Bibliography of global change, 1992

This bibliography lists 585 reports, articles, and other documents introduced in the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database in 1992. The areas covered include global change, decision making, earth observation (from space), forecasting, global warming, policies, and trends

Application of Geographic Information Systems

The importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can hardly be overemphasized in today’s academic and professional arena. More professionals and academics have been using GIS than ever – urban & regional planners, civil engineers, geographers, spatial economists, sociologists, environmental scientists, criminal justice professionals, political scientists, and alike. As such, it is extremely important to understand the theories and applications of GIS in our teaching, professional work, and research. “The Application of Geographic Information Systems” presents research findings that explain GIS’s applications in different subfields of social sciences. With several case studies conducted in different parts of the world, the book blends together the theories of GIS and their practical implementations in different conditions. It deals with GIS’s application in the broad spectrum of geospatial analysis and modeling, water resources analysis, land use analysis, infrastructure network analysis like transportation and water distribution network, and such. The book is expected to be a useful source of knowledge to the users of GIS who envision its applications in their teaching and research. This easy-to-understand book is surely not the end in itself but a little contribution to toward our understanding of the rich and wonderful subject of GIS

Proceedings of the 1st WSEAS International Conference on "Environmental and Geological Science and Engineering (EG'08)"

This book contains the proceedings of the 1st WSEAS International Conference on Environmental and Geological Science and Engineering (EG'08) which was held in Malta, September 11-13, 2008. This conference aims to disseminate the latest research and applications in Renewable Energy, Mineral Resources, Natural Hazards and Risks, Environmental Impact Assessment, Urban and Regional Planning Issues, Remote Sensing and GIS, and other relevant topics and applications. The friendliness and openness of the WSEAS conferences, adds to their ability to grow by constantly attracting young researchers. The WSEAS Conferences attract a large number of well-established and leading researchers in various areas of Science and Engineering as you can see from http://www.wseas.org/reports. Your feedback encourages the society to go ahead as you can see in http://www.worldses.org/feedback.htm The contents of this Book are also published in the CD-ROM Proceedings of the Conference. Both will be sent to the WSEAS collaborating indices after the conference: www.worldses.org/indexes In addition, papers of this book are permanently available to all the scientific community via the WSEAS E-Library. Expanded and enhanced versions of papers published in this conference proceedings are also going to be considered for possible publication in one of the WSEAS journals that participate in the major International Scientific Indices (Elsevier, Scopus, EI, ACM, Compendex, INSPEC, CSA .... see: www.worldses.org/indexes) these papers must be of high-quality (break-through work) and a new round of a very strict review will follow. (No additional fee will be required for the publication of the extended version in a journal). WSEAS has also collaboration with several other international publishers and all these excellent papers of this volume could be further improved, could be extended and could be enhanced for possible additional evaluation in one of the editions of these international publishers. Finally, we cordially thank all the people of WSEAS for their efforts to maintain the high scientific level of conferences, proceedings and journals

Australasian Groundwater Conference: Groundwater in a Changing World

© Copyright is retained by the author/s of each abstract.The Australasian Groundwater Conference (AGC) was held in Brisbane Queensland, 24-27 November 2019. This conference was an epic event filled with informative presentations, entertaining networking events and stunning field trips exploring the sights and sounds that this subtropical dynamic region has to offer. The AGC 2019 featured a stimulating technical program around the theme of “Groundwater in a Changing World” that covered a broad range of applications to resources, infrastructure and environment. The program included stimulating plenary speakers, engaging panel discussions and enticing social events. Over 600 groundwater researchers, industry professionals and policy development specialists from around the region attended this unique event. There were many opportunities on offer for delegates to share their experiences, inform best practice, and identify the steps they can take to bring about lasting improvements to the management of our vital groundwater resources. Our hard working volunteer organisational team wishes to thank sponsors, speakers, delegates, exhibitors and volunteers for making the conference such a huge success

Towards an integrated model for assessing the effects of changes in climate and land use patterns on the quantity and variability of river flows in Indonesia

