Technology has broadened learning opportunities for students in the modern age. No longer limited by proximity and location, learners can utilize online education environments to attain their advanced degrees. Optimizing Open and Distance Learning in Higher Education Institutions is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on the development of e-learning programs and other technologies in university settings. Highlighting numerous topics such as quality assurance, learning measurement, and skill training, this book is ideally designed for administrators, teachers, academics, researchers, and professionals interested in emerging trends for open and distance education.

Education plays a vital role in the positive development of communities at both a local and global level. By becoming more informed, citizens can make better contributions to society. Open and Distance Learning Initiatives for Sustainable Development is a critical reference source for emerging academic perspectives on the role of higher education programs in contemporary society. Including a range of pertinent topics such as mobile learning, environmental education, and community building, this book is ideally designed for educators, researchers, students, and professionals interested in the intersection between sustainable development and education.

1. Uses advanced geospatial technology to study fragile Himalayan ecosystems and their sustainability. 2. Focuses on land use/land cover changes (LULCC) a leading aspect of environmental changes caused by human-induced activities in rapidly developing areas. 3. Includes case studies from Indian Himalayan, Nepal, and Afghanistan regions. 4. Provides satellite data and spatio-temporal analyses to assess and monitor land cover and land use in the Himalayas. 5. Discusses vegetation trends and forest fires related to ongoing geohazards and climate change.

1. Covers latest concepts in intelligent analytics for industry 4.0. 2. Presents the applications of intelligent analytics for various industry 4.0 domains. 3. Covers latest research topics in the field. 4. Written in a comprehensive and simple manner. 5. The text is accompanied by tables and illustrative figures for better understanding of the topic.

The book discusses major technical advances and research findings in the field of machine intelligence in medical image analysis. It examines the latest technologies and that have been implemented in clinical practice, such as computational intelligence in computer-aided diagnosis, biological image analysis, and computer-aided surgery and therapy. This book provides insights into the basic science involved in processing, analysing, and utilising all aspects of advanced computational intelligence in medical decision-making based on medical imaging.

This book provides in-depth knowledge in the areas of convergence of cloud-IoT technologies and industry 4.0 with society 5.0, machine-to-machine communication, machine-to-person communication, techno-psychological perspective of society 5.0, sentiment analysis of smart digital societies, multi-access edge computing for 5G networks, discovery & location reporting of multi-access edge enabled clients/servers, m-health systems, enhancing the concert of M-health technologies in smart societies, supervising communication services in smart societies, life quality enhancement in smart city societies, multiple disease infection predictions, and societal opinion mining algorithms for smart cities societies using cloud-IoT integrated intelligent machine / deep learning technologies to the readers in the distributive environment. In this book, the authors have mandatorily discussed the implementation of cloud-IoT based machine learning technologies like clustering technique, Naïve Bayes classifier, artificial neural network (ANN), Firefly algorithm, Rough set classifiers, support vector machine classifier, decision tree classifier, ensemble classifier, random forest, and deep learning algorithms to analyze the behavior of intelligent machines and human habits using automated data scheduling and smart digital networks. At present, we live in a self-motivated and dynamic global society where technologies and challenges are unexpectedly changing overnight. These rapid changes in globalization and technological advances are creating new market forces every day. Therefore, day-to-day innovation is essential for any business or institution to survive and flourish in such an atmosphere. Though, innovation is no longer just to create value to do good to individuals, societies, or organizations. The utmost purpose of innovation is to create a smart futuristic society where people can enjoy the best quality of life using natural resources and manmade technologies including cloud-IoT technologies, and industry 4.0. Hence, the innovators and their innovations must search for intelligent solutions to tackle major socio-technical problems and remove barriers of rural, urban and smart city societies. The smart digitization and intelligent implementation of manufacturing development processes are the necessities for today’s rural, urban, and smart city industries. All types of industries including development, manufacturing, and research are presently shifting from bunch production to customized production. The fast advancements in manufacturing technologies have an in-depth impact on all types of societies including societies of rural areas, urban areas, and smart cities. Industry 4.0 includes the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet, Smart Manufacturing, Cloud-based computing, and Manufacturing Technologies. The objective of this book is to establish linkage between the Industry 4.0 components and various rural, urban & smart city societies (including society 5.0) to bring actual prosperity where human values, peace of mind, human relations, man-machine-relations, and calmness will have utmost preference. These objectives can be achieved by the integration of human societal values, and social opinion mining (SOM) approaches with the existing technologies.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) attempts to address climate change from one angle - by paying developing countries to slow or stop deforestation and forest degradation. Trumpeted as a way to both mitigate climate change and assist countries with development, REDD was presented as a win-win solution. However, there have been few attempts to understand and analyse the overall framework. Why REDD Will Fail argues that the important goals will not be met under the existing REDD regime unless the actual drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are diminished. The book delves into the problematic details of the regime, ranging from; national capacity to monitor results, the funding mechanism, the definition of a forest, leakage, and the impetus behind the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. As the international community rallies around REDD and developed countries and companies are willing to commit substantial amounts to implement the scheme, this books seeks to address whether REDD has the potential to achieve its purported goals. This is an important resource for academics and students interested in the policy and management aspects of mitigating climate change, environmental policy, international relations and development studies as well as policy makers involved in the REDD process.

