Bøker i SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science-serien

This book mainly investigates the adsorption of anionic diclofenac sodium on natural clay minerals, the adsorption of anionic chloramphenicol on natural clay minerals and the behavior of surface and interface modification or adsorption on clay minerals. It has significant guidance for learning the transfer and fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the soil. It develops an efficient, low-cost adsorbent material and provides theoretical basis and valuable reference for the effective prevention of groundwater contamination of PPCPs in the field of environmental engineering.

The Himalaya is the new folded mountain system ¿ the tallest and the youngest in the world. It has a rich diversity ¿ natural and cultural, and diversity in all walks of life. Most of its uniqueness is unknown because of its remoteness. Even, the native people are not aware of them. This book aims to describe the uniqueness of the Central Himalaya in terms of its natural and cultural diversity in detail. Supported by original figures and primary data, this book is empirically tested. It is mainly based on observation and participation and the use of a qualitative approach. Although lots of work has been carried out on the various aspects of the Himalayan region yet, a detailed description of the natural and cultural diversity is yet to be done. This book steps forward to elaborate on some of the unique natural and cultural features of the Central Himalaya, which are worthy to be known about. It contains a total of 10 chapters. Four chapters are devoted to natural diversity and fourchapters comprise cultural diversity. Besides, the introduction and conclusions are the first and the last chapters of the book, respectively. The book is the first of its kind and will be useful to all stakeholders ¿ students of all standards, research scholars, academicians, policymakers, native people, tourists, and the general public.

The book provides for the first time an overview of the latest scientific studies conducted on micro and nano plastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea both from the biological and environmental point of view as well as from the chemical point of view in order to have a more real idea of ¿¿the current situation.

Global farming is at a crucial juncture in its evolution. Over 9000 years ago, humanity shifted from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to stationary agriculture, sparking the ¿Agricultural Revolution¿ and putting soil at the forefront of agricultural focus. However, contemporary farming practices have seen an extreme shift in focus from the original revolution, that is, from tending plants to highly chemical-centric and extractive farming methods known as the ¿green revolution¿. In this process, soil has paid a heavy environmental price, with a substantial amount of land becoming unsuitable for agriculture over the past century. The 1992¿93 World Resources Report by the United Nations issued alarming conclusions, revealing that nearly 10 million hectares of the world¿s best farmlands have been destroyed by human activity, including the green revolution. Additionally, over 1.2 billion hectares of land worldwide have suffered serious damage and can only be restored at a great cost. This loss of soil capability can result in significant food shortages in the next two to three decades.One significant impact of this issue is that as usual, people in the disadvantaged nations will bear the brunt of the consequences. Approximately two-thirds of the seriously eroded land is located in Asia and Africa, with around 25% of the cropped land in Central America being moderately to severely damaged. The percentage of affected land in North America is relatively low, at only 4.4%. Soil degradation is the primary cause for the dramatic decline in food production in 80 developing countries during the past decade, with nearly 40% of global farming conducted on small parcels of land measuring 1 hectare or less. This situation is characterized by ignorance and poverty. In India alone, more than 120.40 million hectares of the total 328.73 million hectares of geographical area have suffered from degraded soils due to the green revolution. The State of Punjab, known as the ¿cradle of Indian green revolution¿ is a clear example of this environmental hazard, specifically in relation to soil resources. Thousands of hectares in this region cannot sustain plant growth without significant investment in soil reclamation, resulting in a substantial drain of national resources. All of this, proves beyond a shadow of doubt, the critical role that soil plays in human sustenance.

