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There is an affirming transformation, basically in the form of core methodology, in recent geomorphological studies. This book on “New Advancement in Geomorphological Research: Issues and Challenges in Quantitative Spatial Science'asserts the contributing aspects of neo-modern developments related to applied geomorphology. This includes hydrological research, fluvial geomorphology, applied glacial geomorphology, changes in coastal geomorphology, regional to global level disaster and/or hazard monitoring with advanced models, landslide monitoring, geo-heritage site suitability, and bank and gully erosion detection. Contemporary developments in linking with the advanced developments in remote sensing and GIS, and with spatial science, in applied geomorphology and related sub-branches of earth science. Recently, global climate change phenomena (GCCP) impacted local to regional climatic events, resulting in sea-level rise, melting of glaciers, drastic river-course changes, the disappearance of the coastal area, and shrinkage of natural resources toss significant tests to sustaining human civilization. Meanwhile, modern monitoring technology and policy help-desk can support and minimize the present day's problems globally and also safeguard the natural environment's impending persistence in human society. So, this academic persuasion is a pioneer in minimizing the complications, like river course changes, glacier abolishment, geo-hazard crisis management, coastal area erosion management, geo-heritage conservation and management, and so on. Side by side, this present volume of the book caters a rational time-scale of the analyzed processes from mountain to coastal regions. And for better academic persuasion this will also incorporates the level of analysis, in the shape of `susceptibility'to `risk', with newly advanced methods. Therefore, appropriate cultivation of the knowledge of the application of GIScience for applied geomorphology and on the bigger aspect of the welfare of society and environment, and subjective nursing and administration can curtail the gap between science, policy, and the bottom-level scenario concerned. This current endeavor is also underlining the adaptation of hybrid techniques, remote sensing, statistical tools, and GIS technologies for the quantification of various issues related to several branches of applied geomorphology. This contributed piece includes focused and problem-oriented case studies to underline the versatility of changing geomorphological research, environmental resources, natural landscape, geo eco-system management, interconnected problems, and concerned applied vista at various spatiotemporal scales. The endorsed chapters, encircling both theoretical and applied aspects, help as guideline information for future research. Concisely, this book will offer traditional and advanced geospatial technologies used in earth science, atmospheric, lithospheric, hydrosphere, and biospheric contexts connected to applied geomorphology and for better management. This current book will be a commendable product from the belvedere of researchers, scientists, academic personnel, policymakers, advanced learners in advanced geoscience, earth science, applied geomorphology, remote sensing, environmental resources management, GIS, and hydrology.

This book presents a novel computation of the topographic LS factor of the USLE model to estimate spatial soil erosion. In developing countries, soil erosion is one of the main concerns as it adversely affects agriculture and reduces food production. Therefore, the author presents a particularly relevant approach, as he demonstrates how the C++ programming allows us to identify important erosion stages like detachment and deposition. He does this by assessing the annual rate of soil erosion from the Shakkar River watershed in India using distributed information and applying RS and GIS techniques. He also discusses different approaches that have been proposed to work out the influence of topography on erosion. Simulated and observed data of sediment loss are compared for the period 1992 to 2006.This book provides an easy-to-understand basic piece of soil erosion and hydrological research and reaches out to young researchers and students at the graduate and undergraduate levelas well as applicants of soil erosion models.

This volume arises from the work of the International Geographical Union Working Group on Regional Hydrological Response to Climate Change and Global Warming under the chairmanship of Professor Changming Liu (1992-96). The book consists mostly of peer-reviewed papers delivered at the Working Group's first three scientific meetings held in Washington, D.C. (1992), Lhasa, Tibet (1993) and Moscow (1995). These have been supplemented by a few additional chapters that have been specifically commissioned in order to give a well-rounded coverage of the global and scientific aspects of the topic. As editors, we have sought to balance state-of-the-art reviews of methodology and regional research with detailed studies of specific countries and river basins. In the spirit of the IGU, we have devoted particular effort to encouraging contributions from scientists in the non-English-speaking world. These chapters provide valuable evidence of recent climatic change and predictions of future hydrological impacts from parts of the world where little detailed work has been conducted hitherto. They provide much valuable information that is new and interesting to an international audience and is otherwise very difficult or impossible to acquire. It is hoped that the present volume will be not only a record of current achievements, but also a stimulus to further hydrological research as the detail and spatial resolution of Global Climate Models improves. One notable aspect that emerges from a number of the contributions is that many, though by no means all, recent hydrological trends are in line with global warming predictions.

This book includes a collection of extended papers based on presentations given during the SimHydro 2023 conference, held in EDF Lab Chatou, France, with the support of Société Hydrotechnique de France (SHF), the Association Française de Mécanique (AFM), the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), and the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). SimHydro conferences, since 2010, have created a regular forum where major actors of the hydroinformatics domain and stakeholders meet, share, and debate about needs, innovations, and implementations of models and their inputs for decision making. For this new edition, the general theme of the conference is focused on “New modelling paradigms for water issues”. The papers address some of the key challenges faced by the water modelling community regarding processes to simulate such as water services, extreme events (floods, droughts, etc.), and hydrological cycle at catchment scale and to assess the added value of emerging concepts and methods such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Twins that are gaining interests. It addresses the interests of practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and engineers active in this field. This book represents Volume 2 of a two-volume book series.

