Geomorphology, in simple words, is the study of landforms. These studies incorporate the in-depth understanding of various processes occurring on earth's surface in form of soil, water and air as the medium which directly or indirectly affects the landscapes. Present day landforms are a result of millions of years of geomorphological processes that continue to occur at their own pace now and in future. Few examples of natural geomorphological processes are soil erosion or deposition, melting of glaciers, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, sea floods, landslides, and avalanche. Coastal geomorphology focuses on history of formation of coasts, the features of coastal areas across the globe, eroding shorelines, processes involved in making the coasts as they are today like winds, ocean currents, and influence of human activities. A major proportion of world's population resides by the coasts and thus they are affected greatly by the anthropogenic activities. Shoreline recession has become an issue of concern in recent times which is occurring way faster than expected and almost over 70% of the beaches throughout the world are facing this problem. Chapters that deal with erosion of the coasts, coastal management, bioindicators for coastal pollutants and various techniques like remote sensing and GIS for the analysis of the coastal ecosystems have been included to provide a better understanding of present day situation. Studies pertaining to preservation of coastal integrity will be focused in this book. Coasts are also an inevitable part of a country's economy in terms of tourism and water based trade. The economic and social aspects have also been looked into in the book. I hope the book provides the readers with a thorough understanding of the subject.

Floods are essentially a natural phenomenon that affects the geomorphology of surrounding landform and may result in events like erosion, sedimentation or deposition. Certain areas are more prone to floods than the others. It is important to study the concepts behind their occurrence, frequency, vulnerability of an area to floods and the geomorphological changes post floods owing to their damaging effects on the environment. Floods arise due to many reasons ranging from geomorphological setting, climate of a particular area, nature of the coastline, or anthropological factors like man made dams. Flood damages continue to rise as there is increased global warming and glaciers melting leading to rise in sea levels combined with increased industrialization and urbanization. A very high percentage of population is living and working in flood prone areas and continues to do so. There are economic and social implications when in post flood scenario. In this book, articles have been included to provide an insight into the flood risk assessment, developing models to study the impact on affected areas, socio-economic aspects of flood damage, and use of Geographic information systems for risk evaluation. I hope the book will suffice its purpose.

Archaeology is the study of human past, culture and civilization via examination and analysis of material remains. Geoarchaeology combines the methods and concepts of earth sciences to solve the problems in archaeology. It involves elucidation of issues concerning environmental changes and changes in physical landscape that led to preservation or destruction of an archaeological site. It also describes interaction between geology, geography and geomorphology with archaeology to gather information about location and age of ancient cities by studying the soil, sediments and buried rocks and other artifacts. The conventional techniques involve determination of particle size analysis, determination of magnetic susceptibility, conductivity tests on the sediments, elemental analysis to find carbon content, pH tests and mineral analysis of the rocks or the sediments. With the help of modern technologies like GIS, digital elevation models and computer cartography, the field of geoarchaeological sciences has evolved. Geoarchaeological studies provide an understanding of the soil environment, the differences between sediments being natural or anthropogenic, development of agroecosystem models and details about history and formation of archaeological deposits In the book, articles are included that provide an insight to the history and development of Geoarchaeology. There is special attention paid to the use of modern day geophysical methods, GIS and information modeling. I hope it will be informative and useful for the readers.