1. Uses advanced geospatial technology to study fragile Himalayan ecosystems and their sustainability. 2. Focuses on land use/land cover changes (LULCC) a leading aspect of environmental changes caused by human-induced activities in rapidly developing areas. 3. Includes case studies from Indian Himalayan, Nepal, and Afghanistan regions. 4. Provides satellite data and spatio-temporal analyses to assess and monitor land cover and land use in the Himalayas. 5. Discusses vegetation trends and forest fires related to ongoing geohazards and climate change.

1. Uses advanced geospatial technology to study fragile Himalayan ecosystems and their sustainability. 2. Provides satellite data and spatio-temporal analyses to assess and monitor water resources in the Himalayas. 3. Focuses on land use/land cover changes (LULCC) a leading aspect of environmental changes caused by human-induced activities in rapidly developing areas. 4. Includes case studies from Indian Himalayan, Nepal, and Afghanistan regions. 5. Discusses urban sprawls and future projections of groundwater resources and air pollution in the region.

This book advances the scientific understanding, development, and application of geospatial technologies related to water resource management. It presents recent developments and applications specifically by utilizing new earth observation datasets such as TRMM/GPM, AMSR E/2, SMOS, SMAP and GCOM in combination with GIS, artificial intelligence, and hybrid techniques. By linking geospatial techniques with new satellite missions for earth and environmental science, the book promotes the synergistic and multidisciplinary activities of scientists and users working in the field of hydrological sciences.

SDG14 - Life Below Water: Towards Sustainable Management of Our Oceans describes the dependence of human beings on shore and marine resources and highlights how oceanic life sustains the livelihoods of people living in coastal areas, affects global economy and plays a significant role for making earth habitable. Chapters give accounts of human interventions on oceanic life and demonstrate the various ways in which the sustainability of the oceanic system is threatened. Looking to sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems, chapters investigate best practices initiated in different countries, address issues such as overfishing and the legal framework for conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources. Concise Guides to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals comprises 17 short books, each examining one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The series provides an integrated assessment of the SDGs from economic, legal, social, environmental and cultural perspectives.

Algae and Aquatic Macrophytes in Cities: Bioremediation, Biomass, Biofuels and Bioproducts introduces the concept of using the natural ability of plants such as algae and aquatic macrophytes to remediate pollutants from water. The book provides scientists with a green, economical and successful option when tackling rising water pollution. The book's chapters cover a range of areas, including bioremediation, biomass, biofuels and bioproducts during the remediation of polluted water systems. It draws together research from eminent scientists from across the globe and includes case studies to help researchers, students, scientists, stakeholders, policymakers and environmentalists understand and perform their research with greater ease.

Assisted Phytoremediaion covers a wide range of uses of plants for remediation of environmental pollutants. It includes coverage of such techniques as root engineering, transgenic plants, increasing the biomass, use of genetic engineering and genome editing technology for rapid phytoremediation of pollutants. In order to improve the efficiency of plant remediation, genetic engineering plays a vital role in the overexpression of genes or gene clusters, which are responsible for degradation and uptake of pollutants. The book presents state-of-the-art techniques of assisted phytoremediation to better manage soil and water pollution in large amounts. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, students, and engineers in environmental science and bioengineering, with case studies and state-of-the-art research from eminent global scientists. This book serves as an excellent basis from which scientific knowledge can grow and widen in the field of environmental remediation.

