Increasingly, neural networks are used and implemented in a wide range of fields and have become useful tools in probabilistic analysis and prediction theory. This booka "unique in the literaturea "studies the application of neural networks to the analysis of time series of sea data, namely significant wave heights and sea levels. The particular problem examined as a starting point is the reconstruction of missing data, a general problem that appears in many cases of data analysis.

Specific topics covered include:

* Presentation of general information on the phenomenology of waves and tides, as well as related technical details of various measuring processes used in the study

* Description of the model of wind waves (WAM) used to determine the spectral function of waves and predict the behavior of SWH (significant wave heights); a comparison is made of the reconstruction of SWH time series obtained by means of neural network algorithms versus SWH computed by WAM

* Principles of artificial neural networks, approximation theory, and extreme-value theory necessary to understand the main applications of the book.

* Application of artificial neural networks (ANN) to reconstruct SWH and sea levels (SL)

* Comparison of the ANN approach and the approximation operator approach, displaying the advantages of ANN

* Examination of extreme-event analysis applied to the time series of sea data in specific locations

* Generalizations of ANN to treat analogous problems for other types of phenomena and data

This book, a careful blend of theory and applications, is an excellent introduction to the use of ANN, which may encourage readers to try analogous approachesin other important application areas. Researchers, practitioners, and advanced graduate students in neural networks, hydraulic and marine engineering, prediction theory, and data analysis will benefit from the results and novel ideas presented in this useful resource.

Water circulates continuously and seamlessly on Earth with little regard for the boundaries we draw. There are natural boundaries as between land and ocean and surface and subsurface environments, as well as human or demographic boundaries between nations, cultures, and religions. Although considered necessary by societies, these human-created boundaries disrupt natural water circulation, leading to serious water-related environmental problems. The dilemma of how to manage water beyond our boundaries remains, and nations have different ways and means of controlling each form of water, whether as vapor, surface water, groundwater, or seawater. Recent findings on the interaction of water from land, oceans, and the atmosphere encourage researchers to undertake collaborative work that goes beyond the boundaries of each discipline, be it oceanography, surface and subsurface hydrology, climatology, or glaciology. Drawing on all these fields, the book focuses on two major boundaries: that between surface water and ground water, and that between terrestrial water and ocean water. This comprehensive work is of great value to experts in academia, international organizations, consulting firms, water resources, fisheries, and urban development planning agencies.

A source of up-to-date information on current water resources, their quality and quantity, in every country in the Balkans. Institutional structures, water management issues and water monitoring problems are analyzed, with special reference to international waters, using characteristic case studies, including the Sava River, Lake Ohrid, The Nestos/Mesta River, the Neretva River estuary, and coastal waters in Turkey. Contributions written by experts from France, the UK and the USA demonstrate state-of-the-art electronic networking and the management of distributed water databases. The protection of water resources in the Balkans has become a high profile issue since the collapse of communism in the area, the break up of former Yugoslavia, and ethnic tensions in Kosovo. Transboundary river pollution and the development of international water basins call demand urgent regional co-operation, which will be facilitated by the International Network of Water-Environment Centres for the Balkans, the initiation of which is described in the final conclusions of the book.

- spans the last fifty years of fisheries policy in Europe - the parting contribution and career spanning reflection from one of Europe’s most renowned social scientists working in this field - explains why the bold but deeply flawed Common Fisheries Policy persistently failed to deliver its basic goal of sustainable fisheries - a final section on Brexit focuses on the implications for the fisheries sector and the fateful final negotiations with the EU over the fisheries question - essential reading for students, scholars, professionals and policymakers working on fisheries, marine governance, natural resource management, environmental policy and the European Project

Current models of groundwater governance focus principally on the allocation of water, rather than taking a holistic approach incorporating valuable storage space in the aquifer, as well as the transformative changes in managed recharge of manufactured water, storm water, and carbon. Effective implementation of a more modern approach now calls for rethink of both scale and jurisdictional boundaries. This involves linking public and private aspects of water quantity, water quality, geothermal regulation, property rights, subsurface storage rights, water marketing, water banking, legal jurisdictions, and other components into a single governance document. This style of agreement stands in contrast to the siloed approach currently applied to aquifer resources. Using case studies, and an activity inspired by gaming concepts to explore the incentives, and challenges to aquifer governance approaches, this book demonstrates how application of the principles of unitization agreements to aquifers could provide a new approach to aquifer governance models.

