Towards Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mountain Regions
Towards Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mountain Regions

Author: Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-12-21

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 3319035339

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Sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems are far-reaching and burning issues in the wake of high growth of population, low production and per ha yield of crops and depletion of biodiversity resources. Mountainous regions of the world are facing the menace of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. Further, tremendous growth in population and slow pace of development have together forced most of the population to live below poverty line. Traditionally depending upon cultivating subsistence crops for food requirement, the people living in mountainous region are unable to produce sufficient food grains to run their livelihood smoothly. The Himalayas is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and has an abundance of natural resources: land, water and forest – life sustaining factors. The geo-environmental conditions – climate and landscape further enhance the possibility of sustainable livelihoods through eco-tourism, harnessing water resources and utilizing forests and their products sustainably. Diversifying agricultural practices through cultivating cash and cereal crops and enhancing livelihood options through extensive use of timber and non-timber based forestry products can help to eradicate poverty and provide food security. This book consists of an introduction and nine chapters, covering geo-environmental setting, socio-economy and population profile, sustainable livelihoods: diversification and enhancement, livelihood analysis, development of tourism and hydroelectricity, case studies, mountain ecosystems, sustainable mountain development and also presents a conclusion.

Urban Environment and Smart Cities in Asian Countries
Urban Environment and Smart Cities in Asian Countries

Author: Uday Chatterjee

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-05-27

Total Pages: 598

ISBN-13: 3031259149

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This book offers a thorough description of the challenges posed by increasing global urbanization. In addition, comprehensive perspectives are offered on how the contemporary urban challenges of our time are tackled by existing designers, architects, urban planners, and landscape architects thereby considering climate change, migration, resilience, politics, and environmental degradation. It includes insights from environmental design, geography, strategic planning, and engineering design. It goes beyond the jargon of technical innovation, and exposes the political, social and physical effects of digitalizing the world in smart cities. The book focuses on the application of geospatial technology of smart cities – including system design for basic services, real-time control and the Internet of Things. It highlights the planning of land use, strategic development, and ecosystem-based knowledge to enhance economic growth and healthy urban environment and smart city management. The book also shows the contradictory aspects of smart city studies, and provides useful insights into the creation and execution of policies to strengthen decision-making processes in smart cities. This book leads the reader to a greater understanding of smart city growth, both theoretical and realistic and as such it provides an interesting read for urban geographers, urban designers and planners, environmental specialists, practitioners, students.

Tourism and Development in the Himalaya
Tourism and Development in the Himalaya

Author: Gyan P. Nyaupane

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2022-06-29

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 1000598594

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This book examines the unique characteristics of the Himalaya that mark them as a special region among other orographic regions of the world. The Himalayan range is an important global asset for ecological, climatic, cultural, spiritual, and economic reasons. Its diversity of landscapes, climates, and biotic systems makes the Himalaya an extremely attractive region for tourism. The book examines tourism and development in the Himalaya region, exploring its sociocultural, environmental, and economic dimensions. The contributors address Himalayan issues from a holistic perspective, emphasizing the uniqueness of the region, together with concerns it shares with other montane, developing parts of the world. With a framework of sustainable development, this book elucidates interdisciplinary perspectives on nature, society, economic development, poverty, justice, health, social and environmental vulnerability, faith and culture, Indigenous rights, women, conflict, heritage and living culture, and many other concepts that broaden our understanding of tourism and development in mountain areas. Many contributors are from the Himalaya region, or have worked there extensively, lending strength through native and insider perspectives. This work will be useful for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, research and teaching scholars, policy makers, practitioners, and anyone interested in the Himalaya and their distinctive tourism and development-related potential and challenges.

Mountaineering Tourism
Mountaineering Tourism

Author: Michal Apollo

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-30

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 1000505561

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This book offers a critical account of the historical evolution of mountaineering and its relation to the phenomenon of tourism, providing an overview of recent developments linked to the diversification, commodification and commercialisation of mountaineering activity. Mountaineering, broadly defined as hiking, trekking and climbing, is now a mass phenomenon, with continually growing numbers of trekkers, climbers and religious tourists hiking in mountain regions. Increasing visitor numbers require the current policies to be updated. The environments around high-mountain areas and their local resident communities, until recently cut off from civilisation, are sensitive to outside influences and have been abruptly exposed to the impact of mountaineering and related activities. This is the first book to disentangle overlapping terms and definitions related to mountaineering tourism. It identifies the key terms and turning points in mountaineering tourism and discusses the impacts of mountaineering tourism from an environmental, socio-cultural and personal perspective and identifies current tourism management policies. Finally, this book provides a continuum between the past and future of mountaineering tourism and aims to provide policy suggestions for sustainable management of fragile mountain regions. This will be of great interest to upper-level students and academics of tourism, as well as industry representatives and policymakers with an interest in adventure tourism and mountaineering.