This book seeks to showcase the ongoing challenges of water resource and its management through innovative and cutting-edge approaches (flooding and droughts and their respective impacts; spatial and urban planning; early warning systems; estimation of losses; water resource in the age of global climate change; risk communication; meteorology; integrated analysis; risk mitigation; infrastructures; nature-based management; watershed management; transport; legal assessment; vulnerability analysis; public participation; or case studies). In the face of current global changes, the availability and quality of water resources are under severe threat. Indeed, in all sectors related to water resource management, sustainable development is important for present and future generations. Indeed, multiple problems such as water shortage or flooding, as well as environmental pollution phenomena, are observed. This situation is further exacerbated by poor management practices and unsustainable extraction of water for various consumptive uses. Consequently, many regions around the world, particularly urban areas, are becoming water stressed and conflicts over access to water are becoming ever more common. To overcome the significant challenges fundamental to the management of water resources, cutting-edge knowledge, innovative approaches, and an in-depth understanding of the inherent scientific, economic, social, and environmental issues are imperative. Therefore, water resource management requires a clear understanding of the ongoing challenges and innovative approaches. The authors and editors believe that this book provides huge knowledge and data in the fields of water resource management, earth environmental sciences, humanities, and social sciences, which target a diverse range of readers, such as academics, scientists, students, environmentalists, meteorologists, urban planners, remote sensing, and GIS experts.

As technology continues to saturate modern society, agriculture has started to adopt digital computing and data-driven innovations. This emergence of “smart” farming has led to various advancements in the field, including autonomous equipment and the collection of climate, livestock, and plant data. As connectivity and data management continue to revolutionize the farming industry, empirical research is required to understand these technological developments. This book explores the applications of various artificial intelligence techniques by identifying and describing technical, functional, and non-functional future technologies for smart farming and agriculture. The book also presents practical application opportunities for the resolution of real-world problems, including contributions from precision irrigation, greenhouse data, livestock monitoring, automation, IoT ecosystems for agriculture, cloud computing, mobile robots for precision agriculture, remote sensing applications, anddata mining. In addition, this book provides summary information about different soilless techniques such as hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics, among others. This book is ideally designed for farmers, agriculturalists, product managers, farm holders, manufacturers, equipment suppliers, industrialists, governmental professionals, researchers, academicians, and students seeking current research on technological applications within agriculture and farming.

This edited collection provides a comprehensive exploration of cutting-edge ideas, approaches, simulations, evaluations of risk, and systems that enhance the practicality of current geospatial technologies for reducing hazard risks. The various sections within this book delve into subjects such as the foundational principles of Earth Observation Systems (EOS) and geospatial methodologies. Additionally, the text serves as an advisory resource on the collaborative use of satellite-derived data and artificial intelligence to track and alleviate geo-environmental threats. The volume imparts extensive understanding regarding geo-environmental dangers and their analysis via EOS along with geospatial strategies. It encompasses key hazard-related themes including coastal degradation, predisposition to landslides, mapping vegetation coverages, tropical storm patterns, soil depletion due to erosion processes, vulnerability to rapid or extended flooding events, variations in oceansurface temperatures alongside chlorophyll-a levels; it also addresses assessments related to groundwater reserves and quality measures as well as sustainable management practices for watersheds that support community livelihoods—all through leveraging AI-integrated geospatial tools in conjunction with earth observation technologies. Furthermore, this work engages in discourse about systems designed for mitigating these ecological challenges sustainably. Scholars engaged in research activities; educational professionals; those involved in landscape design; engineers working at ground level; individuals responsible for policy-making—all who are concerned with geo-environmental hazards or associated domains—will find valuable insights within these pages.

The objective of this publication is to provide insight into advancing remote sensing techniques dealing with floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes, permafrost-related hazards, glacial lake outburst floods, forest fires, droughts, tropical cyclones, climate resilience and COVID-19. This publication will incorporate the latest technologies and techniques to illustrate disaster monitoring for acquiring information and dissemination of technological results and outcomes for the betterment of society. This publication would be of immense importance for earth scientists, policymakers and professionals working in the field of disaster risk reduction.

The book illustrates a geospatial and geostatistical approach to data analysis, modeling, risk assessment, and visualization, as well as landslide hazard management in the hilly region. This book investigates cutting-edge methodologies based on open source software and R statistical programming and modeling in current decision-making procedures, with a particular emphasis on recent advances in data mining techniques and robust modeling in torrential rainfall and earthquake induced landslide hazard.

This book includes a collection of extended papers based on presentations given during the SimHydro 2023 conference, held in EDF Lab Chatou, France, with the support of Société Hydrotechnique de France (SHF), the Association Française de Mécanique (AFM), the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI), and the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). SimHydro conferences, since 2010, have created a regular forum where major actors of the hydroinformatics domain and stakeholders meet, share, and debate about needs, innovations, and implementations of models and their inputs for decision making. For this new edition, the general theme of the conference is focused on “New modelling paradigms for water issues”. The papers address some of the key challenges faced by the water modelling community regarding processes to simulate such as water services, extreme events (floods, droughts, etc.), and hydrological cycle at catchment scale and to assess the added value of emerging concepts and methods such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Twins that are gaining interests. It addresses the interests of practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and engineers active in this field. This book represents Volume 1 of a two-volume book series.

This proposed book aims to present an analysis of several crisis issues induced by global climate changes and implications at the micro-level, particularly from the perspective of ground-based study. Climate crisis leads to several socio-ecological issues which need to discuss with some empirical case studies from the contextual global evidences. Climatic crisis generates several social responses which are associated with mitigating issues in addition to sustainable development goals. Under these circumstances, several loopholes interlinked with climatic crisis need to expose in the present-day context. This book argues that it is important to understand the issues from multiple dimensions. It identifies some important dimensions to discuss in the process. Themes we purpose to cover are: several field-based studies are included for which micro-level field-based data would incorporate to understand current crisis induced by climate change, thus exposing the vulnerabilities of the communities which would be incorporated in different chapters with adequate representation of qualitative methods, modelling-based geospatial approach. Therefore, some secondary data-based studies have also been included to provide a broader picture. Additionally, this book aims to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the issues mainly from the lenses of Geography, Economics, and Sociology as well as Environmental Studies too. Given the focus of this study, it is believed that an approach that harmonizes the cognitive domain from different discipline is appropriated. A combination of chapters using qualitative as well as quantitative methods also made this book exclusive from others. We believe that this edited book surely contributes the knowledge domain with some relevant chapters'discussion in the contemporary time and leads to reduce the gap of knowledge.

