The papers published in this proceedings volume first appeared in the journal Toxicological and environmental chemistry (vols. 25-29). Topics covered include environmental data banks, computer modeling of the environment, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), biotechnology, specimen banking, environmental monitoring and assessment, case studies and risk assessment, and the complex relationship between the environment and the law. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Information technology is a powerful tool for meeting environmental objectives and promoting sustainable development. This collection of papers by leaders in industry, government, and academia explores how information technology can improve environmental performance by individual firms, collaborations among firms, and collaborations among firms, government agencies, and academia. Information systems can also be used by nonprofit organizations and the government to inform the public about broad environmental issues and environmental conditions in their neighborhoods. Several papers address the challenges to information management posed by the explosive increase in information and knowledge about environmental issues and potential solutions, including determining what information is environmentally relevant and how it can be used in decision making. In addition, case studies are described and show how industry is using information systems to ensure sustainable development and meet environmental standards. The book also includes examples from the public sector showing how governments use information knowledge systems to disseminate "best practices" beyond big firms to small businesses, and from the world of the Internet showing how knowledge is shared among environmental advocates and the general public.
ICT Innovations for Sustainability is an investigation of how information and communication technology can contribute to sustainable development. It presents clear definitions of sustainability, suggesting conceptual frameworks for the positive and negative effects of ICT on sustainable development. It reviews methods of assessing the direct and indirect impact of ICT systems on energy and materials demand, and examines the results of such assessments. In addition, it investigates ICT-based approaches to supporting sustainable patterns of production and consumption, analyzing them at various levels of abstraction – from end-user devices, Internet infrastructure, user behavior, and social practices to macro-economic indicators. Combining approaches from Computer Science, Information Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Economics, and Environmental Sciences, the book presents a new, holistic perspective on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S). It is an indispensable resource for anyone working in the area of ICT for Energy Efficiency, Life Cycle Assessment of ICT, Green IT, Green Information Systems, Environmental Informatics, Energy Informatics, Sustainable HCI, or Computational Sustainability.
Proliferation of distributed generation and the increased ability to monitor different parts of the electrical grid offer unprecedented opportunities for consumers and grid operators. Energy can be generated near the consumption points, which decreases transmission burdens and novel control schemes can be utilized to operate the grid closer to its limits. In other words, the same infrastructure can be used at higher capacities thanks to increased efficiency. Also, new players are integrated into this grid such as smart meters with local control capabilities, electric vehicles that can act as mobile storage devices, and smart inverters that can provide auxiliary support. To achieve stable and safe operation, it is necessary to observe and coordinate all of these components in the smartgrid.
Participatory Media in Environmental Communication brings together stories of communities in the Pacific islands – a region that is severely affected by the impacts of climate change. Despite living on the margins of the digital revolution, these island communities have used media and communication to create awareness of and find solutions to environmental challenges. By telling their stories in their own way, ordinary people are able to communicate compelling accounts of how different, but interrelated, environmental, political, and economic issues converge and impact at a local level. This book fills a significant gap in our understanding of how participatory media is used as a dialogic tool to raise awareness and facilitate discussion of environmental issues that are now critical. It includes a section on pedagogy and practice – the undergirding principles, the tools, the methods. The book offers a framework for Participatory Environmental Communication that weaves three widely used concepts, diversity, network and agency, into a cohesive underlying system to bring scholars, practitioners and diverse communities together in a dialogue about pressing environmental issues. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and students in communication and media studies, environmental communication, cultural studies, and environmental sciences, as well as practitioners, policy makers and environmental activists.
"This edited book discusses data analytics and complex communication networks and recommends new methodologies, system architectures, and other solutions to prevail over the current limitations faced by the field"--
This book draws on a broad spectrum of environmental communications and related cross-disciplinary literature to help students and scholars grasp the interconnecting key concepts within this ever-expanding field of study. Aligning climate change and environmental learning through media and communications, particularly taking into account the post-COVID challenge of sustainability, remains one of the most important concerns within environmental communications. Addressing this challenge, Essential Concepts for Environmental Communication synthesises summary writings from a broad range of environmental theorists, while teasing out provocative concepts and key ideas that frame this evolving, multi-disciplinary field. Each entry maps out an important concept or environmental idea and illustrates how it relates more broadly across the growing field of environmental communication debates. Included in this volume is a full section dedicated to exploring what environmental communication might look like in a post-COVID setting: • Offers cutting-edge analysis of the current state of environmental communications. • Presents an up-to-date exploration of environmental and sustainable development models at a local and global level. • Provides an in-depth exploration of key concepts across the ever-expanding environmental communications field. • Examines the interaction between environmental and media communications at all levels. • Provides a critical review of contemporary environmental communications literature and scholarship. With key bibliographical references and further reading included alongside the entries, this innovative and accessible volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners alike.
The environment is part of everyone's life but there are difficulties in communicating complex environmental problems, such as climate change, to a lay audience. In this book Klöckner defines environmental communication, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the issues involved in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th IFIP World Information Technology Forum, WITFOR 2016, San José, Costa Rica, in September 2016. The 16 full papers and 6 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 45 submissions. Within the general theme ICT for Promoting Human Development and Protecting the Environment the papers are organized in the following topical sections encompassing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently adopted by the United Nations: ICT and cross-cutting development issues; ICT and environmental problems: ICT and human development problems; and ICT and economic development problems.
Many books have covered the rapidly evolving fields of information and communication technology (ICT) and space technology separately. However, no single book has ever focused on how the integration of these two areas is creating a stronger platform for various scientific advancements—including some research work that cannot be performed on Earth. To fill the void, Information, Communication, and Space Technology provides a novel illustration of that connection. Dividing content into sections that cover ICT, existing and future space technologies, and satellites, the author demonstrates the individual and combined power of each of these parts of the overall system. He explores how the combination of concepts from each of these interrelated fields is creating massive potential for broader advances in areas such as robotics, communications, navigation, agriculture, health care, and nanotechnology. The book introduces particular potential innovations, including "rocket-less" spacecraft launches, and development of a global system to balance energy distribution by using satellites that would collect solar energy and transmit it via microwave beams to different locations around the world. Equally useful to students and professionals, this work is a culmination of the domestic and international experience that the author has acquired throughout more than three decades as an instructor and researcher. Emphasizing the strong need to incorporate ICT and space technology into the general university curriculum, the book starts with basic explanations of key concepts and theories, building toward more concrete, application-oriented examples that reveal the importance and impact of new technologies. This includes coverage of how satellites transfer voice, video, and other data across continents, as well as techniques used to obtain very-high-resolution images from space for use in agricultural and environmental sciences.This timely work employs a logical, practically structured approach that will help readers to better understand existing and emerging ICT and space technologies, including the most recent developments and achievements in the field.
