Huge economic losses from natural disasters, including nearly 100 000 fatalities world wide in 1999 alone, gave rise to a renewed recognition by government, industry and the public that national governments and international agencies cannot simply go on as they have in the past. Changes in financial cover, better enforcement procedures for building standards, better business contingency planning, and well developed emergency response were demanded from all sides. In this volume an international group of experts present recent research on the variety of approaches adopted by different...
Huge economic losses from natural disasters, including nearly 100 000 fatalities world wide in 1999 alone, gave rise to a renewed recognition by gover...
Managing environmental contamination requires decision makers to weigh eXlstmg risks against the potential effects of implementing environmental policies - considering both the benefits and disruptions that may result from different actions. The NATO Advanced Research Workshop in Lisbon was an important step in the development and application of cost efficient methods of risk assessment especiaIly within the constraints of a budget. The goal of the workshop was to evaluate the potential for risk assessment to serve as a unified and unifying technique in addressing a wide range of...
Managing environmental contamination requires decision makers to weigh eXlstmg risks against the potential effects of implementing environmental polic...
Organisms are increasingly being used to assess environmental impacts on ecosystems. Lichens are among the best known, most widely used biomonitors of environmental change, with thousands of papers published on this subject in the last decades. The present book provides the most recent synthesis on this subject. It is divided into three sections: (1) Monitoring lichens as indicators of pollution; (2) monitoring lichen diversity and ecosystem function; and (3) methods for monitoring lichens. The first two sections present the state of the art in the respective fields, while the third...
Organisms are increasingly being used to assess environmental impacts on ecosystems. Lichens are among the best known, most widely used biomonitors...
Groundwater issues have generated worldwide concern in recent decades. The problems are numerous: too little groundwater, too much groundwater, groundwater contaminated by either saline water or a broad spectrum of industrial and domestic pollutants. Many urban groundwater problems are not unique to any one region, which is the thinking behind this book. Many of the case studies presented here have never before been described in English. Overall, the papers represent the work and experience of researchers and groundwater professionals who have worked on urban groundwater issues in developed...
Groundwater issues have generated worldwide concern in recent decades. The problems are numerous: too little groundwater, too much groundwater, ground...
Water resources, both in terms of water quality and water quantity, are of critical importance in planning for sustainable development in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in other parts of the world. This NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), entitled "Risk Assessment as a Tool for Water Resources Decision-Making in Central Asia," was conducted on September 23-25, 2002 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The ARW addressed methods and approaches by which risk assessment methodology that has been developed in the United States, Europe and elsewhere can be applied to environmental and water...
Water resources, both in terms of water quality and water quantity, are of critical importance in planning for sustainable development in Central Asia...
Decision making in environmental projects is typically a complex and confusing process characterized by trade-offs between socio-political, environmental, and economic impacts. Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) is a methodology applied to facilitate decision making when various activities compete for limited resources. CRA has become an increasingly accepted research tool and has helped to characterize environmental profiles and priorities on the regional and national level. CRA may be considered as part of the more general but as yet quite academic field of multi-criteria decision analysis...
Decision making in environmental projects is typically a complex and confusing process characterized by trade-offs between socio-political, environmen...
Our desire to understand the global carbon cycle and its link to the climate system represents a huge challenge. These overarching questions have driven a great deal of scientific endeavour in recent years: What are the basic oceanic mechanisms which control the oceanic carbon reservoirs and the partitioning of carbon between ocean and atmosphere? How do these mechanisms depend on the state of the climate system and how does the carbon cycle feed back on climate? What is the current rate at which fossil fuel carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and how might this change in the future? To...
Our desire to understand the global carbon cycle and its link to the climate system represents a huge challenge. These overarching questions have driv...
Animals are a major link between the water column (pelagic) and the bottom (benthic) habitats in most shallow systems. This coupling is dominated by active processes such as suspension-feeding in which the organism actively uses energy to pump water that is then filtered to remove suspended particles that are consumed while undigested remains are deposited on the bottom. As a result of this feeding on and metabolism of particles, the animals excrete dissolved inorganic and organic waste back into the water column, and thus, become major components in the cycling and feedback of essential...
Animals are a major link between the water column (pelagic) and the bottom (benthic) habitats in most shallow systems. This coupling is dominated b...
The demand for advanced management methods and tools for marine ecosystems is increasing worldwide. Today, many marine ecosystems are significantly affected by disastrous pollution from industrial, agricultural, municipal, transportational, and other anthropogenic sources. The issues of environmental integrity are especially acute in the Mediterranean and Red Sea basins, the cradle of modern civilization. The drying of the Dead Sea is one of the most vivid examples of environmental disintegration with severe negative consequences on the ecology, industry, and wildlife in the area. Strategic...
The demand for advanced management methods and tools for marine ecosystems is increasing worldwide. Today, many marine ecosystems are significantly af...
1. PURPOSE OF PRESENT BOOK During the period May 19-26, 2003 the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) Mud volcanism, Geodynamics and Seismicity was held in Baku. Participants coming from USA, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Romania, Georgia, UK, Israel, Azerbaijan, Tunisia have discussed about different geodynamic features of mud volcanism and participated to field trips oriented to a better knowledge of mud volcanic features. The Meeting focused on many features of mud volcanism occurrence and related geodynamic topics. The purpose of present book is to...
1. PURPOSE OF PRESENT BOOK During the period May 19-26, 2003 the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) Mud volcanism, Geodynamics and Seismicity was h...