Title search results
Showing 3941 - 3960 of 10319 items
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America
By Edwin Tappan Adney, Howard I. Chappelle. 1983
The bark canoes of the North American Indians, particularly those of birchbark, were among the most highly developed manually propelled…
primitive watercraft. They could be used to carry heavy loads in shallow streams but were light enough to be hauled long distances over land. Built with Stone Age tools from available materials, their design, size, and appearance were varied to suit the many requirements of their users. Upon arrival in North America, European settlers began using the native-made craft for traveling through the wilderness. Even today, canoes are based on these ancient designs. This fascinating guide combines historical background with instructions for constructing one. Author Edwin Tappan Adney, born in 1868, devoted his life to studying canoes and was practically the sole scholar in his field. His papers and research have been assembled by a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, and illustrated with black-and-white line drawings, diagrams, and photos.Included here are measurements, detailed drawings, construction methods, and models. The book covers canoes from Newfoundland to the Pacific Ocean, as well as umiaks and kayaks from the Arctic.Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate (Drought and Water Crises)
By Kathleen A. Miller, Alan F. Hamlet, Douglas S. Kenney, Kelly T. Redmond. 2016
Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate addresses the current challenges facing western water planners and policy…
makers in the United States and considers strategies for managing water resources and related risks in the future. Written by highly-regarded experts in the industry, the book offers a wealth of experience, and explains the physical, socioeconomic, and institutional context for western water resource management. The authors discuss the complexities of water policy, describe the framework for water policy and planning, and identify many of the issues surrounding the subject. A provocative examination of policy issues surrounding western water resources, this book: Considers the implications of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change for the region’s water resources, and explains limitations on the predictability of local-scale changes Stresses linkages between climate patterns and weather events, and related hydrologic impacts Describes the environmental consequences of historical water system development and the challenges that climate change poses for protection of aquatic ecosystems Examines coordination of drought management by local, state and national government agencies Includes insights on planning for climate change adaptation from case studies across the western United States Discusses the challenges and opportunities in water/energy/land system management, and its prospects for developing climate change response strategies Presents evidence of changes in water scarcity and flooding potential in the region and identifies a set of adaptation strategies to support the long-term sustainability of irrigated agriculture and urban communities Draws upon Colorado’s experience in defining rights for surface and tributary groundwater use to explain potential conflicts and challenges in establishing fair and effective coordination of water rights for these resources Assesses the role of policy in driving flood losses Explores policy approaches for achieving equitable and environmentally responsible planning outcomes despite multiple sources of uncertainty Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate describes patterns of water availability, existing policy problems and the potential impacts of climate change in the western United States, and functions as a practical reference for the student or professional invested in water policy and management.Water Histories of South Asia: The Materiality of Liquescence (Visual and Media Histories)
By Sugata Ray, Venugopal Maddipati. 2020
This book surveys the intersections between water systems and the phenomenology of visual cultures in early modern, colonial and contemporary…
South Asia. Bringing together contributions by eminent artists, architects, curators and scholars who explore the connections between the environmental and the cultural, the volume situates water in an expansive relational domain. It covers disciplines as diverse as literary studies, environmental humanities, sustainable design, urban planning and media studies. The chapters explore the ways in which material cultures of water generate technological and aesthetic acts of envisioning geographies, and make an intervention within political, social and cultural discourses. A critical interjection in the sociologies of water in the subcontinent, the book brings art history into conversation with current debates on climate change by examining water’s artistic, architectural, engineering, religious, scientific and environmental facets from the 16th century to the present. This is one of the first books on South Asia’s art, architecture and visual history to interweave the ecological with the aesthetic under the emerging field of eco art history. The volume will be of interest to scholars and general readers of art history, Islamic studies, South Asian studies, urban studies, architecture, geography, history and environmental studies. It will also appeal to activists, curators, art critics and those interested in water management.Water Conservation, Recycling and Reuse: Issues and Challenges
By Alan S. Kolok, Rajeev Pratap Singh, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt. 2019
Water - a basic element of life, livelihood, food security and sustainable development - holds the key to global sustainability.…
