Ecological restoration, although a relatively new endeavour compared to other disciplines, has gained significant momentum during the last decade as accelerating global change becomes more apparent. It is now widely accepted by the scientific community that to avoid further devastating effects of climate change and biodiversity loss, humanity must determinedly move more to protect and restore natural ecosystems. Many restoration efforts of the past have been ad hoc, site and situation-specific and have often failed to achieve desired outcomes, but over the last decade, many countries are allocating increasingly significant amounts of financial investment towards restoration with the goal of achieving more systematic and predictable outcomes. Today, activities related to restoring ecosystems, natural assets and biodiversity are a global focus.  This book covers a wide range of topics related to ecological restoration including for grasslands, wetlands, temperate and tropical forests and arid zones. Importantly, it also focuses on ecological restoration in human-disturbed landscapes such as for urban areas, farmlands, mine sites and transport corridors. It highlights the necessity for evidence-based approaches that are both nuanced and complementary with prescriptions for people-based restoration, that is socially inclusive and cognisant of historic and current community sentiment.  Ambitious landscape and continental scale targets for ecological restoration have been set across the globe. However, without practical guidelines developed from restoration evaluations from the recent past to follow,  future efforts are unlikely to be successful, nor -expected targets met. To that end, this book reviews and highlights a large number and variety of restoration stories from around the world. Most are presented as reader-friendly case studies, that feature innovative and systematic techniques for undertaking species-rich ecological restoration. Together they provide inspiration for current and future professionals and offer unique glimpses into state-of-the-art practice for this critically important discipline

Introduction to Remote Sensing Principles and Concepts provides a comprehensive student introduction to both the theory and application of remote sensing. This textbook
* introduces the field of remote sensing and traces its historical development and evolution
* presents detailed explanations of core remote sensing principles and concepts providing the theory required for a clear understanding of remotely sensed images.
* describes important remote sensing platforms - including Landsat, SPOT and NOAA
* examines and illustrates many of the applications of remotely sensed images in various fields.
A unique World Wide Web site accompanies this textbook. Developed for the users of Netscape 3 / Internet Explorer or above, this site offers:
* over 45 full colour images with descriptions
* examples illustrating remote sensing applications for meteorology, geology, vegetation studies, urban studies and oceanography
* material from the Americas, the UK, Ireland, Africa, Australasia, Africa and Western Europe
* Image exercises, with answers
* Shorter questions and answers on remote sensing
* An online glossary of terms, links to sources of useful remote sensing information available online.

The Laozi, Daodejing (also published as The Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching) is a new translation and commentary for 2015 and beyond. Unlike many other translations, this book's commentary invites the reader into the interpretive process. It provides the reader with a look into the visuals that make up key Chinese characters in order to assist the reader in understanding its practical philosophy of Realism. The 2500 year old Chinese text is not about rights and wrongs, nor is it about trying to change the world so that it suits you. It is about how we regard value and how this sense of value may, in turn, inform ourselves. It is about how adapting our selves to the world as it exists may make the world a better place in which all can live. It might best be regarded as self-help philosophy.

A VISUAL INTERPRETATION. A book to illustrate the depth, subtlety and richness of the language and philosophy by explaining the visuals provided by key Chinese characters and the pictograms that precede them. Even if a translation appears fairly straightforward, all interpretation is subjective; it must be. Just as every translator interprets, every reader brings his or her abilities to understanding (interpreting) what they read. So it is, will be, and always has been, you will interpret what I have interpreted. Valuing this tendency rather than fighting that which is natural, I intend to offer up ways of seeing the text while inviting you into the interpretive process; together we will re-view the text through its images rather than hearing only the words as traditionally translated.

We live in a world dominated by belief. We hear, are taught, convinced and converted. We affirm, worship, praise and preach. We argue, persecute and kill for belief. And all of this can happen without a hint of faith in sight. Our failure to understand the difference between faith and belief has always been with us. Problems with belief are not limited to religion; belief affects everything from politics to personal relationships. Here we consider a philosophy of realism. Within realism, we find that not only is faith opposed to belief, faith is a tool of reason whether we are religious or not. Remarkably, the evidence suggests that many popular religious ideas and "myths" began as psychological lessons in realism. Because what we view is so dependent upon how we view, we learn how realism can influence our psychology, inform our values, and reveal a path forward that avoids the pitfalls of belief.

"Religious philosophy for the common man. You can focus on reason, ignoring every religious reference within the book and the self-evident values remain. But don't ignore too much; this is cutting-edge religious scholarship . . . An opening salvo for a new religious realism." ..".The Oxbow Revelation reads like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance crossed with East of Eden-with shades of American Graffiti as its backdrop." ..". A serious, mysterious and sometimes sexy book about finding morality."