This book will address the importance of the soil management concept, vis-à-vis chemical fertilizer use on soil. Historically, soil testing has been used to quantify bio availability of plant nutrients to field grown crops. However, contemporary soil tests are based on philosophies and procedures developed several decades ago without significant changes in their general approach. For a soil test to be accurate, one needs to clearly understand the physico-chemico-physiologic processes at the soil-plant root interface, and, an understanding of soils and plant root systems as polycationic systems is essential. It is this knowledge that leads to sound prescriptive soil management practices inasmuch as nutrient bioavailability vis-à-vis chemical fertilizers application is concerned, because, of all the factors that govern sustainability of crop production, the nutrient factor is the most important, yet, it is also the least resilient to effective management. The author¿s research spanning over three decades in Europe, Africa and Asia, establishes the fact that precise quantification of the nutrient¿s ¿buffer power¿ holds the key to a clear understanding of the plant bioavailability of some of the most important plant nutrients in crop production, such as, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. ¿The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept¿ attempts to clearly explain the bio availability of the three plant nutrients named above on the basis of the diffusion model, as that is the process by which these three important principal plant nutrients are absorbed from the soil by the plant root. Possibly, other plant nutrients which are taken up by the plant roots by the same diffusive model, would also conform to the principles of the concept. A thorough knowledge of thermodynamic principles on the part of the researcher is an absolute pre requisite for this. The book chronicles more than three decades of the professional journey of the author in Europe, Africa and Asia, understanding soil for human sustenance, and developing the revolutionary soil management concept, now globally known as, "The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept" , which has brought the author a string of international recognitions, including the nomination for the "Alternative Nobel Prize" (The Right Livelihood Award),of Sweden, and succour to millions to poor and marginal farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This SpringerBrief describes the development and use of a synthetic indicator to assess different degrees of sustainability adoption by economic sector and businesses size. To make this analysis a theoretical framework which involves variables common to alternative frameworks (specifically ESG, GRI and Istat) is proposed. The empirical analysis focuses on the environmental, social and economic variables of the Italian businesses. In this analysis, all three pillars of sustainability ¿ economic, environmental, and social ¿ are considered. The work begins with a review of business sustainability literature and a look into institutional frameworks for the development and measurement of the phenomena. Connections between businesses and the SDGs are examined and comparison of the classifications of sustainable activities defined by GRI and ESG international standards is used to define a framework to be adopted to analyse ISTAT Business Census. Selected indicator variables are aggregated with a synthetic indicator and the results are presented (this is a new proposal of a synthetic indicator useful for the type of data used and published by ISTAT ¿ Italian National Statistical Institute), discussing pros and cons of using it. This study provides two important innovative contributions. The first one is about how to approach the theoretical framework of businesses sustainability at firms aggregated level. The basic idea to work on a set of variables common to different approaches is interesting from the interpretative point of view. The second one, is about the specific empirical analysis, i.e. the Italian businesses sustainability situation. The investigation based on this new theoretical classification/framework and the new proposed indicator provides some interesting substantive results.

Waste management is a topical issue worldwide. In recent years, several requests have been made by citizens and associations to political decision-makers regarding the need for a significant improvement in waste management methods. Particularly considering the significant increase in awareness of social and environmental impacts and the economic consequences of non-virtuous waste management. There is growing attention on legislation and regulation's role in the waste sector. Regulation can help companies and citizens achieve a faster, more effective, and more efficient transition from a linear economy, based on the take-make-dispose paradigm, to a circular economy, in which the potential of waste as resources and secondary raw materials is exploited.This book is set in the wake of economic literature that tackles the transition from the linear to the circular economy. It focuses on the downstream stages of the waste management process (i.e. the waste treatment phase). In this regard, it is proposed a journey through the history of European waste legislation to study the waste sector's transition dynamics from a selfish and no longer sustainable economic model based on rampant consumerism to a far-sighted sustainable model addressing the well-being of future generations. Studying the changes in European waste regulations leads us to ask ourselves the following questions: how has waste collection changed in recent years? What are the new regulatory challenges that must be addressed to achieve the objectives of a circular economy? How successful has the EU legislation been in fostering the transition from a linear to a circular economy? Finally, has the European environmental legislation sprung a convergence process among European countries towards the circular economy, or has the definition of targets fuelled the already marked differences between EU countries?

