Famous Planet Earth Caves - The new series presents important caves or rock shelters in any kind of rock types all over the world. Each book focuses on a single cave presentation covering different and most important disciplines of a cave: Geology (e.g. cave genesis, sedimentology, speleothems) such as Hydrogeology (e.g. speleothems for climate reconstructions, aquifer reconstructions), Paleontology (e.g. cave bear or carnivore dens), Archeology (e.g. Palaeolithic to Medieval camp or burial sites) and modern Biology (e.g. bat caves). The books are scientific chaptered monographs, sometimes of show caves, but often of non- or difficult to access caves. The well-illustrated books are written in a mixed scientific and popular scientific way for a better understanding and larger readership, especially speleologists and natural scientists all over the world.

Famous Planet Earth Caves presents information about geologically important caves or rock shelters in different kinds of rock formations all over the world. Each volume of this series is a focused monograph on a single cave. The series covers many disciplines that can be applied to study a cave: geology (cave genesis, sedimentology, speleothems), hydrogeology (speleothems for climate reconstructions, aquifer reconstructions), paleontology (cave bear or carnivore dens), archaeology (Palaeolithic to Medieval camp or burial sites) and modern biology. Each volume is beautifully illustrated and written in a simple manner that will be of interest to general readers, speleologists and natural scientists, alike. This volume gives details of Hermann’s Cave in Rübeland near Wernigerode, Germany. It is one of the largest show caves in Germany and Europe. The cave gives us information about the region in the Ice Age dating back to 350.000 years (which implies its significance in the Late Pleistocene epoch). The cave is within a beautiful granite (Brocken Peak) and limestone rock and valley cut landscape. The volume presents information about the Late Pleistocene fauna discovered within the cave and other archaeological findings. Specifically, the volume gives details about the small and large cave bear species within the cave, their ecological relationship to the region (including interactions with steppe lions and Cromagnon humans), and their survival in taiga forest mountain areas of central Europe. This volume continues the premise of the book series on bringing information about fossils and archaeological records of well-known caves to light and will give readers an interesting peek into Hermann’s Cave by bringing some of its Ice Age stories to life.

Floods are devastating natural disasters with a significant impact on human life and the surrounding environent. Flood Risk Assessment and Management should serve as an Ideal textbook on analytical flood risk assessment and management, and is intended for lecturers, undergraduates and postgraduates in civil engineering, geography, environmental science, earth sciences, and related disciplines. This book is based on the lecture notes taught at the University of Bristol to students undertaking a Masters course in civil engineering. All chapters are supplemented with challenging questions, answers and solutions.

Ground water reactive transport models are useful to assess and quantify contaminant precipitation, absorption and migration in subsurface media. Many ground water reactive transport models available today are characterized by varying complexities, strengths, and weaknesses. Selecting accurate, efficient models can be a challenging task. This ebook addresses the needs, issues and challenges relevant to selecting a ground water reactive transport model to evaluate natural attenuation and alternative remediation schemes. It should serve as a handy guide for water resource managers seeking to achieve economically feasible results.

Discussions on historical and philosophical issues in ecology have been rather limited. This volume presents an enriched and comprehensive review on ecological issues. The topics covered in this e-book include the emergence of the field of life-history strategies in population ecology, the model building tradition in community ecology, the holism/reductionism debate, the ecosystemic and systemic approach as well as a discussion of the emergence, development and dominance of the biodiversity concept. By bringing together diverse ideas, points of view and theoretical traditions, often treated separately, the book allows the development of ecology as a whole discipline to emerge. This introductory book is intended to stimulate discussion among both beginners and professionals in the field of history and/or philosophy of science, as well as ecologists. The topics covered are also central to the concerns of scholars engaged in environmental studies, environmental ethics and policy-making.

Campus activities for sustainable development are an effective way of learning and implementing sustainability in surrounding communities and industry. A college campus is an ideal place to practice and test new ideas and to learn valuable lessons from the results and mistakes. Sustainability Practice and Education on University Campuses and Beyond showcases many ideas and endeavors pursued on college campuses in the form of case studies. These case studies include past, current and projected activities to green college campuses. Specific topics covered in this book include student-driven and college-driven environmental sustainability programs in undergraduate and graduate classes, issues in teaching environmental sustainability, the LEED certification of universities, issues of shrinking cities, and a comparison of sustainable military bases with college campuses. Readers will be able to clearly understand the concept of sustainable development through a textbook approach to ‘crazy’ ideas presented in the book. In addition, the pedagogical challenges in sustainability education mentioned in the book address key issues arising due to the multidisciplinary nature of sustainability curricula. Sustainability Practice and Education on University Campuses and Beyond is a good resource on sustainability in environmental science courses for college students, faculty and sustainability-related researchers. Decision makers in government and industry positions looking for ideas for promoting sustainable development can also benefit from the contents of this book.

The concept of sustainability is inherently multi-disciplinary because it concerns a complex system having economic, technological, ecological, political, and other perspectives. Consequently, any effort in the area of sustainability involves concepts, principles, and methods from engineering, the social sciences including economics and social psychology, the biological sciences including ecology, and the physical sciences. Sustainability: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives discusses multidisciplinary aspects of the salient concepts, principles, and methods relevant to sustainability in a coherent and comprehensive manner. Topics covered range from green engineering and sustainability metrics to infrastructure and environmental policy.

This e-book reviews environmental impacts of ski tourism in mountain environments. Specifically, the book addresses skiing impacts on soils, vegetation, vertebrate and invertebrate animals living in such habitats. Additional chapters also explain the methods for the restoration of disturbed sites at high altitude and snow cover in a changing climate. The e-book is therefore a compilation on the latest knowledge on environmental impacts of skiing and is intended to be a standard reference for ecologists, students and universities, business professionals (ski-resort managers), regional governmental organizations, conservation agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In an era of globalization, where the progressive deterioration of local values is a dominating characteristic, identity is seen as a fundamental need that encompasses all aspects of human life. One of these identities relates to place and the physical environment. Place identity is concerned with a set of ideas about place and identity from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines. Mainly, it refers to the meaning and importance of places for their inhabitants and users. Readers of this e-book will gain an insight on the role of identity as a basis for the perception, experience, and appreciation of the form of built structures. This e-book explains knowledge in relation to place identity, focusing on people's identity, and those factors that play a significant role in this process. Most of all, the book gives further insight about place identity with regard to global and local contexts, and across multifaceted and multicultural societies. The theme is approached from a number of disciplines that include environmental psychology, philosophy, urban sociology, geography, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture.

Anthropogenic changes in the environment, caused by 250 years of economic growth and utilization of fuel and mineral resources, have considerably impacted the natural environment. The resulting physical and chemical alterations to the Earth's sphere and our adaptive responses in the biosphere are detailed in this reference book. Readers will learn about concepts relevant to Earth's history, the evolution of life, economy, ecology, environmental history, biology, and medicine and how these concepts can be linked to environmental change. The scope of this interdisciplinary work entails to convey the true degree of responsibility for the universal consequences of ecosystem degradation resulting from industrial processing, human consumption and the transformation of natural sites due to industrialization and urbanization. Topics covered in the book include: -Ecosystem transformations by natural and anthropogenic forces -The Anthropocene epoch -A short history of industrialization -Environmental sites and the impact of socio-economic influences -The current environmental crisis, This textbook is intended for graduate students in economics, civil engineering, architecture, agronomics, forestry, technical and mining sciences, political sciences, business studies and humanities. General readers who wish to understand the basic philosophy behind environmental studies and their relation to human activity can also benefit from this book.