The book discusses major technical advances and research findings in the field of machine intelligence in medical image analysis. It examines the latest technologies and that have been implemented in clinical practice, such as computational intelligence in computer-aided diagnosis, biological image analysis, and computer-aided surgery and therapy. This book provides insights into the basic science involved in processing, analysing, and utilising all aspects of advanced computational intelligence in medical decision-making based on medical imaging.

Nutraceutical Fruits and Foods for Neurodegenerative Disorders presents food-based strategies, specifically related to nutraceuticals, in delaying the onset and slowing down of the propensity of neuronal devastation. In addition to highlighting the positive effects of nutraceutical fruits and foods on brain health, the book also explores the medicinal properties of fruits, vegetables, berries and nutraceuticals, along with their contribution to environmental factors, potential hazards and the need for specific regulatory actions. This book will be a welcomed reference for nutrition researchers, dieticians, nutritionists and academicians studying related fields. Users will find this book to be a solid foundation on which scientific knowledge in the field of aromatic crop-based phytoremediation can grow and expand. It will also be a good and instructive text with a format that is easy to grasp and read.

Fiber Crop-Based Phytoremediation: Socio-economic and Environmental Sustainability provides an informative source of information on using fiber crops for phytoremediation. Phytoremediation is gaining attention globally due to ever-increasing numbers and areas of industrially polluted sites. The major challenge is to develop new and cost-effective solutions to decontaminate polluted sites. In this regard, plant-based remediation, especially using fiber crops, is a promising and cost-effective approach for environmental remediation on a large-scale due to its socio-economic and ecological sustainability. Furthermore, changing environmental conditions also cause various biotic and abiotic stresses in fiber crops and thereby negatively affect the fiber crop establishment, growth and yield. This book will be specifically important to these readers who need to be able to select specific fiber crop species according to site-specificity of the contaminated site.

Land is fundamental to the human life. The upper layer of land is a non-renewable resource, and source of food. Therefore, land health is essential to long-term food security and to promote sustainable livelihoods. On account of urbanization, industrialization and population growth, land pollution is one of the major issues worldwide. As a result, land pollution is continuing across the world, and has been linked with a wide range of potentially toxic contaminants at rates that deteriorate land quality. Land pollution can result either anthropogenic activities or natural activities. The major contaminants of land pollution are metalloids, petroleum hydrocarbon, radioactive elements, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Pesticide, other organic pollutants, etc. that comes from different types of sources. In urban and peri-urban areas, irrigation of agricultural land with polluted water is also a reason of land pollution. Therefore, land security is an important issue for future sustainability. Its remediation and management are important issue worldwide to protect land quality and functions. Land pollution means degradation of earth's surface. Polluted land comes under the category of degraded land. Hence, the remediation of polluted land is essential for regaining biodiversity and ecosystems services and thereby achieving United Nations-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs).This fact showed the need to develop research into land remediation. Bio-inspired land remediation has undergone a huge development. Therefore, Biomanagement has a lot of potential to secure upper earth's surface through the land remediation programs targeted during the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). This book explores the remediation of land pollution that includes Phytoremediation, Bioremediation (bacterial remediation and fungal remediation), Vermiremediation, Biochar-based remediation and other Bio-inspired remediation. This book will be a remarkable asset for research scholars, environmentalists, ecological scientist, agriculturist, practitioners, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders alike.

Remote Sensing in Precision Agriculture: Transforming Scientific Advancement into Innovation compiles the latest applications of remote sensing in agriculture using spaceborne, airborne and drones’ geospatial data. The book presents case studies, new algorithms and the latest methods surrounding crop sown area estimation, determining crop health status, assessment of vegetation dynamics, crop diseases identification, crop yield estimation, soil properties, drone image analysis for crop damage assessment, and other issues in precision agriculture. This book is ideal for those seeking to explore and implement remote sensing in an effective and efficient manner with its compendium of scientifically and technologically sound information.

