Changing Land Uses - Shrinking Streams and Carbon Sinks
Changing Land Uses - Shrinking Streams and Carbon Sinks

Author: Brij Kishore Singh

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2022-10-19

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book, ‘Changing Land Uses – Shrinking Streams and Carbon Sinks’, attempts at providing an overview of the calamitous consequences of deforestation on the world climate. Deforestation worldwide has been lowering the carbon sequestration potential of forests and increasing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The planet is already warmer by 1.10 C than the preindustrial era and as a result we are facing disastrous consequences in terms of frequent and destructive climatic catastrophes, namely, storms, sea surges, floods, droughts etc. Several perennial streams have become seasonal owing to deforestation in the catchments. With special reference to Karnataka’s Western Ghat forests, the book carries several investigative stories highlighting how notified and un-notified forests have been plundered for a variety of reasons. Diverse land tenures in Kodagu district of Karnataka and administration’s failure to regulate the rights and privileges are exploited by the nexus between politicians and bureaucrats. Without realizing the ecological services provided by forests, natural forests in different land tenures have been allowed to be degraded for quid pro quo. In addition, forests have been diverted for many developmental projects such as widening of roads, construction of reservoirs for power and irrigation, transmission of power, establishing rail connectivity etc. leading to changing land uses, disappearance of perennial streams and loss of carbon sinks. It is high time that states acted in conserving natural forests irrespective of the ownership, and the country as a whole must grow trees over 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 as pledged in the Paris climate accord of 2015.

Forests of Karnataka - Why and How of Where They Are
Forests of Karnataka - Why and How of Where They Are

Author: DIPAK SARMAH

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2023-05-25

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The book, ‘FORESTS OF KARNATAKA - WHY AND HOW OF WHERE THEY ARE,’ attempts at understanding the diverse forests of Karnataka, their current status, and the primary factors that led to their transformation from their pristine (original and un-spoilt) states to the present states. Although formation of different types of forest depends fundamentally upon the general climatic and soil-related factors which vary from place to place, the present conditions of the forests are to a considerable extent reflective of the treatments meted out to them over the centuries. Past treatments of the forests include past forest management practices such as forest reservation, logging, clear-felling, raising plantations, forest protection, etc. as well as other biotic factors such as shifting cultivation, expansion of agriculture, heavy withdrawals of biomass, introduction of plantation crops, recurring fires, over-grazing, encroachments, etc. As a matter of fact, we now have different types of forest in different parts of the state depending upon the nature and intensity of the past interventions. The book while analysing various factors that resulted in degradation of a vast majority of the state’s forests has also suggested ways and means of how the existing forests can be protected from further degradation, enabling them to recover and rejuvenate.

Water Resources
Water Resources

Author: Joseph Holden

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1134614748

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The world faces huge challenges for water as population continues to grow, as emerging economies develop and as climate change alters the global and local water cycle. There are major questions to be answered about how we supply water in a sustainable and safe manner to fulfil our needs, while at the same time protecting vulnerable ecosystems from disaster. Water Resources: An Integrated Approach provides students with a comprehensive overview of both natural and socio-economic processes associated with water. The book contains chapters written by 20 specialist contributors, providing expert depth of coverage to topics. The text guides the reader through the topic of water starting with its unique properties and moving through environmental processes and human impacts upon them including the changing water cycle, water movement in river basins, water quality, groundwater and aquatic ecosystems. The book then covers management strategies for water resources, water treatment and re-use, and the role of water in human health before covering water economics and water conflict. The text concludes with a chapter that examines new concepts such as virtual water that help us understand current and future water resource use and availability across interconnected local and global scales. This book provides a novel interdisciplinary approach to water in a changing world, from an environmental change perspective and inter-related social, political and economic dimensions. It includes global examples from both the developing and developed world. Each chapter is supplemented with boxed case studies, end of chapter questions, and further reading, as well as a glossary of terms. The text is richly illustrated throughout with over 150 full colour diagrams and photos.