The global water demand has been increased 3-fold in the past five decades and only 0.4% of the total world’s fresh water resources is available and accessible for use. The United Nations projected that half of all countries will face water scarcity by 2025 and more than one-third of the world’s population could be affected by water stress by 2050. The water problem is rapidly intensifying in the Asian region, and around 700 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. Similarly, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, by 2050, more than one billion people in Asia alone are projected to experience negative impacts on water resources as a result of climate change. Climate change is also putting extra pressure on and adversely affecting the global water cycle, leading to irregular precipitation, more floods and droughts and creating an imbalance between water supply and demand. The availability of safe water is a major global concern due to the rapidly increasing population, urbanization, unsustainable consumption patterns, and rapid shifts in land use. It is believed that reduced access to freshwater will have cascading consequences that will pose threat to global food security, livelihood security, and cause large scale migration and economic and geopolitical tensions. As such, strategies for water conservation, wastewater reuse and recycling should be adopted in order to lessen the gap between supply and demand for water for different activities. This book provides readers with a better understanding of the water security challenges, and presents innovations to address these challenges, strengthen the science-policy interface, and develop institutional and human capacities for water security and sustainability.Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty (UNESCO-IHE Lecture Note Series)
By Susan Harris, Franck Poupeau, Hoshin Gupta, Aleix Serrat-Capdevila, Maria A. Sans-Fuentes, László G. Hayde. 2016
As the American Southwest faces its deepest drought in history, this book explores the provocative notion of “water bankruptcy” with…
a view towards emphasizing the diversity and complexity of water issues in this region. It bridges between the narratives of growth and the strategies or policies adopted to pursue competing agendas and circumvent the inevitable. A window of opportunity provided by this current long-term drought may be used to induce change by dealing with threats that derive from imbalances between growth patterns and available resources, the primary cause of scarcity. A first of its kind, this book was developed through close collaboration of a broad range of natural scientists, social scientists, and resource managers from Europe and United States. It constitutes a collective elaboration of a transdisciplinary approach to unveiling the inner workings of how water was fought for, allocated and used in the American Southwest, with a focus on Arizona. Specifically, it offers an innovative scientific perspective that produces a critical diagnostic evaluation of water management, with a particular view to identifying risks for the Tucson region that is facing continuous urban sprawl and economic growth.Valuing Development, Environment and Conservation: Creating Values that Matter (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
By Philip Woodhouse, Sarah Bracking, Sian Sullivan, Aurora Fredriksen. 2018
Policy-makers are increasingly trying to assign economic values to areas such as ecologies, the atmosphere, even human lives. These new…
values, assigned to areas previously considered outside of economic systems, often act to qualify, alter or replace former non-pecuniary values. Valuing Development, Environment and Conservation looks to explore the complex interdependencies, contradictions and trade-offs that can take place between economic values and the social, environmental, political and ethical systems that inform non-monetary valuation processes. Using rich empirical material, the book explores the processes of valuation, their components, calculative technologies, and outcomes in different social, ecological and conservation domains. The book gives reasons for why economic calculation tends to dominate in practice, but also presents new insights on how the disobedient materiality of things and the ingenuity of human and non-human agencies can combine and frustrate the dominant economic models within calculative processes. This book highlights the tension between, on the one hand, a dominant model that emphasises technical and ‘universalising’ criteria, and on the other hand, valuation practice in specific local contexts which is more likely to negotiate criteria that are plural, incommensurable and political. This book is perfect for researchers and students within development studies, environment, geography, politics, sociology and anthropology who are looking for new insights into how processes of valuation take place in the 21st century, and with what consequential outcomes.Urban Land Use: Community-Based Planning
By Kimberly Etingoff. 2016
This compendium volume, Urban Land Use: Community-Based Planning, covers a range of land use planning and community engagement issues. Part…
I explores the connections between land use decisions and consequences for urban residents, particularly in the areas of health and health equity. The chapters in Part II provide a closer look at community land use planning practice in several case studies. Part III offers several practical and innovative tools for integrating community decisions into land use planning.Urban Biodiversity: From Research to Practice (Routledge Studies in Urban Ecology)
By Alessandro Ossola, Jari Niemelä. 2018
Urban biodiversity is an increasingly popular topic among researchers. Worldwide, thousands of research projects are unravelling how urbanisation impacts the…
