Download or read book Scaling in Integrated Assessment written by D.S. Rothman and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2005-08-09 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of papers prepared for the European Forum on Integrated Environmental Assessment's (EFIEA) Policy Workshop on Scaling Issues in Integrated Assessment, held from 12-19 July 2000.
Download or read book Integrated Assessment of Scale Impacts of Watershed Intervention written by V. Ratna Reddy and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrated Assessment of Scale Impacts of Watershed Interventions is the outcome of a multi-disciplinary research team of social scientists, hydrologists (groundwater and surface water), modellers; and bio-physical scientists who have worked together over five years to develop an integrated model of the sustainability of biophysical, economic and social impacts of watersheds. Impacts of watershed interventions are assessed at upstream, mid-stream and downstream locations of two hydrological units that are characterised with differential bio-physical attributes. The editors propose that watershed interventions, when integrated with hydro-geology and bio-physical aspects, have greater influence on the resilience of the socio-ecological system. This book takes these aspects in to consideration and in the process provides insights in to watershed design and implementation. Integrates hydrogeology, bio-physical, and socioeconomic aspects of watersheds in a hydrological context Provides a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of watershed interventions Assesses the role of watershed interventions in enhancing household resilience Provides hydrological and socio-economic methodologies for design of sustainble watershed interventions including scale and institutional arrangements for implementing and sustaining watershed interventions
Download or read book Multi Scale Integrated Analysis of Agroecosystems written by Mario Giampietro and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2003-11-24 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecologists, agronomists, and others who may question the validity of current models for determining sustainable growth of agroecosystems, need a new set of analytical tools that more effectively address the complex nature of related processes. Those who challenge traditional assumptions of optimization and static factors in agricultural modeling de
Download or read book Bridging Scales and Knowledge Systems written by Walter World Resources Institute and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bridging the gap between local knowledge and western science is essential to understanding the world's ecosystems and the ways in which humans interact with and shape those ecosystems. This book brings together a group of world-class scientists in an unprecedented effort to build a formal framework for linking local and indigenous knowledge with the global scientific enterprise. Contributors explore the challenges, costs, and benefits of bridging scales and knowledge systems in assessment processes and in resource management. Case studies look at a variety of efforts to bridge scales, providing important lessons concerning what has worked, what has not, and the costs and benefits associated with those efforts. Drawing on the groundbreaking work of the Millennium Eco-system Assessment, Bridging Scales and Knowledge Systems will be indispensable for future efforts to conduct ecosystem assessments around the world.
Download or read book The Biofuel Delusion written by Mario Giampietro and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-09-02 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faced with the twin threats of peak oil and climate change, many governments have turned for an answer to the apparent panacea of biofuels. Yet, increasingly, the progressive implementation of this solution demonstrates that the promise of biofuels as a replacement to fossil fuels is in fact a mirage that, if followed, risks leaving us short of power, short of food and doing as much damage to the climate as ever -- let alone the consequent impact on biodiversity due to additional loss of habitat for agricultural production and on rural development due to the additional stress on traditional farming systems. Worse still, these risks are being ignored. In this definitive expos Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi present a theoretical framework and exhaustive evidence for the case against large scale biofuel production from agricultural crops. This book will be vital, sobering reading for anyone concerned with energy or agricultural policy, or bioenergy as a complex system.
Download or read book Ecosystem Services in the Gariep Basin written by Erin Bohensky and published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This assessment report is a component of the multiple-scale southern African sub-global assessment (SAfMA), which investigated the condition and trends of ecosystem services and human well-being in the Gariep basin from 1993 to 2003, as well as future scenarios and possible responses to ecosystem change. The assessment features highlights from four local-scale assessments nested within the basin: Sehlabathebe, Great Fish River, Richtersveld and the Gauteng Province.