This book comprises the contributions of the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) international conference which is conducted biennially across Africa, alternately with the AfricaGIS conference. It is the premier forum in Africa for research on remote sensing technologies and geospatial information science, gathering leading scholars from the remote sensing and related communities. The 13th AARSE International Conference was held on October 24-28, 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda, to focus on Earth observations and geospatial science to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The five-day event themed “Space and Geospatial Technologies for the Africa We Want” was organized by the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) and the Institut d'Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (Ines-Ruhengeri) in partnership with Rwanda Space Agency and Space in Africa. Furthermore, the conference was sponsored by GMES and Africa, the Regional Centre For Mapping Of Resources For Development (RCMRD), Airbus, European Space Agency (ESA), Digital Earth Africa, and INES-Ruhengeri and Rwanda Space Agency. The 13th Conference continues a long series of successful AARSE conferences which started in 1996, in Harare (Zimbabwe), and has been held in Abidjan (Cote D'Ivoire) in 1998, Cape Town (South Africa) in 2000, Abuja (Nigeria) in 2002, Nairobi (Kenya) in 2004, Cairo (Egypt) in 2006, Accra (Ghana) in 2008, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia) in 2010, El Jadida (Morocco) in 2012, Johannesburg (South Africa) in 2014, Kampala (Ouganda) in 2016, and in Alexandria (Egypt) in 2018. The book is mainly addressed to practitioners and experts from academia, politics, and industry.

History is generally defined as “the study of past events, particularly in human affairs” and is mostly understood when presented chronologically. That's why someone also defined it as the ‘chronological record of the past'. Knowing the past is extremely important for any society and human being. Past gives us insights into our evolving behavior in many matters of life. The book is seen as a unique opportunity to preserve the memory of the Italian history of soil science. It represents a milestone and a cultural heritage. Moreover, the book is a sort of ideal bridge between the pioneers of soil science in Italy and the young generation of researchers, contributing to spreading awareness of the importance of soil as a fundamental resource.

This open access book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date picture of the current state of knowledge covering climate change, surface water change, arsenic pollution, water utilization, water-food-energy nexus, water related hazards, water management, and water governance in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. Considering the widely concerned fact that the climate change and human intervention induced impacts on water will bring unprecedented threats to human societies and ecosystems, the book intends to support UN's sustainable development goals through sustainable use of water by providing the most accurate and updated information on climate and water changes in a consistent way. Underlying all aspects of the book is a strong commitment to assessing the science comprehensively, without bias and in a way that is relevant to policy but not policy prescriptive. It can provide implications to support decision-makers and stakeholders for integrated water resources management and sustainable development at all levels.

This book covers the various ways in which rivers discharge water and sediment load, which is characteristic of the current situation caused by both human activity and the natural riverine environment. The knowledge of river inclinations and flow patterns points to more river ecosystem management and current multifaceted conditions. Technology advancements in river watershed studies have demonstrated the difference between natural river systems and human-influenced hydrological environments and surface processes. Lastly, the relationship between river systems and modern activity is impacted by climate change which is also discussed in this volume. This edited book is organized into four parts, each discussing a different aspect of modern river science for watershed management, including GIS and hydrogeological applications, rainfall-runoff modeling that is up to date, hydrological processes, artificial intelligence, and GIS. Moreover, it provides a wealth of information about watershed management, particularly for researchers and experts in the hydrogeological field. It covers advanced applications of river morphometric dynamics conditions, flood risk assessment, sediment load discharge, and their flux measurements, as well as field-oriented aspects of the river environment and GIS. The book can be used to update current river science studies and to expand scientific understanding for projects related to studies. The edited book is primarily intended for postgraduate students, researchers, and experts and practitioners in the fields of hydrology, field hydrogeology (water resource exploration), dam studies, and groundwater potential investigation. It is also intended for young researchers, scholars, and practitioners working in the field of water resource exploration.

This contributed volume offers a wide variety of cases exploring how humanity can adapt to a changing climate. The volume features a wide variety of contributions from geographers, primarily in India but with plenty of global cases to provide a broad comparative perspective. A primary goal of this book is to bridge the gap from conceptual and data-driven analysis of climate change and adaptation to practical planning approaches and strategies. The book compiles contributions that address human well-being and environmental effects related to climate change, including analysis and modelling of ecosystem services, socio-ecological research and sustainable governance of ecosystems. Results reported in this book are conducive to a better understanding of the climate emergency, climate-related impacts and adaptation and mitigation strategies. The cases here also provide researchers with new examples of applications of vulnerability assessment methods. The volume offers insights regardingvulnerable areas in India, an exploration of how some regions have coped with these issues, and a discussion of the impacts that public policy has had on vulnerability in the regions studied. The focus on vulnerability will assist decision-makers in and outside India in targeting policies aimed at poverty reduction in agricultural communities as well. Though the cases here primarily focus on India, the methodologies presented here are transferable to many other parts of the world.

The volume is part of World Geomorphological Landscapes series and shows characteristic landscapes and landforms of Poland. It consists of two parts, general and regional. The first part includes overviews of geological history, Quaternary, climate and its impact on landforms, geomorphological division of the country, geoheritage and geoconservation. The second part comprises more nearly 40 region-specific studies to show the diversity of landscapes, from high-mountain relief through medium-altitude forested ranges, limestone uplands and loess plateaus, lowland landscapes moulded by past ice sheets, rivers and aeolian processes, to coastal sceneries. Selected examples of anthropogenically modified landscapes are also considered. Each chapter is accompanied by photographs, maps and diagrams. The volume is intended primarily for geographers and Quaternary geologists, but will be also of interest to anyone interested in natural landscapes and their conservation.

