- Table View
- List View
Towards a Political Economy of Resource-dependent Regions (Routledge Studies in Human Geography)
by Greg Halseth Laura RyserThis book advances our understanding of resource-dependent regions in developed economies in the 21st Century. It explores how rural and small town places are working to find success in a new economy marked by demographic, economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental change. How are we to understand the changes and transformations working through communities and economies? Where are the trajectories of change leading these resource-dependent places and regions? Drawing upon examples from Canada, USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the Nordic countries, these and other questions are explored and addressed by constructing a critical political economy framework of resource hinterland transition. Towards a Political Economy of Resource Dependent Regions is a key resource for students and researchers in geography, rural and industrial sociology, economics, environmental studies, political science, regional studies, and planning, as well as policy-makers, those in industry and the private sector, and local and regional development practitioners.
Towards a Society of Degrowth (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Onofrio RomanoThis book explores the concept of degrowth, beginning from a basic assumption, not of resource depletion, as is common in most literature in the field, but rather from a state of abundance, arguing that there is a vast amount of energy on the planet waiting to be utilized by all its inhabitants. Adopting a sociological approach, Onofrio Romano argues that the growth momentum is not simply a broadly shared “value,” but the physiological outcome of a specific institutional frame. The problem is that in its mainstream formulation the degrowth alternative shares with the growth-led regime some basic anthropological, political, and institutional pillars. In order to build a real alternative, Romano suggests reviewing degrowth in the light of the dépense notion by Georges Bataille. According to Bataille, our societies have no problem with acknowledging scarcity, but with dealing with the surplus energy that calls us to act for a qualified life. So, in order to erase the growth obsession, we have to ward off the “servile” dimension, i.e., the utilitarian activities needed for the mere reproduction of life, to regain sovereignty, as reflected in the de-thinking subject. Innovative and provocative, Towards a Society of Degrowth will be of great interest to students and scholars of degrowth, sociology, social anthropology, political ecology, and ecological economics.
Towards a Sustainable Bioeconomy: Principles, Challenges and Perspectives (World Sustainability Series)
by Walter Leal Filho Ismar Borges de Lima Diana Mihaela Pociovălișteanu Paulo Roberto Borges de BritoThis book gathers contributions from scientists and industry representatives on achieving a sustainable bioeconomy. It also covers the social sciences, economics, business, education and the environmental sciences. There is an urgent need to optimise and maximise the use of biological resources, so that primary production and processing systems can generate more food, fibre and other bio-based products with less environmental impacts and lower greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, we need a "sustainable bioeconomy" - a term that encompasses the sustainable production of renewable resources from land, fisheries and aquaculture environments and their conversion into food, feed, fibre bio-based products and bio-energy, as well as related public goods. Despite the relevance of achieving a sustainable bioeconomy, there are very few publications in this field. Addressing that gap, this book illustrates how biological resources and ecosystems could be used in a more sustainable, efficient and integrated manner - in other words, how the principles of sustainable bioeconomy can be implemented in practice. Given its interdisciplinary nature, the field of sustainable bioeconomy offers a unique opportunity to address complex and interconnected challenges, while also promoting economic growth. It helps countries and societies to make a transition and to use resources more efficiently, and shows how to rely less on biological resources to satisfy industry demands and consumer needs. The papers are innovative, cross-cutting and include many practice-based lessons learned, some of which are reproducible elsewhere. In closing, the book, prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre (WSD-RTC), reiterates the need to promote a sustainable bioeconomy today.
Towards a Sustainable Economy: Paradoxes and Trends in Energy and Transportation (Sustainability and Innovation)
by Pascal Da Costa Danielle AttiasThis book provides an interdisciplinary account of how technological advances – mainly in the domains of energy and transportation – contribute to the transformation towards a more sustainable economic system. Drawing on methods from engineering, the management sciences and economics, which it combines in the framework of a systems sciences approach, the book presents qualitative and quantitative studies on government regulation, resources management and firms' strategy. Topics covered include the state-market dilemma of government CO2 emission targets, implications of the electrification of the economy, incentives and coercion in government transport policies, and innovations in the electric vehicle industry.
