Natural Disasters and Extreme Events in Agriculture : Impacts and Mitigation
Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not be possible to prevent the occurrence of these natural disasters, but the resultant disastrous effects can be reduced considerably through proper planning and effective preparation. Vulnerability associated with the hazards of natural disasters can be controlled to some extent by accurate and timely prediction and by taking counter-measures to reduce their impacts on agriculture. This book based on an expert meeting held in Beijing, China should be of interest to all organizations involved in disasters reduction and mitigation of extreme events.
Multiple Stressors : A Challenge for the Future
This book publishes the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Multipollution Exposure and Risk Assessment, Ecotoxiclogical risk from multiple stressors covers any situation where org- isms are exposed to a combination of environmental stressors. These include physical and chemical pollutants as well as other stressors such as parasites and environmental impact (e. g. , climate change or habitat loss). The combi- tion of stressors can result in increased risk to organisms (either additive or synergistic effects) or decreased effects (protective or antagonistic effects). The multiple stressor challenge is an international, multi-disciplinary problem requiring an international, multi-disciplinary approach. The c- rent approach to multiple stressors is to examine one stressor at a time and assume additivity.
Multimedia Cartography
The various sections of this book cover the theoretical backgrounds, applications and future developments of Multimedia Cartography. This second edition of Multimedia Cartography includes updated applications areas that are Internet-focussed. Since the release of Edition 1 in 1999 the focus of the delivery of Multimedia Cartography applications now includes the World Wide Web and mobile services, as well as discrete media. New chapters in the book reflect this. As well, the book includes additional chapters on 3D applications and Virtual Reality applications.
Multifunctional Land Use : Meeting Future Demands for Landscape Goods and Services
The book contributes to the scientific basis for future land development strategies and helps supporting land use decision making on the political, planning and management level. In this publication they (i) analyse general principles of land use multifunctionality, (ii) highlight the specific requirements and approaches of implementing multifunctional land use from different disciplinary viewpoints, (iii) report on success stories of multifunctional land use from different geographic and political settings, and (iv) discuss modelling and monitoring approaches to scientifically assess the impact of mutlifunctional land use implementation.
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Risk Assessment and Management
Provides in-depth guidance on how to use multi-criteria decision analysis methods for risk assessment and risk management. The frontiers of engineering operations management methods for identifying the risks, investigating their roles, analyzing the complex cause-effect relationships, and proposing countermeasures for risk mitigation are presented in this book. The most significant feature of this book is that it provides various systematic multi-criteria decision analysis methods for risk assessment and management, and illustrates the application of these methods in different fields.
Mud volcanoes, geodynamics and seismicity ; Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on mud volcanism, geodynamics and seismicity, Baku, Azerbaijan, from 20 to 22 May 2003
PURPOSE OF PRESENT BOOK During the period May 19-26, 2003 the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) “Mud volcanism, Geodynamics and Seismicity” was held in Baku. Participants iscussed about different geodynamic features of mud volcanism and participated to field trips oriented to a better knowledge of mud volcanic features. The Meeting focused on many features of mud volcanism occurrence and related geodynamic topics. The purpose of present book is to collect contributions discussed during the Meeting and to fill a marked editorial gap on mud volcanism.
Mud and Mudstones : Introduction and Overview
Our book provides the first elementary overview of mud and mudstone written for a broad spectrum of professionals, teachers and students in geology, petroleum geology and engineering, urban planning and development, paleontology and paleoecology, and architecture and archaeology. Mud and mudstone provide the foundations to master all their aspects and prepares you to dig deeply into the many fascinating questions of their origin, relationships to earth history and practical uses. Key topics include the production of mud, its transport, the important role of bottom oxygen, sites of deposition, burial, provenance, mudstones in basins and an overview of practical uses followed by an appendix and extended glossary.
Mountains : Sources of Water, Sources of Knowledge
This book addresses the major challenges in assuring globally sustainable water use. Paradoxically, water resources have been identified both as too plentiful, producing major disasters, and increasingly vulnerable to shortages. Addressing both of these aspects requires attention to physical hydrological processes as well as human activities that affect water supply and demand.
Mountain Ecosystems : Studies in Treeline Ecology
This volume focuses on interaction between vegetation, relief, climate, soil and fauna in the treeline ecotone, and the effects of climate change and land use in North America and Europe.
Monitoring and Modelling Lakes and Coastal Environments
Habitat environments of lakes and coastal wetlands are deteriorating due to their exploitative use and improper management. As rapid development and population growth continue in coastal areas, environmental degradation and over exploitation will further erode the biodiversity and undermine the productivity of these unique ecosystems. An earnest attempt has been made in the present book to find ways for restoration, conservation and management of lakes and coastal wetlands.