This book portrays the Himalayan-born River Saraswati, a legendary river that was the lifeline of a progressive and vibrant society for more than three thousand years. Written in simple language and richly illustrated, it highlights the events that resulted in the robbing of the Saraswati of its water and the end of a wonderful culture. The author weaves a geological narrative out of a mass of data generated by explorers, archaeologists, sedimentologists, geohydrologist, seismologists and remote-sensing specialists. The story explains how a great Himalayan river disappeared and how the Harappan Civilization vanished from the banks of the river Saraswati more than three and half thousand years ago in the wake of tectonic upheavals in the foothills of the Himalaya at a time when the rainfall had drastically declined. And it reveals that nowadays the Saraswati is an extraordinary wide water-less channel coursing through the vast but dry floodplain in western India.

This book provides a complete and current overview of the correlation between ocean conditions and human health, publishing comprehensively for the first time on the direct interactions among oceanography, marine biology and impacts on human health. Specifically the text addresses how changing ocean conditions result in health impacts and disruptions, with a focus on cases in the USA. The changing ocean conditions that are discussed include diminishing marine biodiversity, climactic changes such as intensified weather events, shifting sea currents and increasing sea temperature. The book addresses the resulting health issues brought about by these various ocean conditions, such as emerging infectious diseases, starvation and poisoning among impacted communities, toxic algae blooms, threatened ecosystems, and other future implications. The text was developed in conjunction with scientists from Brown University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Riverside and Ochsner Health, all located in areas deeply impacted by the changing Oceans. The book will be of interest to marine research scientists, health care professionals, students, and general enthusiasts of oceanography and health.

This book uses the Lagrangian approach, especially useful and convenient for studying large-scale transport and mixing in the ocean, to present a detailed view of ocean circulation. This approach focuses on simulations and on monitoring the trajectories of fluid particles, which are governed by advection equations. The first chapter of the book is devoted to dynamical systems theory methods, which provide the framework, methodology and key concepts for the Lagrangian approach. The book then moves on to an analysis of chaotic mixing and cross-stream transport in idealized models of oceanic meandering currents like the Gulfstream in the Atlantic, the Kuroshio in the Pacific, and Antarctic Circumpolar Current, after which the current state of physical oceanography is reviewed. The latter half of the book applies the techniques and methods already described in order to study eddies, currents, fronts and large-scale mixing and transport in the Far-Eastern seas and the north-western part of the Pacific Ocean. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of Lagrangian simulation and monitoring of water contamination after the Fukushima disaster of 2011. The propagation of Fukushima-derived radionuclides, surface transport across the Kuroshio Extension current, and the role of mesoscale eddies in the transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean are examined, and a comparison of simulation results with actual measurements are presented.Written by some of the world leaders in the application of Lagrangian methods in oceanography, this title will be of benefit to the oceanographic community by presenting the necessary background of the Lagrangian approach in an accessible manner.

Marine biological science is now studied at the molecular level and although research scientists depend on information gained using molecular techniques, there is no book explaining the philosophy of this approach. Molecular Approaches to the Study of the Ocean introduces the reasons why molecular technology is such a powerful tool in the study of the oceans, describing the types of techniques that can be used, why they are useful and gives examples of their application. Molecular biological techniques allow phylogenetic relationships to be explored in a manner that no macroscopic method can; although the book deals with organisms near the base of the marine food web, the ideas can be used in studies of macroorganisms as well as those in freshwater environments.