Towards a Sustainable Economy: The Case of Bangladesh (Routledge Studies in Development Economics)
by Moazzem Hossain Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad Mazharul M IslamThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced by the United Nations (UN) for all member nations with a total of 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved between 2016 and 2030. The recent pandemic has presented more challenges to achieving the UN’s SDGs. This book examines Bangladesh’s ascendancy in socio-economic terms and the prospects of Bangladesh overcoming the challenges to become a higher-middle-income nation by 2030. This book traces the transformation of Bangladesh from 1996 through 2020 and examines various factors contributing to its success from rural economy, external support, manufacturing, and structural transformation to energy consumption. This book also looks at the challenges and opportunities for Bangladesh as the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds and as climate change, to which Bangladesh is highly vulnerable, escalates. This book will be a useful reference document for those who are interested in gaining more insights into inclusive growth and sustainable development from the case study of Bangladesh.
Towards a Sustainable Future - Life Cycle Management: Challenges and Prospects
by Zbigniew Stanisław Kłos Joanna Kałkowska Jędrzej KasprzakThis open access book includes a selection of contributions from the Life Cycle Management 2019 Conference (LCM) held in Poznań, Poland, and presents different examples of scientific and practical contributions, showing an incorporation of life cycle approach into the decision processes on strategic and operational level. Special attention is drawn to applications of LCM to target, organize, analyze and manage product-related information and activities towards continuous improvement, along the different products life cycle. The selection of case studies presents LCM as a business management approach that can be used by all types of businesses and organizations in order to improve their sustainability performance. This book provides a cross-sectoral, current picture of LCM issues. The structure of the book is based on five-theme lines. The themes represent different objects that are focused on sustainability and LCM practices mainly related to: products, technologies, organizations, markets and policy issues as well as methodological solutions. The book brings together presentations from the world of science and the world of enterprises as well as institutions supporting economic development.
Towards an Ecocritical Theatre: Playing the Anthropocene (Routledge Environmental Humanities)
by Mohebat AhmadiTowards an Ecocritical Theatre investigates contemporary theatre through the lens of Anthropocene-oriented ecocriticism. It assesses how Anthropocene thinking engages different modes of theatrical representation, as well as how the theatrical apparatus can rise to the representational challenges of changing interactions between humans and the nonhuman world. To explore these problems, the book investigates international Anglophone plays and performances by Caryl Churchill, Stephen Sewell, Andrew Bovell, E.M. Lewis, Chantal Bilodeau, Jordan Hall, and Miwa Matreyek, who have taken significant steps towards re-orienting theatre from its traditional focus on humans to an ecocritical attention to nonhumans and the environment in the Anthropocene. Their theatrical works show how an engagement with the problem of scale disrupts the humanist bias of theatre, provoking new modes of theatrical inquiry that envision a scale beyond the human and realign our ecological culture, art, and intimacy with geological time. Moreover, the plays and performances studied here, through their liveness, immediacy, physicality, and communality, examine such scalar shifts via the problem of agency in order to give expression to the stories of nonhuman actants. These theatrical works provoke reflections on the flourishing of multispecies responsibilities and sensitivities in aesthetic and ethical terms, providing a platform for research in the environmental humanities through imaginative conversations on the world’s iterative performativity in which all bodies, human and nonhuman, are cast horizontally as agential forces on the theatrical world stage. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre studies, environmental humanities, and ecocritical studies.