Recent Advances in Geographic Information System for Earth Sciences
Recent Advances in Geographic Information System for Earth Sciences

Author: Yosoon Choi

Publisher: MDPI

Published: 2020-06-23

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 3039364898

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Geographic information systems (GISs) have played a vital role in Earth sciences by providing a powerful means of observing the world and various tools for solving complex problems. The scientific community has used GISs to reveal fascinating details about the Earth and other planets. This book on recent advances in GIS for Earth sciences includes 12 publications from esteemed research groups worldwide. The research and review papers in this book belong to the following broad categories: Earth science informatics (geoinformatics), mining, hydrology, natural hazards, and society.

The Politics of Development in Morocco
The Politics of Development in Morocco

Author: Sylvia I. Bergh

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-01-30

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1786721163

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Since the mid-1990s, Morocco has sought to present itself as a model of genuine and gradual reform, with decentralisation as a key tenet of this. Here, Sylvia Bergh investigates the dynamics of popular participation and local governance, testing the extent to which the current structure builds local capacity, or whether it is, in fact, a tool for 'soft' state control. She narrates the realities of local administration and civil society to shed critical light on questions of democratic transition in North Africa. Her assessment of decentralisation and participatory development projects in rural Morocco, and the legal and policy frameworks in which they operate, leads to the conclusion that they have generally not yet led to an expansion of a civil society able to build local capacity or enhance bottom-up empowerment. Grounded in an approach of the 'anthropology of policy', this book makes an important contribution to literature on the democratisation, development and governance in North Africa.

Water Science and Sustainability
Water Science and Sustainability

Author: Bindhy Wasini Pandey

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-04-10

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 3030574881

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This book describes the importance of water resources for socio-economic and ecological development including geomorphic and ecological environments. Hence, conservation, management and development of water resources have become necessary for the all-around development of global populations and the environment. It is the outcome of valuable contributions made by eminent scientists and research scholars who have developed alternative strategies, solutions and models for sustainable water resources through research, monitoring and experiments varying from regional to global scale. This book is of immense use to the policymakers, environmentalists, ecologists, academician, research scholars and people in general concerned with water resources management.

Sustainability Matters: Environmental Management In The Anthropocene
Sustainability Matters: Environmental Management In The Anthropocene

Author: Lin Heng Lye

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2017-08-11

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 9813230630

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Sustainability Matters is a compilation of some of the best research papers submitted by students from the National University of Singapore's multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary graduate programme in environmental studies, as their MSc dissertations in Environmental Management [MEM]. This collection is for the period 2014/2015 to 2015/2016. Entitled Sustainability Matters: Environmental Management in the Anthropocene, this is the sixth volume in the series, and comprises 15 of the best research papers completed during this period. The papers have been edited for brevity. They analyse the many challenges to effective environmental management covering countries including China, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the EU, and USA. Issues examined include biodiversity conservation, environmental science, environmental governance and management, energy, and urban studies.The first compilation, Sustainability Matters: Environmental Management in Asia was published in 2010 and comprised the best papers from 2001/2002 to 2006/2007. The second, Sustainability Matters: Challenges and Opportunities in Environmental Management in Asia, was published in 2011, and comprised the best papers from 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. The third and fourth compilations, Sustainability Matters: Asia's Green Challenges, and Sustainability Matters: Asia's Energy Concerns, Green Policies and Environmental Advocacy, comprised the best papers from the periods 2009/2010 and 2011/2012 respectively. The fifth compilation, Sustainability Matters: Environmental and Climate Changes in the Asia-Pacific, was published in 2015 and comprised the best papers for the periods 2012/2013 and 2013/2014.The papers are edited by five staff members from different disciplines in the MEM programme: Lye Lin-Heng, Harvey Neo, Sekhar Kondepudi, Yew Wen-Shan, Judy Sng Gek-Khim.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment
The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment

Author: Philippus Wester

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-01-04

Total Pages: 638

ISBN-13: 3319922882

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This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports.