Download or read book Changing the Landscape Floodplain Reconnection in the Breakneck Creek Watershed Pennsylvania written by Corey Anne Robinson and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 2008, the National Resource Council warned that the complexity of stormwater pollution was only expected to grow in the years that followed. As the principal contributor to water quality impairments in waterbodies across the United States, the magnitude of stormwater pollution presents a significant challenge to improving water quality. Unfortunately, awareness of the long-term impacts of stormwater pollution and stormwater runoff in the United States has only existed for the past few decades (National Research Council, 2008). Impacts of Stormwater Pollution and Runoff Traditional strategies to manage stormwater runoff - termed 'gray' infrastructure - were designed with a single purpose in mind; move stormwater runoff away from the built environment as quickly as possible. Gray infrastructure includes curbs, gutters, drains, pipes, or other solid structures like sewer systems that collect and convey stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces (e.g. roadways, parking lots, rooftops, etc.). During this process nutrients, organic contaminants, heavy metals, and pesticides attach to fine sediment particles which are carried from densely populated areas and discharged untreated into local streams, rivers, or lakes. Despite having consistently high maintenance and upgrade costs, gray infrastructure does little to capture these pollutants or accommodate aspects related to ecosystem services (Ahilan et al., 2018; US EPA, 2019). It is now understood that urban development and large-scale changes in land use combined with stormwater pollution and runoff has severely degraded the quality of streams. Streams are often lost to development through diversion, piping, and burial strategies resulting in a significant decrease in the total number of streams in a watershed. Over time, streams being replaced with piped networks capable of conveying stormwater results in water discharging to streams at a significantly faster rate (Julian et al., 2015). This has a broad impact on the connection between streams and their floodplains. When the rate of stormwater entering streams increases it can result in 'down-cutting' which means the stream channel deepens and becomes physically and ecologically discounted from its floodplain (Boyer et al., 2009). In addition, when floodplains are paved over and streams are destroyed it is common for remaining streams to widen and streambanks to become unstable. As a result, we often see farmland, roads, bridges, homes, and other infrastructure located in the floodplain being washed away or damaged (Ahilan et al., 2018; Boyer et al., 2009). Impervious surfaces common with urbanization in floodplains can alter the size of sediment delivered to a stream; hindering large sediment while allowing disproportionally high levels of finer silt and clay to enter the remaining streams. Fine sediments directly impact fish and wildlife by covering spawning gravels, impairing fish respiration, diminishing food sources, and reducing dissolved oxygen levels. These fine sediments also absorb heat from sunlight leading to higher water temperatures and the loss of fish and embryos (Ahilan et al., 2018). The vast quantity of stormwater entering a stream also contributes to increases in downstream flooding (Boyer et al., 2009). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) considers flooding to be the number one natural hazard in the United States. Damages associated with flooding cost on average $7.96 billion in property damages annually (tracked from 1985 to 2014) (Ahilan et al., 2018). The vulnerability and potential flooding damages will continue to rise while humans continue to develop floodplains and could be exacerbated by climate change in some regions through a rise in flood frequency (Zhu et al., 2007). In contrast to gray infrastructure, green infrastructure is a multifunctional strategy offering a diverse range of benefits and commonly discussed as a sustainable approach to address the complex challenges of managing stormwater runoff in urban environments (Lovell & Taylor, 2013). Green infrastructure uses a range of techniques to keep stormwater runoff on-site or mitigate the impacts of stormwater runoff such as rainwater harvesting (e.g. rain barrels), rain gardens, bioswales, permeable pavements, green roofs, and land conservation and or restoration. Restoring natural processes requires a mix of vegetation and soils that soak up and store stormwater runoff at both small (rain gardens or rain barrels) and large (land restoration) scales (US EPA, 2020). Small scale green infrastructure focuses more on mimicking nature to soak up stormwater runoff on-site while large scale strategies focus on interventions capable of providing wildlife habitat, clean air and water, and flood protection. Large scale interventions can take many forms but generally explore opportunities with wetlands, riparian areas, or stream and river channels (Carter et al., 2018; Lovell & Taylor, 2013). Over the past few decades, river restoration projects across the United States have accelerated. Used to describe a broad range of modifications to river channels, riparian zones and floodplains, river restoration projects address degrading streams and rivers and are often designed to improve fish habitat, water quality or recreation opportunities (Wohl et al., 2015). However, channel stabilization and reductions in bank erosion - the primary focus in the United States - soaks up the billions of dollars invested in river restoration. This narrow focus is often undermined in urban environments by the elevated quantity of stormwater runoff discharging into streams washing away or damaging projects (McMillan & Noe, 2017). River restoration projects within urban environments typically focus on small sections of streams which is not as effective at mitigating the impacts of the physical, hydrological or chemical changes specifically at the watershed-scale (Wohl et al., 2015). ..." -- from Introduction

