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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere
From the author of the international Bestseller Breath Covering a diving championship in Greece on a hot and sticky assignment for Outside magazine, James Nestor discovered free diving. He had stumbled on one of the most extreme sports in existence: a quest to extend the frontiers of human experience, in which divers descend without breathing equipment, for hundreds of feet below the water, for minutes after they should have died from lack of oxygen. Sometimes they emerge unconscious, or bleeding from the nose and ears, and sometimes they don't come up at all. The free divers were Nestor's way into an exhilarating and dangerous world of deep-sea pioneers, underwater athletes, scientists, spear fishermen, billionaires and ordinary men and women who are poised on the brink of some amazing discoveries about the ocean. Soon he was visiting the scientists who live 60ft underwater (and are permanently high on nitrous dioxide), swimming with the notorious man-eating sharks of Reunion and descending thousands of feet in a homemade submarine. And on the way down, he learnt about the amazing amphibious reflexes activated in the human body under deep-water conditions, why dolphins were injected with LSD in an attempt to teach them to talk, and why sharks like AC/DC. The sea covers seventy per cent of Earth's surface, and still contains answers to questions about the world we are only beginning to ask: Deep blends science and adventure to uncover its amazing secrets.
This book presents a global hydrographic description of the thermohaline circulation, an introduction to the theoretical aspects of this phenomenon, and observational evidence for the theory. The hydrographic description and the observational evidence are based on data sources, available via internet, mainly from the World Oceanographic Experiment (WOCE). With the hydrographic description and observational evidence also comes an introduction to hydrographic analysis and interpretation.
This book will serve as a reference guide, and state-of-the-art review, for the wide spectrum of numerical models and computational techniques available to solve some of the most challenging problems in coastal engineering. The topics covered in this book, are explained fundamentally from a numerical perspective and also include practical examples applications. Important classic themes such as wave generation, propagation and breaking, turbulence modelling and sediment transport are complemented by hot topics such as fluid and structure interaction or multi-body interaction to provide an integral overview on numerical techniques for coastal engineering. Through the vision of 10 high impact authors, each an expert in one or more of the fields included in this work, the chapters offer a broad perspective providing several different approaches, which the readers can compare critically to select the most suitable for their needs. Advanced Numerical Modelling of Wave Structure Interaction will be useful for a wide audience, including PhD students, research scientists, numerical model developers and coastal engineering consultants alike.
In recent years, much concern has been expressed on the deleterious effects that anthropogenic emissions of acidic pollutants have on ecosystems of both industrialized countries and remote areas of the world. In many of these regions, seasonal snowcover is a major factor in the transfer of atmospheric pollutants, either to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems or to the more permanent reservoirs of glaciers and ice sheets. The recognition of the role that seasonal snowcovers can thus play in the chemical dynamics of whole ecosystems was recently echoed by the Committee on Glaciology of the National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine) which recommended that studies on "Impurities in the snowpack, their discharge into runoff, and management of the problem" be rated at the highest prority level (ref. a). It is in this context that the Advanced Research Institute (ASI) brought together scientists active in the fields of snow physics, snow chemistry and snow hydrology. The programme was structured so as to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas on the theories for the chemical evolution of seasonal snowcovers and snowmelt and on the impact of the chemical composition of the meltwaters on the different components of hydrological systems. As a consequence the ASI also attracted participants from potential users of the information that was disseminated; these were particularly concerned with the effects of snowmelt and snowcover on terrestrial biota and those of lakes and streams.
Water is vital to life, maintenance of ecological balance, economic development, and sustenance of civilization. Planning and management of water resources and its optimal use are a matter of urgency for most countries of the world, and even more so for India with a huge population. Growing population and expanding economic activities exert increasing demands on water for varied needs--domestic, industrial, agricultural, power generation, navigation, recreation, etc. In India, agriculture is the highest user of water. The past three decades have witnessed numerous advances as well as have presented intriguing challenges and exciting opportunities in hydrology and water resources. Compounding them has been the growing environmental consciousness. Nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in India. As we approach the twenty first century, it is entirely fitting to take stock of what has been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished, and what accomplishments are relevant, with particular reference to Indian conditions."
