Suchergebnisse

The 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station led to serious radioactive contamination of the environment. Due to transportation by seasonal wind and ocean currents, these radioactive materials have now been observed in many places in the Northern Hemisphere. This book provides a unique summary of the environmental impact of the unprecedented accident. It covers how radioactive materials were transported through the atmosphere, oceans and land. The techniques used to investigate the deposition and migration processes are also discussed including atmospheric observation, soil mapping, forest and ecosystem investigations, and numerical simulations. With chapters written by international experts, this is a crucial resource for researchers working on the dispersion and impact of radionuclides in the environment. It also provides essential knowledge for nuclear engineers, social scientists and policymakers to help develop suitable mitigation measures to prepare for similar large-scale natural hazards in the future

Towns and villages are sometimes viewed as minor, even quaint, spots, whereas this book boldly reconceptualizes these places as important dynamic environmental 'hotspots'. Multitudes of towns and villages with nearly half the world's population characterize perhaps half the global land surface. The book's pages feature ecological patterns, processes, and change, as well as human dimensions, both within towns and in strong connections and effects on surrounding agricultural land, forest land, and arid land. Towns, small to large, and villages are examined with spatial and cultural lenses. Ecological dimensions - water, soil and air systems, together with habitats, plants, wildlife and biodiversity - are highlighted. A concluding section presents concepts for making better towns and better land. From a pioneer in both landscape ecology and urban ecology, this highly international town ecology book opens an important frontier for researchers, students, professors, and professionals including environmental, town, and conservation planners

This book offers an up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of stochastic dominance and its related concepts in a unified framework. A method for ordering probability distributions, stochastic dominance has grown in importance recently as a way to measure comparisons in welfare economics, inequality studies, health economics, insurance wages, and trade patterns. Whang pays particular attention to inferential methods and applications, citing and summarizing various empirical studies in order to relate the econometric methods with real applications and using computer codes to enable the practical implementation of these methods. Intuitive explanations throughout the book ensure that readers understand the basic technical tools of stochastic dominance