الصفحة 2
الصفحة 2
Environmental change and human security : Recognizing and acting on hazard impacts
This book focuses on the linkage between human and environmental security and takes both a conceptual and a pragmatic approach to complex environmental issues (such as soil erosion, desertification, water degradation, demographic shifts, food security and agricultural prospects, urbanization trends, hazard-induced migrations) that affect human security. The book is the direct outcome of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), sponsored by the Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS), Salve Regina University, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The book summarizes the collective work of both natural and social science disciplines in regard to how best address, mitigate, adapt, or achieve resilience
Earth System Science in the Anthropocene : Emerging Issues and Problems
Earth System Science in the Anthropocene aims to provide an in-depth perspective and update on special topics in Global Environmental Change in relation to Human Security. It gives an overview on the new Joint Projects of the four International Global Change Programmmes and on research efforts in Germany. It is also an up-to-date report on emerging necessities in Global Environmental Change research as well as suggestions for its future development.
Earth Observation of Global Change : The Role of Satellite Remote Sensing in Monitoring the Global Environment
Global Change is increasingly considered a critical topic in environmental research. Remote sensing methods provide a relevant tool to monitor global variables, since they offer a systematic coverage of the Earth Surface, at different spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions. The data provided by Earth Observation Satellites are being operationally used for monitoring atmospheric conditions, ice sheets and glaciar movements, crop dynamism and land use changes, deforestation and desertification processes, as well as water conditions. The book includes an analysis of the leading missions in global Earth observation, and then reviews the main fields in which remote sensing methods are providing vital data for global change studies.
Desertification in the Mediterranean Region : A security issue ; Proceedings of the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue Workshop, held in Valencia, Spain, 2-5 December 2003
This book focuses on two basic concepts: security and desertification in the Mediterranean Region and their linkages. Desertification is recognized as a process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas of the world that is the result of natural phenomena (e.g. climate variation) and anthropogenic factors. The outcome of this type of degradation has typically been considered to be either a reduction or a loss of both biological and economic productivity. The scope of the book includes the identification of the physical processes of desertification specific to both the north and south Mediterranean Region. Additionally, it specifically questions how changing environmental conditions may potentially reduce stability and peace in the world and thus affect "environmental security."
Conceptual Ecology and Invasion Biology : Reciprocal Approaches to Nature
In this edited volume, global experts in ecology and evolutionary biology explore how theories in ecology elucidate the invasion processes while also examining how specific invasions informs ecological theory. This reciprocal benefit is highlighted in a number of scales of organization: population, community and biogeographic, while employing example invaders in all major groups of organisms and from a number of regions around the globe. The chapters in this volume utilize many of the cutting edge observational, experimental, analytical and computational methods used in modern ecology. Through merging conceptual ecology and invasion biology we can obtain a better understanding of the invasion process while also developing a better understanding of how ecological systems function.
Coastal Fluxes in the Anthropocene : The Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
In global coastal zones, the major fabric of goods and services for human welfare as well as global changes are extraordinarily visible. They are shaped by natural Earth systems processes on a planetary scale, which are reflected in a continuously adapting coastal environment. Now, in the "Anthropocene", human society is a greater catalyst for change - impacting and modifying coastal processes. This book synthesizes knowledge on coastal and riverine material fluxes, biogeochemical processes and indications of change, and the human influence, before looking at future research and management needs. It is a milestone rather than a destination on the journey which continues under the new International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and the LOICZ II (Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) Project.
Marginality : Addressing the Nexus of poverty, exclusion and ecology
In this volume economists, ecology experts, geographers, agronomists, sociologist, and business experts come together to address marginality. The inter-disciplinary research offers conceptual innovations and presents the dimensions of marginality in developing countries. Economic, political, and environmental drivers are assessed and mapped globally and in detail for countries in Africa and Asia, especially Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia. Economic growth especially in rural areas remains and farming communities is central to poverty reduction but needs to be complemented with specific actions to reach those at the margins.