Download or read book Dividing the Waters written by William Andrew Blomquist and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not only are these water supplies not depleted, they are in fact relatively healthy despite California's recent six-year drought.

Download or read book Community Facilities Plan written by and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Coastal Water Bodies written by Felicita Scapini and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-04-20 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the links between science and the real world with a sound scientific baseline, Coastal Water Bodies targets researchers of various disciplines whose interest lies in the integrated sustainable management of coastal water bodies. The main topic of this book is not the ecology according to its accepted meaning, but rather the ‘places and people’ concerned – the coastal zones of the Mediterranean that are rich in ecological value and the local people who survive thanks to these environmental resources. Integration is the joint consideration of different aspects of water uses and values, and new ways of understanding and managing conflicts around water use are needed if people are to benefit from integration. Sustainability of the ecological and socioeconomic environments requires a climate in which conflicts, if they need to exist, are properly managed in a non-destructive manner.

Download or read book Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor written by Rob Nixon and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The violence wrought by climate change, toxic drift, deforestation, oil spills, and the environmental aftermath of war takes place gradually and often invisibly. Using the innovative concept of "slow violence" to describe these threats, Rob Nixon focuses on the inattention we have paid to the attritional lethality of many environmental crises, in contrast with the sensational, spectacle-driven messaging that impels public activism today. Slow violence, because it is so readily ignored by a hard-charging capitalism, exacerbates the vulnerability of ecosystems and of people who are poor, disempowered, and often involuntarily displaced, while fueling social conflicts that arise from desperation as life-sustaining conditions erode. In a book of extraordinary scope, Nixon examines a cluster of writer-activists affiliated with the environmentalism of the poor in the global South. By approaching environmental justice literature from this transnational perspective, he exposes the limitations of the national and local frames that dominate environmental writing. And by skillfully illuminating the strategies these writer-activists deploy to give dramatic visibility to environmental emergencies, Nixon invites his readers to engage with some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Download or read book Making the Geologic Now written by Elizabeth Ellsworth and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making the Geologic Now announces shifts in cultural sensibilities and practices. It offers early sightings of an increasingly widespread turn toward the geologic as source of explanation, motivation, and inspiration for creative responses to conditions of the present moment. In the spirit of a broadside, this edited collection circulates images and short essays from over 40 artists, designers, architects, scholars, and journalists who are actively exploring and creatively responding to the geologic depth of "now." Contributors' ideas and works are drawn from architecture, design, contemporary philosophy and art. They are offered as test sites for what might become thinkable or possible if humans were to collectively take up the geologic as our instructive co-designer-as a partner in designing thoughts, objects, systems, and experiences. A new cultural sensibility is emerging. As we struggle to understand and meet new material realities of earth and life on earth, it becomes increasingly obvious that the geologic is not just about rocks. We now cohabit with the geologic in unprecedented ways, in teeming assemblages of exchange and interaction among geologic materials and forces and the bio, cosmo, socio, political, legal, economic, strategic, and imaginary. As a reading and viewing experience, Making the Geologic Now is designed to move through culture, sounding an alert from the unfolding edge of the "geologic turn" that is now propagating through contemporary ideas and practices. Contributors include: Matt Baker, Jarrod Beck, Stephen Becker, Brooke Belisle, Jane Bennett, David Benque, Canary Project (Susannah Sayler, Edward Morris), Center for Land Use Interpretation, Brian Davis, Seth Denizen, Anthony Easton, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Valeria Federighi, William L. Fox, David Gersten, Bill Gilbert, Oliver Goodhall, John Gordon, Ilana Halperin, Lisa Hirmer, Rob Holmes, Katie Holten, Jane Hutton, Julia Kagan, Wade Kavanaugh, Oliver Kellhammer, Elizabeth Kolbert, Janike Kampevold Larsen, Jamie Kruse, William Lamson, Tim Maly, Geoff Manaugh, Don McKay, Rachel McRae, Brett Milligan, Christian MilNeil, Laura Moriarity, Stephen Nguyen, Erika Osborne, Trevor Paglen, Anne Reeve, Chris Rose, Victoria Sambunaris, Paul Lloyd Sargent, Antonio Stoppani, Rachel Sussman, Shimpei Takeda, Chris Taylor, Ryan Thompson, Etienne Turpin, Nicola Twilley, Bryan M. Wilson.