Most of the world's freshwater resources in the liquid state (i.e. not in glaciers and polar caps) are underground. As the population grows and demand for water rises, reliance on groundwater increases. In many cases the groundwater underlies boundaries, or is part of a hydraulic system that crosses boundaries. In such cases there is always the danger that the 'prisoner's dilemma' will run its course and all parties will compete over who will pump the most water, ultimately destroying the storage potential to the detriment of future generations of all parties reliant on the groundwater. This book explores the options and means for averting this all too realistic scenario by managing these shared groundwater resources. Nowhere is the likelihood of excessive use of groundwater greater than in the water-scarce Middle East, and especially in the Israeli-Palestinian case. Here both sides are heavily reliant on a shared aquifer, the Mountain aquifer. This book is the outcome of a seven-year effort to find ways to manage the Mountain aquifer, perhaps the most important resource shared by Israelis and Palestinians. As part of this cooperative study, four workshops were held in which a selected number of Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign experts were invited. The chapters in this book were originally presented in one of these workshops. To these papers introductory and concluding chapters were added.

Floods constitute a persistent and serious problem throughout the United States and many other parts of the world. They are responsible for losses amounting to billions of dollars and scores of deaths annually. Virtually all parts of the nation--coastal, moun tainous and rural--are affected by them. Two aspects of the problem of flooding that have long been topics of scientific inquiry are flood frequency and risk analyses. Many new, even improved, tech niques have recently been developed for performing these analyses. Nevertheless, actual experience points out that the frequency of say a 100-year flood, in lieu of being encountered on the average once in one hundred years, may be as little as once in 25 years. It is there fore appropriate to pause and ask where we are, where we are going and where we ought to be going with regard to the technology of flood frequency and risk analyses. One way to address these questions is to provide a forum where people from all quarters of the world can assemble, discuss and share their experience and expertise pertaining to flood frequency and risk analyses. This is what constituted the motivation for organizing the International Symposium on Flood Frequency and Risk Analyses held May 14-17, 1986, at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana."

A wide variety of problems are associated with the flow of shallow water, such as atmospheric flows, tides, storm surges, river and coastal flows, lake flows, tsunamis. Numerical simulation is an effective tool in solving them and a great variety of numerical methods are available. The first part of the book summarizes the basic physics of shallow-water flow needed to use numerical methods under various conditions. The second part gives an overview of possible numerical methods, together with their stability and accuracy properties as well as with an assessment of their performance under various conditions. This enables the reader to select a method for particular applications. Correct treatment of boundary conditions (often neglected) is emphasized. The major part of the book is about two-dimensional shallow-water equations but a discussion of the 3-D form is included. The book is intended for researchers and users of shallow-water models in oceanographic and meteorological institutes, hydraulic engineering and consulting. It also provides a major source of information for applied and numerical mathematicians.

How do the oceans work? Essentials of Oceanography, Eleventh Edition, takes an interdisciplinary approach to help students answer this question. The latest edition brings together the interrelated spheres that compose Earth's systems as they relate to the oceans: geological, chemical, physical, and biological. Trujillo and Thurman balance rigor and accessibility, combining in-depth discussions of oceanographic concepts with highly visual and interactive study aids to demystify the science for the non-science student. This unique combination has made Essentials of Oceanography the best-selling brief book-and one of the best-sellers overall-in oceanography.

The Arctic region has long held a fascination for explorers and scientists of many countries. Despite the numerous voyages of exploration, the na ture of the central Arctic was unknown only 90 years ago; it was believed to be a shallow sea dotted with islands. During Nansen's historic voyage on the polarship Fram, which commenced in 1893, the great depth of the central basin was discovered. In the Soviet Union, investigation of the Arctic Ocean became national policy after 1917. Today research at several scientific institutions there is devoted primarily to the study of the North Polar Ocean and seas. The systematic exploration of the Arctic by the United States com menced in 1951. Research has been conducted year-round from drifting ice islands, which are tabular fragments of glacier ice that break away from ice shelves. Most frequently, ice islands originate off the northern coast of Ellesmere Island. These research platforms are occupied as weather sta tions, as well as for oceanographic and geophysical studies. Several inter national projects, conducted by Canadian, European, and U. S. groups, have been underway during the last three decades. Although much new data have accumulated since the publication of the Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Arctic Seas volume in 1974 (Yvonne Herman, ed. ), in various fields of polar research-including present-day ice cover, hydrogra phy, fauna, flora, and geology-many questions remain to be answered.