Towards an Ecological Intellectual Property: Reconfiguring Relationships Between People and Plants in Ecuador (Routledge Research in Intellectual Property #1)
by David J JeffersonThis book focuses on analysing how legal systems set the terms for interactions between human beings and plants. The story that the book recounts is one of experimental lawmaking in Ecuador, a country where over the past decade, governmental officials and civil society advocates have attempted to reconfigure how human individuals and institutions relate to nature, by following an "eco-centric" approach to lawmaking. In doing so, Ecuadorian legislators, administrators, and judges have taken seriously the ontologies of non-human entities, including plants, through a process that has required the continuous navigation of tensions with certain "logics" that pervade conventional legal regimes. The book endeavours to disrupt these conventional assumptions and approaches to lawmaking by taking seriously alternative strategies to reconstitute interactions between people and plants. In doing so, the book argues in favour of an "ecological turn" in laws that govern vegetal life. The analysis is based on a close examination of the experiences that lawmakers in Ecuador have had when experimenting with innovative approaches to re-form relationships between human and non-human beings. Concretely, these experiments have yielded constitutional, legislative, and regulatory changes that inform the inquiry of how intellectual property and plant genetic resources laws – both in Ecuador and worldwide – could become more "ecological" in nature. The argument that the book develops is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and empirical research in Ecuador, complemented by archival and doctrinal legal analysis. The contents of the book will be of interest to an academic audience of legal scholars and postgraduate students in law, in addition to scholars and students in the fields of anthropology, sociology, socio-legal studies, and science and technology studies.
Towards an Emissions Trading System in Mexico: Outlook on the first ETS in Latin-America and Exploration of the Way Forward (Springer Climate)
by Simone LucatelloThis Open Access book provides detailed information about the incoming Mexican Emissions Trading System, including an analysis on why the system was implemented, how the system was designed, how it operates, how it could work, and how it could be strengthened by 2023 when it will be formally launched. This document is aimed at those who want to understand how an ETS can operate in an emerging economy. Although it has been written for experts and non-experts, this book does not provide the underlying theory of market-based instruments and emissions trading systems in general. The book can be read from start to finish, but can also be used as a reference for specific components of regional ETSs. The book draws upon a meticulous study of background documents and fieldwork from different authors to tell the story of how a Mexican ETS, the first of its kind in Latin America, can be set in the country. The emissions trading system cover many greenhouse gas emissions and has been hailed as one of the cornerstones of the Mexican climate policy. The book also examines and explains how the ETS is designed and implemented.
Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science
by Gerrit Lohmann Helge Meggers Vikram Unnithan Dieter Wolf-Gladrow Justus Notholt Astrid BracherThis book describes the latest advances at the Helmholtz "Earth System Science Research School" where scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, the University of Bremen, and the Jacobs University are involved in research. One of the greatest challenges is understanding ongoing environmental changes. The longer the time scale the more components of the Earth system are involved, e. g. interannual and decadal variations are related to the coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice system, whereas longer variations like glacial-interglacial or Cenozoic transitions involve the carbon cycle, ice sheets and gateways. In order to get deep insights into Earth system science, observations, remote sensing, past environmental data, as well as modeling need to be integrated. These different approaches are traditionally taught in separated disciplines at bachelor and master levels. It is, therefore, necessary to bring these disciplines together in PhD programs.
Towards Coastal Resilience and Sustainability (The Dynamics of Economic Space)
by C. Patrick Heidkamp John MorrisseyCoastal zones represent a frontline in the battle for sustainability, as coastal communities face unprecedented economic challenges. Coastal ecosystems are subject to overuse, loss of resilience and increased vulnerability. This book aims to interrogate the multi- scalar complexities in creating a more sustainable coastal zone. Sustainability transitions are geographical processes, which happen in situated, particular places. However, much contemporary discussion of transition is either aspatial or based on implicit assumptions about spatial homogeneity. This book addresses these limitations through an examination of socio- technological transitions with an explicitly spatial focus in the context of the coastal zone. The book begins by focusing on theoretical understandings of transition processes specific to the coastal zone and includes detailed empirical case studies. The second half of the book appraises governance initiatives in coastal zones and their efficacy. The authors conclude with an implicit theme of social and environmental justice in coastal sustainability transitions. Research will be of interest to practitioners, academics and decision- makers active in the sphere of coastal sustainability. The multi- disciplinary nature encourages accessibility for individuals working in the fields of Economic Geography, Regional Development, Public Policy and Planning, Environmental Studies, Social Geography and Sociology.