The U.S. Ocean Commission Report identified the need for regional ecosystem assessments to support coastal and ocean management. These assessments must provide greater understanding of physical and biological dynamics than assessments at global and national scales can provide but transcend state and local interests. This need and timeliness is apparent for Long Island Sound, where a multi-state regional restoration program is underway for America s most urbanized estuary. Synthesis of the Long Island Sound ecosystem is needed to integrate knowledge across disciplines and provide insight into understanding and managing pressing issues, such as non-point sources of pollution, coastal development, global climatic change, and invasive species. Currently, there is a need for a comprehensive volume that summarizes the ecological and environmental dynamics and status of Long Island Sound and its myriad ecosystems. It has been 30 years since a comprehensive summary of Long Island Sound was prepared and 50 years since the pioneering work of Gordon Riley. Major advances in estuarine science are providing new insights into these systems, and yet, the condition of many estuaries is in decline in the face of continuing coastal development. There is an opportunity to lay a foundation for integrative coastal observing systems that truly provide the foundation for improved decision-making. This book will provide a key reference of our scientific understanding for work performed over the past three decades and guide future research and monitoring in a dynamic urbanized estuary. "
At a time when the polar regions are undergoing rapid and unprecedented change, understanding exchanges of momentum, heat and salt at the ice-ocean interface is critical for realistically predicting the future state of sea ice. By offering a measurement platform largely unaffected by surface waves, drifting sea ice provides a unique laboratory for studying aspects of geophysical boundary layer flows that are extremely difficult to measure elsewhere. This book draws on both extensive observations and theoretical principles to develop a concise description of the impact of stress, rotation, and buoyancy on the turbulence scales that control exchanges between the atmosphere and underlying ocean when sea ice is present. Several interesting and unique observational data sets are used to illustrate different aspects of ice-ocean interaction ranging from the impact of salt on melting in the Greenland Sea marginal ice zone, to how nonlinearities in the equation of state for seawater affect mixing in the Weddell Sea. The booka (TM)s content, developed from a series of lectures, may be appropriate additional material for upper-level undergraduates and first-year graduate students studying the geophysics of sea ice and planetary boundary layers.
This book is intended to meet the needs of those who seek to develop control systems for ROVs when there is no model available during the initial design stage. The modeling, simulation and application of marine vehicles like underwater robotic vehicles (URVs) are multidisciplinary, and combine mathematical aspects from various engineering disciplines. URVs such as remotely operated vehicle (ROVs) are used for a wide range of applications such as exploring the extreme depths of our ocean, where a hard-wired link is still required. Most ROVs operate in extreme environments with uncertainties in the model prior to control system design. However, the method involved extensive testing before the system model could be used for any control actions. It has been found that the range of error can be extensive and uncertain in actual, continuously varying conditions. Hence, it is important to address the problem of reliance on model testing using different modeling approaches. In this book, approaches such as WAMIT, ANSYS-CFX, STAR CCM+, MATLAB and Simulink are used to model parameters for ROVs. A few benchmark models are provided, allowing researchers and students to explore and test different control schemes. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable reference guide for postgraduate and undergraduate students engaged in modeling and simulation for ROV control.
The Baltic Sea area is an old cultural landscape with a well developed international framework for monitoring, assessing and managing its marine ecosystems. It provides a good case study for other regions where such management is being set up. The chapters in this book are based on lectures given at a summer school on the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm in the summer of 2009. They cover a range of topics, spanning from detailed descriptions of political agreements that protect the marine environment, to basic modelling instructions, to an assessment of the possible impacts of climate change on the marine ecosystem, to a reflection on the role of climate scientists and their responsibility in society. This interdisciplinary book is primarily directed at students and lecturers of the environmental disciplines to provide an overview of the possible impacts of climate change on the Baltic Sea. It is also intended to serve as a background reference for scientists and policy makers, both for the Baltic Sea area and more generally. The book is a contribution to the BALTEX programme and to the BONUS+ projects ECOSUPPORT and Baltic-C.
Discussing all aspects of offshore surveying in a single volume, this book provides all algorithms necessary to develop complete software suites, and gives a large number of quality control criteria. It is invaluable to professional surveyors, offshore engineers and geophysicists, providing them with a wealth of data in a single volume. It is also a valuable reference work for hydrographic surveyors, seismic navigators and operations geophysicists. This book brings together information on spheroids, datums, projections and binning; gives a complete listing of UKOOA P1/90 and P2/91 formats for data transfer; a field guide to the calibration of radio navigation systems and compasses, acoustic and laser measuring devices; GPS, including calibration, use and differential techniques; field manual for quality control of all aspects of offshore surveying; listing of typical specifications for inclusion in survey contracts; and a comprehensive glossary of relevant terms for offshore surveying.
