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In the last half decade since sustainable development became a serious objective, what have we achieved? Are livelihoods more secure? Are nations wealthier and more resilient? Is environmental quality being restored or maintained? These are essential questions of development. Their answers are many, varied between communities and regions, even between individuals. Two years ago, in the aftermath of the Earth Summit and ratification of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, but before the fi...

The ever increasing emission of carbon dioxide due to rapid industrialization, urbanization, unplanned tourism and alteration of land use pattern is causing unprecedented changes to marine biodiversity. Irrespective of political philosophy, nation, caste, sex and religion, mankind is under the appalling shadow of climate change. Today nature-based approaches for the mitigation of climate change are increasingly accepted as part of the low-cost solution. Thrust has been given by several scientifi...

Water is the most effective agent in the climate system to modulate energy transfer by radiative processes, through its exchanges of latent heat and within cascades of chemical processes. It is the source of all life on earth, and once convective clouds are formed, it enables large vertical transports of momentum, heat and various atmospheric constituents up to levels above the tropical tropopause. Water triggers very complex processes at the earth's continental surfaces and within the oceans. A...

This book focuses on the potential for Earth Observation (EO) to contribute to public health practice. Remote sensing experts from the EO community together with epidemiologists, modelling experts, policy makers, managers and public health researchers gathered at the One Earth-One Health workshop held at the Canadian Earth Observation Summit in Montreal in 2017. They shared how EO is being used to understand, track, predict, and manage infectious diseases and discussed the challenges and signifi...

Global warming is officially predicted, with consequent huge changes in the world's climates. Whatever changes occur, they will not be uniform, and the consequences for agriculture will be enormous. This book examines those consequences. Professor Parry analyses the sensitivity of the world food system and the ways in which it will be affected by the expected climatic changes. Some countries may be better off, but many won't be, and, for example, the food surpluses from the USA may no longer be...

The recent earthquake disasters in Japan and a series of other disasters in the world have highlighted again the need for more reliable geotechnical prediction and better methods for geotechnical design and in particular dealing with geohazards. This book provides a timely review and summaries of the recent advances in theories, analyses and methods for geotechnical predictions and the most up-to-date practices in geotechnical engineering and particularly in dealing with geohazards. A special se...

Global climate change poses not only environmental hazards but profound risks to planetary peace and stability as well. Climatic Cataclysm gathers experts on climate science, oceanography, history, political science, foreign policy, and national security to take the measure of these risks. The contributors have developed three scenarios of what the future may hold. The expected scenario relies on current scientific models to project the effects of climate change over the next 30 years. The sever...

The history of scientific research and technological development is replete with examples of breakthroughs that have advanced the frontiers of knowledge, but seldom does it record events that constitute paradigm shifts in broad areas of intellectual pursuit. One notable exception, however, is that of spin electronics (also called spintronics, magnetoelectronics or magnetronics), wherein information is carried by electron spin in addition to, or in place of, electron charge. It is now well establ...

Humans are not living within our ecological means. We are using the earth's resources at a pace that cannot be maintained. We have already seen evidence of the fallout associated with ecological overconsumption and continued abuse of environmental systems will create increasing challenges both today and into the future. Our depletion of natural systems minimizes the possibilities available to future generations who are expected to somehow rely on innovation and ingenuity for their survival. Yet,...

Reducing the cost of space program interests people more and more nowadays due to the concerns of budget limitation and commercialization of space technology. The Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Reducing the Cost of Spacecraft Ground Systems and Operations bring together papers contributed by the authors representing the research organizations, academic institutions and commercial sectors of 10 countries around the world. The papers encompass the subject areas in mission...