Towards Ecological Taxation: The Efficacy of Emissions-Related Motor Taxation (Corporate Social Responsibility)
by David RussellGovernments around the world are struggling to meet their commitments to achieve targets relating to reductions in greenhouse gases. Many writers advocating ways to achieve these targets offer radical but often impractical approaches that do not offer a way forward within the existing economic model. In contrast, Towards Ecological Taxation is a pragmatic consideration of realistic possibilities by an author from the world of accounting. Based on his research into the implications of changes in the UK motor taxation regime for company cars, David Russell considers the broader efficacy of taxation policy as a mechanism for reducing demand for fossil fuels and encouraging a shift towards carbon-neutral energy production. He incorporates the findings of a number of studies into his analysis, along with a wider consideration of tax regimes. Dr Russell suggests a way forward that will attract the interest of researchers, policy makers and decision makers wanting a better understanding of how taxation could be used innovatively, but within the existing economic status quo, to deliver specific and measurable reductions in CO2. Such a distinctive approach makes this book a valuable addition to the literature on environmental issues and the always thought provoking titles in the Corporate Social Responsibility Series.
Towards Efficient Regulation of Air Pollution from Coal-Fired Power Plants
by Robert O. MendelsohnOriginally published in 1979, this book discusses the model developed to deal with air pollution from coal fired power plants, but it broadly also illustrates how available scientific information can be organized to improve our understanding of pollution control. This information enables economists to discuss the relevant consequences of specific air pollution abatement strategies. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of a computer based environmental model, the model is applied to a specific case study. The object of the case study is the control of air pollution from a coal-fired, electrical generating station in New Haven, USA. The research contained in this volume advances applied risk analysis by combining the insights of economics and environmental sciences.
Towards Enabling Geographies: ‘Disabled’ Bodies and Minds in Society and Space (Geographies of Health Series)
by Edward HallOver the past 15 years, geography has made many significant contributions to our understanding of disabled people's identities, lives, and place in society and space. 'Towards Enabling Geographies' brings together leading scholars to showcase the 'second wave' of geographical studies concerned with disability and embodied differences. This area has broadened and challenged conventional boundaries of 'disability', expanding the kinds of embodied differences considered, while continuing to grapple with important challenges such as policy relevance and the use of more inclusionary research approaches. This book demonstrates the value of a spatial conceptualization of disability and disablement to a broader social science audience, whilst examining how this conceptualization can be further developed and refined.
Towards Equitable Progress: Essays from a South Asian Perspective (South Asia Economic and Policy Studies)
by K. Locana GunaratnaThis book gathers a collection of essays presented from the perspective of a spatial planner whose working life has been immersed in South Asia. It concerns some of the serious challenges that need to be confronted in the South Asian context, including the externalities and ethical concerns that arise in the process of development. The mid-20th century saw a considerable focus in the West on assisting those countries emerging from European colonial domination. Theories were propounded and international agencies established to facilitate a process called ‘development’ in these countries. However, even after six decades of extraordinary expenditures and effort, millions among the targeted populations remain illiterate, live in abject poverty, and are the most vulnerable groups to external disasters, debilitating diseases and untimely death. In addition, the book reveals the theoretical inadequacies that negatively impact ongoing development efforts. Lastly, it identifies an available alternative set of science-based approaches that could facilitate the serious pursuit of equitable progress in South Asia and potentially also in other low and middle income countries.