The thesis examines this question: What are the relative effects of changes in land use and climate on the quantity and variability of river flows in Indonesia in relation to land use and water use planning and management for sustainable development? The contribution of this thesis is to provide a method and tool for shedding light on this important research question. A new integrated model system INDOCLIM has been developed for policymakers and planners as a tool for examining the possible impacts of changes in land use patterns and climate on the river flows, as part of an effort to support environmentally sustainable development in a country such as Indonesia. This is a trial model that consists of three components (land use, climate and hydrology). The land use component is used to generate land use change patterns based on four policy-related scenarios: business-as-usual; ecological concern; pro-industrialisation; and pro-agriculture. These scenarios were constructed in a time-series between 2000 and 2100, with 1990 as the baseline. The land use change pattern is created by using a GIS, based on the cellular automata principal. The climate component is used to generate time dependent climate scenarios, based on the global temperature change under IPCC SRES GHG emission scenarios and downscaled GCM patterns. The land use patterns are translated into a set of hydrological parameters and, together with the climate variables, are used for calculating the monthly discharge on a cell-by-cell basis. The runoff is totalled from all cells in the basin area. The model is: very specific in purpose; user oriented; designed for sensitivity analysis to answer ‘what if’ questions; designed for a catchment scale; and transportable. The model has been implemented in the Upper Citarum river system, Bandung basin, Indonesia for a preliminary assessment. The results from the model show that: both land use change and climate change have impacts on the annual yield, monthly discharge, and changes in seasonal variations of river flows; climate change has a greater possible impact on the change of the annual yield, and on monthly discharge variations, than the land use change; the superimposed effects of land use change and climate change can exacerbate or reduce the impacts; the land use change has a more significant impact on local scale variation than the climate change. The findings suggest that land use management as part of an integrated management programme for sustainable development is very relevant. Characteristics of this integrated model and some feedbacks from potential users have been identified for further development and improvement of the model. This thesis contributes to the need for an integrated assessment for examining the possible changes in the quantity and variability of river flows as the result of changes in land use and climate. It specifically contributes by: developing the integrated system for this specific purpose; developing the methodology for transferring land use information to monthly water consumption as required by the hydrological model; and developing procedures to create land use change scenarios. Overall, the integrated model framework, as developed, tested and applied in the Bandung basin of Indonesia, is potentially transferable to other basins and countries in Southeast Asia where similar issues of climate change, land use change and water resource management are key elements of sustainable development

Development of a decision support system for sustainable and resilience evaluation of urban underground space physical infrastructure

The research described in this thesis proposes a new,novel evaluation ‘framework’ and accompanying operational ‘model’, the ‘SUURE’ (Sustainable Underground Use Resilience Evaluation) ‘framework’, which adopts a socio-ecological systems (SES) approach to evaluation, combining sustainability science and resilience theory, at the same time incorporating a range of interdisciplinary tools and methods to achieve this. It purposes at its core to aid in sustainability evaluation of urban underground space, by evaluating the process to the outcome of sustainable solutions i.e. the capacity to adapt to change in different steady states. In consequence, a fundamentally different approach to planning that utilises future socio-ecological scenarios (NSP, PR, MF and FW) is incorporated in the ‘framework’ as a means of evaluating through its operational ‘model’, the sensitivity of investment decisions made today in the name of sustainability i.e. will the proposed engineering sustainability solution continue to deliver its intended function into the future, whatever that may be. The SUURE operational ‘model’ was employed as a proof of concept to the case study area of Birmingham Eastside, evaluating the potential use of multi-utility tunnels (MUT) in Eastside as a means of engendering sustainable and resilient use of urban underground space, through sustainable utility placement, both now and into the future. The flush-fitting MUT was found to be having the highest overall baseline (present-day) performance resilience index ratio at mean of 0.739, the shallow MUT second at 0.656, and the deep MUT last at 0.212. With regard to the evaluation of continued MUT functional performance into the future (whatever that may be), all three MUT options, if implemented today in the name of sustainability, would continue to deliver and retain their core functional performance, the deep MUT showing the most significant increase across all evaluation clusters (social, economic, physical, bio-physical and location aspects)