Civil engineering for disaster risk reduction
Brings together all diverse disciplines of civil engineering and related areas (for example, geotechnical engineering, water resources engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, environmental engineering, construction management, GIS, and remote sensing) towards a common goal of disaster resilience through an interdisciplinary approach. It contains methods and case studies focusing on civil engineering solutions to reduce the disaster risk. The book contents are aligned in line with the priorities set by UN-Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and UN-SDGs to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. The book will be a useful comprehensive reference for disaster risk reduction beneficial for engineering students, teaching faculty, researchers, industry professionals and policymakers.
Assessing Environmental Risk of Oil Spills with ERA Acute : A New Methodology
This book introduces readers to a new methodology for assessing the risks to the marine environment following accidental oil spills. The methodology will soon be implemented on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and will be complemented by guidelines for its use in a regulatory framework.
Application of multi-criteria decision analysis in environmental and civil engineering
Provides a resource for students and researchers that includes current application of a multi-criteria, decision-making theory in various fields such as: environment, healthcare and engineering.
Aging, shaking, and cracking of infrastructures : From mechanics to concrete dams and nuclear structures
Focuses on the safety assessment of existing structures subjected to multi-hazard scenarios through advanced numerical methods. Whereas the focus is on concrete dams and nuclear containment structures, the presented methodologies can also be applied to other large-scale ones. This book is composed of seven sections: Fundamentals: theoretical coverage of solid mechnics, plasticity, fracture mechanics, creep, / seismology, dynamic analysis, probability and statistics / Damage: that can affect concrete structures, such as cracking of concrete, AAR, chloride ingress, and rebar corrosion, / Finite Element: formulation for both linear and nonlinear analysis including stress, heat and fracture mechanics, / Engineering Models: for soil/fluid-structure interaction, uncertainty quantification, probablilistic and random finite element analysis, machine learning, performance based earthquake engineering, ground motion intensity measures, seismic hazard analysis, capacity/fragility functions and damage indeces, / Applications to dams through potential failure mode analyses, risk-informed decision making, deterministic and probabilistic examples, / Applications to nuclear structures through modeling issues, aging management programs, critical review of some analyses, / Other applications and case studies: massive RC structures and bridges, detailed assessment of a nuclear containment structure evaluation for license renewal.
Advances on testing and experimentation in civil engineering : Materials, structures and buildings
Presents the most recent advances on testing and experimentation in civil engineering, especially in the branches of materials, structures, and buildings, complementing the authors’ publication Advances on Testing and Experimentation in Civil Engineering - Geotechnics, Transportation, Hydraulics and Natural Resources. It includes advances in physical modelling, monitoring techniques, data acquisition and analysis, and provides an invaluable contribution to the installation of new civil engineering experimental facilities.
Advances in Mechanics of Materials for Environmental and Civil Engineering
Deals with both mathematical modeling and experimental studies related to systems relevant for various civil engineering fields. The book addresses several key topics, including artificial intelligence applied to the control and monitoring of construction site personnel, finite element models for endplate beam-to-column connections under various load conditions, random functionally graded micropolar beams, and many others. The book explores the design and study of microstructures aimed at increasing the toughness and durability of novel materials in building and construction, based also on the re-utilization of residues and wastes of metallurgical industry produces.
Becoming virtual : Knowledge management and transformation of the distributed organization
This book examines the capabilities needed to transform a globally distributed organization into a virtual organization (an organization that exists and operates across time and distance with the support of global communications technologies such as the Internet). It introduces techniques for definition of goals for virtualization, for monitoring progress toward virtualization and for studying the impact of virtualization on social uncertainty, knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer, organizational memory, transactive memory, communities of practice and organizational commitment, power and control. These techniques are applied in an extended case study of a development aid organization's attempts to use knowledge management for virtualization over a two year period. The multidisciplinary team of authors examines virtualization from points of view ranging from the organizational to the technological to the sociological and psychological.
A cost based approach to project management : Planning and controlling construction project costs
Illustrates the principles of project management and the essentials of cost planning and control with easy-to-understand examples from the construction industry Includes step-by-step details of project planning, cost estimating, and management processes Offers clear, cost-based methods for defining scope, preparing bids, and planning for contingencies, as well as monitoring progress and determining when to take remedial action Contains a user-friendly guide to project management acronyms and terminology Provides sample construction schedules, budgets, and progress report forms
Maintenance of brick and stone masonry structures
Deals with all the tasks related to brick and stone masonry structures, from the initial identification of defects and their diagnosis to their treatment and monitoring of its cost-effectiveness.
Building Services Design for Energy Efficient Buildings
The following issues are addressed: background issues on climate change, whole-life performance and design collaboration generic strategies for energy efficient, low-carbon design health and wellbeing and post occupancy evaluation building ventilation air conditioning and HVAC system selection thermal energy generation and distribution systems low-energy approaches for thermal control electrical systems, data collection, controls and monitoring building thermal load assessment building electric power load assessment space planning and design integration with other disciplines.
Mathematical Methods for Engineers and Geoscientists
This book introduces and explains classical and modern mathematical procedures as applied to the real problems confronting engineers and geoscientists. Written in a manner that is understandable for students across the breadth of their studies, it lays out the foundations for mastering difficult and sometimes confusing mathematical methods.
