Urban agriculture offers promising solutions to many different urban problems, such as blighted vacant lots, food insecurity, storm water runoff, and unemployment. These objectives connect to many cities' broader goal of "sustainability," but tensions among stakeholders have started to emerge in cities as urban agriculture is incorporated into the policymaking framework. Growing a Sustainable City? offers a critical analysis of the development of urban agriculture policies and their role in making post-industrial cities more sustainable. Christina Rosan and Hamil Pearsall's intriguing and illuminating case study of Philadelphia reveals how growing in the city has become a symbol of urban economic revitalization, sustainability, and - increasingly - gentrification. Their comprehensive research includes interviews with urban farmers, gardeners, and city officials, and reveals that the transition to "sustainability" is marked by a series of tensions along race, class, and generational lines. The book evaluates the role of urban agriculture in sustainability planning and policy by placing it within the context of a large city struggling to manage competing sustainability objectives. They highlight the challenges and opportunities of institutionalizing urban agriculture into formal city policy. Rosan and Pearsall tell the story of change and growing pains as a city attempts to reinvent itself as sustainable, livable, and economically competitive.

British Plant Communities is the first systematic and comprehensive account of the vegetation types of Great Britain. It covers all natural, semi-natural and major artificial habitats in Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland), representing the fruits of fifteen years' research by leading plant ecologists. The book breaks new ground in wedding the rigorous interest in the classification of plant communities that has characterized continental phytosociology with the deep concern traditional in Britain to understand how vegetation works. The three volumes already published have been greeted with universal acclaim and the series has become firmly established as a framework for a wide variety of teaching, research and management activities in ecology, conservation and land-use planning. The present book covers aquatic and swamp vegetation and will be a useful reference for professionals in botany, ecology, conservation, and natural history.

This second edition of this important and authoritative survey provides students and researchers with up-to-date and accessible information about the ecology of freshwater and estuarine wetlands.
Prominent scholars help students understand both general concepts of different wetland types as well as complex topics related to these dynamic physical environments. Careful syntheses review wetland soils, hydrology, and geomorphology; abiotic constraints for wetland plants and animals; microbial ecology and biogeochemistry; development of wetland plant communities; wetland animal ecology; and carbon dynamics and ecosystem processes. In addition, contributors document wetland regulation, policy, and assessment in the US and provide a clear roadmap for adaptive management and restoration of wetlands. New material also includes an expanded review of the consequences for wetlands in a changing global environment.
Ideally suited for wetlands ecology courses, "Ecology of Freshwater and Estuarine Wetlands, Second Edition," includes updated content, enhanced images (many in color), and innovative pedagogical elements that guide students and interested readers through the current state of our wetlands.

In the name of agriculture, urban growth, and disease control, humans have drained, filled, or otherwise destroyed nearly 87 percent of the world's wetlands over the past three centuries. Unintended consequences include biodiversity loss, poor water quality, and the erosion of cultural sites, and only in the past few decades have wetlands been widely recognized as worth preserving. Emily O'Gorman asks, What has counted as a wetland, for whom, and with what consequences? Using the Murray-Darling Basin-a massive river system in eastern Australia that includes over 30,000 wetland areas-as a case study and drawing on archival research and original interviews, O'Gorman examines how people and animals have shaped wetlands from the late nineteenth century to today. She illuminates deeper dynamics by relating how Aboriginal peoples acted then and now as custodians of the landscape, despite the policies of the Australian government; how the movements of water birds affected farmers; and how mosquitoes have defied efforts to fully understand, let alone control, them. Situating the region's history within global environmental humanities conversations, O'Gorman argues that we need to understand wetlands as socioecological landscapes in order to create new kinds of relationships with and futures for these places.

A superb examination of the history of the Fens, containing a great deal of stunning photographs.

During the past century approximately fifty percent of the world??'s wetlands have been destroyed, largely due to human activities. Increased human population has lead to shrinkage of wetland areas, and data show that as they shrink, their important functions decline. Reduced wetland area causes more flooding in Spring, less available water during drought, greater risk of water pollution, and less food production and reduced carbon storage. Much of the remaining pristine wetland systems are found in the world??'s largest wetlands, and yet these areas have received surprisingly little scientific research or attention. This volume presents the views of leading experts on each of the world??'s largest wetland systems. Here, this international team of authors share their understanding of the ecological dynamics of large wetlands and their significance, and emphasise their need of conservation.