Moment Analysis for Subsurface Hydrologic Applications
This book deals with the concept of moments, and how they find application in subsurface hydrologic problems-particularly those dealing with solute transport. This book will be very valuable to researchers who are beginning to learn about moment analysis, and will also be of interest to advanced researchers as well. Both temporal and spatial moments are dealt with in some detail for a wide variety of problems. Several examples using experimental data, both from laboratory columns and field experiments, are provided to give the readers a clear idea about the scope of this method. Apart from conventional uses of moments for solute transport problems, this book contains chapters dealing with use of moments in interval computing, vapour phase transport applications, transfer functions to subsurface tile drains, and construction of breakthrough curves from knowledge of moments.
Modern tools and methods of water treatment for improving living standards ; Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on modern tools and methods of water treatment for improving living standards, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, November 19-22, 2003
In 2001, one in seven of the water samples taken from Ukrainian industrial and drinking water supply systems did not meet sanitary-hygienic standards, and one in twelve did not meet microbiological standards.
Modern luminescence spectroscopy of minerals and materials
Luminescence Spectroscopy of Minerals and Materials presents an overview of the general concepts in luminescence spectroscopy as well as experimental methods and their interpretation. Special emphasis is laid on the fluorescence lifetime and the determination of time-resolved spectra. This method enables the exposure of new luminescence in minerals previously hidden by more intensive centers. Specialists in the fields of solid state physics, chemistry and spectroscopy will find a wealth of new information in this unique book.
Modelling water and nutrient dynamics in soil-crop systems : Applications of different models to common data sets - Proceedings of a workshop held 2004 in Müncheberg, Germany
This book contains articles from a workshop on "Modelling water and nutrient dynamics in crop-soil systems". Data sets from lysimeters and experimental fields of multiyear crop rotations were provided for modellers. A unique data set is provided of a 100 year long term field experiment regarding crop yield and organic carbon development under different management systems. The book includes a detailed description of data sets which can be used by modellers and the papers describe the applications of 18 different modelling approaches describing soil-crop-atmosphere interactions for water, nitrogen and carbon dynamics.
Modelling the dispersion of radionuclides in the marine environment : An introduction
This book is a practical guide to the subject of numerical modelling of radioactivity dispersion in the marine environment. Thus, the techniques and numerical procedures required are explained in detail, with the aim of enabling the reader to build a real mathematical model. The book covers basic concepts and techniques, such as solving the advection-diffusion equation in a simple 1D form, as well as the most recent developments (full 3D models for non-conservative radionuclides including chemical reactions and speciation). A chapter is dedicated to the basic hydrodynamic modelling that is always required to simulate the dispersion of tracers in the sea; Eulerian and Lagrangian modelling techniques are also described. A chapter describes sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, the final stage in modelling works. A review on some published radionuclide dispersion models is also included.
Modelling Land-Use Change : Progress and Applications
land-use change simulation modelling is a relatively new and dynamic field of study and this book provides a full overview of the topic, a wide range of applications (both geographically and thematically), a mix of theory and practice, a synthesis of recent research progress, and educational material for students and teachers.
Modelling Environmental Dynamics : Advances in Geomatic Solutions
Modelling environmental dynamics is critical to understanding and predicting the evolution of the environment in response to the large number of influences including urbanisation, climate change and deforestation. Simulation and modelling provide support for decision making in environmental management.
Modelling community structure in freshwater ecosystems
"The book presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. Such an approach will make it possible to: 1) set up procedures for robust and sensitive ecosystem evaluation, based on the prediction of the excepted community structure; 2) model community structure in disturbed ecosystems, taking into account all the relevant ecological variables; 3) test ecosystem sensitivity to natural and anthropic disturbance; and 4) explore specific actions to be taken for the restoration of ecosystem integrity."--Jacket.
Modelling and Monitoring of Coastal Marine Processes
Although numerous books have been written on both monitoring and modelling of coastal oceans, there is a practical need for an introductory multi-disciplinary volume to non-specialists in this field. The articles commisioned for this book, organized into four major themes, are written by experts in their disciplines while the text is intended for scientists who do not have extensive training in marine sciences and coastal zone management. As such, the articles in this monograph can be a valuable reference for practicing professionals.
Model-based Geostatistics
Geostatistics is concerned with estimation and prediction problems for spatially continuous phenomena, using data obtained at a limited number of spatial locations. The name reflects its origins in mineral exploration, but the methods are now used in a wide range of settings including public health and the physical and environmental sciences. Model-based geostatistics refers to the application of general statistical principles of modeling and inference to geostatistical problems. This volume is the first book-length treatment of model-based geostatistics. The authors have written an expository text, emphasizing statistical methods and applications rather than the underlying mathematical theory. Analyses of datasets from a range of scientific contexts feature prominently, and simulations are used to illustrate theoretical results. Readers can reproduce most of the computational results in the book by using the authors' R-based software package, geoR, whose usage is illustrated in a computation section at the end of each chapter.



