Most imperative environmental concerns are Cultural eutrophication pertaining to industrialization and urbanization which lead to proliferation of weeds in aquatic environs disturbing these ecosystems. Alarming increase in CO2, CH4, CFC¿s, N2O and water vapour in the atmosphere cause enhanced greenhouse effect, among all these CO2 is accountable for 55-60 % of total enhanced effect. Phyto- and Nutrient sequestration via plants helps storage of atmospheric CO2 in the vegetation to get rid of contaminants. Carbon and nutrient sequestration can be braided together for sustainable development goals. The chapters adopt the hierarchy as follows: significance of quality environs, quantification and bio-monitoring of culprit contaminants, the issues relevant to global warming and accelerated eutrophication and their ecological impacts followed by various sequestration technologies.

This open access book. provides a synthesis of six projects, across ten countries, each of which have been sustained for two or more decades, and which illustrate how success can be achieved regardless of systems of governance, of a nation¿s wealth, or of culture. Detailed narratives are presented on the key personalities that have conceived, conducted and concluded long-term projects: personal stories of vision, failure, frustration and persistence ultimately leading to success.The case studies vary widely in their geography and goals. The single-handed commitment to re-discover the last surviving populations of Giant Sable in the miombo woodlands of central Angola, through the capture, translocation and establishment of robust breeding herds of this magnificent antelope, contrasts with the massively funded, three-decade programme with over one hundred participants that reversed the annual loss to predation by feral cats of 455 000 seabirds from a sub-Antarctic island. Similarly, the foresight of Zimbabwean and Namibian ecologists to place rural communities at the centre of conservation programmes by giving value to wildlife populations and benefits to local people, transformed a land degradation problem to a socio-ecological solution. Across ten countries, building capacity in botanical collection, documentation and herbarium management expanded into a global project to place the knowledge base of Africäs flora onto an electronic data system accessible to researchers and conservation planners in even the most remote corners of the continent. None of these projects enjoyed immediate results. Each required leadership skills that combined vision, a generosity of spirit, fortuitous timing and the exploitation of unexpected opportunities.

Although many local authorities underline the important role of citizens in climate adaptation, many experience difficulties with organizing citizen participation in a way that is meaningful to both citizens and policymakers. Climate change is for many simply not a top priority. Besides, the future is often rather abstract to people, citizens in particular. We argue that practical tools are needed to help citizens structure the process of thinking about and designing the future of their living environment under the impacts of climate change. The toolbox Towards a climate-resilient future together offers practical foresight methods and tools for organizing citizen participation in the process of building climate-resilient futures. It provides an overview of the state the art of and hands-on guidance for executing participatory foresight methods and showcases some of the lessons learned from several international research programs on citizen engagement. In doing so, the toolbox can assist practitioners, students and academics concerned with the question of how local communities in urban and rural areas could adapt to climate change impacts and become more resilient in the future. It is suitable for readers without any experience in citizen participation and/or foresight, while more experienced readers will find innovative combinations of methods and tools that are unique within the field of citizen participation and foresight..

This book introduces basic and practical information on fertigation to researchers, extension agents and growers.  To provide understanding of the basic issues regarding the appropriate selection of fertilizer injectors, fertilizer compounds used in fertigation for growing various field and horticultural crops. The book provides useful basic principles and practical information concerning fertilizer management and fertigation techniques of field, horticulture, and medicinal and aromatic crops. The book focuses on the agronomic value of fertigation practice and provides the reader with best practical advice required for successful fertigation based on the field experience. This book summarizes the basic principles and practices of fertigation techniques to ensure accurate and efficient crop nutrition. The book consists of 5 chapters covering the following topics: Introduction to chemigation and fertigation, selecting an injector for fertilizer/chemical injection, fertilizers for fertigation, major, secondary, and micronutrient fertilizers used in fertigation, and fertigation practices: Egyptian case study. It also includes appendixes for fertigation calculation examples, calibration of an injection pump, calculating the quantities of fertilizers needed for fertigation,  nutrients requirements per each ton of crop yield produced, macronutrient requirements for some filed, fiber, fruit, vegetable crops, and medicinal and aromatic plants.Fertigation is one of the smart practices that help attains sustainable food production and minimize environmental pollution. Fertigation is the application of dissolved mineral fertilizers, soil amendments, and other water-soluble products to the roots of crops through irrigation water. This book provides understanding of the basic issues regarding the appropriate selection of injectors and fertilizer compounds used in fertigation for growing various field and horticultural crops which are essential to attain higher productivity, increasing food security and reducing food contaminations. It also clarifies the advantages of fertigation and set solutions to overcome its disadvantages.

