Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond


Book Description

« "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1' is the first book in a three-volume guide that teaches you how to conceptualize, design, and implement sustainable water-harvesting systems for your home, landscape, and community. The lessons in this volume will enable you to assess your on-site resources, give you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential, and empower you with guiding principles to create an integrated, multi-functional water-harvesting plan specific to your site and needs. »--




Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation


Book Description

Water harvesting is gaining more and more recognition as the sustainable and resilient alternative to other water supply options. It is economically viable, socially compatible and environmentally friendly. Water harvesting has proven to be a robust solution to overcome or reduce water shortages all over the world. To apply this in a sustainable and effective way, it is important to understand exactly where it can be applied to make full use of its potential. The Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation: Case Studies and Application Examples is the most comprehensive, up-to-date and applied casebook on water harvesting and conservation yet published. The editors bring together the many perspectives into a synthesis that is both academically-based and practical in its potential applications. The Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation: Case Studies and Application Examples will be an important tool for education, research and technical works in the soil, water and watershed management area, and will be highly useful for drought strategy planning, flood management and adaptation to climate change in all urban, agricultural, forest, rangeland areas.




Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation


Book Description

Water harvesting is gaining more and more recognition as a sustainable and resilient water supply options. It is economically viable, socially compatible and environmentally friendly. Water harvesting has proven to be a robust solution to overcome or reduce water shortages all over the world. It is important to understand how to apply this practice in a sustainable and effective way to make full use of its potential in a world increasingly threatened by water scarcity. The Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation: Basic Concepts and Fundamentals is the most comprehensive, up-to-date and applied handbook on water harvesting and conservation yet published. The book’s 30 chapters -- written by 84 outstanding international experts from approximately 20 selected countries faced by drought -- explore, critique and develop concepts and systems for water harvesting. The editors bring together many perspectives into a synthesis that is both academically based and practical in its potential applications. The Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation: Basic Concepts and Fundamentals is an important tool for education, research and technical works in the areas of soil, water and watershed management and is highly useful for drought strategy planning, flood management and developing techniques to adapt to climate change in urban, agricultural, forest and rangeland areas.




Harvesting the Biosphere


Book Description

An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production. The biosphere—the Earth's thin layer of life—dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens. In Harvesting the Biosphere, Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests—from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production—and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.




Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2, 2nd Edition


Book Description

2020 independent Press Award Winner--Green Book Category Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2 is a how-to guide enabling you to "plant the rain" by creating water-harvesting "earthworks" or "rain gardens." Earthworks are simple, inexpensive strategies and landforms that passively harvest multiple sources of free on-site water including rainfall, stormwater runoff, air conditioning condensate, and greywater within "living tanks" of soil and vegetation. The plants then pump the water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, timber and forage, while controlling erosion, reducing down-stream flooding, dropping utility costs, increasing soil fertility, and improving water and air quality. This revised and expanded full-color second edition builds on the information in Volume 1 by showing you how to turn your yard, school, business, park, and neighborhood into lively, regenerative producers of resources. Conditions at home will improve as you simultaneously enrich the ecosystem and inspire the surrounding community. Learn to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen earthworks. All is made easier and more effective by the illustrations of natural patterns of water and sediment flow with which you can collaborate or mimic. Detailed step-by-step instructions with over 550 images show you how to do it, and plentiful stories of success motivate you so you will do it!




Dew Water


Book Description

The world’s ever-increasing need for fresh water has led to the use of non-conventional sources such as rain and fog water collection. Although rain water collection is relatively simple, the supply is often erratic. Passive fog water collection has been used in several parts of the world but is only relevant to certain geographical locations. Dew occurrence, however, is far more widespread, can form in most climates and geographic settings, show high frequency and prevalence throughout the year. During the past 20 years, dew collection has therefore been investigated as a serious supplemental source of fresh water. Dew Water offers a thorough review of dew, its formation characteristics and potential for dew collection, for audiences that include policy-makers, non-governmental organizations involved in development aid and sustainable development, engineers, urban planners, researchers and students.After providing a background on atmospheric water, humid air, and sky and materials emissivity, the book deals with dew formation and its estimation with a focus on the use of meteorological data. Dew measurement techniques are reviewed and discussed as well as dew collection by passive means. Computational fluid dynamics technique is described for better design of dew collectors. Dew quality (chemistry, biology) is assessed in view of potable water quality. Costs and economic aspects are also considered.




Command Of The Air


Book Description

In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.




Design for Water


Book Description

A guide to alternate water collection for green new developments, aimed at conserving water and reusing it wisely. In an era of dwindling resources, water is poised to become the new oil as the entire world now faces the reality of a decreasing supply of clean water. To avert a devastating shortage, we must not only look at alternate water sources for existing structures, we must also plan our new developments differently. Design for Water is an accessible and clearly written guide to alternate water collection, with a focus on rainwater harvesting in the urban environment. The book: outlines the process of water collection from multiple sources—landscape, residential, commercial, industrial, school, park and municipal systems provides numerous case studies details the assembly and actual application of equipment includes specific details, schematics and references All aspects of rainwater harvesting are outlined, including passive and active system set-up, storage, stormwater reuse, distribution, purification, analysis and filtration. There is even a section on rainwater harvesting for wildlife. In addition to rainwater, there are several affordable and accessible alternate sources, including cooling tower bleed-off water, air conditioning condensate, gray water, and fog collection. Design for Water is geared to providing those making development decisions and guidelines with the information they need to set up passive harvesting techniques. The book will especially appeal to engineers, landscape architects, municipal decision-makers, developers and land-owners.







Physics and Chemistry of Interfaces


Book Description

Physics and Chemistry of Interfaces Comprehensive textbook on the interdisciplinary field of interface science, fully updated with new content on wetting, spectroscopy, and coatings Physics and Chemistry of Interfaces provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of surface and interface science, focusing on essential concepts rather than specific details, and on intuitive understanding rather than convoluted math. Numerous high-end applications from surface technology, biotechnology, and microelectronics are included to illustrate and help readers easily comprehend basic concepts. The new edition contains an increased number of problems with detailed, worked solutions, making it ideal as a self-study resource. In topic coverage, the highly qualified authors take a balanced approach, discussing advanced interface phenomena in detail while remaining comprehensible. Chapter summaries with the most important equations, facts, and phenomena are included to aid the reader in information retention. A few of the sample topics included in Physics and Chemistry of Interfaces are as follows: Liquid surfaces, covering microscopic picture of a liquid surface, surface tension, the equation of Young and Laplace, and curved liquid surfaces Thermodynamics of interfaces, covering surface excess, internal energy and Helmholtz energy, equilibrium conditions, and interfacial excess energies Charged interfaces and the electric double layer, covering planar surfaces, the Grahame equation, and limitations of the Poisson-Boltzmann theory Surface forces, covering Van der Waals forces between molecules, macroscopic calculations, the Derjaguin approximation, and disjoining pressure Physics and Chemistry of Interfaces is a complete reference on the subject, aimed at advanced students (and their instructors) in physics, material science, chemistry, and engineering. Researchers requiring background knowledge on surface and interface science will also benefit from the accessible yet in-depth coverage of the text.