Download or read book Adventures among Ants written by Mark W. Moffett and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010-05-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intrepid international explorer, biologist, and photographer Mark W. Moffett, "the Indiana Jones of entomology," takes us around the globe on a strange and colorful journey in search of the hidden world of ants. In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo. Moffett’s spectacular close-up photographs shrink us down to size, so that we can observe ants in familiar roles; warriors, builders, big-game hunters, and slave owners. We find them creating marketplaces and assembly lines and dealing with issues we think of as uniquely human—including hygiene, recycling, and warfare. Adventures among Ants introduces some of the world’s most awe-inspiring species and offers a startling new perspective on the limits of our own perception. • Ants are world-class road builders, handling traffic problems on thoroughfares that dwarf our highway systems in their complexity • Ants with the largest societies often deploy complicated military tactics • Some ants have evolved from hunter-gatherers into farmers, domesticating other insects and growing crops for food

Download or read book The Community Resilience Reader written by Daniel Lerch and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-10-12 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National and global efforts have failed to stop climate change, transition from fossil fuels, and reduce inequality. We must now confront these and other increasingly complex problems by building resilience at the community level. The Community Resilience Reader combines a fresh look at the challenges humanity faces in the 21st century, the essential tools of resilience science, and the wisdom of activists, scholars, and analysts working on the ground to present a new vision for creating resilience. It shows that resilience is a process, not a goal; how it requires learning to adapt but also preparing to transform; and that it starts and ends with the people living in a community. From Post Carbon Institute, the producers of the award-winning The Post Carbon Reader, The Community Resilience Reader is a valuable resource for community leaders, college students, and concerned citizens.

Download or read book Unruly Waters written by Sunil Amrith and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a MacArthur "Genius," a bold new perspective on the history of Asia, highlighting the long quest to tame its waters Asia's history has been shaped by her waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines Asia's history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas--and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. Looking out from India, he shows how dreams and fears of water shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations. Today, Asian nations are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change, Unruly Waters is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Asia's past and its future.

Download or read book Louisiana s Response to Extreme Weather written by Shirley Laska and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book takes an in-depth look at Louisiana as a state which is ahead of the curve in terms of extreme weather events, both in frequency and magnitude, and in its responses to these challenges including recovery and enhancement of resiliency. Louisiana faced a major tropical catastrophe in the 21st century, and experiences the fastest rising sea level. Weather specialists, including those concentrating on sea level rise acknowledge that what the state of Louisiana experiences is likely to happen to many more, and not necessarily restricted to coastal states. This book asks and attempts to answer what Louisiana public officials, scientists/engineers, and those from outside of the state who have been called in to help, have done to achieve resilient recovery. How well have these efforts fared to achieve their goals? What might these efforts offer as lessons for those states that will be likely to experience enhanced extreme weather? Can the challenges of inequality be truly addressed in recovery and resilience? How can the study of the Louisiana response as a case be blended with findings from later disasters such as New York/New Jersey (Hurricane Sandy) and more recent ones to improve understanding as well as best adaptation applications – federal, state and local?

