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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere
Rivers are significant geomorphological agents, they show an
amazing diversity of form and behaviour and transfer water and
sediment from the land surface to the oceans. This book examines
how river systems respond to environmental change and why this
understanding is needed for successful river management. Highly
dynamic in nature, river channels adjust and evolve over timescales
that range from hours to tens of thousands of years or more, and
are found in a wide range of environments. This book provides a
comprehensive overview of recent developments in river channel
management, clearly illustrating why an understanding of fluvial
geomorphology is vital in channel preservation, environmentally
sensitive design and the restoration of degraded river channels. It
covers: flow and sediment regimes: flow generation; flow regimes;
sediment sources, transfer and yield channel processes: flow
characteristics; processes of erosion and sediment transport;
interactions between flow and the channel boundary; deposition
channel form and behaviour: controls on channel form; channel
adjustments; floodplain development; form and behaviour of alluvial
and bedrock channels response to change: how channels have
responded to past environmental change; impacts of human activity;
reconstructing past changes river management: the fluvial
hydrosystem; environmental degradation; environmentally sensitive
engineering techniques; river restoration; the role of the fluvial
geomorphologist. Fundamentals of Fluvial Geomorphology is an
indispensable text for undergraduate students. It provides
straightforward explanations for important concepts and
mathematical formulae, backed up with conceptual diagrams and
appropriate examples from around the world to show what they
actually mean and why they are important. A colour plate section
also shows spectacular examples of fluvial diversity.
Changing concentrations of greenhouse gasses are key to our
changing climate. Biogochemical Cycles and Climate examines the
interaction of the main biogeochemical cycles of the earth with the
physics of climate from the perspective of the earth as an
integrated system. Biogeochemical cycles play a fundamental role in
the Earth's system - they describe the movement of matter and
transfer of energy around the planet. This text aims to answer some
fundamental questions. How have the cycles of key nutrients, such
as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and water changed, both in the
geological past and more recently through the impact of humans on
the Earth System? How do these cycles interact with each other and
affect the physical properties of climate? How can we use this
knowledge to mitigate some of the impacts of changing
biogeochemistry on climate, and the Earth's habitability and
resilience? Understanding the complex interactions of
biogeochemistry with the Earth's climate is crucial for
understanding past and current changes in climate and above all,
for the future sustainable management of our planet.
The Elizabeth River courses through the heart of Virginia. The
Jamestown colonists recognized the river's strategic importance and
explored its watershed almost immediately after the 1607 founding.
The Elizabeth River traces four centuries of this historic stream's
path through the geography and culture of Virginia.
European explorers were captivated by the seemingly endless bounty
of natural resources on Cape Cod Bay. One Englishman declared that
the codfish were so thick one "could" walk on their backs. Early
settlers quickly learned how to harness the bay's resources and
excelled at shore whaling, shipping and salt making. But as these
new industries flourished, the native Wampanoag, who helped the
fledgling colony to take root, nearly vanished. Author Theresa
Mitchell Barbo's skillful narrative weaves together the natural and
cultural histories of the bay, highlighting some of the region's
diverse milestones- from the drafting of the Mayflower Compact in
1620 to the establishment of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant 350
years later. "Cape Cod Bay: A History of Salt & Sea" inspires
new appreciation for this storied and stunning seascape, and
underscores the importance of new efforts to preserve the bay's
unique ecosystem.
The year is 1973 and changes are afoot in Great Yarmouth and
Brokencliff-on-Sea as the New Year comes in with bang! Return to a
simpler time when family holidays at the seaside were still fun and
electronic devices had never been heard of. The only sound that was
heard was the gentle lapping of the waves, the gulls circling
above, and the trot of the horse's hooves along the promenade and
music from the funfairs.
Water is all around us. It moves through the water cycle. It brings
water to all parts of the planet. Every living thing needs water to
survive. Introduce students to the water cycle with this science
reader that features easy-to-read text. Nonfiction text features
include a glossary, index, and detailed images to facilitate close
reading and help students connect back to the text. Aligned to
state and national standards, the book also includes a fun and
engaging science experiment to develop critical thinking and help
students practice what they have learned.