This book exposes practitioners and decision-makers to the theory and application of river ice processes to gain a better understanding of these processes for modelling and ice flood hazard and risk assessment. It focuses on the following processes of the surface water ice: river freeze-up and flooding, mid-winter ice-cover breakup and flooding and end-of-winter ice-cover breakup and ice jamming. The reader will receive a fundamental understanding of the physical processes of each component and how they are applied in monitoring, modelling and flood hazard/risk assessment of river ice during the entire winter season, from freeze-up to potential mid-winter breakup and concluding with springtime ice-cover breakup and ice-jam flooding. Spreadsheet, geographical information system (GIS) and modelling exercises accompany each component to reinforce the theoretical principles learned. Step-by-step tutorial videos allow the reader to better engage with the book and learn the material faster.

The author's working concept of geo-ecological monitoring is presented. For the first time, the full triad of monitoring in its classical definition is considered:'observation (state assessment) – control (prediction) – management (adaptation, feedback, regulation)'. The strategic goal of described monitoring research is to reveal the environmental otential of sustainablility of forest ecosystems in the context of modern global warming. The monograph expounds the main statements of author's topo-ecological predictive concept: “Global Changes on the Local Level”, as a basis of ground bio-ecological and geosystem monitoring of natural ecosystems under global anthropogenic climatic changes. This concept makes it possible to carry out local empirical simulation of the regional bioclimatic trend and thereby reveal the mechanisms of transmission of global and regional climate signals to the local level. On the example of the Volga River basin, predictive empirical-statistical models of the carbon balance of forest ecosytems are presented under conditions of a changing climate. The carbon content in various pools of boreal and nemoral forests were calculated. The global climate models give prognostic estimates of the components of them carbon balance. A quantitative assessment of the ecological resources of forest formations that provide the environment sustainability through mechanisms of regulation of the carbon cycle is given. The adaptation of forest ecosystems to climate change is described through the calculated parameters of their functional sustainability.

This book, part of the series Cave and Karst Systems of the World, begins with a review of the interaction between people and caves in Australia (including conservation), followed by descriptions of the spectacular cave diving sites, before comprehensively covering all the major carbonate and noncarbonate karst areas, subdivided by rock type and region, and including the origin of the caves. This is followed by broad overviews of cave minerals and speleothems, cave biology and cave fossils. Each section was written by one or more specialists in the topic and is illustrated by clear diagrams and superb colour photos. The book emphasises the unique aspects of the Australian karst, including the variability in the age of the caves (very old to very young) and the impact of isolation on the stygofauna, as well as the vertebrate fossils preserved in the caves. Written in an easy-to-read style, the book is a primary reference guide to Australian karst and represents a valuable asset for anyone interested in the topic, not only cavers and academics.

This book describes the contributing aspects of contemporary developments related to sustainable agricultural resources and assessment of sustainable agriculture in developing nations. The issues like food crisis and declining agro-productivity, post-pandemic food security, zonation and mapping technique viewing food crisis, biotechnology and sustainable agricultural, scaling hunger indices, health hazard and food crisis, changing climate and food availability, consumer load and fertilizer usage, growing demand and increasing usage of harmful chemical in agro-fields are regarded as serious concerns. Thereafter, the scope of sustainable agricultural potentiality (SAP) modeling, amidst the arena of deforestation and encroachment of new cultivable land, impact of pandemic on sustainable agriculture, using wastewater as non-sustainable agricultural practice, applying geospatial techniques on extreme weather susceptibility and agro-production, soil erosion and poor agricultural production, questioning shifting cultivation on the issue of sustainability, meteorological drought and irrigational gaps, occupational mobility and loss of agricultural heritage, farm-excreta burning and air quality index (AQI), GI-Science and sustainable agro-management, community preparedness in food crisis management, multi-criteria hunger index (MCHI), climate change declining sustainable agro-production are worth some. Almost the entire world has recently suffered from several natural and human-induced problems, among which food crisis and unsustainable agriculture throw significant challenges to human society. Contrastingly, if modern technology and means, with advanced monitoring and calibration methodology and policy guidance, can help, it will undoubtedly reduce half of the world's problems and ensure the future survival of human society. In addition, this approach also can minimize the other partially linked problems, like climate change and food shortage, livelihood crisis, environmental refugees, international trade balance, global food supply chain interruption, the ever-expanding gap between rich and poor, and so on. Therefore, properly nurturing the knowledge on the application of GI-Science for an agriculturally sustainable society and their monitoring and management can curtail the gap between science, policy, and the ground-level scenario concerned.

This book demonstrates the measurement, monitoring, mapping and modelling of soil pollution and land resources. This book explores state-of-the-art techniques based on open sources software & R statistical programming and modelling in modern geo-computation techniques specifically focusing on the recent trends in data mining/machine learning techniques and robust modelling in soil resources. Soil and agricultural systems are an integral part of the global environment and human well‐being, providing multiple goods and services essential for people worldwide and crucial for sustainable development. Soil contamination is an environmental hazard and has become a big issue related to environmental health. The challenge of the twenty-first century is to reduce the contaminant load and bring it to below permissible level. The contamination is not only a problem affecting local environments at the place of occurrence but also spreading to other regions because of easy transportation ofpollutants. This leads to direct and indirect contamination of land and aquatic systems, surface water and groundwater, inducing significant risks for natural ecosystems. In this context, the spatial modelling, prediction, efficient use, risk assessment, protection and management of soil resources in the agriculture system are the key to achieving sustainable development goals and ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmental sustainability future. The aim of this book on soil contaminants and environmental health: application of geospatial technology is to identify the soil and sediment quality, sources of contaminants and risk assessment and focuses on the decision-making and planning point of view through GIS data management techniques. This book covers major topics such as spatial modelling in soil and sediments pollution and remediation; radioactive wastes, microbiology of soil and sediments, soil salinity and sodicity, pollution from landfill sites, soil erosion and contamination from agricultural activities, heavy metal pollution and health risk; environmental impact and risk assessment, sustainable land use, landscape management and governance, soil degradation and risk assessment, agricultural soil pollution, pollution due to urban activities, soil pollution by industrial effluents and solid wastes, pollution control and mitigation in extreme environments. The content of this book is of interest to researchers, professionals and policy-makers whose work is in soil science and agriculture practices. The book equips with the knowledge and skills to tackle a wide range of issues manifested in geographic data, including those with scientific, societal and environmental implications.