biodiversity of cities and towns, as well as its benefits for people and the environment through ecosystem services. Exciting scientific discoveries are made on a daily basis. However, researchers often lack time and opportunity to communicate these findings to the community and those in charge of managing, planning and designing for urban biodiversity. On the other hand, urban practitioners frequently ask researchers for more comprehensible information and actionable tools to guide their actions. This book is designed to fill this cultural and communicative gap by discussing a selection of topics related to urban biodiversity, as well as its benefits for people and the urban environment. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of scientifically grounded knowledge vital for current and future practitioners in charge of urban biodiversity management, its conservation and integration into urban planning. Topics covered include pests and invasive species, rewilding habitats, the contribution of a diverse urban agriculture to food production, implications for human well-being, and how to engage the public with urban conservation strategies. For the first time, world-leading researchers from five continents convene to offer a global interdisciplinary perspective on urban biodiversity narrated with a simple but rigorous language. This book synthesizes research at a level suitable for both students and professionals working in nature conservation and urban planning and management.Unravelling the Soil Microbiome: Perspectives For Environmental Sustainability (SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science)
By Dhananjaya Pratap Singh, Ratna Prabha, Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash, Rama Kant Dubey, Vishal Tripathi, Rajan Chaurasia, Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Ali El-Keblawy. 2020
This book explores the significance of soil microbial diversity to understand its utility in soil functions, ecosystem services, environmental sustainability,…
and achieving the sustainable development goals. With a focus on agriculture and environment, the book highlights the importance of the microbial world by providing state-of-the-art technologies for examining the structural and functional attributes of soil microbial diversity for applications in healthcare, industrial biotechnology, and bioremediation studies. In seven chapters, the book will act as a primer for students, environmental biotechnologists, microbial ecologists, plant scientists, and agricultural microbiologists. Chapter 1 introduces readers to the soil microbiome, and chapter 2 discusses the below ground microbial world. Chapter 3 addresses various methods for exploring microbial diversity, chapter 4 discusses the genomics methods, chapter 5 provides the metaproteomics and metatranscriptomics approaches and chapter 6 details the bioinformatics tools for soil microbial community analysis, and chapter 7 concludes the text with future perspectives on further soil microbial uses and applications.The Underwater Museum: The Submerged Sculptures of Jason deCaires Taylor
By Helen Scales, Jason DeCaires Taylor, Carlo McCormick. 2014
A one-of-a-kind blend of art, nature, and conservation, The Underwater Museum re-creates an awe-inspiring dive into the dazzling under-ocean sculpture…
parks of artist Jason deCaires Taylor. Taylor casts his life-size statues from a special kind of cement that facilitates reef growth, and sinks them to the ocean floor. There, over time, the artworks attract corals, algae, and fish, and evolve into beautiful and surreal installations that are also living reefs. This volume brings readers face to face with these wonders and explains the science behind their creation. Ocean enthusiasts, divers, art lovers, and anyone entranced by the natural world will be instantly engrossed by this pearl of a book.Understanding Human Ecology: Knowledge, Ethics and Politics
By Geetha Devi T. V.. 2019
This book examines the domain of human agency–environment interaction from a multidimensional point of view. It explores the human–environment interface…
by analysing its ethical, political and epistemic aspects – the value aspects that humans attribute to their environment, the relations of power in which the actions and their consequences are implicated and the meaning of human actions in relation to the environment. The volume delineates the character of this domain and works out a theoretical framework for the field of human ecology. This book will be a must-read for students, scholars and researchers of environmental studies, human ecology, development studies, environmental history, literature, politics and sociology. It will also be useful to practitioners, government bodies, environmentalists, policy makers and NGOs.Transforming the Future (Open Access): Anticipation in the 21st Century
By Riel Miller. 2018
People are using the future to search for better ways to achieve sustainability, inclusiveness, prosperity, well-being and peace. In addition,…
the way the future is understood and used is changing in almost all domains, from social science to daily life. This book presents the results of significant research undertaken by UNESCO with a number of partners to detect and define the theory and practice of anticipation around the world today. It uses the concept of ‘Futures Literacy’ as a tool to define the understanding of anticipatory systems and processes – also known as the Discipline of Anticipation. This innovative title explores: • new topics such as Futures Literacy and the Discipline of Anticipation; • the evidence collected from over 30 Futures Literacy Laboratories and presented in 14 full case studies; • the need and opportunity for significant innovation in human decision-making systems. This book will be of great interest to scholars, researchers, policy-makers and students, as well as activists working on sustainability issues and innovation, future studies and anticipation studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351047999, has been made available under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license.This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West
By Christopher Ketcham. 2019
A hard-hitting look at the battle now raging over the fate of the public lands in the American West--and a…
plea for the protection of these last wild placesThe public lands of the western United States comprise some 450 million acres of grassland, steppe land, canyons, forests, and mountains. It's an American commons, and it is under assault as never before.Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the reader on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons. Ketcham begins in Utah, revealing the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, and exposing rampant malfeasance in the federal land management agencies, who have been compromised by the profit-driven livestock and energy interests they are supposed to regulate. He then turns to the broad effects of those corrupt politics on wildlife. He tracks the Department of Interior's failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act--including its stark betrayal of protections for the grizzly bear and the sage grouse--and investigates the destructive behavior of U.S. Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry. Along the way, Ketcham talks with ecologists, biologists, botanists, former government employees, whistleblowers, grassroots environmentalists and other citizens who are fighting to protect the public domain for future generations. This Land is a colorful muckraking journey--part Edward Abbey, part Upton Sinclair--exposing the rot in American politics that is rapidly leading to the sell-out of our national heritage. The book ends with Ketcham's vision of ecological restoration for the American West: freeing the trampled, denuded ecosystems from the effects of grazing, enforcing the laws already in place to defend biodiversity, allowing the native species of the West to recover under a fully implemented Endangered Species Act, and establishing vast stretches of public land where there will be no development at all, not even for recreation.Protected areas are at the centre of nature-based tourism, which is increasingly popular across the world. As visitor numbers increase,…
so does awareness of the harmful effects that large crowds may have on both natural resources and individuals’ recreational experience. This volume considers the challenge of transportation to and within natural and protected areas, the improvement of which has already been recognised as having great potential for mitigating the environmental impacts of ecotourism. While several books have focused considerable attention to the management of protected areas in general, little has been said about the specific issue of sustainable transport, an emerging trend that is already reshaping visitation patterns in natural settings. This book provides current knowledge on issues associated with the transportation of visitors in natural and protected areas, and a comprehensive overview of the technical and strategic options available to tackle these issues. It approaches the subject via three main topics: preferences, or the visitors' attitudes towards transportation; practices, where current approaches are assessed through examples and case-studies of successful experiences and methodologies from around the world; and policies, where suggestions and recommendations are put forward for both local scale strategies and broad-scale regulatory action with global relevance. Contributors include academics in the field of natural resource management and tourism, with extensive experience in protected area management and active partnerships with natural park administrations.Sustainable Engineering: Principles and Implementation
By Catherine Mulligan. 2019
Sustainable Engineering: Principles and Implementation provides a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of sustainability as it applies to engineering…
and methods for implementation of sustainable practices. Due to increasing constraints on resources and on the environment and effects of climate change, engineers are being faced with new challenges. While it is generally believed that the concepts of sustainable design must be adhered to so that future generations may be protected, the execution and practice of these concepts are very difficult. It is therefore the focus of this book to give both a conceptual understanding as well as practical skills to apply sustainable engineering principles to engineering design. This book introduces relevant theory, principles, and ethical expectations for engineers, presents concepts related to industrial ecology, green engineering, and eco-design, and details frameworks that indicate the challenges and constraints of applying sustainable development principles. It describes the tools, protocols, and guidelines that are currently available through case studies and examples from around the world. The book is designed to be used by undergraduate and graduate students in any engineering program (with particular emphasis on civil, environmental and chemical engineering) and other programs in which sustainability is taught, in addition to practicing scientists and engineers and all others concerned with the sustainability of products, projects and processes. Specific Features: Discusses sources of contaminants and their impact on the environment Addresses sustainable assessment techniques, policies, protocols and guidelines Describes new tools and technologies for achieving sustainable engineering Includes social and economic sustainability dimensions Offers case studies demonstrating implementation of sustainable engineering practicesSustainable Agriculture Reviews 29: Sustainable Soil Management: Preventive and Ameliorative Strategies (Sustainable Agriculture Reviews #29)
