Two large international conferences on Advances in Engineering Sciences were held in London, UK, 29 June - 1 July, 2016, under the World Congress on Engineering (WCE 2016), and San Francisco, USA, 19-21 October, 2016, under the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science (WCECS 2016) respectively. This volume contains 42 revised and extended research articles written by prominent researchers participating in the conferences. Topics covered include electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, computer science, engineering mathematics and industrial applications. The book offers state-of-the-art advances in engineering sciences and also serves as an excellent reference work for researchers and graduate students working with/on engineering sciences.
This Special Issue presents the latest advances in agriculture, aquaculture, food technology and environmental protection and engineering, discussing, among others, the following issues: new technologies in water, stormwater and wastewater treatment; water saving, lake restoration; new sludge and waste management systems; biodiesel production from animal fat waste; the microbiological quality of compound fish feeds for aquaculture; the role of technological processes to improve food quality and safety; new trends in the analysis of food and food components including in vitro, in vivo, and in silico analyses; and functional and structural aspects of bioactivities of food molecules.
Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.
This volume includes the papers presented during the 1st Euro-Mediterranean Conference for Environmental Integration (EMCEI) which was held in Sousse, Tunisia in November 2017. This conference was jointly organized by the editorial office of the Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration in Sfax, Tunisia and Springer (MENA Publishing Program) in Germany. It aimed to give a more concrete expression to the Euro-Mediterranean integration process by supplementing existing North-South programs and agreements with a new multilateral scientific forum that emphasizes in particular the vulnerability and proactive remediation of the Euro-Mediterranean region from an environmental point of view. This volume gives a general and brief overview on current research focusing on emerging environmental issues and challenges and its applications to a variety of problems in the Euro-Mediterranean zone and surrounding regions. It contains over five hundred and eighty carefully refereed short contributions to the conference. Topics covered include (1) innovative approaches and methods for environmental sustainability, (2) environmental risk assessment, bioremediation, ecotoxicology, and environmental safety, (3) water resources assessment, planning, protection, and management, (4) environmental engineering and management, (5) natural resources: characterization, assessment, management, and valorization, (6) intelligent techniques in renewable energy (biomass, wind, waste, solar), (7) sustainable management of marine environment and coastal areas, (8) remote sensing and GIS for geo-environmental investigations, (9) environmental impacts of geo/natural hazards (earthquakes, landslides, volcanic, and marine hazards), and (10) the environmental health science (natural and social impacts on Human health). Presenting a wide range of topics and new results, this edited volume will appeal to anyone working in the subject area, including researchers and students interested to learn more about new advances in environmental research initiatives in view of the ever growing environmental degradation in the Euro-Mediterranean region, which has turned environmental and resource protection into an increasingly important issue hampering sustainable development and social welfare.
Tackling the issue of water and wastewater treatment nowadays requires novel approaches to ensure that sustainable development can be achieved. Water and wastewater treatment should not be seen only as an end-of-pipe solution but instead the approach should be more holistic and lead to a more sustainable process. This requires the integration of various methods/processes to obtain the most optimized design. Integrated and Hybrid Process Technology for Water and Wastewater Treatment discusses the state-of-the-art development in integrated and hybrid treatment processes and their applications to the treatment of a vast variety of water and wastewater sources. The approaches taken in this book are categorized as (i) resources recovery and consumption, (ii) optimal performance, (iii) physical and environmental footprints, (iv) zero liquid discharge concept and are (v) regulation-driven. Through these categories, readers will see how such an approach could benefit the water and wastewater industry. Each chapter discusses challenges and prospects of an integrated treatment process in achieving sustainable development. This book serves as a platform to provide ideas and to bridge the gap between laboratory-scale research and practical industry application. - Includes comprehensive coverage on integrated and hybrid technology for water and wastewater treatment - Takes a new approach in looking at how water and wastewater treatment contributes to sustainable development - Provides future direction of research in sustainable water and wastewater treatment
In anticipation of future environmental science and engineering challenges and technologic advances, EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to assess the overall capabilities of the agency to develop, obtain, and use the best available scientific and technologic information and tools to meet persistent, emerging, and future mission challenges and opportunities. Although the committee cannot predict with certainty what new environmental problems EPA will face in the next 10 years or more, it worked to identify some of the common drivers and common characteristics of problems that are likely to occur. Tensions inherent to the structure of EPA's work contribute to the current and persistent challenges faced by the agency, and meeting those challenges will require development of leading-edge scientific methods, tools, and technologies, and a more deliberate approach to systems thinking and interdisciplinary science. Science for Environmental Protection: The Road Ahead outlines a framework for building science for environmental protection in the 21st century and identified key areas where enhanced leadership and capacity can strengthen the agency's abilities to address current and emerging environmental challenges as well as take advantage of new tools and technologies to address them. The foundation of EPA science is strong, but the agency needs to continue to address numerous present and future challenges if it is to maintain its science leadership and meet its expanding mandates.
Innovation-Based Development of the Mineral Resources Sector: Challenges and Prospects contains the contributions presented at the XI Russian-German Raw Materials Conference (Potsdam, Germany, 7-8 November 2018). The Russian-German Raw Materials Conference is held within the framework of the “Permanent Russian-German Forum on the Issues of the Use of Raw Materials”, which has as goals to develop new approaches to effectively use energy, mineral and renewable natural resources and to initiate cooperation in the field of sustainability and environmental protection. The contributions cover current trends in the development of raw materials markets and the world economy, the state of the environment and new technologies applied in the sector, effectively responding to modern challenges. The 63 accepted papers are grouped into four main sections: • Mineral exploration and mining • Mining services • Processing of raw materials • Other Innovation-Based Development of the Mineral Resources Sector: Challenges and Prospects will be of interest to academics and researchers involved in the mineral resources sector, but also to professionals in the public, foreign trade and education fields, and representatives of major corporations and professional associations.
Bringing together a multidisciplinary conversation about the entanglement of nature and society in the Korean peninsula, Forces of Nature aims to define and develop the field of the Korean environmental humanities. At its core, the volume works to foreground non-human agents that have long been marginalized in Korean studies, placing flora, fauna, mineral deposits, and climatic conditions that have hitherto been confined to footnotes front and center. In the process, the authors blaze new trails through Korea's social and physical landscapes. What emerges is a deeper appreciation of the environmental conflicts that have animated life in Korea. The authors show how natural processes have continually shaped the course of events on the peninsula—how floods, droughts, famines, fires, and pests have inexorably impinged on human affairs—and how different forces have been mobilized by the state to variously, control, extract, modernize, and showcase the Korean landscape. Forces of Nature suggestively reveals Korea's physical landscape to be not so much a passive context to Korea's history, but an active agent in its transformation and reinvention across centuries. With support from the Henry Luce Foundation, our goal is to produce all titles in this series both in Open Access, for reasons of global accessibility and equity, as well as in print editions.
Environmental Systems Science: Theory and Practical Applications looks at pollution and environmental quality from a systems perspective. Credible human and ecological risk estimation and prediction methods are described, including life cycle assessment, feasibility studies, pollution control decision tools, and approaches to determine adverse outcome pathways, fate and transport, sampling and analysis, and cost-effectiveness. The book brings translational science to environmental quality, applying groundbreaking methodologies like informatics, data mining, and applications of secondary data systems. Multiple human and ecological variables are introduced and integrated to support calculations that aid environmental and public health decision making. The book bridges the perspectives of scientists, engineers, and other professionals working in numerous environmental and public health fields addressing problems like toxic substances, deforestation, climate change, and loss of biological diversity, recommending sustainable solutions to these and other seemingly intractable environmental problems. The causal agents discussed include physical, chemical, and biological agents, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 virus), and other emerging contaminants. - Provides an optimistic and interdisciplinary approach, underpinned by scientific first principles and theory to evaluate pollutant sources and sinks, applying biochemodynamic methods, measurements and models - Deconstructs prior initiatives in environmental assessment and management using an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate what has worked and why - Lays out a holistic understanding of the real impact of human activities on the current state of pollution, linking the physical sciences and engineering with socioeconomic, cultural perspectives, and environmental justice - Takes a life cycle view of human and ecological systems, from the molecular to the planetary scale, integrating theories and tools from various disciplines to assess the current and projected states of environmental quality - Explains the elements of risk, reliability and resilience of built and natural systems, including discussions of toxicology, sustainability, and human-pollutant interactions based on spatial, biological, and human activity information, i.e. the exposome
This book offers the first systematic study of how the ‘Anthropocene’ is reported in mass media globally, drawing parallels between the use (or misuse) of the term and the media’s attitude towards the associated issues of climate change and global warming. Identifying the potential dangers of the Anthropocene provides a useful path into a variety of issues that are often ignored, misrepresented, or sidelined by the media. These dangers are widely discussed in the social sciences, environmental humanities, and creative arts, and this book includes chapters on how the contributions of these disciplines are reported by the media. Our results suggest that the natural science and mass media establishments, and the business and political interests which underpin them, tend to lean towards optimistic reassurance (the ‘good’ Anthropocene), rather than pessimistic alarmist stories, in reporting the Anthropocene. In this volume, contributors explore how dangerous this ‘neutralizing’ of the Anthropocene is in undermining serious global action in the face of the potential existential risks confronting humanity. The book presents results from media in more than 100 countries in all major languages across the globe. It covers the reporting of key environmental issues, such as the impact of climate change and global warming on oceans, forests, soil, biodiversity, and the biosphere. We offer explanations for differences and similarities in how the media report the Anthropocene in different regions of the world. In doing so, the book argues that, though it is still controversial, the idea of the Anthropocene helps to concentrate minds and behaviour in confronting ongoing ecological (and Coronavirus) crises. The Anthropocene in Global Media will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental studies, media and communication studies, and the environmental humanities, and all those who are concerned about the survival of humans on planet Earth.