Towards Global Sustainability
by Paul J. J. Welfens Jens K. Perret Tony Irawan Evgeniya YushkovaThis study develops a new indicator for national and global sustainability. The main components of the EIIW-vita indicator are: the share of renewable energy, the genuine savings rate and the relative "green export" position of the respective countries; it is in line with OECD requirements on composite indicators. As green exports are related to technological progress and environmental-friendly products, there is also a Schumpeterian perspective of this indicator. An extended version furthermore looks at water productivity. The analysis highlights the BRIICS countries as well as the US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the UK and Japan. Moreover the special challenges and dynamics of ASEAN countries and Asia are discussed. The book derives key implications for economic and environmental policy and shows that the new global sustainability indicator is not only relevant for green progress, but also useful as a signal for international investors. The construction of the EIIW-vita global sustainability indicator is such that investors, citizens and governments can easily interpret the results. Correlation analysis of the new sustainability indicator with the human development index indicates complementarity, so that a new hybrid superindicator can be constructed. Sustainability rhetoric dominates environmental policy. This fresh assessment of key "pillars" of sustainable economic performance and growth is a valuable contribution to greening the economy, the leitmotiv of the latest Rio Earth Summit. The book places the discussion of sustainability on solid data. The rather surprising results of its new sustainability index should make policy makers rethink their environmental and economic strategies. Prof. Dr. Peter Bartelmus Columbia University, New York Many people put the economy first when sustainability concerns are raised, while environmental indicators are often developed without a sense of socio-economic performance. This important new book bridges the gap. It sheds light on crucial indicators such as renewable energies, exporting green goods and services, genuine savings, and water productivity. And it helps to observe the impressive changes at a global scale and in countries such as China. A must read for all experts interested in those issues. Prof. Dr. Raimund Bleischwitz University College London
Towards Green Campus Operations: Energy, Climate And Sustainable Development Initiatives At Universities (World Sustainability Series)
by Roberta Consentino Kronka Mülfarth Patricia Iglecias Fernanda Frankenberger Walter Leal FilhoMatters related to sustainable development, albeit global in nature, are best handled at the local level. This line of thinking is particularly true to the higher education context, where the design and implementation of sustainability initiatives on campuses can demonstrate how a given university translates the principles of sustainable development into practice, at the institutional level. Yet, there is a paucity of specific events where a dialogue among sustainability academics and practitioners concerned with a) research, projects b) teaching and c) planning and infra-structure leading to campus greening takes place, so as to allow a transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral exchange of ideas and experiences on the issues, matters and problems at hand. It is against this background that this book has been prepared. It is one of the outcomes of the “First Symposium on Sustainability in University Campuses” (SSUC-2017) organised by the University of São Paulo in Brazil, Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), the Research and Transfer Centre “Applications of Life Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP). This book showcases examples of campus-based research and teaching projects, regenerative campus design, low-carbon and zero carbon buildings, waste prevention, and resilient transport, among others. It also demonstrates the role of campuses as platforms for transformative social learning and research, and explores the means via which university campuses can be made more sustainable. The aims of this publication are as follows: i. to provide universities with an opportunity to obtain information on campus greening and sustainable campus development initiatives from round the world; ii. to document and promote information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of research, teaching and projects on campus greening and design, especially successful initiatives and good practice; iii. to introduce methodological approaches and projects which aim to integrate the topic of sustainable development in campus design and operations. This book entails contributions from researchers and practitioners in the field of campus greening and sustainable development in the widest sense, from business and economics, to arts, administration and environment.