By Rattan Lal, Rosa Francaviglia. 2019
This book addresses the threats that hamper the achievement of sustainable soil management: soil erosion by water and wind, soil…
organic carbon loss, nutrient imbalance, salinization, contamination, acidification, loss of soil biodiversity, surface sealing, compaction and water logging. The specific focus is on preventive and ameliorative strategies for sustainable soil management.Sustainable Agriculture, Forest and Environmental Management
By Ram Swaroop Meena, Manoj Kumar Jhariya, Arnab Banerjee, Dhiraj Kumar Yadav. 2019
The recent technologies for sustainable development and maintaining ecological integrity in the field of agriculture, forestry and environmental management for…
the green future. Describes the recent technologies and issues to generate awareness among the global scientific community towards sustainable development.Covers various eco-friendly approaches for successful management of soil, water, forest, agriculture, and other natural resources. Addresses the policy issues promoting conservation, protection and management of various natural resources. Presents the issues of climate change and sustainable strategies to combat such a mega event. The existence of life on the earth primarily depends upon the agriculture, forest and environment. The changing climate is imposing the multifaceted challenges in front of human civilization. The agroecosystem management practices and technologies leads to higher productivity with destruction of agricultural, forest and environmental habitat leading to soil-water-air pollution. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) plays a key role in the promoting research and developmental activities in various sectors to achieve the sustainable development goals under 2030 agenda. Gradual growth of science and technology has imposed a significant pressure on the different ecosystem. In this context, approaches such as sustainable agriculture, forestry and eco-friendly technologies need to be address across the world. Keeping view of these facts this book underlines scientific chapters dealing with the issues with proper explanation, and accompanied by illustrative diagrams, tables, database as required. The editors have tried to provide a brief scenario about the current issues related to the agriculture, forestry and environment. Therefore, the book would be a very useful resource for academicians, scientists, and policy makers of the related field.Survival or Extinction?: How to Save Elephants and Rhinos
By Bridget Martin. 2019
Written with passion for anyone interested in seeing an end to the illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn,…
this book shows how, by working together, people all over the world who care about these animals are gradually bringing about change for the better. It takes an overview of how the current situation came to pass by exploring poaching and its devastating consequences and the pivotal role of organized crime. The discussion of how matters are starting to improve covers the investigation and monitoring of ivory markets, sustainable uses and the key role of local communities.Enforcement of the law is vital in this story. Enter the enforcers, the technology they use to defeat the poachers and the evidence they require to prosecute offenders. Cases, some deeply shocking, are included, as well as a number of fascinating case studies, while the exploits of organized crime gangs make lively, as well as disturbing reading. Throughout the message is clear. We can and must save these animals from extinction.In 2006 Abu Dhabi launched an ambitious project to construct the world’s first zero-carbon city: Masdar City. In Spaceship in…
the Desert Gökçe Günel examines the development and construction of Masdar City's renewable energy and clean technology infrastructures, providing an illuminating portrait of an international group of engineers, designers, and students who attempted to build a post-oil future in Abu Dhabi. While many of Masdar's initiatives—such as developing a new energy currency and a driverless rapid transit network—have stalled or not met expectations, Günel analyzes how these initiatives contributed to rendering the future a thinly disguised version of the fossil-fueled present. Spaceship in the Desert tells the story of Masdar, at once a “utopia” sponsored by the Emirati government, and a well-resourced company involving different actors who participated in the project, each with their own agendas and desires.The Soils of Mexico
By Carlos Omar Cruz-Gaistardo, Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, Ma. del Gutiérrez-Castorena, Pavel Krasilnikov, Robert J. Ahrens, Sergey Sedov. 2012
Mexico is an extensive country with an extremely complex mosaic of landscapes. The soils of Mexico have still not been…
completely studied, and there are few publications available on this subject. This book provides a state-of-the-art view on Mexican soils, their geographical distribution, their use and degradation. This is a first attempt to give a systematized characteristic of the soil resources of Mexico. Land resources of the second-biggest economy in Latin America are critical for its sustainable development, and a demand for adequate soil information is high. The information contained within can be used for any soil-related research done in Mexico and in neighboring countries. The book includes detailed characteristics of soils of all the physiographic regions of Mexico with maps, photos and explanatory schemes. The book is based on the experiences of the authors in research and soil survey, as well as on the existent, mainly 'grey' literature on Mexican soils. The book is recommended for researchers and university readers, students of all levels and decision-makers, working in the area of soil science, environmental issues, Earth sciences, land management and nature conservation.