Ross-shire-born polymath Hugh Miller (1802-56) was famous in his lifetime across the English-speaking world. After starting his working life as a stonemason, he became a social commentator and crusader and an inspiring (pre-Darwinian) writer on fossils. Michael A. Taylor's biography - the first synoptic reassessment to draw upon new research - was first published in 2007. It quotes generous chunks of Miller's own still immensely readable writings (he was known as 'the supreme poet of geology') and covers the full range of Hugh Miller, from stonemason through geologist and editor to private family man, with a surprising conclusion regarding his suicide. This new edition has some minor amendments and a new cover.

In a world filled with breathtaking beauty, we have often overlooked the elusive charm and magic of certain landscapes. A cloudy river flows into a verdant Arctic wetland where sandhill cranes and muskoxen dwell. Further south, cypress branches hang low over dismal swamps. Places like these–collectively known as swamplands or peatlands–often go unnoticed for their ecological splendor. They are as globally significant as rainforests, and function as critical carbon sinks for addressing our climate crisis. Yet, because of their reputation as wastelands, they are being systematically drained and degraded to make way for oilsands, mines, farms, and electricity. In Swamplands, journalist Edward Struzik celebrates these wild places, venturing into windswept bogs in Kauai and the last remnants of an ancient peatland in the Mojave Desert. The secrets of the swamp aren’t for the faint of heart. Ed loses a shoe to an Arctic wolf and finds himself ankle-deep in water during a lightning storm. But, the rewards are sweeter for the struggle: an enchanting Calypso orchid; an elusive yellow moth thought to be extinct; ancient animals preserved in lifelike condition down to the fur. Swamplands highlights the unappreciated struggle being waged to save peatlands by scientists, conservationists, and landowners around the world. An ode to peaty landscapes in all their offbeat glory, the book is also a demand for awareness of the myriad threats they face. It urges us to see the beauty and importance in these least likely of places. Our planet’s survival might depend on it.

Wetlands, with a variety of physical characteristics, are found throughout the country. They are known in different regions as swamps, marshes, fens, potholes, playa lakes, or bogs. Although these places can differ greatly, they all have distinctive plant and animal assemblages because of the wetness of the soil. Some wetland areas may be continuously inundated by water, while other areas may not be flooded at all. In coastal areas, flooding may occur daily as tides rise and fall. Recent Congresses have considered numerous policy topics that involve wetlands. Many reflect issues of long-standing interest, such as applying federal regulations on private lands, wetland loss rates, and restoration and creation accomplishments. This book provides an overview of issues with the wetlands; and provides some economic insights on targeting investments to cost effectively restore and protect wetland ecosystems.

Riparian zones encompass the stream channel and the adjacent portion of the terrestrial landscape from the high water mark toward the uplands, where vegetation might be influenced by elevated water tables or flooding. In this book, the authors present topical research in the study of the protection, restoration and ecological benefits of riparian zones. Topics discussed in this compilation include fire regimes, sand structure, fuel loads and fire behaviour in riparian forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, USA; the ecological and socio-economic stakes for conserving and protecting riparian forests in West Africa; ground water chemistry under riparian zones; and protection of riparian landscapes in Israel.