Floods constitute a persistent and serious problem throughout the United States and many other parts of the world. They are responsible for losses amounting to billions of dollars and scores of deaths annually. Virtually all parts of the nation--coastal, moun tainous and rural--are affected by them. Two aspects of the problem of flooding that have long been topics of scientific inquiry are flood frequency and risk analyses. Many new, even improved, tech niques have recently been developed for performing these analyses. Nevertheless, actual experience points out that the frequency of say a 100-year flood, in lieu of being encountered on the average once in one hundred years, may be as little as once in 25 years. It is therefore appropriate to pause and ask where we are, where we are going and where we ought to be going with regard to the technology of flood frequency and risk analyses. One way to address these ques tions is to provide a forum where people from all quarters of the world can assemble, discuss and share their experience and expertise pertaining to flood frequency and risk analyses. This is what con stituted the motivation for organizing the International Symposium on Flood Frequency and Risk Analyses held May 14-17, 1986, at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana."

Numerical simulation models have become indispensable in hydro- and environmental sciences and engineering. This monograph presents a general introduction to numerical simulation in environment water, based on the solution of the equations for groundwater flow and transport processes, for multiphase and multicomponent flow and transport processes in the subsurface as well as for flow and transport processes in surface waters. It displays in detail the state of the art of discretization and stabilization methods (e.g. finite-difference, finite-element, and finite-volume methods), parallel methods, and adaptive methods as well as fast solvers, with particular focus on explaining the interactions of the different methods. The book gives a brief overview of various information-processing techniques and demonstrates the interactions of the numerical methods with the information-processing techniques, in order to achieve efficient numerical simulations for a wide range of applications in environment water.

This book will cover the fundamental principles of measuring oceans from space, but will contain state-of-the-art developments in data analysis and interpretation and in sensors. Completely new will be material covering advances in oceanography that have grown out of remote sensing, including some of the global applications of the data. The variety of applications of remotely sensed data to ocean science has grown significantly and new areas of science are emerging to exploit the gobal datasets being recovered by satellites, particularly in relation to climate and climate change, basin-scale, air-sea interaction processes (e.g. El Niño) and the modelling, forecasting and prediction of the ocean.

Increasing population and industrialization are the key pollutant contributors in water bodies. The wastes generated by industries are highly hazardous for humans and the ecosystem and require a comprehensive and effective treatment before being discharged into water bodies. Over the years, many up gradations have been introduced in traditional water treatment methods which were expensive and ineffective especially for removal of toxic pollutants. Phycoremediation has been gaining attention due to its mutual benefit in wastewater treatment and for valuable algae biomass production. Wastewater, especially sewage and industrial effluents, is rich in pathogenic organisms, organic and inorganic compounds and heavy metals that adversely affect human and aquatic life. Microalgae use these inorganic compounds and heavy metals for their growth. In addition, they also reduce pathogenic organisms and release oxygen to be used by bacteria for decomposition of organic compounds in a secondary treatment. In this book, the potential of microalgae in wastewater treatment, their benefits, strategies, and challenges are discussed. The increasing need of finding innovative, low-cost, low-energy, sustainable and eco-friendly solutions for wastewater treatment makes the publication of a book on phycoremediation timely and appropriate. Features: (1) Deals with the most emerging aspects of algal research with special reference to phycoremediation. (2) Studies in depth diversity, mutations, genomics and metagenomics study (3) An eco-physiology, culturing, microalgae for food and feed, biofuel production, harvesting of microalgae, separation and purification of biochemicals.