Managing Diversity in Intergovernmental Organisations
Intensifying worldwide environmental changes as well as political, cultural, religious, and economic crises have made intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) important instruments in international and global cooperation. In order to cope with their diverse stakeholders, it is more imperative than ever for intergovernmental organisations to engage in personnel policy on an international scale. Successful diversity management is an essential prerequisite for organisational performance, conflict management, and dynamics of IGOs. Björn A. Peters examines the challenges of diversity and managing diversity in IGOs on the basis of the Mekong River Commission case study.
Lochnagar : The Natural History of a Mountain Lake
The remote mountain loch of Lochnagar is one of the most studied freshwater bodies in Europe. This book brings together knowledge gained over two decades of multi-disciplinary scientific study, with the results of lake sediment research covering millennia, to show how the loch has developed both naturally and as a result of human impact
Learning and Adaption in Multi-Agent Systems ; 1st International Workshop, LAMAS 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 25, 2005, Revised Selected Papers
Contains selected and revised papers of the International Workshop on Lea- ing and Adaptation in Multi-Agent Systems (LAMAS 2005), held at the AAMAS 2005 Conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 26. An important aspect in multi-agent systems (MASs) is that the environment evolves over time, not only due to external environmental changes but also due to agent int- actions. For this reason it is important that an agent can learn, based on experience, and adapt its knowledge to make rational decisions and act in this changing environment autonomously. Machine learning techniques for single-agent frameworks are well established. Agents operate in uncertain environments and must be able to learn and act - tonomously. This task is, however, more complex when the agent interacts with other agents that have potentially different capabilities and goals. The single-agent case is structurally different from the multi-agent case due to the added dimension of dynamic interactions between the adaptive agents. Multi-agent learning, i.e., the ability of the agents to learn how to cooperate and compete, becomes crucial in many domains. Autonomous agents and multi-agent systems (AAMAS) is an emerging multi-disciplinary area encompassing computer science, software engineering, biology, as well as cognitive and social sciences. A t- oretical framework, in which rationality of learning and interacting agents can be - derstood, is still under development in MASs, although there have been promising ?
Land-Use and Land-Cover Change : Local Processes and Global Impacts
The book presents recent estimates of the rates in changes of major land classes such as forest, cropland and pasture. Among the causative mechanisms behind land change, synergetic factor combinations are found to be more common than single key factor explanations. Aggregated globally, multiple impacts of local land changes are shown to significantly affect central aspects of Earth System functioning. Innovative developments and applications in the fields of modeling and scenario construction are presented. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the most pressing implications for the design of appropriate intervention policies, and on new directions and frontiers of research.
Land Use and Soil Resources
Land-use change is one of the main drivers of many environmental change processes. It influences the basic resources of land use, including the soil. Its impact on soil often occurs so creepingly that land managers hardly contemplate initiating ameliorative or counterbalance measures. Poor land management has degraded vast amounts of land, reduced our ability to produce enough food, and is a major threat to rural livelihoods in many developing countries. To date, there has been no single unifying volume that addresses the multifaceted impacts of land use on soils. This book has responded to this challenge by bringing together renowned academics and policy experts to analyze the patterns, driving factors and proximate causes, and the socioeconomic impacts of soil degradation. Policy measures to prevent irreversible degradation and rehabilitate degraded soils are also identified.
Lake Taihu, China : Dynamics and Environmental Change
There are many shallow lakes in the world. Many of them play an important socio-economic role as contributors to the drinking water supply, in flood attenuation, fisheries and recreation activities. Because of the current anthropogenic changes in the environment, such lakes rapidly respond to eutrophication and swamping. It is often hard to address these issues because many changes in the ecosystems of shallow lakes are associated with little studied physical processes. This interaction between the aquatic biota and the physical and chemical environment increases the complexity of shallow lake ecosystems. Lake Taihu, located in the delta of Yangtze River, is a typical large, shallow eutrophic lake with area of 2338 km2 and maximum depth of less than 3m . This book provides basic data on various aspects of this lake and summarizes research work on the interaction between its ecology and physical limnology. It will be a reference for teachers and students of freshwater ecology and biology, the aquatic environment in general, and, most strikingly, for all those interested in physical limnology.