Download or read book Multi Scale Integrated Analysis of Agroecosystems written by Mario Giampietro and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2003-11-24 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecologists, agronomists, and others who may question the validity of current models for determining sustainable growth of agroecosystems, need a new set of analytical tools that more effectively address the complex nature of related processes. Those who challenge traditional assumptions of optimization and static factors in agricultural modeling demand new methods beyond differential equations and traditional statistical tests. Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Agroecosystems explores alternative ways to study agricultural sustainability, presenting new approaches to organizing data and applying complex systems theory to actual cases. This innovative text recognizes the changing dynamics of the multiple processes and cross-relations within an environment, proposing a clearer analysis of agroecosystems than that which can be provided by rigid, reductionist methods. Main concepts, new vocabulary and narratives, and practical examples open the book, followed by technical chapters that provide a more detailed explanation of concepts. The final section of the book presents a tool kit based on these concepts, resulting in strong support of empirical observations that challenge traditional notions regarding the sustainability of farming systems, food systems, and agroecosystems.
Download or read book Integrated Assessment Models of Climate Change Economics written by Zheng Wang and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-10 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the principles of integrated assessment models (IAM) for climate change economics and introduces various computable models for different development mechanisms under climate change governance. The authors present several new models they have constructed based on the RICE framework, specifically the MRICES((multi-factor RICE)) and EMRICES models, which incorporate global economic interactions into the RICE framework, and the CINCIA model, which describes technological advances and industrial structure evolution, introducing the mechanism of evolutionary economics. The models discussed in the book help governments and policy-makers tackle climate change and take positive measures on climate governance as well as promote economic and social development to narrow the gaps between countries.
Download or read book Assessment of Approaches to Updating the Social Cost of Carbon written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-03-26 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The social cost of carbon (SCC) for a given year is an estimate, in dollars, of the present discounted value of the damage caused by a 1-metric ton increase in CO2 emissions into the atmosphere in that year; or equivalently, the benefits of reducing CO2 emissions by the same amount in that given year. The SCC is intended to provide a comprehensive measure of the monetized value of the net damages from global climate change from an additional unit of CO2, including, but not limited to, changes in net agricultural productivity, energy use, human health effects, and property damages from increased flood risk. Federal agencies use the SCC to value the CO2 emissions impacts of various policies including emission and fuel economy standards for vehicles, regulations of industrial air pollutants from industrial manufacturing, emission standards for power plants and solid waste incineration, and appliance energy efficiency standards. There are significant challenges to estimating a dollar value that reflects all the physical, human, ecological, and economic impacts of climate change. Recognizing that the models and scientific data underlying the SCC estimates evolve and improve over time, the federal government made a commitment to provide regular updates to the estimates. To assist with future revisions of the SCC, the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon (IWG) requested the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine complete a study that assessed the merits and challenges of a limited near-term update to the SCC and of a comprehensive update of the SCC to ensure that the estimates reflect the best available science. This interim report focuses on near-term updates to the SCC estimates.
Download or read book Climate Policy Assessment written by Mikiko Kainuma and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2002-10-08 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Asia–Pacific Integrated Model (AIM) brings together more than 20 computer simulation models for development and analysis of policy in such diverse fields as climate change mitigation, air pollution abatement, and ecosystem preservation. This first book in a series on the development of AIM focuses on climate change issues and the evaluation of policy options to stabilize the global climate. It presents an overview of the models developed to date, their structure, and the results and analyses presented to policymakers and researchers at the levels of individual Asian countries, the Asia–Pacific region, and the world at large. The contents vary in scope from local to global issues, with discussions of the effects of climate policies, cost analyses of climate policies with their effects on trade, and global scenario analyses. Also included are impact analyses and the effects of promoting environmental technologies.
Download or read book Environmental and Agricultural Modelling written by Floor M. Brouwer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture increasingly faces the challenge of balancing its multiple functions in a sustainable way. Integrated assessment and modelling (IAM) can provide insight into the potential impacts of policy changes. However, concepts to address the wide range of issues and functions typical for agriculture are still scarce. Environmental and Agricultural Modelling reviews and presents our current understanding of integrated and working tools to assess and compute, ex-ante, alternative agricultural and environmental policy options, allowing: 1. Analysis at the full range of scales (farm to European Union and global) whilst focusing on the most important issues emerging at each scale; 2. Analysis of the environmental, economic and social contributions of agricultural systems towards sustainable rural development and rural viability; 3. Analysis of a broad range of issues and agents of change, such as climate change, environmental policies, rural development options, effects of an enlarging EU, international competition, and effects on developing countries.