Consider just two of the countless facts about the damage we have done to the Everglades: Half of its original 14,000-square-mile expanse is gone, and saving what is left will cost at least $8.4 billion. Alluding to destruction on a scale we can barely grasp, figures like these can at once stir and immobilize us. In Liquid Land, Ted Levin guides us past the dire headlines and into the magnificent swamp itself, where we come face-to-face with the plants, animals, and landscapes that remain and that will survive only if we protect them. Levin has traveled extensively through the Everglades, often in the company of such dedicated individuals as Archie Jones, the conchologist who for fifty years has been studying and rescuing tree snails, or Frank Mazzotti, with whom Levin spent two weeks in the field monitoring American crocodiles. Through Levin's adventures we come to know intimately a place where water was meant to flow as a broad, shallow "sheet" and where minuscule changes in elevation yield a dramatic change in the diversity of life, from manatees and mangroves on the coast to panthers and orchids in the interior. Throughout, Levin profiles the various parties who have tried to master, protect, or coexist with the Everglades from the agribusiness concerns known collectively as Big Sugar to Friends of the Everglades to a small community west of Miami, nameless but for the designation "8.5 Square Mile Area." As we float, sometimes slog, alongside Levin through hammocks, keys, and sloughs, we see firsthand how drainage and development have led to water pollution and salinity fluctuations, a disruption of the swamp's wet/dry seasonal cycle, an explosion in the mosquito population, and a weakened response of the ecosystem to drought, fire, hurricanes, and invasive species. Liquid Land captures the Everglades' essential beauty and mystery as it explores ongoing restoration efforts. Our success or failure will have an impact on environmental policy around the world, Levin believes. As the preservationist rallying cry goes, "The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we get to keep the planet.

Winner, Wildlife Publications Award - Outstanding Book Category, The Wildlife Society, 2004 Texas Tech University President's Book Award, 2005 Shallow wetlands that occur primarily in semi-arid to arid environments, playas are keystone ecosystems in the western Great Plains of North America. Providing irreplaceable habitat for native plants and animals, including migratory birds, they are essential for the maintenance of biotic diversity throughout the region. Playas also serve to recharge the aquifer that supplies much of the water for the Plains states. At the same time, however, large-scale habitat changes have endangered playas across the Great Plains, making urgent the need to understand their ecology and implement effective conservation measures. This book provides a state-of-the-art survey of all that is currently known about Great Plains playa ecology and conservation. Loren Smith synthesizes his own extensive research with other published studies to define playas and characterize their origin, development, flora, fauna, structure, function, and diversity. He also thoroughly explores the human relationship with playas from prehistoric times, when they served as campsites for the Clovis peoples, to today's threats to playa ecosystems from agricultural activities and global climate change. A blueprint for government agencies, private conservation groups, and concerned citizens to save these unique prairie ecosystems concludes this landmark study.

Wetlands are prominent landscapes throughout North America. The general characteristics of wetlands are controversial, thus there has not been a systematic assessment of different types of wetlands in different parts of North America, or a compendium of the threats to their conservation. Wetland Habitats of North America adopts a geographic and habitat approach, in which experts familiar with wetlands from across North America provide analyses and syntheses of their particular region of study. Addressing a broad audience of students, scientists, engineers, environmental managers, and policy makers, this book reviews recent, scientifically rigorous literature directly relevant to understanding, managing, protecting, and restoring wetland ecosystems of North America.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia (low-oxygen conditions) in the marine waters and freshwaters of the United States negatively impact resources across thousands of miles of the Nations coastal and inland waters. Their prevalence and duration encompass scientifically complex and economically damaging aquatic issues. This book assesses threats posed by HABs and hypoxia and provides a comprehensive research plan and action strategy outlining Federal agencies roles and responsibilities for evaluating and managing them.

Richly illustrated and packed with numerous examples, this unique global perspective introduces wetland ecology from basic principles to advanced applications. Thoroughly revised and reorganised, this new edition of this prize-winning textbook begins with underlying causal factors, before moving on to more advanced concepts that add depth and context. Each chapter begins with an explanation of the basic principles covered, illustrated with clear examples. More difficult concepts and exceptions are introduced only once the general principle is well-established. Key principles are now discussed at the beginning of the book, and in order of relative importance, enabling students to understand the most important material without wading through complex theory. New chapters on wetland restoration and wetland services draw upon practical examples from around the world, providing a global context, and a new chapter on research will be particularly relevant to the advanced student planning their own studies.