Download or read book Big Farms Make Big Flu written by Rob Wallace and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-06-30 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first collection to explore infectious disease, agriculture, economics, and the nature of science together Thanks to breakthroughs in production and food science, agribusiness has been able to devise new ways to grow more food and get it more places more quickly. There is no shortage of news items on hundreds of thousands of hybrid poultry—each animal genetically identical to the next—packed together in megabarns, grown out in a matter of months, then slaughtered, processed and shipped to the other side of the globe. Less well known are the deadly pathogens mutating in, and emerging out of, these specialized agro-environments. In fact, many of the most dangerous new diseases in humans can be traced back to such food systems, among them Campylobacter, Nipah virus, Q fever, hepatitis E, and a variety of novel influenza variants. Agribusiness has known for decades that packing thousands of birds or livestock together results in a monoculture that selects for such disease. But market economics doesn't punish the companies for growing Big Flu—it punishes animals, the environment, consumers, and contract farmers. Alongside growing profits, diseases are permitted to emerge, evolve, and spread with little check. “That is,” writes evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace, “it pays to produce a pathogen that could kill a billion people.” In Big Farms Make Big Flu, a collection of dispatches by turns harrowing and thought-provoking, Wallace tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations. Wallace details, with a precise and radical wit, the latest in the science of agricultural epidemiology, while at the same time juxtaposing ghastly phenomena such as attempts at producing featherless chickens, microbial time travel, and neoliberal Ebola. Wallace also offers sensible alternatives to lethal agribusiness. Some, such as farming cooperatives, integrated pathogen management, and mixed crop-livestock systems, are already in practice off the agribusiness grid. While many books cover facets of food or outbreaks, Wallace's collection appears the first to explore infectious disease, agriculture, economics and the nature of science together. Big Farms Make Big Flu integrates the political economies of disease and science to derive a new understanding of the evolution of infections. Highly capitalized agriculture may be farming pathogens as much as chickens or corn.

Download or read book The Ecology of New England Tidal Flats written by Robert B. Whitlatch and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Well Spoken Thesaurus written by Tom Heehler and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Well-Spoken Thesaurus is designed to help you improve your communication skills by expanding your vocabulary. The book includes over 200 words, arranged in easy-to-use categories, such as "positive emotions," "negative emotions," "intellectual terms," and "descriptive terms." Each entry includes a definition, synonyms, antonyms, and usage examples. The Well-Spoken Thesaurus is particularly useful for writers who want to improve the precision and impact of their language. By providing a range of synonyms for common words and phrases, the book helps writers avoid repetition and clichés, while also encouraging them to use language that is more vivid, specific, and memorable. Some of the benefits of using The Well-Spoken Thesaurus include: Making a stronger impression: By choosing words that are more precise and impactful, you can help your writing stand out from the crowd and make a stronger impression. Demonstrating your communication skills: Using a wide range of vocabulary can demonstrate that you are articulate, sophisticated, and able to communicate effectively. Conveying your personality: Includes a range of descriptive terms that can help you convey your personality and character traits in your writing Overall, The Well-Spoken Thesaurus can be a valuable resource for anyone who wants to improve their writing and communication skills.

