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Author: Wayne L. Newell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages : 60
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Book Description
Bedrock control of geomorphic processes; a guide to opportunities and limitations for the use of rugged terrain.
Author: Wayne L. Newell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages : 60
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Book Description
Bedrock control of geomorphic processes; a guide to opportunities and limitations for the use of rugged terrain.
Author: Jianguo Liu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198703554
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 299
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Book Description
Part I. Empirical and theoretical foundations -- Part II. Model coupled human and natural system -- Part III. Across local to global coupled human and natural systems -- Part IV. Perspectives
Author: Braden Allenby
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1597266205
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
The Earth's biological, chemical, and physical systems are increasingly shaped by the activities of one species-ours. In our decisions about everything from manufacturing technologies to restaurant menus, the health of the planet has become a product of human choice. Environmentalism, however, has largely failed to adapt to this new reality. Reconstructing Earth offers seven essays that explore ways of developing a new, more sophisticated approach to the environment that replaces the fantasy of recovering pristine landscapes with a more grounded viewpoint that can foster a better relationship between humans and the planet. Braden Allenby, a lawyer with degrees in both engineering and environmental studies, explains the importance of technological choice, and how that factor is far more significant in shaping our environment (in ways both desirable and not) than environmental controls. Drawing on his varied background and experience in both academia and the corporate world, he describes the emerging field of "earth systems engineering and management," which offers an integrated approach to understanding and managing complex human/natural systems that can serve as a basis for crafting better, more lasting solutions to widespread environmental problems. Reconstructing Earth not only critiques dysfunctional elements of current environmentalism but establishes a foundation for future environmental management and progress, one built on an understanding of technological evolution and the cultural systems that support modern technologies. Taken together, the essays offer an important means of developing an environmentalism that is robust and realistic enough to address the urgent realities of our planet. Reconstructing Earth is a thought-provoking new work for anyone concerned with the past or future of environmental thought, including students and teachers of environmental studies, environmental policy, technology policy, technological evolution, or sustainability.
Author: Michael J. Manfredo
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401789592
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278
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Book Description
In this edited open access book leading scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds wrestle with social science integration opportunities and challenges. This book explores the growing concern of how best to achieve effective integration of the social science disciplines as a means for furthering natural resource social science and environmental problem solving. The chapters provide an overview of the history, vision, advances, examples and methods that could lead to integration. The quest for integration among the social sciences is not new. Some argue that the social sciences have lagged in their advancements and contributions to society due to their inability to address integration related issues. Integration merits debate for a number of reasons. First, natural resource issues are complex and are affected by multiple proximate driving social factors. Single disciplinary studies focused at one level are unlikely to provide explanations that represent this complexity and are limited in their ability to inform policy recommendations. Complex problems are best explored across disciplines that examine social-ecological phenomenon from different scales. Second, multi-disciplinary initiatives such as those with physical and biological scientists are necessary to understand the scope of the social sciences. Too frequently there is a belief that one social scientist on a multi-disciplinary team provides adequate social science representation. Third, more complete models of human behavior will be achieved through a synthesis of diverse social science perspectives.
Author: James B. Grace
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139457845
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 26
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Book Description
This book, first published in 2006, presents an introduction to the methodology of structural equation modeling, illustrates its use, and goes on to argue that it has revolutionary implications for the study of natural systems. A major theme of this book is that we have, up to this point, attempted to study systems primarily using methods (such as the univariate model) that were designed only for considering individual processes. Understanding systems requires the capacity to examine simultaneous influences and responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) has such capabilities. It also possesses many other traits that add strength to its utility as a means of making scientific progress. In light of the capabilities of SEM, it can be argued that much of ecological theory is currently locked in an immature state that impairs its relevance. It is further argued that the principles of SEM are capable of leading to the development and evaluation of multivariate theories of the sort vitally needed for the conservation of natural systems.
Author: Lance H. Gunderson
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1642830909
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
After a decades-long economic slump, the city of Flint, Michigan, struggled to address chronic issues of toxic water supply, malnutrition, and food security gaps among its residents. A community-engaged research project proposed a resilience assessment that would use panarchy theory to move the city toward a more sustainable food system. Flint is one of many examples that demonstrates how panarchy theory is being applied to understand and influence change in complex human-natural systems. Applied Panarchy, the much-anticipated successor to Lance Gunderson and C.S. Holling’s seminal 2002 volume Panarchy, documents the extraordinary advances in interdisciplinary panarchy scholarship and applications over the past two decades. Panarchy theory has been applied to a broad range of fields, from economics to law to urban planning, changing the practice of environmental stewardship for the better in measurable, tangible ways. Panarchy describes the way systems—whether forests, electrical grids, agriculture, coastal surges, public health, or human economies and governance—are part of even larger systems that interact in unpredictable ways. Although humans desire resiliency and stability in our lives to help us understand the world and survive, nothing in nature is permanently stable. How can society anticipate and adjust to the changes we see around us? Where Panarchy proposed a framework to understand how these transformational cycles work and how we might influence them, Applied Panarchy takes the scholarship to the next level, demonstrating how these concepts have been modified and refined. The book shows how panarchy theory intersects with other disciplines, and how it directly influences natural resources management and environmental stewardship. Intended as a text for graduate courses in environmental sciences and related fields, Applied Panarchy picks up where Panarchy left off, inspiring new generations of scholars, researchers, and professionals to put its ideas to work in practical ways.