Towards Green Hydrogen Generation (Advances in Hydrogen Production and Storage (AHPS))
by Mehmet Sankir Nurdan Demirci SankirReaders will find a multidisciplinary approach elucidating all the important features of green hydrogen so that science researchers and energy engineers as well as those in economics, political science and international relations, will also find value. Energy sources and generation is the foremost concern of all governments, NGOs, and activist groups. With Green New Deals and reduced or net zero emission goals being implemented on a global scale, the quest for economic, scalable, efficient, and sustainable energy systems has reached a fever pitch. No one energy source ticks all the boxes and new energy technologies are being developed all the time as potential disruptors. Enter green hydrogen with zero emissions. Hydrogen is a rare gas in nature and is often found together with natural gas. While hydrogen is the most abundant element in the known universe, molecular hydrogen is very rare in nature and needs to be produced—and produced in large quantities, if we are serious about the Green Deal. This book has been organized into three parts to introduce and discuss these crucial topics. Part I discusses the Green Deal and the current state and challenges encountered in the industrialization of green hydrogen production, as well as related politics. Chapters in this section include how to decarbonize the energy industry with green hydrogen, and one that describes a gradual shift in the approach of hydrogen production technologies from non-renewable to renewable. Part II is devoted to carbon capturing and hydrogen. Chapters on biomass mass waste-to-hydrogen conversion and related efficient and sustainable hydrogen storage pathways, life cycle assessment for eco-design of biohydrogen factory by microalgae, and metal oxide-based carbon capture technologies are all addressed in this section. The third and final part of the book was designed to present all features of green hydrogen generation. Chapters include PEM water electrolysis and other electrolyzers, wind-driven hydrogen production, and bifunctional electrocatalysts-driven hybrid water splitting, are introduced and thoroughly discussed. Audience This book is directed to researchers and industry professionals in energy engineering, chemistry, physics, materials science, and chemical engineering, as well as energy policymakers, energy economists, and others in the social sciences.
Towards Healthy Settlements: Health Implications of Residential Suburbanization in Guangzhou (Urban Sustainability)
by Tianyao ZhangThis book aims to formulate recommendations for achieving a healthy neighborhood living environment for the middle-income people in China‘s suburbs. In China, the expeditious urbanization triggers the prosperous commodity housing development, which further grows with the spatial restructuring and socioeconomic transition. Residential suburbanization is generated, accompanied with the emergence of new-middle class and the change of lifestyle. However, the health effects of suburbanization in China are overlooked. This book investigates the health performance of suburban residents and the effects of suburban living on residents‘ health. This book also examines the resident-environment transaction modes to unfold the underlying mechanism of suburban living affecting residents’ health. Suburban residents had to passively adapt to their residential environment, which is the obstacle for achieving a health-promoting environment. The institutional dynamics determining the health performance of suburban living environment were addressed with the roles of governments, developers, planners, housing managers, residents‘ committee, and ordinary residents in commodity housing development. The book found no institutional support for the creation of health-promoting environments, especially with default of governments and excessive dependence on developers for public service facilities and the absence of civil society. Thus, the book proposes that institutional innovations are necessary in term of embedding the health dimension in all sectors of the society, enlisting collaboration between public and private sectors, and between health and non-health sectors, and thus cultivating the optimization of residents-environment transactions to create health-promoting environments.
Towards Implementation of Sustainability Concepts in Developing Countries (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
by Chaham Alalouch Cristina Piselli Francesco CappaThis book focuses on sustainability concepts in architecture and urban design, environmental issues, and natural resources. Today it has become essential to reduce carbon emissions, protect habitats, and preserve the delicate ecosystems of our planet. Accordingly, sustainable development has to be improved by decreasing the consumption of non-renewable resources, in order to help nature replenish itself.Further, it highlights the efforts that have been made by architects, environmentalists, engineers, students, planners and everyone in between in order to improve sustainability in various developing communities and countries.
Towards Infrared Finite S-matrix in Quantum Field Theory (Springer Theses)
by Hayato HiraiThis book presents the better understanding of infrared structures of particle scattering processes in quantum electrodynamics (QED) in four-dimensional spacetime. An S-matrix is the fundamental quantity in scattering theory. However, if a theory involves massless particles, such as QED and gravity, the conventional S-matrix has not been well defined due to the infrared divergence, and infrared dynamics thus needs to be understood in-depth to figure out the S-matrix. The book begins with introducing fundamental nature of the charge conservation law associated with asymptotic symmetry, and explaining its relations to soft theorems and memory effect. Subsequently it looks into an appropriate asymptotic state of the S-matrix without infrared divergences. The Faddeev-Kulish dressed state is known as a candidate of such a state, and its gauge invariant condition and its relation to the asymptotic symmetry are discussed. It offers an important building blocks for constructing the S-matrix without infrared divergences.