Urban Hydroinformatics: Data, Models and Decision Support for
Integrated Urban Water Management is an introduction to
hydroinformatics applied to urban water management. It shows how to
make the best use of information and communication technologies for
manipulating information to manage water in the urban environment.
The book covers the acquisition and analysis of data from urban
water systems to instantiate mathematical models or calculations,
which describe identified physical processes. The models are
operated within prescribed management procedures to inform decision
makers, who are responsible to recognized stakeholders. The
application is to the major components of the urban water
environment, namely water supply, treatment and distribution,
wastewater and storm water collection, treatment and impact on
receiving waters and groundwater, and urban flooding. Urban
Hydroinformatics pays particular attention to modeling, decision
support through procedures, economics and management, and
implementation in developing countries. The book is written with
Post-graduate students, researchers and practicing engineers in all
aspects of urban water management in mind. Visit the IWA WaterWiki
to read an article by the authors:
http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Articles/Urbanhydroinformatics
This title is now available in Hardback: please note change of ISBN
from 9781843392743 to 9781780401362.
Not far from Seattle skyscrapers live 150-year-old clams, more than
250 species of fish, and underwater kelp forests as complex as any
terrestrial ecosystem. For millennia, vibrant Coast Salish
communities have lived beside these waters dense with nutrient-rich
foods, with cultures intertwined through exchanges across the
waterways. Transformed by settlement and resource extraction, Puget
Sound and its future health now depend on a better understanding of
the region's ecological complexities. Focusing on the area south of
Port Townsend and between the Cascade and Olympic mountains,
Williams uncovers human and natural histories in, on, and around
the Sound. In conversations with archaeologists, biologists, and
tribal authorities, Williams traces how generations of humans have
interacted with such species as geoducks, salmon, orcas, rockfish,
and herring. He sheds light on how warfare shaped development and
how people have moved across this maritime highway, in canoes, the
mosquito fleet, and today's ferry system. The book also takes an
unflinching look at how the Sound's ecosystems have suffered from
human behavior, including pollution, habitat destruction, and the
effects of climate change. Witty, graceful, and deeply informed,
Homewaters weaves history and science into a fascinating and
hopeful narrative, one that will introduce newcomers to the
astonishing life that inhabits the Sound and offers longtime
residents new insight into and appreciation of the waters they call
home. A Michael J. Repass Book
A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week 'A subject that could not be more
important. A compact classic!' Bill McKibben 'I learned something
new - and found something amazing - on every page' Anthony Doerr,
author of All the Light We Cannot See From Pulitzer Prize winner
Annie Proulx - whose novels are infused with her knowledge and deep
concern for the earth - comes an urgent and riveting history of
wetlands, their ecological role and how the loss of them threatens
the planet. Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth's
most desirable and dependable resources, and in four illuminating
parts Proulx documents the emergence of their systemic destruction
in the pursuit of profit and the consequent release of their stored
carbon. Wide-ranging and idiosyncratic, Proulx's explanation of
wetlands takes readers to the fens of sixteenth-century England,
Canada's Hudson Bay Lowlands, Russia's Great Vasyugan Mire and
America's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and introduces the
nineteenth-century explorers who launched the ravaging of the
Amazon rainforest. Proulx was born in the 1930s, a time, as she
says, when 'in the ever-continuing name of progress, Western
countries busily raped their own and other countries of minerals,
timber, fish and wildlife.' Fen, Bog & Swamp is both a
revelatory history and an urgent plea for wetland reclamation from
a writer whose passionate devotion to observing and preserving the
environment is on glorious display. 'Magnificent, bringing to life
hitherto overlooked habitats' Guardian 'Proulx's sparkling book
will open your eyes to humanity's reckless trashing of wetlands'
Telegraph 'A haunting tribute ... Proulx's poetic description of
these places, and peat itself, is a pleasure to read' Financial
Times
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