Download or read book The Environmentalism of the Poor written by Joan Martínez-Alier and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a wonderful book rich in empirical detail, full of theoretical insights, offering hope in a bleak world, altogether inspiring. . . a tremendous achievement of having helped to create the disciplines of ecological economics and political ecology, bringing them alive in this book, and making their insights available to the developing worldwide movement for environmental justice. Pat Devine, Environmental Values Any book by the ecological economist Joan Martinez-Alier is a Big Publishing Event. . . this is a book by a writer who loves his subject, knows it well, respects its history, and is driven by the desire to do justice. These are qualities enough to send you to the bookshop or the library in search of The Environmentalism of the Poor. Andrew Dobson, Environment Politics The book is a worthy and in-depth contribution to debates about political ecology and ecological economics. It should be read by all environmental and ecological economists who wish to make their analysis more relevant. Tim Forsyth, Progress in Development Studies A marvellous combination of insight, research and activism. . . A must-read for policymakers, practitioners and academics alike, and for anyone concerned with sustainable development, environmentalism or poverty alleviation. Human Ecology Journal . . . one of the most important environmental books to have been published recently. Martinez-Alier integrates two of the most significant areas of environmental theory political ecology and ecological economics. Eurig Scandrett, Friends of the Earth Scotland The book has three main strengths: its bibliography, which is extensive; the global perspective on the environmental movement and the relationship with poverty; and the general theme of this interdisciplinary work, which is not so much to provide new information, but to consider the existing information in a new light. Martinez-Alier is to be commended for taking such a step in the literature . . . the writing style is extremely approachable . . . Recommended. B.J. Peterson, Choice [Joan] Martinez-Alier combines the honest discipline of a scholar with the passionate energy of an activist. The result, The Environmentalism of the Poor, is highly recommended! Herman E. Daly, University of Maryland, College Park, US The Environmentalism of the Poor has the explicit intention of helping to establish two emerging fields of study political ecology and ecological economics whilst also investigating the relations between them. The book analyses several manifestations of the growing environmental justice movement , and also of popular environmentalism and the environmentalism of the poor , which will be seen in the coming decades as driving forces in the process to achieve an ecologically sustainable society. The author studies, in detail, many ecological distribution conflicts in history and at present, in urban and rural settings, showing how poor people often favour resource conservation. The environment is thus not so much a luxury of the rich as a necessity of the poor. It concludes with the fundamental questions: who has the right to impose a language of valuation and who has the power to simplify complexity? Joan Martinez-Alier combines the study of ecological conflicts and the study of environmental valuation in a totally original approach that will appeal to a wide cross-section of academics, ecologists and environmentalists.

Download or read book Resorts written by Robert Christie Mill and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This updated second edition of ""Resorts: Management and Operation"" addresses the expansion of the resort industry and provides practical, need-to-know information on the development and management of all aspects of these properties, which include ski areas, gaming properties, cruise ships, and spas.

Download or read book Empires of the Turning Tide written by Douglas Deur and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book "illuminates the history of the many people who together have called this region home, and their relationships with the park landscapes, waters, and natural resources that continue to set the Columbia-Pacific region apart."--Cover.

Download or read book Down to Earth written by Ted Steinberg and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-05-09 with total page 1150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ambitious and provocative text, environmental historian Ted Steinberg offers a sweeping history of our nation--a history that, for the first time, places the environment at the very center of our story. Written with exceptional clarity, Down to Earth re-envisions the story of America "from the ground up." It reveals how focusing on plants, animals, climate, and other ecological factors can radically change the way that we think about the past. Examining such familiar topics as colonization, the industrial revolution, slavery, the Civil War, and the emergence of modern-day consumer culture, Steinberg recounts how the natural world influenced the course of human history. From the colonists' attempts to impose order on the land to modern efforts to sell the wilderness as a consumer good, the author reminds readers that many critical episodes in our history were, in fact, environmental events. He highlights the ways in which we have attempted to reshape and control nature, from Thomas Jefferson's surveying plan, which divided the national landscape into a grid, to the transformation of animals, crops, and even water into commodities. The text is ideal for courses in environmental history, environmental studies, urban studies, economic history, and American history. Passionately argued and thought-provoking, Down to Earth retells our nation's history with nature in the foreground--a perspective that will challenge our view of everything from Jamestown to Disney World.