Download or read book Loss and Damage from Climate Change written by Reinhard Mechler and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-28 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an authoritative insight on the Loss and Damage discourse by highlighting state-of-the-art research and policy linked to this discourse and articulating its multiple concepts, principles and methods. Written by leading researchers and practitioners, it identifies practical and evidence-based policy options to inform the discourse and climate negotiations. With climate-related risks on the rise and impacts being felt around the globe has come the recognition that climate mitigation and adaptation may not be enough to manage the effects from anthropogenic climate change. This recognition led to the creation of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage in 2013, a climate policy mechanism dedicated to dealing with climate-related effects in highly vulnerable countries that face severe constraints and limits to adaptation. Endorsed in 2015 by the Paris Agreement and effectively considered a third pillar of international climate policy, debate and research on Loss and Damage continues to gain enormous traction. Yet, concepts, methods and tools as well as directions for policy and implementation have remained contested and vague. Suitable for researchers, policy-advisors, practitioners and the interested public, the book furthermore: • discusses the political, legal, economic and institutional dimensions of the issue• highlights normative questions central to the discourse • provides a focus on climate risks and climate risk management. • presents salient case studies from around the world.
Download or read book Functional Assessment for Adults with Disabilities written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-08-31 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) provides disability benefits through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. To receive SSDI or SSI disability benefits, an individual must meet the statutory definition of disability, which is "the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity [SGA] by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months." SSA uses a five-step sequential process to determine whether an adult applicant meets this definition. Functional Assessment for Adults with Disabilities examines ways to collect information about an individual's physical and mental (cognitive and noncognitive) functional abilities relevant to work requirements. This report discusses the types of information that support findings of limitations in functional abilities relevant to work requirements, and provides findings and conclusions regarding the collection of information and assessment of functional abilities relevant to work requirements.
Download or read book Integrated Evaluation of Disability written by Ramar Sabapathi Vinayagam and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are overwhelming demands for health and rehabilitation services due to rise in the number of disabled people. The existing literature on disability evaluation has only focused on impairment or functional limitation or earning capacity. They have not considered the skills fundamental to live, learn and work successfully in the community. This book addresses integrated evaluation of disability using ‘Clinical Tools’, ‘Activity Participation Skills Assessment Scale’, ‘Personal Factors Measurement Scale’, and ‘Environmental Factors Measurement Scale’. Physicians from all disciplines can use this method to evaluate disability pertaining to their respective fields. Key Features Applies the principles of ‘World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health - ICF’ Includes case studies in the hypothetical model in this book Includes a Ready Reckoner Impairment Table provides impairment score for 120 common clinical conditions Consists of an integrated software which computes percentage of disability for clinical conditions
Download or read book Integrated Assessment of Ecosystem Health written by K.M. Scow and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new approach to ecosystem health is proactive. As a result, the scope of environmental studies is growing and the methods are evolving. Integrated Assessment of Ecosystem Health aggressively broadens the range of ecotoxicology to include its related fields. The book begins with John Cairns, Jr.'s predictions and recommendations for the futur
Download or read book Landscape scale Analysis of Stream Fish Communities and Habitats written by Kristen Lynne Blann and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Data mining of massive data sets is transforming the way we think about crisis response, marketing, entertainment, cybersecurity and national intelligence. Collections of documents, images, videos, and networks are being thought of not merely as bit strings to be stored, indexed, and retrieved, but as potential sources of discovery and knowledge, requiring sophisticated analysis techniques that go far beyond classical indexing and keyword counting, aiming to find relational and semantic interpretations of the phenomena underlying the data. Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis examines the frontier of analyzing massive amounts of data, whether in a static database or streaming through a system. Data at that scale-terabytes and petabytes-is increasingly common in science (e.g., particle physics, remote sensing, genomics), Internet commerce, business analytics, national security, communications, and elsewhere. The tools that work to infer knowledge from data at smaller scales do not necessarily work, or work well, at such massive scale. New tools, skills, and approaches are necessary, and this report identifies many of them, plus promising research directions to explore. Frontiers in Massive Data Analysis discusses pitfalls in trying to infer knowledge from massive data, and it characterizes seven major classes of computation that are common in the analysis of massive data. Overall, this report illustrates the cross-disciplinary knowledge-from computer science, statistics, machine learning, and application disciplines-that must be brought to bear to make useful inferences from massive data.