Isotopes in the Water Cycle : Past, Present and Future of a Developing Science
This monograph presents state of the art applications and new developments of isotopes in hydrology, environmental disciplines and climate change studies. Coverage ranges from the assessment of groundwater resources in terms of recharge and flow regime to studies of the past and present global environmental and climate changes.
Carbon in the Geobiosphere : Earth's outer shell
Carbon and carbon dioxide always played an important role in the geobiosphere that is part of the Earth’s outer shell and surface environment. The book’s eleven chapters cover the fundamentals of the biogeochemical behavior of carbon near the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, minerals, waters, air-sea exchange, and inorganic and biological processes fractionating the carbon isotopes, and its role in the evolution of inorganic and biogenic sediments, ocean water, the coupling to nutrient nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and the future of the carbon cycle in the Anthropocene. This book is mainly a reference text for Earth and environmental scientists; it presents an overview of the origins and behavior of the carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the human effects on them. The book can also be used for a one-semester course at an intermediate to advanced level addressing the behavior of the carbon and related cycles.
Carbon and Its Domestication
Carbon is chemically versatile and is thus the body and soul of biological, geological, ecological and economic systems. Its appropriation by humans through diversion of its biogeochemical cycle has been a mainstay of development. This domestication is characterized by a number of thresholds: control of fire, development of agriculture, expansion of Europe, fossil-fuel use and biotechnology. All have exacted an environmental toll, not least being climatic change and biodiversity loss. Carbon management now and in the future is a ‘hot’ political issue.
Biological processes associated with impact events
The biological effects of asteroid and comet impacts have been widely viewed as primarily destructive. The role of an impactor in the K/T boundary extinctions has had a particularly important influence on thinking concerning the role of impacts in ecological and biological changes. th During the 10 and final workshop of the ESF IMPACT program during March 2003, we sought to investigate the wider aspects of the involvement of impact events in biological processes, including the beneficial role of these events from the prebiotic through to the ecosystem level. The ESF IMPACT programme (1998-2003) was an interdisciplinary effort that is aimed at understanding impact processes and their effects on the Earth environment, including environmental, geological and biological changes.
Biogeochemical cycles in globalization and sustainable development
This valuable study of environmental subsystems functioning under various climatic and anthropogenic conditions provides a unique insight into the social context of global changes in biogeochemical cycles and demonstrates current understanding of globalization and sustainable development.
Bacterial signal transduction : Networks and drug targets
Interactions among different TCSs enable one system to respond to multiple signals, which is important for bacteria to minutely adjust themselves to complex environmental changes. Such interactions are found or predicted in various bacteria in this book. Over the past decade, a vast amount of exciting new information on the signal transduction pathway in bacteria has been brought to light. Reports on these develop› ments have been put together in this book, Bacterial Signal Transduction: Networks andDrug Targets. This book Offers an incentive for graduate students, academic scientists, and researchers in the pharmaceutical industry to further elucidate the TCS networks and apply them in the search for novel drugs.
Asian-Pacific coasts and their management : States of environment
The Asia-Pacific region is home to the world’s largest region of coral reefs and mangroves. It accommodates two-thirds of the world’s human population and its economic activities have the highest growth rate in the world. Ongoing degradation of the environment, resulting from coastal development, deforestation, desertification and over-harvesting, are becoming a matter of great concern, as floods and droughts occur as a result of this degradation. Threats of global environmental change, such as climate change and sea-level rise, will exacerbate such problems. Therefore, appropriate policies and measures are needed for coastal management, to address both the local and global trends. This book gives an overview of the state-of-the-art understanding on the drivers, state, and responses to coastal environmental changes in the Asia-Pacific region. It provides excellent perspectives on current and anticipated environmental changes in the region’s coastal areas, to researchers, students, policy makers, coastal managers and other stakeholders.