The story of how Francis Pryor created a haven for people, plants and wildlife in a remote corner of the fens. A Fenland Garden is the story of the creation of a garden in a complex and fragile English landscape - the Fens of southern Lincolnshire - by a writer who has a very particular relationship with landscape and the soil, thanks to his distinguished career as an archaeologist and discoverer of some of England's earliest field systems. It describes the imagining, planning and building of a garden in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile place, and the challenges, setbacks and joys these processes entail. This is a narrative of the making of a garden, but it is also about reclaiming a patch of ground for nature and wildlife - of repairing the damage done to a small slice of Fenland landscape by decades of intensive farming. A Fenland Garden is informed by the empirical wisdom of a practising gardener (and archaeologist) and by his deep understanding of the soil, landscape and weather of the region; Francis's account of the development of the garden is counterpointed by fascinating nuggets of Fenland lore and history, as well as by vignettes of the plantsman's trials and tribulations as he works an exceptionally demanding plot of land. Above all, this is the story of bringing something beautiful into being; of embedding a garden in the local landscape; and thereby of deepening and broadening the idea of home.

It is beyond doubt that the climate is changing, presenting us with one of the biggest challenges in the twenty-first-century. During the past 150 years, archaeologists have studied the impact of climate change on humanity; however, this information has not yet been used when considering the impact climate change will have on future human communities. This pioneering study addresses this major paradox in modern climate change research, and provides the theoretical basis for archaeological data to be included in climate change debates - an approach which uses archaeological research as a repository of ideas and concepts which can help build the resilience of modern communities against the background of rapid climate change. Applying this approach to four case study areas, which will be among the first to be significantly affected by climate change - the coastal wetlands of the North Sea, the Sundarbans, Florida's Gulf Coast, and the Iraqi Marshland, this comparative study illustrates the diversity of adaptive pathways implemented in times of climate change in the past and how these can help prepare modern communities.

This book covers an extensive range of issues related to constructed wetlands for treatment of stormwater and wastewater. Chapter One covers the functions and classifications of constructed wetlands, treatment processes of wetlands and a detailed description of microphytes. Chapter Two provides details of the design of wetlands and their construction. Chapter Three provides details of the important issue of operation and maintenance of constructed wetlands. Chapter Four highlights all the experience gained from managing a large and prominent urban wetland. Chapter Five outlines the importance of engaging the community when planning, designing and constructing wetlands. The book is useful for environmental professionals desiring a good appreciation of the concepts in constructed wetlands. This book is also a useful reference for graduate and post-graduate students of civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, environmental management or environmental science.

Colonial Geography charts changes in conceptions of the relationship between people and landscapes in mainland Tanzania during the German colonial period. In German minds, colonial development would depend on the relationship between East Africans and the landscape. Colonial Geography argues that the most important element in German imperialism was not its violence but its attempts to apply racial thinking to the mastery and control of space. Utilizing approaches drawn from critical geography, the book argues that the development of a representational space of empire had serious consequences for German colonialism and the population of East Africa. Colonial Geography shows how spatial thinking shaped ideas about race and empire in the period of New Imperialism.

Beyond the Megacity connects and reconnects the global debate on the contemporary urban condition to the Latin American tradition of seeing, considering, and theorizing urbanization from the margins. It develops the approach of "peripheral urbanization" as a way to integrate the theoretical agendas belonging to global suburbanisms, neo-Marxist accounts of planetary urbanization, and postcolonial urban studies, and to move urban theory closer to the complexity and diversity of urbanization in the Global South. From an interdisciplinary perspective, Beyond the Megacity investigates the natures, causes, implications, and politics of current urbanization processes in Latin America. The book draws on case studies from various countries across the region, covering theoretical and disciplinary approaches from the fields of geography, anthropology, sociology, urban studies, agrarian studies, and urban and regional planning, and is written by academics, journalists, practitioners, and scholar-activists. Beyond the Megacity unites these unique perspectives by shifting attention to the places, processes, practices, and bodies of knowledge that have often been neglected in the past.

Salt marshes are highly dynamic and important ecosystems that dampen impacts of coastal storms and are an integral part of tidal wetland systems, which sequester half of all global marine carbon. They are now being threatened due to sea-level rise, decreased sediment influx, and human encroachment. This book provides a comprehensive review of the latest salt marsh science, investigating their functions and how they are responding to stresses through formation of salt pannes and pools, headward erosion of tidal creeks, marsh-edge erosion, ice-fracturing, and ice-rafted sedimentation. Written by experts in marsh ecology, coastal geomorphology, wetland biology, estuarine hydrodynamics, and coastal sedimentation, it provides a multidisciplinary summary of recent advancements in our knowledge of salt marshes. The future of wetlands and potential deterioration of salt marshes is also considered, providing a go-to reference for graduate students and researchers studying these coastal systems, as well as marsh managers and restoration scientists.

Ireland is famous - or notorious - for its wet and mild climate. Because on average more water precipitates than evaporates, the island is rich in wetlands - marshes, swamps, fens, bogs, lagoons, floodplains and wet meadows, to name but a few. Many place names in Ireland refer to wet places. Words derived from the Irish language are used to refer to a particular type of wetland, such as "callows" for the floodplains of the River Shannon, or "turlough" for a type of ephemeral wetland found almost exclusively in Ireland. This book brings together specialists in wetland science discussing a wide range of topics from an Irish perspective, including the ecology, fauna, vegetation and distribution of various types of wetlands; the use of wetlands for wastewater management; the archaeology of wetlands; and protection and conservation. It is intended for a wide audience of wetland enthusiasts - not just for professionals, but also for those who through their hobbies have a passion for those wet and wild places.

Salt marshes and mangrove forests, the intertidal wetlands of the world's coastlines, provide key ecological services to all areas of the globe. This cutting-edge, richly illustrated book introduces the essential elements of coastal wetlands and their applications. The book opens by introducing coastal oceanography, the physical features of wetlands, their ecology, and human impacts upon them, giving all students the necessary background for wetlands studies. It then presents detailed case studies from around the world with extensive illustrations, supplying a wider, global-scale picture of wetlands geomorphology and biodiversity. The final chapters discuss some unique applications of coastal wetlands, including geological monitoring, uses in biotechnology and agriculture, and various experimental mesocosms. This is ideal as supplementary reading to support students on a wide range of earth and life science courses, from environmental science, ecology and palaeoecology to geomorphology and geography. It will also be a valuable interdisciplinary reference for researchers.

As law enforcement officer and game manager for the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, Lt. Tom Shirley was the law in one of the last true frontiers in the nation?the Florida Everglades. In Everglades Patrol, Shirley shares the stories from his beat?an ecosystem larger than the state of Rhode Island. His vivid narrative includes dangerous tales of hunting down rogue gladesmen and gators and airboat chases through the wetlands in search of illegal hunters and moonshiners. During his thirty-year career (1955-1985), Shirley saw the Glades go from frontier wilderness to ""ruination"" at the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers. He watched as dikes cut off the water flow and controlled floods submerged islands that had supported man and animals for 3,000 years, killing much of the wildlife he was sworn to protect.

Wetlands are a vital natural resource and an integral part of the ecosystem. Yet they are also fraught with contention. Landowners, developers, ecologists, policymakers, and the courts must all navigate a complex landscape that requires knowledge not only of the relevant science of wetlands, but also the relevant policies, procedures, and legal precedents. In Wetlands: An Introduction Theda Braddock and Diane Hennessey guide the reader through this complex maze, presenting the most important information in an accessible way. The book opens with a brand new chapter on wetland jurisdiction and its history in the U.S., before explaining the basic science of wetlands-what they are, how they fit into the complex natural scheme, and the particular function and value of wetlands themselves. Fully updated chapters on wetland classification and the controversial issue of delineation round out the first half of the book. The second half explores the topics of permitting, enforcement, and litigation in detail, offering necessary information and practical guidance for all parties involved in wetlands disputes. This new edition has been extensively revised and updated, and presents the most up-to-date and important information on wetlands and their regulation. This new edition has been extensively revised and includes: *A brand new chapter on jurisdiction *Completely rewritten chapters on wetlands science *Extensive updates within all chapters. *Updated Table of Cases *Updated Bibliography Special features includes: *Comprehensive and up-to-date table of relevant legal cases *Extensive bibliography of sources for further reading *Easy-to-read flowcharts explaining wetland delineation concepts