Much of that growing demand for coastal recreation and tourism has focused on countries in South and Southeast Asia in the tourism megaregion that this book refers to as Tropical Asia. As such, the recreational disturbance of shorebirds in Asia is a serious conservation issue, at a time when populations of both migratory and non-migratory species of shorebirds are threatened and declining because of the loss of coastal habitat and increased human disturbance. Despite global awareness about the impacts that the growth of coastal recreation and tourism across Tropical Asia is likely to be having on threatened and endangered migratory and resident shorebird species of the coastal zones of the East Asian- Australasian Flyway, less than 3% of the published peer-reviewed research into the recreational disturbance of shorebirds addresses coastal zones of Tropical Asia. This situation points to a significant knowledge gap regarding the impacts of human recreation on shorebirds in the Tropical Asian region. In contrast, almost three quarters of the peer-reviewed articles that report recreational disturbance research and management strategies focus on coastal zones in North America (36%), Oceania (20%), and Europe (20%). For those reasons, the quantitative systematic literature review and research case study from Sri Lanka reported in this book provide a call to action and recommendations for both management approaches grounded in the international literature and a research agenda that should be implemented in the coastal zones of Tropical Asia.

This book focuses on more than 100 years of climatic oscillation in Bengal Duars, a unique foothill landscape of the Eastern Himalaya, to discuss the dynamics of life and livelihoods of forest dependent communities towards climate change related impacts.

This book analyses climate change influences on rainfall erosivity and soil erosion across Central Asia, provides an overview (past and projections) on the Central Asian countries where projected changes in rainfall erosivity and erosivity density are the greatest, and discusses the potential impacts on the environment across the region.

This book gives an insight into the evaluation of drought in Slovakia and provides an assessment of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a method suitable for an evaluation of drought in agricultural land.

This book introduces readers to the main theories of phytoremediation and its application to arsenic-contaminated soils in China.

This open access book presents current knowledge about ecosystem services (ES) in urban planning, and discusses various urban ES topics such as spatial distribution of urban ecosystems, population distribution, and physical infrastructure properties.

This book uniquely presents accurate and up-to-date information related to crops in small and fragmented agricultural lands with mixed cropping patterns.

It describes the history, symptoms pathogenesis and research on the causal agent, and discusses the responses of Chisso and the national and local governments to the outbreak, the victims, the compensation and environmental restructuring as well as the court ruling on claims.

This book discusses the important issue of the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of agricultural residue burning, common in agricultural practices in many parts of the world. The burning of agricultural residue causes severe pollution in land, water and air and contributes to increased ozone levels and climate change in the long term.

This book underscores the re-emergence of the ozone hole problem and deals with it in its current context of exacerbating global warming.

This book discusses the impact of climate change on rural forest areas. It analyses data provided by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) to not only demonstrate that climate change has occurred in Portuguese forests, but also to suggest how forestry practices can be adapted to minimise its effects.

In recent years, the importance of biogas energy has risen manifold and has become universal. Given that methane has 25 times greater global warming potential than CO2, methane capture through biogas energy in this manner can contribute substantially towards global warming control.

This book investigates various aspects of the phenomenon of atmospheric oxygen depletion, and summarizes our current knowledge of atmospheric oxygen.

This book focuses on the treatment anddisposal technology used for solid waste in China, puts forward an optimalmanagement scheme that takes into account the complete lifecycle, andintroduces a new technical model that reflects the synergies of resourceutilization and secondary pollution control.