Sustainability Science


Book Description

Continues to fill gaps between the descriptive, conceptual, and transformative sustainability science Sustainability is increasingly important across functional sectors and scientific disciplines. Policy-makers, practitioners, and academics continue to wrestle with the complexity of risk, resilience, and sustainability, but because of the necessary transdisciplinary focus, it is difficult to find authoritative content in a single source. Sustainability Science: Managing Risk and Resilience for Sustainable Development, Second Edition, contributes to filling that gap and is completely revised with several new chapters. It asserts that all efforts for the sustainability of humankind are undermined by the four fundamental challenges of complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and dynamic change. While there are no silver bullets, this book contends that we need systems approaches, risk approaches, participatory approaches, and resilience approaches to address each of them and endeavours to provide such. With that in mind, this book describes the state of the world (Part I), proposes a way to approach the world (Part II), and suggests how to set out to change the world (Part III). ? Introduces a new agenda for sustainable development that reflects current thinking in sustainability science.? Draws lessons from the entire history of humankind to help us understand our present and inform decisions for ourfuture.? Operationalises key concepts to provide a clear link between theory to practice.? Combines a stern message about staggering sustainability challenges with advice for practical action and calls for hope.? Includes new chapters on complexity–what it is, how it manifests, and its consequences–on resistance to knowledge and change–focusing on the drivers behind the phenomena and how to overcome them–and more.




Urban Flood Management


Book Description

Along with windstorms, floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters. Although they can often be predicted, they cause loss of life, damage and destruction, as many urban communities are located near coasts and rivers. In terms of victims, floods are responsible for more than half the deaths caused by natural catastrophes. As f




Cataclysms on the Columbia


Book Description

"Cataclysms on the Columbia" chronicles the geological research that led to the discovery of powerful prehistoric floods that shaped the Pacific Northwest.




Hydrology in Practice


Book Description

Hydrology in Practice is an excellent and very successful introductory text for engineering hydrology students who go on to be practitioners in consultancies, the Environment Agency, and elsewhere. This fourth edition of Hydrology in Practice, while retaining all that is excellent about its predecessor, by Elizabeth M. Shaw, replaces the material on the Flood Studies Report with an equivalent section on the methods of the Flood Estimation Handbook and its revisions. Other completely revised sections on instrumentation and modelling reflect the many changes that have occurred over recent years. The updated text has taken advantage of the extensive practical experience of the staff of JBA Consulting who use the methods described on a day-to-day basis. Topical case studies further enhance the text and the way in which students at undergraduate and MSc level can relate to it. The fourth edition will also have a wider appeal outside the UK by including new material on hydrological processes, which also relate to courses in geography and environmental science departments. In this respect the book draws on the expertise of Keith J. Beven and Nick A. Chappell, who have extensive experience of field hydrological studies in a variety of different environments, and have taught undergraduate hydrology courses for many years. Second- and final-year undergraduate (and MSc) students of hydrology in engineering, environmental science, and geography departments across the globe, as well as professionals in environmental protection agencies and consultancies, will find this book invaluable. It is likely to be the course text for every undergraduate/MSc hydrology course in the UK and in many cases overseas too.




Stream Ecology


Book Description

Stream Ecology: Structure and Function of Running Waters is designed to serve as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, and as a reference source for specialists in stream ecology and related fields. This Third Edition is thoroughly updated and expanded to incorporate significant advances in our understanding of environmental factors, biological interactions, and ecosystem processes, and how these vary with hydrological, geomorphological, and landscape setting. The broad diversity of running waters – from torrential mountain brooks, to large, lowland rivers, to great river systems whose basins occupy sub-continents – makes river ecosystems appear overwhelming complex. A central theme of this book is that although the settings are often unique, the processes at work in running waters are general and increasingly well understood. Even as our scientific understanding of stream ecosystems rapidly advances, the pressures arising from diverse human activities continue to threaten the health of rivers worldwide. This book presents vital new findings concerning human impacts, and the advances in pollution control, flow management, restoration, and conservation planning that point to practical solutions. Reviews of the first edition: ".. an unusually lucid and judicious reassessment of the state of stream ecology" Science Magazine "..provides an excellent introduction to the area for advanced undergraduates and graduate students..." Limnology & Oceanography "... a valuable reference for all those interested in the ecology of running waters." Transactions of the American Fisheries Society Reviews of the second edition: "Overall, a must for the field centre and a good starter text in stream ecology." (TEN News, October, 2007) "Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (P. R. Pinet, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (7), 2008) "... a very good, fluidly readable book which contains the latest key scientific knowledge of the ecology of running waters." (Daniel Graeber, International Review of Hydrobiology, Vol. 94 (2), 2009)










The SAGE Handbook of Geomorphology


Book Description

Geomorphology is the study of the Earth′s diverse physical land-surface features and the dynamic processes that shape these features. Examining natural and anthropogenic processes, The SAGE Handbook of Geomorphology is a comprehensive exposition of the fundamentals of geomorphology that examines form, process, and applications of the discipline. Organized into five substantive sections, the Handbook is an overview of: • Foundations and Relevance: including the nature and scope of geomorphology; the origins and development of geomorphology; the role and character of theory in geomorphology; geomorphology and environmental management; and geomorphology and society • Techniques and Approaches: including observations and experiments; geomorphological mapping; the significance of models; process and form; dating surfaces and sediment; remote sensing in geomorphology; GIS in geomorphology; biogeomorphology; human activity • Process and Environment: including the evolution of regolith; weathering; fluids, flows and fluxes; sediment transport and deposition; hill slopes; riverine environments; glacial geomorphology; periglacial environments; coastal environments; aeolian environments; tropical environments; karst and karst processes • Environmental Change: including landscape evolution and tectonics; interpreting quaternary environments; environmental change; disturbance and responses to geomorphic systems • Conclusion: including challenges and perspectives; and a concluding review The Handbook has contributions from 48 international authors and was initially organized by the International Association of Geomorphologists. This will be a much-used and much-cited reference for researchers in Geomorphology, Physical Geography and the Environmental Sciences.