Author: Samuel Myers
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610919661
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 538
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Book Description
Human health depends on the health of the planet. Earth’s natural systems—the air, the water, the biodiversity, the climate—are our life support systems. Yet climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of land and freshwater, pollution and other threats are degrading these systems. The emerging field of planetary health aims to understand how these changes threaten our health and how to protect ourselves and the rest of the biosphere. Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves provides a readable introduction to this new paradigm. With an interdisciplinary approach, the book addresses a wide range of health impacts felt in the Anthropocene, including food and nutrition, infectious disease, non-communicable disease, dislocation and conflict, and mental health. It also presents strategies to combat environmental changes and its ill-effects, such as controlling toxic exposures, investing in clean energy, improving urban design, and more. Chapters are authored by widely recognized experts. The result is a comprehensive and optimistic overview of a growing field that is being adopted by researchers and universities around the world. Students of public health will gain a solid grounding in the new challenges their profession must confront, while those in the environmental sciences, agriculture, the design professions, and other fields will become familiar with the human consequences of planetary changes. Understanding how our changing environment affects our health is increasingly critical to a variety of disciplines and professions. Planetary Health is the definitive guide to this vital field.
Author: Donald L. DeAngelis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642826253
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
Cybernetics, a science concerned with understanding how systems are regulated, has reflected the preoccupations of the century in which it was born. Regulation is important in twentieth century society, where both machines and social organizations are complex. Cybernetics focused on and became primarily associated with the homeostasis or stability of system behavior and with the negative feedbacks that stabilize systems. It paid less attention to the processes opposite to negative feedback, the positive feedback processes that act to change systems. We attempt to redress the balance here by illustrating the enormous importance of positive feedbacks in natural systems. In an article in the American Scientist in 1963, Maruyama called for increased attention to this topic, noting that processes of change could occur when a "deviation in anyone component of the system caused deviations in other components that acted back on the first component to reinforce of amplify the initial deviation." The deviation amplification is the result of positive feedback among system components. Maruyama demonstrated by numerous examples that the neglect of such processes was unjustified and suggested that a new branch of cybernetics, "the second cybernetics," be devoted to their study.
Author: Frederick R. Steiner
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610917383
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 257
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Book Description
Humans have always been influenced by natural landscapes, and always will be—even as we create ever-larger cities and our developments fundamentally change the nature of the earth around us. In Human Ecology, noted city planner and landscape architect Frederick Steiner encourages us to consider how human cultures have been shaped by natural forces, and how we might use this understanding to contribute to a future where both nature and people thrive. Human ecology is the study of the interrelationships between humans and their environment, drawing on diverse fields from biology and geography to sociology, engineering, and architecture. Steiner admirably synthesizes these perspectives through the lens of landscape architecture, a discipline that requires its practitioners to consciously connect humans and their environments. After laying out eight principles for understanding human ecology, the book’s chapters build from the smallest scale of connection—our homes—and expand to community scales, regions, nations, and, ultimately, examine global relationships between people and nature. In this age of climate change, a new approach to planning and design is required to envision a livable future. Human Ecology provides architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and planners—and students in those fields— with timeless principles for new, creative thinking about how their work can shape a vibrant, resilient future for ourselves and our planet.
Author: Vinod Wadhawan
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781548527938
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 586
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Book Description
'This book is epic in the sense that it covers so much ground that one is left somewhat dizzy. And yet, it all makes sense once one realizes how it is possible for something that is complex, for example a flower, to evolve via natural processes from humble beginnings. After all, starting with single-cell creatures such as amoebae we follow a complicated but rational evolutionary path to arrive at the most complex organizations that we know of - ourselves. So, if you follow the logic of this book, starting with the basic concepts of thermodynamics, symmetry, quantum theory and so on, you will be treated to many many thought-provoking ideas, which will likely challenge your own preconceptions and leave you thirsting for more.' (From the foreword by Prof. A. M. Glazer, University of Oxford) Science is all about trying to understand natural phenomena under the strict discipline imposed by the celebrated scientific method. Practically all the systems we encounter in Nature are dynamical systems, meaning that they evolve with time. Among them there are the 'simple' or 'simplifiable' systems, which can be handled by traditional, reductionistic science; and then there are 'complex' systems, for which nonreductionistic approaches have to be attempted for understanding their evolution. In this book the author makes a case that a good way to understand a large number of natural phenomena, both simple and complex, is to focus on their self-organization and emergence aspects. Self-organization and emergence are rampant in Nature and, given enough time, their cumulative effects can be so mind-boggling that many people have great difficulty believing that there is no designer involved in the emergence of all the structure and order we see around us. But it is really quite simple to understand how and why we get so much 'order for free'. It all happens because, as ordained by the infallible second law of thermodynamics, all 'thermodynamically open' systems in our ever-expanding and cooling (and therefore gradient-creating) universe constantly tend to move towards equilibrium and stability, often ending up in ordered configurations. In other words, order emerges because Nature tends to find efficient ways to annul gradients of all types. This book will help you acquire a good understanding of the essential features of many natural phenomena, via the complexity-science route. It has four parts: (1) Complexity Basics; (2) Pre-Human Evolution of Complexity; (3) Humans and the Evolution of Complexity; and (4) Appendices. The author gives centrestage to the second law of thermodynamics for 'open' systems, which he describes as 'the mother of all organizing principles'. He also highlights a somewhat unconventional statement of this law: 'Nature abhors gradients'. The book is written at two levels, one of which hardly uses any mathematical equations; the mathematical treatment of some relevant topics has been pushed to the last part of the book, in the form of ten appendices. Therefore the book should be accessible to a large readership. It is a general-science book written in a reader-friendly language, but without any dumbing down of the narrative.