Tectonic geomorphology is the study of the interplay between tectonic and surface processes that shape the landscape in regions of active deformation and at time scales ranging from days to millions of years. Tectonics is the branch of geology relating to the structure of the Earth's crust and the large-scale processes which take place within it. The field of tectonic geomorphology is in a state of tension. The widespread availability of high-quality, high-resolution digital topographic data encourages the development of simple morphological `tools' which can be used to comprehend recent tectonic evolution. Meanwhile, process geomorphologists recognize that current models have a noteworthy empirical basis, and lack insight into the underlying physics of erosion processes. Most tectonic geomorphology research is concerned with rivers, but glaciers, debris flows and hill slope processes also play a key role in hypotheses linking climate to tectonics, through surface processes, while submarine geomorphology has hardly been investigated in a tectonic context. Over the past decade, recent advances in the quantification of both rates and the physical basis of tectonic and surface processes have underpinned an explosion of new research in the field of tectonic geomorphology. Modern tectonic geomorphology is an exceptionally integrative field that utilizes techniques and data derived from studies of geomorphology, seismology, geochronology, structure, geodesy, stratigraphy, meteorology and Quaternary science. This book entitled Tectonic Geomorphology focuses on the current understanding of the dynamic interplay between surface processes and active tectonics. As it ranges from the timescales of individual earthquakes to the growth and decay of mountain belts. Syntheses of recent and earlier works, combined with new results and interpretations, are illustrated for varied tectonic settings. Most of chapters contain up-to-date materials of comprehensive geological-geophysical investigations, which can help more clearly understand the essence of mechanisms of different tectonic processes. General problems of tectonics are discussed and the approaches required for further progress have been outlined. Over the past several decades, significant advancements in digital tools and dating techniques including increased quality and accessibility of high-resolution digital topographic data, and innovation and refinement of geochronology, low-temperature thermochronolgy, and surface dating, has led to an explosion of high quality tectonic geomorphology research. Moreover, field and GIS-based studies are increasingly paired with sophisticated numerical models to explore landscape evolution, geodynamics, structural, and time-temperature histories from the scale of individual faults and folds, to mountain ranges, or entire orogens. In this book we solicit contributions that address this subject, particularly those integrating multiple methods and applying innovative approaches. Tectonic Geomorphology will be of valuable for upper-level undergraduate and graduate earth science students and for practicing geologists and engineers because it applies concepts taught in geochemistry, sedimentology, seismology, soils genesis, stratigraphy, structural geology, and tectonics courses in an interdisciplinary manner that has obvious environmental applications.

Environmental geomechanics integrates the principles of solid and fluid mechanics with problems pertaining to environment and geosystems. More specifically, it would involve issues related to deforming geomaterials, mechanical failure, fluid flow or transport of contaminants and heat transfer. The fluids here could be water, vapor or air and in association with the waste disposal these could be oil or gas as well. Concepts of engineering are increasingly being applied to solve problems of pollution, sustainable environment and natural disasters. These issues, for e.g. rockslides, debris flow, corrosion of buildings due to pollution, instability of soil and waste disposal, can be natural as well as anthropological in nature. Recently, environmental geomechanics has been relying more and more on information technology which provides quicker solutions in a more accurate manner. The book contains a comprehensive collection that deals with aforementioned issues including the geomechanical properties of geological structures, principles and techniques involved. I hope it provides the information readers are looking for.

Rock dynamics is a branch of rock mechanics and engineering which essentially deals with the response of rock masses to various dynamic loading conditions including vibrations from earthquakes and explosions. The studies also encompass formation and propagation of dynamic loads, rock failures under dynamic and static loads, responses and transmission. In the last few decades, experimental and computational techniques have seen a tremendous development thus allowing capturing the progress of fracture in microsecond steps, understanding the initiation, propagation, and branching of fracture, thus leading better research and development of new theories. Rock dynamics is useful in civil and geological engineering studies as well but the presence of fourth dimension, that is time, makes it a bit difficult to understand and apply. Rock dynamics and applications is an important part of rock mechanics and rock engineering, when rock materials and rock masses are subjected to dynamic loads including earthquake and explosions. The studies of rock dynamics involve the formation and transmission of dynamic loads, responses and failures of rock materials and rock masses under the dynamic loads, as well as dynamic rock failure processes of under static loads. Due to the additional "dimension" of time, dynamics, at least in the discipline of rock mechanics, remains a challenging topic to understand and to apply. Much new researches are needed and are indeed on-going. This book is organized to summarize the state?of-the-art in rock dynamics and applications, highlighting the current scientific research activities and engineering application challenges, covering all the aspects ranging from analytical and numerical works to laboratory testing, and to engineering. The book includes research dealing with rock dynamics theory, rockfall hazards, earth surface dynamics and geomorphometry. Rockfalls and landslides have been given special focus by including case histories which also discuss about risk assessment. I hope it will be insightful for the readers and help them understand the subject in depth.

Zero Waste Engineering discusses the basic concept of zero waste, ways to achieve zero waste, illegal dumpsites and its effects. It includes different wastes and the environmental problem associated with them. This book also discusses about the zero-waste engineering and its modelling methods, producer responsibility, the way the zero waste benefits our environment, zero waste benefits our economy. This chapter also provides the reader with insights on reasons for implementing zero waste engineering. The various developments in zero waste, the earliest initiatives in it and other related specific innovations in other countries have also been discussed. It also talks about waste to energy technologies. The readers can learn about the best waste management practices and innovations across the globe. The various sustainable technologies for zero waste have also been discussed. The various challenges and opportunities in zero waste management like moving the cities towards complete zero waste management have also been mentioned.