Advanced Microbial Techniques in Agriculture, Environment, and Health Management provides current perspectives on the fields of agriculture, the environment and health. This important reference presents recent advancements in applied microbial technology, compiling it in a comprehensive manner and transferring applied microbial technology from laboratory conditions to field level. In 20 chapters, the book focuses on microbial interventions for all-inclusive, cost-effective environmental management tactics while also linking the cumulative microbial services involved in the up-gradation of agriculture, environment and health. In addition, the book offers detailed information on emerging environmental issues and proposes ways of controlling their consequences using different approaches to treatment.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) attempts to address climate change from one angle - by paying developing countries to slow or stop deforestation and forest degradation. Trumpeted as a way to both mitigate climate change and assist countries with development, REDD was presented as a win-win solution. However, there have been few attempts to understand and analyse the overall framework. Why REDD Will Fail argues that the important goals will not be met under the existing REDD regime unless the actual drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are diminished. The book delves into the problematic details of the regime, ranging from; national capacity to monitor results, the funding mechanism, the definition of a forest, leakage, and the impetus behind the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. As the international community rallies around REDD and developed countries and companies are willing to commit substantial amounts to implement the scheme, this books seeks to address whether REDD has the potential to achieve its purported goals. This is an important resource for academics and students interested in the policy and management aspects of mitigating climate change, environmental policy, international relations and development studies as well as policy makers involved in the REDD process.

Rising inequalities are a defining challenge of our times and a crucial obstacle to the realization of the SDGs. The need to accelerate steps towards the reduction of growing disparities within and among countries is well realised. Responding to that need, this book aims to understand the types, drivers, consequences and impact of inequalities in broad contexts across groups and individuals, as well as societies and states. Defining inequality as the social, economic and political challenges of our time, the authors examine SDG10 to look ahead at how policy action might engage multiple stakeholders, involve diverse sectors and address gaps between policy and implementation to tackle inequalities and facilitate the advancement of the SDG agenda.

Conventional development planning lacks sensitivity to the female experience. Tackling gendered discrimination and the exclusion of women, SDG5 aims to 'achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.' This book considers the current state of play and identifies the trends, drivers and impact of gender equality. Taking a comprehensive and global approach, the book addresses the multifaceted concerns of women within the overall paradigm of the post-2015 development agenda. The authors analyse the patterns of gender inequality in different socioeconomic regions across developing, middle income and developed countries. The book will examine how the gap between policy and implementation might be tackled and contemplate how effective policy action might provide a solution. Offering best practice and posing key challenges for achieving the goal, this is the only book which comprehensively deals with all the key aspects of SDG5 based on the latest credible research. Concise Guides to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals comprises 17 short books, each examining one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The series provides an integrated assessment of the SDGs from economic, legal, social, environmental and cultural perspectives.

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing: Theory and Applications offers the latest information on the techniques, advances and wide-ranging applications of hyperspectral remote sensing, such as forestry, agriculture, water resources, soil and geology, among others. The book also presents hyperspectral data integration with other sources, such as LiDAR, Multi-spectral data, and other remote sensing techniques. Researchers who use this resource will be able to understand and implement the technology and data in their respective fields. As such, it is a valuable reference for researchers and data analysts in remote sensing and Earth Observation fields and those in ecology, agriculture, hydrology and geology.

Stories are the backbone of ethnographic research. During fieldwork, subjects describe their lives through stories. Afterward ethnographers come home from their journeys with stories of their own about their experiences in the field. Storytime in India is an exploration of the stories that come out of ethnographic fieldwork. Helen Priscilla Myers and Umesh Chandra Pandey examine the ways in which their research collecting Bhojpuri wedding songs became interwoven with the stories of their lives, their work together, and their shared experience reading The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. Moving through these intertwined stories, the reader learns about the complete Bhojpuri wedding tradition through songs sung by Gangajali and access to the original song recordings and their translations. In the interludes, Pandey reads and interprets The Eustace Diamonds, confronting the reader with the ever-present influence of colonialism, both in India and in ethnographic fieldwork. Interwoven throughout are stories of the everyday, highlighting the ups and downs of the ethnographic experience. Storytime in India combines the style of the Victorian novel with the structure of traditional Indian village tales, in which stories are told within stories. This book questions how we can and should present ethnography as well as what we really learn in the field. As Myers and Pandey ultimately conclude, writers of scholarly books are storytellers themselves and scholarly books are a form of art, just like the traditions they study.

Phytoremediation Potential of Perennial Grasses provides readers with the knowledge to select specific perennial grass species according to site-specific needs. In addition, it demonstrates the potential opportunities for grass-based phytoremediation to yield phytoproducts, especially biomass-based bioenergy and aromatic essential oils as a green economy while in the process of remediating contaminated sites. The book brings together recent and established knowledge on different aspects of grass-based phytoremediation, providing this information in a single source that offers a cutting-edge synthesis of scientific and experiential knowledge on polluted site restoration that is useful for both practitioners and scientists in environmental science and ecology.