Towards Integrated Reporting: Accounting Change in the Public Sector (SpringerBriefs in Accounting)
by Epameinondas Katsikas Francesca Manes Rossi Rebecca L. OrelliThis book focuses on the accounting change processes that drive integrated reporting in the public sector. The Integrated Report is a tool that allows public sector entities to quantify and convey those aspects of their organization, strategy, governance and performance that lead to the creation of public value over time. To be successfully introduced, integrated reporting must follow a specific path of accounting change. The context in which public sector entities operate, and the unique relationship between the public sector and the environment, redefine the accounting process of change to deliver an integrated report. The authors provide a fresh look at integrated reporting on the basis of the accounting change processes that drive it, helping academics and practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and benefits in terms of public value creation.
Towards Interoperable Research Infrastructures for Environmental and Earth Sciences: A Reference Model Guided Approach for Common Challenges (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #12003)
by Zhiming Zhao Margareta HellströmThis open access book summarises the latest developments on data management in the EU H2020 ENVRIplus project, which brought together more than 20 environmental and Earth science research infrastructures into a single community. It provides readers with a systematic overview of the common challenges faced by research infrastructures and how a ‘reference model guided’ engineering approach can be used to achieve greater interoperability among such infrastructures in the environmental and earth sciences. The 20 contributions in this book are structured in 5 parts on the design, development, deployment, operation and use of research infrastructures. Part one provides an overview of the state of the art of research infrastructure and relevant e-Infrastructure technologies, part two discusses the reference model guided engineering approach, the third part presents the software and tools developed for common data management challenges, the fourth part demonstrates the software via several use cases, and the last part discusses the sustainability and future directions.
Towards Low and Positive Energy Buildings: Thermal Comfort, Climate Change, and Energy Efficiency Approaches (Green Energy and Technology)
by Marta Torres González Carlos Rubio BellidoThis book evaluates the impact of climate conditions on adaptive strategies, diagnoses prosumers' energy patterns in Positive Energy Buildings, and assesses the social and global dimensions of energy poverty. Addressing the pressing challenges of energy efficiency and climate change adaptation, the book investigates the intricate realm of low and positive energy buildings, demonstrating innovative approaches essential for an environmentally inclusive society. With a focus on thermal comfort, climate change effects, and energy efficiency, the chapters present a diverse array of studies from tropical and Mediterranean climates to worldwide practical cases. By merging dynamic and adaptive energy measures, this book pioneers an holistic approach, crucial for policymakers, stakeholders, academics, and researchers in propelling the transition toward sustainable energy solutions.
Towards Low Carbon Cities in China: Urban Form and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Routledge Studies in Low Carbon Development)
by Sun Sheng Han Ray Green Mark Y. WangThis book explores the relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas emissions in China, providing new insights for policy, urban planning and management. Drawing on the results of a four-year multidisciplinary research project, the book examines how factors such as urban households’ access to services and jobs, land use mixes and provision of public transport impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The authors analyse data from a wide range of sources including 4677 sample households from four major Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Xi’an – with diverse locations, urban spatial structures and population sizes. The book explores residents’ attitudes to reducing GHG emissions and advances knowledge relating to three environmental scales – cross-metropolitan, intra-city and neighbourhood level. It also contributes to debates on low carbon policy by revealing the relevance of urban planning parameters at both the macro and micro levels. The book will be of interest to scholars in the areas of urban planning, urban management, environmental sustainability and resource utilisation, as well as urban policy makers and planners who are working toward developing low carbon, sustainable cities of the future.