Management of Natural Resources, Sustainable Development and Ecological Hazards

About this book

The state of our planet continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate. We have arrived at a situation where we need to determine urgent solutions before we reach a point of irreversible damage.
This book contains papers presented at the First International Conference on Management of Natural Resources, Sustainable Development and Ecological Hazards, which was held in Patagonia, Argentina. The Conference name was shortened to `The Ravage of the Planet' to emphasize the urgency of the problems under discussion.

Much has been written in different contexts about attaining sustainability but the concept itself needs to be defined within a framework of many different disciplines in order to arrive at optimal solutions. This book is therefore essentially trans-disciplinary and it is hoped that it will encourage research into appropriate sustainable solutions, i.e. those involving collaboration across a wide range of disciplines.

The following topic areas are discussed: The re-encounter; Political and social issues; Planning and development; Ecology; Design and sustainability; Safety; Water resources; Management of complex systems under extreme conditions; Air; Soil; Energy.

Contents

Section 1: The re-encounter Holistic sustainability: local culture and global business--a unique opportunity; Beyond predictability; Sustainable global civilization Section 2: Political and social issues Autonomy and heteronomy: the need for decentralization in a centralizing world; Towards a Sustainable World; Laboratories of democracy: the collision of federal and local global warming policy in the United States; Economic development and colonias in Texas; Policies and their enforcement in the process towards sustainability; Environmental communication strategies: when is what appropriate?; E-waste transboundary movement violating environmental justice; Time series analysis of the ISEW at the local (regional) level: method and intent; Sustainability and urban regeneration: the community and the city; Legal and health aspects of sanitary waste management in Italy Section 3: Planning and development Public action and social capital in rural areas; The needs of sustainability: the problem of data availability for calculating indicators; A study to designate a National Land Sustainable Plan in Japan: focus on land recycling; Application of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) to Natural Parks and reserves; Using the full potential: regional planning based on local potentials and exergy; Environmental management in the Port of Koper and neighboring urban settlements; Sustainable resources management in the context of agro-environmental EU policies: novel paradigms in Thessaly, Greece; Intelligent flexible disassembly and recycling of used products to support sustainability and total quality management in modern manufacturing industry; Carrying capacity assessment in tourism: the case of the Dodecanese archipelago; Strategy guidelines for the Croatian petroleum industry based on geopolitical risk assessment; About how 'was' 'becomes': emergence of a sustainable spatial-energy system Section 4: Ecology A sensitivity analysis of the European Union coastal zone based on environmental and socio-economic sustainability indicators; Promoting solar thermal design: the Mechanical Engineering building at the University of New Mexico; Sensoristic approach to biological damage and risk assessment; Design for human and planetary health: a transdisciplinary approach to sustainability; Technology and sustainability for the development of the Caldenal; Coral reefs: threats and future focusing in over-fishing, aquaculture, and educational programs; Maximizing storage rates and capacity of carbon dioxide sequestration in saline reservoirs; Effects of a thinning regime on stand growth in plantation forests using an architectural stand growth model Section 5: Design and sustainability (organised by W. P. de Wilde) Adaptable versus lightweight design of transitory dwellings; 4-dimensional design: a design strategy for efficient shelter and sustainable housing after conflict-based and natural disasters; Climate Adaptive Skins: towards the new energy-efficient facade; Extant Design: designing things as they are; The role of beauty for sustainability: a discussion on responsible consumption, aesthetics attitudes and product design; Structure evolution of spider silk liquid crystalline precursor material Section 6: Safety Risk management of hazardous material transportation; Architecture for humanity: sharing the experience of MERCY Malaysia Core House Project in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Erosion of forestry land: causes and rehabilitation; Dual system for management of natural and anthropogenic emergencies and its training Section 7: Water resources The water crisis in southern Portugal: how did we get there and how should we solve it; Water resources management under drought conditions; Growing vulnerability of the arid zones to drought and its impacts; Monitoring land use and land cover changes in Turkmenistan using remote sensing; Trace metals in molluscs from the Beagle Channel (Argentina): a preliminary study; Toxic and interactive toxic effects of agrochemical substances and copper on Vibrio fischeri; Kaunas hydropower system management; Particle-tracking method applied to transport problems in water bodies; Experimental study of an artificial groundwater recharging process; Parametric identification of a karst aquifer; Separation of salt and sweet waters in an area of former mines; Influence of wind on floating debris distribution in the Balearic Islands Section 7.1: Management of complex systems under extreme conditions (organised by L. Fagherrazzi) The management of a multi-purpose reservoir; A daily hydrological system management model that takes meteorological forecast errors into account Section 8: Air A forecast model to predict the next day's maximum hourly SO2 in the site of Priolo (Siracusa); Sources of atmospheric pollutants in the North West province of South Africa: a case of the Rustenburg municipality; Air quality in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina; Overview of ultrafine particles and human health; Global climate change, air pollution, and women's health; Visibility and air pollution; The new millennium Ethics of housing technology; Impact of greenhouse gas stabilization initiatives on the Croatian petroleum industry; Prediction of road traffic noise attenuation due to distance, ground absorption and gradient Section 9: Soil Arsenic pollution in the southwest of Tuscany: monitoring of Cornia catchment basin; Soil contamination and land subsidence raise concern in the Venice watershed, Italy; Elemental composition of PM10 and PM2.5 in ambient air downwind of agricultural operations in California's San Joaquin Valley; Assessment of slopes endangered by groundwater; Radioactive contaminated soil removal from the sites of the former Azgir nuclear test site; Accidental mercury spill in the Andes: forensic neuropsychological evaluation six years later; Predicting the intensity of wind-blown removal of dust and sand in the Turkmenistan desert Section 10: Energy Sustainability concern of housing: emergy storage and flow assessment; Energy and the environment; Renewable resources of energy in northern Baja California, Mexico; Waste to energy as a contribution to ravage elimination; Expansion of the Brazilian refining industry and its local requirements: critical factors for siting a new refinery in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil; Utilization of coal and waste for ecological fuel production; Injection technology for sustainable environmental protection in the petroleum industry; Desulphurization of flue gases using waste of a water treatment plant; The use of the Mock-up-Cz physical model in the design of engineered barriers

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