This book addresses most of the environmental impacts of sand mining from small rivers The problems and solutions addressed in this book are applicable to all rivers that drain through densely populated tropical coasts undergoing rapid economic growth. Many rivers in the world are drastically being altered to levels often beyond their natural resilience capability. Among the different types of human interventions, mining of sand and gravel is the most disastrous one, as the activity threat...

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 sapien...

his book contains seven chapters, each dealing with one major natural disaster encountered in our country. Each of the authors is an expert in that particular field. The outstanding contribution of this book is that it not only deals with the forecasting and description of the various natural disasters, but also stresses the management aspect, exhaustively detailing the necessary steps that need to be taken to deal with the fallout in the wake of these disasters. The book also describes th...

Diseases transmitted by insects continue to have a major impact on human populations. Malaria, dengue, onchocerciasis, sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis all adversely affect man. Malaria is one of the most important causes of child mortality and reduces economic development in many countries, with agricultural productivity often greatly reduced, as many vectors are active in the wet season favourable for crop production. Vector control is crucial to reduce the extent to which drugs are n...

Readable, relevant and fascinating, in Living in a Warmer World Dr Jim Salinger brings together some of the worlds leading scientists to describe how a hotter planet is affecting our food supplies, fisheries and agriculture, access to fresh water and public health. From these specifics, a clearer picture emerges of how our planet is changing and how this will affect our daily lives. The essays look at what we are doing now to help plan for and adapt to our future, and the political and ethica...

The science of wetlands and our understanding of these complex ecosystems have improved considerably. The emergence of multidisciplinary strategies is providing new opportunities and innovative approaches to address issues such as climate change and coastal protection. This book, with contributions from 19 specialists from academia, government, and industry, provides a trans-disciplinary approach to the understanding wetlands science, drawing together a wide range of expertise. Topics cove...

The importance of conservation is growing each year, with increasing concerns over the destruction of biodiversity and the rising awareness of ecosystem services generating new debates on the human-nature relationship. This compact overview integrates the process, theory and practice of conservation for a broad readership, from non-specialists to students and practitioners. Taking a global perspective, it uses examples from around the world to illustrate general themes and show how problem...

In this concise introduction to water resources, Shimon Anisfeld explores the fundamental interactions between humans and water, including drinking, sanitation, irrigation, and power production. The book familiarizes students with the current water crisis and with approaches for managing this essential resource more effectively in a time of rapid environmental and social change. Anisfeld addresses both human and ecological problems, including scarcity, pollution, disease, flooding, conflic...

This concise introductory text provides a complete overview of biodiversity - what it is, how it arose, its distribution, why it is important, human impact upon it, and what should be done to maintain it.Timely overview of the serious attempts made to quantify and describe biodiversity in a scientific wayActs as an easy entry point into the primary literatureProvides real-world examples of key issues, including illustrations of major tempo...

It is important for the reader to understand clearly the objectives of these papers. They are not an attempt to provide accurate predictions of what is going to happen in Australia over the next few decades. Rather they represent sensitivity studies, designed to illustrate to what extent we as a nation are dependent on the climate and likely to be affected by climatic change, and attempts to develop the techniques for such sensitivity analyses. For this, the climate scenario (reproduced in th...

This textbook provides an overview of the major environmental policy issues, past and present, and explains the interplay among law, science, and advocacy as related to environmental policymaking in the United States and abroad.Environmental Policy and Public Health examines the main sources of pollution and threats to environmental integrity and explores the consequences of pollution on the environment and the population. Throughout the book, noted environmental policy expert Will...

Longhurst examines the proposition, central to fisheries science, that a fishery creates its own natural resource by the compensatory growth it induces in the fish, and that this is sustainable. His novel analysis of the reproductive ecology of bony fish of cooler seas offers some support for this, but a review of fisheries past and present confirms that sustainability is rarely achieved. The relatively open structure and strong variability of marine ecosystems is discussed in relation to ...