Precious metals continue to have economic and sociocultural importance, as their usage evolves and diversifies over time. Today, the industrial application of precious metals is increasing with the development of scientific and technological innovations. Especially, the biological cycling of these metals is receiving more and more attention, as the microbiota may be key to a range of issues reg…
The average introductory geology student’s perception of geology normally involves the memorization of rocks and discussions of natural disasters, but Geology contains so much more. Geology is the study of our planet, which is vital to our everyday lives from the energy we use, to the growing of the food we eat, to the foundations of the buildings we live in, to the materials that are used to…
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book offers a concise, practice-oriented reference-guide to the field of ocean wave energy. The ten chapters highlight the key rules of thumb, address all the main technical engineering aspects and describe in detail all the key aspects to be considered in the techno-economic assessment of wave energy converters. Written in an easy-to-…
This book provides a systematic way of how to make better decisions in water resources management. The applications of three weighting methods namely rating, ranking, and ratio are discussed in this book. Additionally, data mining on keywords is presented using three popular scholarly databases: Science Direct, Scopus, and SciVerse. Four abbreviated keywords (MCDM, MCDA, MCA, MADM) representing…
his book highlights the indispensability of minerals, the vulnerability of humans and issues faced by governments around the world regarding the management of natural resources. It addresses the growing land-ecology-mining conflicts, energy security and water policies of different countries bringing these issues into focus and critically analyzing them. The book discusses the role of government…
This book draws upon case studies and practices of different types of DRR involvement by the private sector from all over the world. The book comprises two parts, Part I: Overview and Regional Cases; and Part II: Country Cases. The regional cases include those from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America, and the country cases include ones from India, Japan, the United States, Vietnam, Thaila…
This book is a pioneering regional work and provides a balanced approach of theory and practice in disaster risk reduction (DRR) in Pakistan. The book analytically discusses the status of DRR and draws examples and lessons from national and community-level programs and projects and events in the country. The book covers different types of disasters facing Pakistan, including geo-physical and hy…
As cities develop, more land is converted into impervious surfaces, which do not allow water to infiltrate. Careful urban planning is needed to ensure that the hydrologic cycle and water quality of the catchment areas are not affected. There are techniques that can attenuate peak flow during rain events and reduce the amount of metals, nutrients, and bacteria that enter the urban water cycle. T…
MATLAB® is used for a wide range of applications in geosciences, such as image processing in remote sensing, the generation and processing of digital elevation models and the analysis of time series. This book introduces methods of data analysis in geosciences using MATLAB, such as basic statistics for univariate, bivariate and multivariate datasets, time-series analysis, signal processing, th…
South American ecosystems suffered one of the greatest biogeographical events, after the establishment of the Panamian land bridge, called the “Great American Biotic Interchange” (GABI). This refers to the exchange, in several phases, of land mammals between the Americas; this event started during the late Miocene with the appearance of the Holartic Procyonidae (Huayquerian Age) in South Am…