This book covers the landscape, geography and environment of the Sierra Nevada in Spain. The Sierra Nevada hosted the last glaciers in southern Europe. Today, it is one of the most important centers of plant diversity in the western Mediterranean and one of the most outstanding in Europe. This massif has ideal conditions to analyze past environments as well as the effects of global change on ecosystems. This can be seen in the large number of projects that are being conducted within the umbrella of the Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. This book summarizes all the scientific knowledge available about this massif, from the geomorphological and ecological perspectives to the recent spatial adaptive management and Open Science initiatives. Focusing on the very sensitive mountain environment of Sierra Nevada, the book intends to be a reference for many people interested in mountain processes. The audience would include scientists from all disciplines, but it would also target on an audience beyond the academia (territorial managers, environmentalists, mountaineers, politicians, technicians, etc.).

This book covers a wide spectrum of water resources management, including water supply and demand, operation and maintenance of water distribution systems, water quality assessment, impacts of climate change on hydrological extremes, and water governance. Rapid urbanization, industrialization, and population growth are the major factors contributing to a significant rise in water demands across all the sectors in India. Although the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall contributes primarily to the available surface and groundwater resources, recurrent non-uniform/erratic rainfall events have resulted in widespread water scarcity. On many occasions, extreme meteorological conditions trigger the severity of water-related disasters such as floods and droughts. The untreated wastewater from domestic and industrial sources discharged through un-engineered means, adds to the issue as it ends up polluting the surface and groundwater resources.

This book highlights several opportunities that exist in satellite remote sensing of large-scale terrestrial hydrology. It lays bare the novel concept of remote sensing hydrology and demonstrates key applications of advance satellite technology and new methods in advancing our fundamental understanding of environmental systems. This includes, using state-of-the-art satellite hydrology missions like the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment and other multi-mission satellite systems as important tools that underpin water resources planning and accounting. This book discusses and demonstrates how the efficacy, simplicity, and sophistication in novel computing platforms for big earth observation data can help facilitate environmental monitoring and improve contemporary understanding of climate change impacts on freshwater resources. It also provides opportunities for practitioners and relevant government agencies to leverage satellite-based information in a transdisciplinary context to address several environmental issues affecting society. This book provides a general framework and highlights methods to help improve our understanding of hydrological processes and impact analysis from extreme events (e.g., droughts, floods) and climate change.

This edited volume focuses on the use of remote sensing techniques to assess and monitor mountainous ecosystems in Africa, with a focus on tracking changes related to climate change and human activity. The book is timely, as the interaction of mountain environmental dynamics with conservation and sustainability is an under-researched issue. The chapters in this volume use remotely sensed data to study a variety of topics related to mountains and their ecosystems, including but not limited to vegetation, energy systems, environmental hazards, ecosystem services, diseases, climatic shifts, geological formations and geomorphological dynamics. The ability to monitor, assess and analyze mountainous regions is aided by the availability of remote sensing products such as optical and microwave sensors and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The works presented here push the frontier of knowledge on mountain studies and will help shape local, national and global assessments and policies, including efforts toward the achievement of the African Agenda 2063. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in remote sensing, geography, ecology and sustainability, as well as to government organizations and conservation specialists.

The Arctic has become a global arena. This development can only be comprehensively understood from a transdisciplinary perspective encompassing ecological, cultural, societal, economic, industrial, geopolitical, and security considerations. This book offers thorough explanations of Arctic developments and challenges. Global warming is in large part the driving force behind the transformation of the Arctic by making access possible to the areas previously out of reach for mining and shipping. An all-year ice-free Arctic Ocean, a reality possible as soon as perhaps 2030, creates a new dynamic in the North. The retreating ice edge enables the exploitation of previously inaccessible resources such as hydrocarbon deposits and rare metals, as well as the shortest sea route from Asia to Europe. Consequently, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) promises faster and cheaper shipping. Russia, along side foreign investment, especially from China, is financing the needed infrastructure. A warming Arctic, however, also has negative impacts. The Arctic is home to fragile ecosystems that are already showing signs of deteriorating. The Arctic has seen unprecedented wildfires, which, together with the release of trapped methane from the disappearing permafrost, will, in turn, accelerate global warming. A warmer Arctic Ocean will also negatively impact fisheries. Couple this with other global changes, such as ocean acidification and modified ocean currents, and the global outlook is bleak. Additionally, the security situation in the Arctic is worsening. After the 2014 Ukraine crisis, the West imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation, which have revived the divisions of the Cold War. The reemergence of these postures is threatening the highly successful Barents Cooperation and other initiatives for peace in the circumpolar North. This book offers new insights and presents arguments for how to mitigate the challenges the Arctic is facing today.

This book focuses on the application of geospatial technologies to study the land use land cover (LULC) dynamics, agricultural water management, water resources assessment and modeling, and studies on natural disasters. LULC dynamics is one of the major research themes for studying global environmental change using remote sensing data. The section on LULC dynamics covers the multi-variate criteria for land use and land cover classification and change assessment in the mountainous regions. Further, LULC change detection of the Tons river basin and LULC dynamics at decadal frequency are studied to derive adaptation and mitigation strategies. Landscape-level forest disturbance modeling, together with conservation implications, is also included. The watershed management approach is necessary for comprehensive management of land and water resources of any region, where studies on multi-criteria analysis for rainwater harvesting planning and its impact on land use land cover transformations in rain-fed areas using geospatial technologies are presented in this book.The book will be useful for academics, water practitioners, scientists, water managers, environmentalists, and administrators, NGOs, researchers, and students who are actively involved in the application of geospatial technologies in LULC studies, agricultural water management and hydrological modelling and natural disasters for addressing the challenges being posed by climate change while addressing issues of food and water securities

Geography science aims to observe the dynamics in describing earth's surface as a place and space for humans to carry out their lives, starting from simple identification using recording and sketching models, then utilizing tools such as maps, satellite imagery, statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In the development of geography science, it is appropriate to explain phenomena of the earth in the present context along with the process of developing science and technology using suitable and effective methods. Physical geography is the branch of natural science that deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. This book covers the methodology of the study for all aspects of physical geography, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. A comprehensive geography textbook consists of a detailed research methodology for physical geography research including a few selected case studies in Asia. The uniqueness of this book is due to the contribution of several professors and subject experts from South East and East Asia with special particular reference to cases studies from a particular region. This book covered selected methodological approaches for hydrology, climatology and geomorphology including the discovery of the best method for exploring and assessing mysterious physical phenomena using a diversity of methodologies. This book explains the principal concept, basic method, optional method, detailed description of each method, and the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods. The technique of data selection, data acquisition, method of analysis, data interpretation and data analysis techniques with a specific focus on deterministic modeling, geography techniques, geospatial modeling with Geographic Information System (GIS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Automated machine techniques and combination of statistical analysis. This book attempts to explore different approaches, methodological possibilities and challenges in conducting geographical research in physical geography. New digital geographic data sources and GIS applications can help researchers to receive clearer concepts and obtain better measurements of the relevant attributes changes in the physical environment. Opportunity to critically examine the conceptualization and identification of the field in geographical research and how digital media has not only expanded the scope of what constitutes the field but has redefined the field in itself as well as the practices of observing, knowing, and analyzing the real world.

This book describes Hungarian karst areas and Hungarian karst research results. The chapters present the general characteristics of karst areas, their geology, their paleokarst, their hydrology, their surface and subsurface morphology (more significant caves are classified according to karst areas and their morphology and development is described), ecology and flora and fauna.This book also includes a separate chapter which deals with the history of Hungarian karst and cave research. Another chapter deals with theories that were made during Hungarian karst researches.

This book contains the best peer-reviewed papers accepted for presentation at the 2nd Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG-2), organized in Sousse, Tunisia, in November 2019. The short papers cover various topics from the fields of (1) geological and geotechnical engineering, (2) geomechanical studies based on numerical and analytical methods, and (3) geo-informatics and remote sensing. The content of these papers provides new scientific knowledge for further understanding on landslides, new stabilization techniques, importance of geophysics for engineering geology investigations as well as new empirical approaches for easily predicting some physical and hydrogeomechanical properties of geomaterials. The book is of interest to all researchers, practitioners, and students in the fields of geological and mining engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydrogeomechanics, engineering geology, geotechnologies, and natural hazards.

This edited book summarizes numerous research studies on remote sensing and GIS of natural resource management for the Himalaya region done by Indian Institutions and Universities over the last decade. It gives an overview of hydrometeorological studies on Himalayan water resources and addresses concerns in the development of water resources in this region, which is dealing with an increased pressure in population, industrialization and economic development. While the source of some of the major rivers of India are found in the Himalayas, the glaciers and water bodies in the region are continuously shrinking leading to a depletion of water and deterioration of water quality. This is affecting a population of up to 2.5 billion people. The ecosystems have been under threat due to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, expansion of agriculture and settlement, overexploitation of natural resources, habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, mining, construction of roads and large dams, and unplanned tourism. Spaceborne remote sensing with its ability to provide synoptic and repetitive coverage has emerged as a powerful tool for assessment and monitoring of the Himalayan resources and phenomena. This work serves as a resource to students, researchers, scientists, professionals, and policy makers both in India and on a global level.

This book presents fundamental and applied research in developing geospatial modeling solutions to manage the challenges that urban areas are facing today. It aims to connect the academics, researchers, experts, town planners, investors and government officials to exchange ideas. The areas addressed include urban heat island analysis, urban flood vulnerability and risk mapping, green spaces, solar energy, infrastructure management, among others. The book suggests directions for smart city research and outlines practical propositions. As an emerging and critical area of research and development, much research is now being done with regard to cities. At the international level and in India alike, the “smart cities” concept is a vital topic for universities and research centers, and well as for civic bodies, town planners and policymakers. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for a broad readership.

This book focuses on the robustness analysis of high accuracy surface modeling method (HASM) to yield good performance of it. Understanding the sensitivity and uncertainty is important in model applications. The book aims to advance an integral framework for assessing model error that can demonstrate robustness across sets of possible controls, variable definitions, standard error, algorithm structure, and functional forms. It is an essential reference to the most promising numerical models. In areas where there is less certainty about models, but also high expectations of transparency, robustness analysis should aspire to be as broad as possible. This book also contains a chapter at the end featuring applications in climate simulation illustrating different implementations of HASM in surface modeling. The book is helpful for people involved in geographical information science, ecological informatics, geography, earth observation, and planetary surface modeling.

This book focuses on monitoring and assessing various environmental processes in Tunisia using state-of-the-art remote sensing and GIS technologies. In addition to addressing the diversity of Tunisian landscapes and providing spatial analysis of natural, cultivated and urbanized environments. It presents and discusses several case studies on integrated RS / GIS approaches for mapping, modeling, monitoring and evaluation. Moreover, in this volume authored by experts in the topic from Tunisia and other countries, authors assess the agro-environmental applications from Tunisia and offer different methods and applications to environmental processes and risks including drought, degradation, flood, planning, Yield estimation, dust storm detection, dry land vulnerability, wetland dynamics and others. The material presented here will help decision-makers plan sustainable landscape and agricultural management policies that preserve biodiversity and contribute to achieving sustainability goals and for researchers, it will expose methodological approaches used in different fields of research. Graduate students and Practionioner engineers working in the field of RS/GIS will also benefit from the book. The book ends with a set of conclusions and recommendations to support researchers underscoring the need for further research in this area.

This volume advances the scientific understanding, development, and application of geospatial technologies related to groundwater resource management, mapping, monitoring, and modelling using up-to-date remote sensing and GIS techniques. The book further provides a critical analysis of the debates and discourses surrounding groundwater resources and society, illustrates the relationship between groundwater resources and precision agriculture for societal development, and describes novel, region-specific management strategies and techniques for sustainability with case studies. The book is organized into three parts: (I) Groundwater resources and societal development; (II) Groundwater availability, quality and pollution; and (III) Sustainable groundwater resources management. Each section begins with a short introduction that includes an overview of the papers in that section. Individual chapters focus on the core themes of research and knowledge along with some topics that have received lesser attention. The book will be of interest to water resource planners and decision-makers, academic researchers, policy makers, NGOs, and academic researchers and students in Geography, Geophysics, Hydrology, Remote Sensing & GIS, Agriculture, Soil Science, and Agronomy.

This edited volume reviews the latest advances in policies and actions in understanding the science, impacts and management of climate change in Indonesia. ​Indonesia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to its geographical, physical, and social-economic situations. There are many initiatives to understand and deal with the impacts in the country. The national government has issued key guiding policies for climate change. International agencies together with local stakeholders are working on strengthening the capacity in the policy formulations and implement actions to build community resilience. Universities are conducting research on climate change related at different scales. Cities and local governments are implementing innovations in adapting to the impacts of climate change and transiting toward green economy. This book summarizes and discusses the state-of-the-art regarding climate change in Indonesia including adaptation and mitigation measures. The primary readership of the book includes policy makers, scientists and practitioners of climate change actions in Indonesia and other countries facing similar challenges.Chapter “Carbon Stocks from Peat Swamp Forest and Oil Palm Plantation in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book reviews and summarizes the development and achievement in cartography and geographic information engineering in China over the past 60 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It comprehensively reflects cartography, as a traditional discipline, has almost the same long history with the world's first culture and has experienced extraordinary and great changes. The book consists of nineteen thematic chapters. Each chapter is in accordance with the unified directory structure, introduction, development process, major study achievements, problem and prospect, representative works, as well as a lot of references. It is useful as a reference both for scientists and technicians who are engaged in teaching, researching and engineering of cartography and geographic information engineering.

This book gives the most detailed and comprehensive physico-geographical overview of the very unique country of Mongolia. The country offers diverse geographical features and natural landscapes combined with a long history. This book offers integrated and systematical research on the geophysical characteristics of Mongolia with an academic orientation. It provides the readers with general knowledge of the physical geography of Mongolia as well as new results of the latest research. The volume consists of 11 chapters, each written by field experts, with contributions from scientific researchers from Mongolia.The topics covered: geological and geomorphological characteristics and processes, landscapes and landforms, climate and climate change, hydrology, glaciers and permafrost, soils, environmental changes, biodiversity and many other aspects of physical geography in Mongolia.The book appeals to researchers and studentsof geography and related fields and can serve as a guide for field trips to Mongolia or basic literature for research projects.

This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date assessment of the key terrestrial components of the Arctic system, i.e., its hydrology, permafrost, and ecology, drawing on the latest research results from across the circumpolar regions. The Arctic is an integrated system, the elements of which are closely linked by the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Using an integrated system approach, the book's 30 chapters, written by a diverse team of leading scholars, carefully examine Arctic climate variability/change, large river hydrology, lakes and wetlands, snow cover and ice processes, permafrost characteristics, vegetation/landscape changes, and the future trajectory of Arctic system evolution. The discussions cover the fundamental features of and processes in the Arctic system, with a special focus on critical knowledge gaps, i.e., the interactions and feedbacks between water, permafrost, and ecosystem, such as snow pack and permafrost changes and their impacts on basin hydrology and ecology, river flow, geochemistry, and energy fluxes to the Arctic Ocean, and the structure and function of the Arctic ecosystem in response to past/future changes in climate, hydrology, and permafrost conditions. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students, environmentalists, managers, and administrators who are concerned with the northern environment and resources.

This book comprises select papers presented at the International Conference on Trends and Recent Advances in Civil Engineering (TRACE 2018). The book covers inter-disciplinary research and applications in integrated water resource management, river ecology, irrigation system, water pollution and treatment, hydraulic structure and hydro-informatics. The topics on water resource management include technological intervention and solution for climate change impacts on water resources, water security, clean water to all, sustainable water reuse, flood risk assessment, interlinking of rivers and hydro policy. The contents of this book will be useful to researchers and professionals working in the field of water resource management and related policy making.

