With more than 50% of the world’s population already living in towns and cities, migration from rural areas continuing at an alarming rate in developing countries and suburbanisation using more and more land in developed countries, the urban environment has become supremely important with regard to human health and wellbeing. For centuries, urbanisation has caused relatively low level soil conta- nation mainly by various wastes. However, from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards, ...

This book provides a comprehensive overview of remediation and rehabilitation techniques and strategies for contaminated and anthropogenically disturbed land. Rehabilitation approaches in the urban environment, such as brownfield redevelopment and urban mining, are discussed. In relation to contaminated land, techniques for soil containment and decontamination of soil, soil vapour and groundwater are comprehensively and systematically presented. Complicated treatment techniques are schemat...

The fundamentals of methods in nuclear geophysics and their practical applications in engineering geology, hydrology, hydrogeology, agriculture and environmental science are discussed in this book. The methods and apparatus based on absorption and scattering of gamma and neutron radiation for determination of density and soil moisture in natural conditions are presented in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. The theoretical fundamentals and installations of the penetration logging techniques where gamma...

John P. Smol is a professor in the Biology Department at Queen's University (Canada), with a cross-appointment at the School of Environmental Studies. He co-directs the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL). Professor Smol is co-editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology and holds the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change. William M. Last is a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at University of Ma...

How does nature work? When one looks closely at the enormously complex web of life, it is impossible not to be caught by the wonder of how all living things – including rocks and crystals – are interconnected. Just as there is thought behind action, so there is energy behind matter. The Fertile Earth, the third volume of the Eco-Technology series which presents the original, passionate and convincing research of Viktor Schauberger in translation for the first time, contains his groundbreak...

In its first edition, Soils established itself as the leading textbook in the fields of pedology and soil geomorphology. Expanded and fully updated, this second edition maintains its highly organized and readable style. Suitable as a textbook and a research-grade reference, the book's introductory chapters in soil morphology, mineralogy, chemistry, physics and organisms prepare the reader for the more advanced treatment that follows. Unlike its competitors, this textbook devotes considerab...

We wrote Sedimentology of Shale primarily because we lacked a handy, reasonably comprehensive source of information and ideas about shales for students in our sedimentology program. It was also our feeling that the time for shales to receive more study had finally arrived. Sedimentology of Shale also seems very timely because today more sedimentologists are interested in shales. Certainly in the last five years the pace of shale research has no ticeably quickened because the role of shales...

Rice is the staple food for half of the world’s population. Consumption of rice is the major exposure route globally to the class one, non-threshold carcinogen inorganic arsenic. This book explains the sources of arsenic to paddy soils and the biogeochemical processes and plant physiological attributes of paddy soil-rice ecosystems that lead to high concentrations of arsenic in rice grain. It presents the global pattern of arsenic concentration and speciation in rice, discusses human expos...

This book explains the causes, mechanisms and dimension of sedimentation in theRupnarayan River, which offers a representative example of a tidal river combining fluvial and marine processes. The book is unique in addressing all the hydrodynamic characteristics of the river, especially the tidal impact, sediment load and textural characteristics of the sediments.;The data presented here was gathered through continuous field monitoring using state-of-the-art techniqu...

Desertification has occurred worldwide. The biophysical and socio-economic complexity of this phenomenon has challenged our ability to categorize, inventory, monitor and repair the condition of degraded lands. One of the most important distinctions to be made in relation to land degradation is between cultivated land used for annual crop production and `rangelands'. Grazing by free-roaming livestock is the traditional primary use of the world's rangelands. However, there is growing recogni...

Periplatform slope sediments from the Bahamas serve as an example for a small-scale sedimentologic record of environmental changes. Carbonate platforms react sensitively to sea-level fluctuations. Therefore, sediments deposited on the slope during lowstands differ in composition from highstand deposits. A second focus is the early diagenetic alteration and cementation of these sediments with their high diagenetic potential. This book contributes to and discusses new developments in carbona...

This volume explores specific approaches that have shown to result in crop yield increases. Research on the physiological understanding of these methods has led to the development of practical applications of plant breeding approaches to genetically improve crops to achieve higher yields. Authoritative entries from crop scientists shed new light on two water-conservation traits: one that is based on an initiation of the decrease in transpiration earlier in the soil drying cycle, and the se...