Manual for Soil Analysis - Monitoring and Assessing Soil Bioremediation
Reliable methods for monitoring and assessing soil quality are a prerequisite for successful soil bioremediation projects. The fifth volume of Soil Biology presents detailed descriptions of selected methods for evaluating, monitoring and assessing bioremediation treatments of soils contaminated with organic pollutants or heavy metals.
Managing the Complexity of Critical Infrastructures : A Modelling and Simulation Approach
This book summarizes work being pursued in the context of the CIPRNet (Critical Infrastructure Preparedness and Resilience Research Network) research project, co-funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The project is intended to provide concrete and on-going support to the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) research communities, enhancing their preparedness for CI-related emergencies, while also providing expertise and technologies for other stakeholders to promote their understanding and mitigation of the consequences of CI disruptions, leading to enhanced resilience.
Managing Forest Ecosystems : The Challenge of Climate Change
With climate change now charging up the political agenda, there are three issues commonly making the headlines: carbon budgets, renewable energy, and the anticipated impacts of climate change. Equally important, though currently less well covered, is the issue how these effects might be mitigated. Given the significant role that forests play in the climate system – as sources, sinks, and through carbon trading – this book discusses the current scientific evidence on the relationships between climate, forest resources and forest management practices around the world. Drawing on expertise from forest scientists from several continents, the book presents both in depth analysis of the current knowledge, and a series of case studies which assess the biological and the economic impacts of climate change. It includes sections on forest responses to climate change, monitoring and modeling changes, economic and management implications, and carbon sequestration under specific management systems.
Landslides from Massive Rock Slope Failure
Amongst the thematic topics discussed are global frequency, impacts on society, analysis of initial rock slope failure, monitoring of rock slope movement, analysis and modeling of post-failure behaviour, volcanic landslides, and influences of massive rock slope failure on the geomorphological evolution of mountain regions. Regional contributions include reports on rockslides and rock avalanches in Norway, western Canada, the Andes of Argentina, the Karakoram Himalaya, the European Alps, the Appennines, and the mountains of Central Asia.
Land-Change Science in the Tropics : Changing Agricultural Landscapes
Land use and land-cover change research over the past decade has focused mainly on contemporary primary land-cover conversions in the tropics and sub-tropics, with considerable resources dedicated to the explanation and prediction of tropical deforestation and often ignoring the dynamism in the world’s agro-pastoral landscapes. This collection integrates cutting-edge research in the social, biogeophysical, and geographical information sciences to understand the human and environmental dynamics that change the type, magnitude and location of land uses and land covers in the changing countryside.This book describes the monitoring of land-cover changes, explains the processes through which land is altered, and describes the development of spatially-explicit models to predict land change. This book illustrates how practitioners have integrated knowledge from the three scientific realms - social, biophysical, and GIScience - that underpin land-change science.
Community Quality-of-Life Indicators : Best Cases VIII
Offers critical insights into the thriving international field of community indicators, incorporating the experiences of government leaders, philanthropic professionals, community planners and a wide range of academic disciplines. It illuminates the important role of community indicators in diverse settings and the rationale for the development and implementation of these innovative projects. details many of the practical “how to” aspects of the field as well as lessons learned from implementing indicators in practice. The case studies included here also demonstrate how, using a variety of data applications, leaders of today are monitoring and measuring progress and communities are empowered to make sustainable improvements in their wellbeing.
Climate and Land Degradation
In many parts of the world, climatic variations are recognized as one of the major factors contributing to land degradation impacting on agricultural systems performance and management. To accurately assess sustainable land management practices, the climate resources and the risk of climate-related or induced natural disasters in a region must be known. Only when climate resources are paired with management or development practices can the land degradation potential be assessed and appropriate mitigation technologies be developed. This book is based on an International Workshop held in Arusha, Tanzania and should be of interest to all organizations and agencies interested in sustainable land management to arrest land degradation.
Bringing the sun down to earth : Designing inexpensive instruments for monitoring the atmosphere
The book describes in detail how to design, build, calibrate, and use inexpensive instruments for measuring solar radiation, ranging from total radiation from the entire sky to narrow spectral bands of radiation travelling along a path directly from the sun. Students and their teachers will learn a great deal about weather, the seasons, and the atmosphere, and they will develop a much better understanding of how to measure the physical world around them.
Beyond Cartesian Dualism : Encountering affect in the teaching and learning of science.
There is surprisingly little known about affect in science education. Despite periodic forays into monitoring students’ attitudes-toward-science, the effect of affect is too often overlooked. Beyond Cartesian Dualism gathers together contemporary theorizing in this axiomatic area. In fourteen chapters, senior scholars of international standing use their knowledge of the literature and empirical data to model the relationship between cognition and affect in science education. Their revealing discussions are grounded in a broad range of educational contexts including school classrooms, universities, science centres, travelling exhibits and refugee camps, and explore an array of far reaching questions. What is known about science teachers’ and students’ emotions? How do emotions mediate and moderate instruction? How might science education promote psychological



