This book presents the polycentric and multiscale view of landscape which has been developed in Russia within a framework of physical geography since the early twentieth century. The authors develop the ideas of hierarchical organization of a landscape and strong relationships between abiotic and biotic components with equal attention to both vertical fluxes and lateral transfer. Three-dimensional representation of landscape involves strong emphasis on abiotic drivers of pattern development including relief, geological structures and runoff. The objective of this book is to demonstrate the multiplicity of models and multiscale approach to description and explanation of landscape pattern, functioning, dynamics, and evolution. The contributions deal with various hierarchical levels ranging from within-unit interior variability to between-units interaction at landscape level, as well as regional and supra-regional zonal patterns. Divided into 8 clear parts, the 28 chapters treat spatial pattern in one of the following aspects: indicator of actual matter and energy flows control over actual processes including disturbance expansion as well as determinant of future development indicator of genesis and prerequisite for future trends driver for short-term dynamics of processes response to climatic and anthropogenic influences factor of settlement network and land use adaptation at various historical epochs framework for actual land use spatial arrangement. This contributed volume is written for researchers and students in the field of landscape ecology, physical geography, environmental impact assessment, and ecologicalplanning.

China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC 2020) Proceedings presents selected research papers from CSNC 2020 held during 22nd-25th November in Chengdu, China. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 13 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2020, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

This book comprises selected papers from the International Conference on Civil Engineering Trends and Challenges for Sustainability (CTCS) 2019. The book presents latest research in several areas of civil engineering such as construction and structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering and sustainability, and geographical information systems. With a special emphasis on sustainable development, the book covers case studies and addresses key challenges in sustainability. The scope of the contents makes the book useful for students, researchers, and professionals interested in sustainable practices in civil engineering.

With the rapid increase of world population, the global water shortage is set to be the major crises of the twenty-first century; that is, population dynamics (growth, age distribution, urbanization and migration) create pressures on freshwater resources due to the increased water demands and pollution. Moreover, water resources management faces a new uncertainty- i.e. the potential for longer-term and more persistent climate change nowadays, which, in coming years, may significantly affect the availability of supply and patterns of water demand. This book mainly focuses on the impact of climate change and human activities on water quality and water resources in Asia Countries. It begins by describing the characteristics of water related disasters in the world. Then, the book analyzes the changes of floods and associated socio-economic damages for whole China over the last century, and assesses water quality and pollution source for the Yangtze River Basin, suggesting water-related disasters would become more intense, longer lasting, and/or more frequent in a future warmer climate. Then, after investigating spatiotemporal trends and causes of water quality and water quality incidents (Chapter 4) and precipitation extreme events (Chapter 5) in Japan, subsequent two chapters mainly evaluate the climate and human impacts on precipitation variations, water quality and water resources in the Hokkaido area. The final chapter comprehensively analyzes climate change impacts on water resources in the Aral Sea Basin, and then estimate the water requirements and water deficits for irrigation, future agricultural yields of seven major crops, and land and water productivity in four provinces of Turkmenistan considering climate change, population growth, and three socio-economic development scenarios. All results obtained from this book may provide a means to reduce water quality incidents and mitigate future negative impacts by adapting water management. Furthermore, the improved methods for water quality modeling in data scarce regions are transferable to other study areas and applicable in future research.

This book exposes practitioners and students to the theory and application of river and lake ice processes to gain a better understanding of these processes for modelling and forecasting. It focuses on the following processes of the surface water ice: freeze-up, ice cover thickening, ice cover breakup and ice jamming. The reader will receive a fundamental understanding of the physical processes of each component and how they are applied in monitoring and modelling ice covers during the winter season and forecasting ice floods. Exercises accompany each component to reinforce the theoretical principles learned. These exercises will also expose the reader to different tools to process data, such a space-borne remote sensing imagery for ice cover classification. A thread supporting numerical modelling of river ice and lake ice processes runs through the book.

The United Nations has declared 2018-2028 as the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development. This is a timely designation. In an increasingly thirsty world, the subject of forest-water interactions is of critical importance to the achievement of sustainability goals. The central underlying tenet of this book is that the hydrologic community can conduct better science and make a more meaningful impact to the world's water crisis if scientists are: (1) better equipped to utilize new methods and harness big data from either or both high-frequency sensors and long-term research watersheds; and (2) aware of new developments in our process-based understanding of the hydrological cycle in both natural and urban settings. Accordingly, this forward-looking book delves into forest-water interactions from multiple methodological, statistical, and process-based perspectives (with some chapters featuring data sets and open-source R code), concluding with a chapter on future forest hydrology under global change. Thus, this book describes the opportunities of convergence in high-frequency sensing, big data, and open source software to catalyze more comprehensive understanding of forest-water interactions. The book will be of interest to researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in an array of disciplines, including hydrology, forestry, ecology, botany, and environmental engineering.

This book presents research on precipitation partitioning processes in vegetated ecosystems, putting them into a global context. It describes the processes by which meteoric water comes into contact with the vegetation's canopy, typically the first surface contact of precipitation on land. It also discusses how precipitation partitioning by vegetation impacts the amount, patterning, and chemistry of water reaching the surface, as well as the amount and timing of evaporative return to the atmosphere. Although this process has been extensively studied, this is the first review of the global literature on the partitioning of precipitation by forests, shrubs, crops, grasslands and other less-studies plant types. The authors offer global contextualization combined with a detailed discussion of the impacts for the climate and terrestrial ecohydrological systems. As such, this comprehensive overview is a valuable reference tool for a wide range of specialists and students in the fields of geoscience and the environment.

China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC) 2019 Proceedings presents selected research papers from CSNC2019 held during 22nd-25th May in Beijing, China. These papers discuss the technologies and applications of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and the latest progress made in the China BeiDou System (BDS) especially. They are divided into 12 topics to match the corresponding sessions in CSNC2019, which broadly covered key topics in GNSS. Readers can learn about the BDS and keep abreast of the latest advances in GNSS techniques and applications.

This book presents selected papers from the EuroKarst 2018 conference, which highlighted the latest advances in the field of Karst Hydrogeology and Carbonate Reservoirs. The event attracted more than 180 participants. From among their contributions, the papers were selected and subsequently reviewed by the scientific committee to ensure the highest possible quality.