This book presents a new suite of benchmarks for and examples of porous media mechanics collected over the last two years. It continues the assembly of benchmarks and examples for porous media mechanics published in 2014. The book covers various applications in the geosciences, geotechnics, geothermal energy, and geological waste deposition. The analysis of thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes is essential to many applications in environmental engineering, such as geological waste deposition, geothermal energy utilisation, carbon capture and storage, water resources management, hydrology, and even climate change. In order to assess the feasibility and safety of geotechnical applications, process-based modelling is the only tool that can effectively quantify future scenarios, a fact which also creates a huge burden of responsibility concerning the reliability of computational tools. The book shows that benchmarking offers a suitable methodology for verifying the quality of modelling tools based on best practices, and together with code comparison fosters community efforts. It also provides a brief introduction to the DECOVALEX, SeSBench and MOMAS initiatives. This benchmark book is part of the OpenGeoSys initiative - an open source project designed to share knowledge and experience in environmental analysis and scientific computation.

This pioneering book addresses the entirety of river flooding issues in the Upper Vistula Basin, where considerable flood generation potential exists. It analyses the factors influencing flood risk, investigates variations in observation records and discusses projections for the future and adaptation to changing risk. It serves the general interest in understanding the floods that cause massive destruction in Europe, with dozens of fatalities and tremendous material damages. This interdisciplinary book, which covers aspects of climatology, geomorphology, hydrology, and water and flood risk management, unveils the complexity of the current situation. Access to reliable and accurate information can help solve important practical problems related to flood risk reduction strategies, and is at the core of the EU Floods Directive. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for scientists, educators and practitioners involved in water management, natural disaster reduction and adaptation to climate change.

On April 1, 1946, shortly after sunrise, the town of Hilo on the island of Hawai'i was devastated by a series of giant waves. Traveling 2,300 miles from the Aleutian Islands in less than five hours, the waves struck without warning and claimed 159 lives. Fourteen years later, on May 22, 1960, a massive earthquake occurred off of the coast of Chile. The earthquake generated giant waves that sped across the Pacific at 442 miles per hour, reaching Hilo in just fifteen hours. The first wave to hit the town was a modest four feet higher than normal, the second nine feet. Before the third wave could arrive, a tidal phenomenon known as a bore smashed into the Hilo bayfront, with thirty-five foot waves that wrenched buildings off their foundations. That day several city blocks were swept clean of all structures and 61 people died. The first edition of Tsunami!, published in 1988, provided readers with a complete examination of the tsunami phenomenon in Hawai'i. This second edition adds many eyewitness accounts of the tsunamis of 1946 and 1960 and expands its coverage to include major tsunamis in the Mediterranean and off the coasts of Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Fiji, Alaska, California, Newfoundland, and the Caribbean, as well as the 1998 devastation in Papua New Guinea. Dramatic photographs and accounts of experiencing a tsunami firsthand are placed within the framework of the how and why of tsunamis, our scientific understanding of these phenomena, and the current status of the Tsunami Warning System, which is widely used to forecast and measure tsunamis and prepare coastal areas for potentially deadly tsunami strikes.

This title, first published in 1987, provides an authoritative account of both the science and the politics of acid rain. Chris Park places the debates surrounding acid rain in context, and examines the full implications of scientific studies and the effects of acid rain on surface waters, soils and buildings. Evidence is drawn from around the world, including an examination of the damage in Scandinavia and Germany and the effects of acid rain in the U.K. and U.S.A. A comprehensive and relevant work, this is an important guide for students of geography, environment and sustainability and energy policy.

Tensions in parts of the Danube River Basin, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and elsewhere demonstrate the need for international agreements which will help stabilize and improve economies, governments, and environmental management within the countries in transition and across national borders. An instrument of peace, a Convention which establishes a Commission to oversee natural resource protection among all basin countries, is about to be adopted and implemented. This book covers in detail the readiness of the countries to participate and the programs funded by international agencies, and suggests ways to stimulate the slow and uneven government and investor response to conflicts. It reviews the approach and successes and failures of current programs funded by the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, and US AID, and suggests ways to improve such assistance for maximum effect within the countries themselves. The book has equal value to two sets of audiences: specialists in many disciplines, scientists and technicians, and their colleagues in public and private sector policy-making who deal full-time with transboundary natural resource problems at a practical level in the Danube region or in regions elsewhere; those concerned about the future economic and political stability of the east European and CIS countries and their ability to meet EU environmental and other criteria, including investors in public and private projects.