Biogas- from waste to fuel makes the readers aware about the process of anaerobic digestion and explains the ways in which the waste is converted to biogas and how further it is upgraded to biomethane. It informs the ways in which the algae is used for biogas production and discusses the impact of biogas technology. The book discusses about the optimization of biogas production in the developing countries and explains what methanogens mean. Also discussed in the book are the strategies for the enhancement of biogas production for second generation lignocellulosic resources and the opportunities and challenges for the industrial application of combined production of biogas and bioethanol. It also provides the meaning of biomethane and elaborates on the various process disturbances in agricultural biogas production, further discussing the various perspectives of biogas conversion into bio-CNG for use as a fuel in automobiles.

Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems examines various aspects of Earth and various planetary processes and focuses on the understanding of Earth as a system. It includes a brief description of planet Earth and geophysics with an extensive explanation about the dynamics of Earth also highlighting few important topics related to nanotechnology and Geochemistry. Provides the reader with insights into the development of the solid Earth, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and solar system, so as to understand the interdisciplinary approaches of geosystems.

In the recent times, microorganisms have found a utility in almost every industry ranging from agriculture to effluent treatment from distilleries, dye and paper industry, fermentation and brewing, pharmaceuticals and surfactant industry. This book focuses on their applicability in treatment of pollutants that have accumulated in the environment as a result of tremendous urbanization and industrialization. Microbial enzymes have the inherent ability to break down complex molecules into simpler ones along with the release of energy and by products. They can do so aerobically or anaerobically depending on their genetic make-up and the source where they occur. The process of using microbes and their derivatives for treatment of contaminated sites/ removal of contaminants from the ecosystem is termed as bioremediation as instead of using chemical or physical means, living organisms are used in this process. Biological processes are fundamentally more environmentally sustainable and in most cases, cost effective. Biotechnology isn't as recent as it appears to be; technologies like composting and fermentation have been used since ancient time by humans. In the book, the articles span across various successes and challenges of microbial bioremediation for cleaning the environment including the removal of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, treatment of oil spills, genetic engineering of microorganisms to suit a specific type of degradation pathway, and wastewater treatment.

Biotechnology has gained a lot of importance in a wide range of commercial processes and technologies recently including waste treatment and management, agriculture, pulp and paper industry, fermentation and brewing, pharmaceuticals, information technology, drug development and surfactant industry. This book focuses on various aspects of commercial biotechnology beginning from the advent of classical biotechnology and its journey towards modern day biotechnology. Classical Biotechnology relied mostly on the principles of plant and animal biology. Most of the biomolecules that we know about today were either not discovered or not characterized back then. Soon after the discovery of double helical structure of DNA and invention of PCR by Kary Mullis, a massive shift in was witnessed in biological research. In the book, the articles have been included which discuss about processes like fermentation, cell culture, Genetically Modified Organisms, biofuels, nanobiotechnology, enzyme technology and plant biotechnology. There are articles that talk about the commercial success and challenges faced by companies based on biotechnology. I hope it will be insightful for the readers and help them understand the subject in depth.

Provides an excellent introduction Solid State Fermentation (SSF) Technology and its applications widely used in manufacture of many commercially valuable compounds ranging from drugs, cosmetic products, enzymes, dyes and so on. It will be insightful for the readers and help them explore the interesting aspects of this latest but popular technology in depth.

Waste management is a systematic approach towards disposal of waste which not only involves scientific but management principles. This book focuses on various aspects of waste management, current problems and solutions to tackle them sustainably. Waste disposal is a big problem in developing countries and this not only causes accumulation of waste but also leads to pollution of air, water and soil. In the book, the articles have been included which discuss about the waste management practices in various developing countries, practices and challenges for solid waste management, waste disposal problems, leachate management, categorizing and sorting of waste, bioremediation and so on.

Bio-Based Plastics Materials and Applications gives a detailed insight on the various applications and uses of bio-based plastics highlighting the significance of such materials for the future use, looking at and realizing the relevance of bio-materials in the future due to the adverse effects of the materials currently in use. It provides the readers with the required information on the bio-based plastics and the related aspects on the importance of such plastics in the present world. This book also discusses about introduction to bio-based plastics, plastics made of starch, cellulose acetate and its application, chitin and chitosan, arboform and its processing and lactic acids and lipids.