Global Environmental Change and Land Use
Global Environmental Change and Land Use

Author: Han Haarman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9401703353

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The interaction between environmental change and human activities is com plex, requiring the concepts and tools of a number of disciplines for its effective analysis. Land-use and land-cover change has only recently become a topic susceptible to scientific research, as these concepts and tools have been devel oped and made available. Rooted in a broad community concemed with global change, systematic research has begun into land-use systems at different scales and interactions, and their links with global cyc1es of water, nitrogen and carbon are being explored. Partly based on research initiated by the Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air PolIution and Climate Change (NRP), this book touches upon various land-use and land-cover issues in relation to global environmental change. In addition to the biogeochemical cyc1es, land as a car rier for functions of economic activities, food and fibre production and energy production via biomass are discussed. Crucial in studying land use is human behaviour and man-environment interaction at different scales. Land-use and land-cover change is an important contrlbutor of greenhouse gasses as these activities directly interfere with the carbon, nitrogen and water cyc1es. These cyc1es are connected through numerous feedback loops. The interface of land-use and c1imate is essentially determined by the interaction of man and the environment. Man uses land primarily to produce food; a relatively small area is needed for urban development.

Land Degradation, Desertification and Climate Change
Land Degradation, Desertification and Climate Change

Author: Mark S. Reed

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-28

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1135094314

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although much is known about the processes and effects of land degradation and climate change, little is understood about the links between them. Less still is known about how these processes are likely to interact in different social-ecological systems around the world, or how societies might be able to adapt to this twin challenge. This book identifies key vulnerabilities to the combined effects of climate change and land degradation around the world. It identifies triple-win adaptations that can tackle both climate change and land degradation, whilst supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. The book discusses methods for monitoring effects of climate change and land degradation, and adaptations to these processes. It argues for better co-operation and knowledge exchange, so that the research, land user and policy communities can work together more effectively to tackle these challenges, harnessing the "wisdom of crowds" to assess vulnerability and adapt to climate change and land degradation, whilst protecting livelihoods and biodiversity.

Ground Breaking
Ground Breaking

Author: Philip Mulvey

Publisher:

Published: 2021-08

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9781875703449

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Practical solutions for agricultural management, enabling the restoration of landscape, climate and community. Reaching zero emissions alone won't stop the Earth heating up. There's another factor at play, even bigger than rising greenhouse gas levels: agricultural land use, and it is turning the world's bread baskets into deserts. In south west Western Australia, the 'Bunny Fence Experiment', the world's largest study of two contrasting land uses in the same vast region, showed strong evidence that clearing and cropping was the reason why rainfall over the Wheat Belt has dropped 20 per cent in the lifetime of some of us. This book tells of how what farmers do exports heat waves, dust and fire, south and south-eastward in Eastern Australia and north and north-westward in Western America. You'd be forgiven for thinking there ought to be a law against it, but our lawmakers don't even acknowledge that under the air and the plants, there is anything but bedrock. Soil, the depleted carbon sink that still manages to feed us today, might as well be a vacuum in law, but it could be a saviour for our civilisations. Ground Breaking has solutions too: manage land use, sequester carbon in soil, reduce bare ground and increase bush corridors.

Water Resilience for Human Prosperity
Water Resilience for Human Prosperity

Author: Johan Rockström

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-03-27

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1107024196

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A new approach to water-resources for researchers, professionals and graduate students, focusing on global sustainability and socio-ecological resilience to change.

Use of Landscape Sciences for the Assessment of Environmental Security
Use of Landscape Sciences for the Assessment of Environmental Security

Author: Irene Petrosillo

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-10-02

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 1402065884

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines environmental security from the perspective of landscape sciences, identifying the forces that threaten environmental security at all levels. It stems from the last five years of the Pilot Study Project on Use of Landscape Sciences for Environmental Assessment sponsored by the NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society. Readers explore concepts of environmental security from subjective and objective perspectives.