in national and international monitoring programs, even though they may have a potential impact on the environment due to their continuous input, relative persistence, and/or toxicity. CECs are relevant not only in continental and coastal areas close to their main sources, but also in the open sea, because some of them are likely to be transported long distances through air deposition or absorbed into particulate material. The persistence of many degradable substances in the marine environment increases when they are absorbed into particulate material/sediments and/or when they are subjected to anaerobic conditions that slow down the degradation kinetic of many contaminants. Bioaccumulation of several CECs has been confirmed in different coastal organisms; however, in general, the information available (species and trophic levels considered) is very limited because most studies are mainly focused on specific coastal areas. This book offers useful information about not regulated contaminants that are not considered in international monitoring programs but have potential impacts in coastal and open-sea areas. Therefore reading the book will allow them to improve their view about the real impact of current-use contaminants in the marine environment.

Progress in Sustainable Development: Sustainable Engineering Practices provides readers with the latest research and best practices in sustainable engineering in the fields of urban, environmental, energy and sustainability sciences, reflecting a focus on state-of-the art insights and the latest developments. Chapters focus on the key engineering principles of effective resource use, reduction of excess waste, and taking advantage of natural resources to equip readers with the background information and practical considerations of successful implementations of sustainable technical solutions. Each chapter features detailed case studies and figures showing real-world applications of the latest technologies, ensuring they are reproduceable by the reader. The multidisciplinary chapters include environmentally-friendly technologies and the application of novel initiatives in engineering for infrastructure, renewable energy generation, advanced materials and waste, among other areas, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and conservation of resources.

Agricultural Soil Sustainability and Carbon Management presents long-term research in the field of sustainable soil use and management to guide in the prioritizing the multifunctional value of soil health and addressing interdisciplinary links between major issues such as biodiversity and climate change. As soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, as well as a significant contributor of greenhouse gases, much progress can be made toward curtailing the climate crisis by sustainable soil management practices.The book provides valuable insight into the soil and carbon management, the research gaps and the methodological challenges for research into soil carbon management will be include over the decades.

Physics and Ecology in Fluids: Modeling and Numerical Experiments develops mathematical and numerical modeling methodologies for coupled biological-hydrodynamic problems with a focus on process studies. The modeling is presented in a way that discusses mathematical background but does not depend on a large body of mathematical pre-requisites or experience. Models are built up from simple, to complex. This includes discussion of approximations and shortcuts commonly made by large computational models for natural bodies of water. Computational approaches are presented using conceptual explanations and pseudo-code along with well-documented, open-source code. Over a dozen codes that run locally on the reader's laptop provide hands on experience with various aspects of the modeling process and its scientific results. One large-scale code for basin scale modeling based on the Discontinuous Galerkin methodology is presented, along with a self-contained discussion of theoretical background and implementation details. Physics and Ecology in Fluids is written for graduate students, academic researchers and government scientists. Professors can use the book as a stand-alone resource for a one term graduate course, or to supplement teaching of their own graduate courses. All readers may also use the book as background/user's guide for the software included with the book.

Managing Mining and Minerals Processing Wastes: Concepts, Design and Applications presents fundamental knowledge in waste management in mining and minerals processing and summarizes recent advances. The book offers readers insights into innovative ways to manage waste in the mining and minerals industry. Sections cover a brief introduction to this topic and an explanation of waste generation, and how to manage the six types of waste, including waste rock, mill tailings, coal refuse and coal fly ash, quarry waste, metallurgical slugs and washery rejects. The title then emphasizes the management of hazardous waste, the acid mine drainage and the lifecycle assessment of waste management. Finally, the book considers current and emerging challenges. This publication offers a comprehensive background to waste management in mining and minerals processing and a summary of recent advances and innovative strategies for managing each kind of waste.

Water, Land, and Forest Susceptibility and Sustainability, Volume 2: Insight Towards Management, Conservation and Ecosystem Services brings an interdisciplinary perspective to solving complex problems in sustainability, utilizing the latest research and technologies, and includes case studies that emphasize the applications of remote sensing, GIS, and image processing for addressing the current state and future needs to achieve sustainability. As forests, land, and water are among the most precious resources on earth, emphasizing the need to conserve them for future generations and, of course, a safe and sustainable planet. The assessment of the susceptibility of all these three precious resources must therefore be addressed to inform their sustainable management. This second volume focuses on environmental management, conservation, and ecosystem services and provides information on forest, land, and water resources, presenting in integrated manner various aspects of their characterization, susceptibility, and sustainability.

Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges addresses the waste and by-product valorization of fruits and vegetables, beverages, nuts and seeds, dairy and seafood. The book focuses its coverage on bioactive recovery, health benefits, biofuel production and environment issues, as well as recent technological developments surrounding state of the art of food waste management and innovation. The book also presents tools for value chain analysis and explores future sustainability challenges. In addition, the book offers theoretical and experimental information used to investigate different aspects of the valorization of agri-food wastes and by-products. Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges will be a great resource for food researchers, including those working in food loss or waste, agricultural processing, and engineering, food scientists, technologists, agricultural engineers, and students and professionals working on sustainable food production and effective management of food loss, wastes and by-products.

Electrification: Accelerating the Energy Transition offers a widely applicable framework to delineate context-sensitive pathways by which this transition can be accelerated and lists the types of processes and structures that may hinder progress towards this goal. The framework draws insights from well-established literature, ranging from technological studies to socio-technical studies of energy transitions, on to strategic niche management approaches, (international) political economy approaches, and institutionalist literatures, while also adopting wider social theoretical ideas from structuration theory. Contributors discuss a multitude of case studies drawn from global examples of electrification projects. Brief case studies and text boxes help users further understand this domain and the technological, infrastructural and societal structures that may exercise significant powers.