Shear waves and closely related interface waves (Rayleigh, Stoneley and Scholte) play an important role in many areas of engineering, geophysics and underwater acoustics. In some cases interest is focused on large-amplitude waves of low frequency such as those associ ated with earthquakes and nuclear explosions; in other cases low amplitude waves, which have often travelled great distances through the sediment, are of interest. Both low and high frequency shear and interface waves are often used for seafloor probing and sediment characterization. As a result of the wide spectrum of different interests, different disciplines have developed lines of research and a literature particularly suited to their own problems. For example water-column acousticians view the seafloor sediment as the lower boundary of their domain and are interested in shear and interface waves in the near bottom sediments mainly from the standpoint of how they influence absorption and reflection at this boundary. On the other hand, geophysicists seeking deep oil deposits are interested in the maximum penetration into the sediments and the tell-tale characteristics of the seismic waves that have encountered potential oil or gas bearing strata. In another area, geotechnical engineers use shear and interface waves to study soil properties necessary for the design and the siting of seafloor structures.
Hydrofeminist Thinking with Oceans brings together authors who are thinking in, with and through the spaces of oceans and beaches in South African contexts to make alternative knowledges towards a justice-to-come and flourishing at a planetary level. Primary scholarly locations for this work include feminist new materialist and post-humanist thinking, and specifically locates itself within hydrofeminist thinking. Together with a foreword by Astrida Neimanis, the chapters in this book explore both land and water with oceans as powerfully political spaces, globally and locally entangled in the violences of settler colonialism, land dispossession, slavery, transnational labour exploitation, extractivism and omnicides. South Africa is a productive space to engage in such scholarship. While there is a growing body of literature that works within and across disciplines on the sea and bodies of water to think critically about the damages of centuries of colonisation and continued extractivist capitalism, there remains little work that explores this burgeoning thinking in global Southern, and more particularly South African contexts. South African histories of colonisation, slavery and more recently apartheid, which are saturated in the oceans, are only recently being explored through oceanic logics. This volume offers valuable Southern contributions and rich situated narratives to such hydrofeminist thinking. It also brings diverse and more marginal knowledges to bear on the project of generating imaginative alternatives to hegemonic colonial and patriarchal logics in the academy and elsewhere. While primarily located in a South African context, the volume speaks well to globalised concerns for justice and environmental challenges both in human societies and in relation to other species and planetary crises. The chapters, which will be of interest to scholars, activists and other civil society stakeholders, share inspiring, rich examples of diverse scholarship, activism and art in these contexts, extending international scholarship that thinks in/on/with oceans, littoral zones and bodies of water. The book offers ethico-political perspectives on the role of research in ocean governance, policy development and collective decision-making for ecological justice. This book is suitable for students and scholars of post-qualitative, feminist, new materialist, embodied, arts-based and hydrofeminist methods in education, environmental humanities and the social sciences.
Water is vital to life, maintenance of ecological balance, economic development, and sustenance of civilization. Planning and management of water resources and its optimal use are a matter of urgency for most countries of the world, and even more so for India with a huge population. Growing population and expanding economic activities exert increasing demands on water for varied needs--domestic, industrial, agricultural, power generation, navigation, recreation, etc. In India, agriculture is the highest user of water. The past three decades have witnessed numerous advances as well as have presented intriguing challenges and exciting opportunities in hydrology and water resources. Compounding them has been the growing environmental consciousness. Nowhere are these challenges more apparent than in India. As we approach the twenty first century, it is entirely fitting to take stock of what has been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished, and what accomplishments are relevant, with particular reference to Indian conditions."
This is a compilation of manuscripts on mineral and thermal waters
of different areas of the world.
This book is an original and novel contribution to flood hazard
assessment, climate change and land use change and is intended to
serve both as an effective source of information and a valuable
basis for priority setting and further technical, financial and
political decisions regarding flood hazard assessment. The study
area is located on the floodplain of the Ubaye River in the
Barcelonnette area, part of the Alpes de Haute Provence in
southeast France. The book offers a comparative overview of the
major challenges faced when dealing with flood hazards. The
research presented is intended to promote a deeper understanding of
how climate change and land use change processes have evolved from
past to present, and how they affect the flow regime of the Ubaye
River based on sound and reproducible scientific arguments. The
methodology implemented ranges from remote sensing interpretation
to hydrodynamic modeling and includes the application of spatial
and statistical modeling. The results of this research provide
essential information for policymaking, decision-making support and
flood hazard planning in the Barcelonnette area.
Urban population growth dramatically alters material and energy fluxes in the affected areas, with concomitant changes in landscape, altered fluxes of water, sediment, chemicals and pathogens and increased releases of waste heat. These changes then impact on urban ecosystems, including water resources and result in their degradation. Such circumstances make the provision of water services to urban populations even more challenging. Changing weather patterns, rising temperature and large variations in precipitation contr- ute to increased damages, caused by weather related disasters, including floods. Ones of the major contributors to increasing flood peaks are land use changes and particularl- urban development. Consequently, there is a need to look for low environmental impact land development and to manage runoff in urban areas by storm water management. Much progress in the management of urban waters has been achieved in the most - vanced jurisdictions, but much more remains to be done. In this respect the EC Water Framework Directive can provide some guidance. Urban water management issues are particularly important in the countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. During the last decade political, economical and social changes in the countries under transition have influenced almost every element of the public sector, including water services. There is an urgent need for exchange of information among various countries on this issue and for identification of best approaches to achieving this transition.
This volume presents a collection of original, multidisciplinary papers written by leading scientists from the various countries of the Pacific rim. The major topics covered are the origins of life in the marine environment; the changing distribution of biological parameters; hydrophysical and hydrochemical processes; and the exploitation of ocean resources and the ensuing consequences. The material is divided into five parts. The Introduction (Part I) gives a comprehensive overview of the research activities of the IOC and related organisations. The following four parts of the book comprise a number of survey papers which deal with specific aspects of marine science in the Pacific Ocean. For researchers and decision makers interested in marine and environmental science with an emphasis on the Pacific Ocean.
This study presents an systematic approach to water quality assessment, hybrid modelling and decision support for eutrophication management in deep reservoirs. It is found that during the summer monsoon the catchment runoff into the Yongdam reservoir induces a trandsfer of pollutants from a middle stratified layer to the surface layer. Although the transport mechanism limits nutrient accumulation on the bottom of the reservoir, it also offers an opportunity for on-going algae production in the surface water. Physically based modelling is used to understand the process of micro-scale turbulent mixing and its impact on the nutrient uptake by algae. Further, a data-driven model using clustering and partial least squares regression which uses results from a physically based model of the reservoir successfully predicts Chlorophyll-a concentrations.
Now and in the future, the ever-growing demand for drinking water will lead many cities to implement indirect water reuse programs, where wastewater effluent becomes part of the drinking water sources. Pollution of those sources with emerging contaminants (micropollutants) such as endocrine disrupting compounds, pharmaceutically active compounds, pesticides and personal care products is a fact known worldwide. In this thesis, nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are demonstrated to be appropriate technologies for removing a large number of micropollutants; however, the performance of NF and RO can be questioned because there are limited tools that optimise quantification of the removal of contaminants. Therefore, in this thesis, by means of the use of multivariate data analysis techniques, removal quantification is effectively determined and more understanding of the separation of micropollutants by membranes is achieved.
Waves in the Ocean and Atmosphere presents a study of the fundamental theory of waves appropriate for first year graduate students in oceanography, meteorology and associated sciences. Starting with an elementary overview of the basic wave concept, specific wave phenomena are then examined, including: surface gravity waves, internal gravity waves, lee waves, waves in the presence of rotation, geostrophic adjustment, quasi-geostrophic waves and potential vorticity, wave-mean flow interaction and unstable waves. Each wave topic is used to introduce either a new technique or concept in general wave theory. Emphasis is placed on connectivity between the various subjects and on the physical interpretation of the mathematical results. The book contains numerous exercises at the end of the respective chapters.
Water scarcity is increasing all over the world because of
growing population and increasing demands. Countries with limited
water resources are urgently in need for a new approach towards
water management by shifting from the "use and dispose" approach to
the "use, treat and reuse" approach. This book proposes a framework
for the sustainable management of scarce water resources. The
approach is based on the application of Cleaner Production thinking
to water management.
Riverbank Filtration (RBF) has gained popularity in the past decade as an excellent source of high quality water for public water supply. This text compliments the existing literature on RBF water quality, and provides much-need guidance in the design and operation of RBF facilities. RBF has proven effective in many hydrogeological settings worldwide, and can be an excellent solution to water supply problems in both developed and developing countries. Topics covered include surface stream hydrology, particle clogging, and biological/geochemical processes. Data and case histories are provided from dozens of installations, providing much-needed practical information regarding RBF design, operation, and performance. This book provides the necessary tools to evaluate potential RBF sites, and is a must-have if you are considering RBF as a source of water supply. |
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