This open access volume presents a comprehensive account of all aspects of biological invasions in South Africa, where research has been conducted over more than three decades, and where bold initiatives have been implemented in attempts to control invasions and to reduce their ecological, economic and social effects. It covers a broad range of themes, including history, policy development and …
The Australian Continent: A Geophysical Synthesis is designed to provide a summary of the character of the Australian continent through the extensive information available at the continental scale, as a contribution to the understanding of Australia's lithospheric architecture and its evolution. The results build on the extensive databases assembled at Geoscience Australia, particularly for pot…
Val Plumwood was an eminent environmental philosopher and activist who was prominent in the development of radical ecophilosophy from the early 1970s until her death in 2008. Her book Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (1992) has become a classic. In 1985 she was attacked by a crocodile while kayaking alone in the Kakadu national park in the Northern Territory. She was death rolled three times …
Our planet is undergoing radical environmental and social changes. Sustainability has now been put into question by, for example, our consumption patterns, loss of biodiversity, depletion of resources, and exploitative power relations. With apparent ecological and social limits to globalization and development, current levels of consumption are unsustainable, inequitable, and inaccessible to th…
Modern information communication technology eradicates barriers of geographic distances, making the world globally interdependent, but this spatial globalization has not eliminated cultural fragmentation. The Two Cultures of C.P. Snow (that of science–technology and that of humanities) are drifting apart even faster than before, and they themselves crumble into increasingly specialized domain…
What do climate models predict for the rainfall where you live? What about evaporation or runoff? Should your local community consider constructing new dams or do the existing water storages appear adequate? What about the availability of water for irrigation farming? Do the predictions differ between different climate models or do all the models basically predict the same changes in water avai…
Digital technology1is omnipresent in society. Revolutionary technological develop-ments change the character of professional environments, and therefore put new demands on workers (Hoyles, Noss, Kent, & Bakker,2010). Consequently, there arenewdemandsoneducationalsystemsinordertopreparestudentsforfutureprofessions.Importantly, technology also offers opportunities for teaching and learning (see f…
This book provides a comprehensive overview of volcanic crisis research, the goal being to establish ways of successfully applying volcanology in practice and to identify areas that need to be addressed for future progress. It shows how volcano crises are managed in practice, and helps to establish best practices. Consequently the book brings together authors from all over the globe who work w…
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresse…
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume contains peer-reviewed papers from the Fourth World Landslide Forum organized by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), the Global Promotion Committee of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL), University of Ljubljana (UL) and Geological Survey of Slovenia in Ljubljana, Slovenia from May 29 to June 2, 2017. T…
This book analyzes the possibilities for effective global governance of science in Europe, India and China. Authors from the three regions join forces to explore how ethical concerns over new technologies can be incorporated into global science and technology policies. The first chapter introduces the topic, offering a global perspective on embedding ethics in science and technology policy. Cha…
This book comprises the Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-12), which was held at COEX in Seoul, Korea, from July 8th to 15th, 2012. ICME-12 brought together 4700 experts from 100 countries, working to understand all of the intellectual and attitudinal challenges in the subject of mathematics education as a multidisciplinary research and practice. Thi…
This reference provides comprehensive information on the taxonomy and distribution in time and space of all currently recognized southern African fossil mammals. After an introductory background chapter on southern Africa, mammals, sites and dating, the following chapters are presented by epoch, covering the Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Individual maps provide informatio…
Instabilities are present in all natural fluids from rivers to atmospheres. This book considers the physical processes that generate instability. Part I describes the normal mode instabilities most important in geophysical applications, including convection, shear instability and baroclinic instability. Classical analytical approaches are covered, while also emphasising numerical methods, mecha…
Team leaders should be full of ideas for new research projects and inspire a research group to achieve great results. This practical guide for team leaders, and those who aspire to become team leader, offers a unique approach to help readers develop research and become a more independent and productive investigator. Readers can learn how to recruit and develop talented team members, how to nego…
This volume opens a door into the rich history of animals in China. As environmental historians turn their attention to expanded chronologies of natural change, something new can be said about human history through animals and about the globally diverse cultural and historical dynamics that have led to perceptions of animals as wild or cultures as civilized. This innovative collection of essays…
This open access book shows the breadth and various facets of e-Science, while also illustrating their shared core. Changes in scientific work are driven by the shift to grid-based worlds, the use of information and communication systems, and the existential infrastructure, which includes global collaboration. In this context, the book addresses emerging issues such as open access, collaborati…
This open access book explores the interactions between water and earthquakes, including recent concerns about induced seismicity. It further highlights that a better understanding of the response of the water system to disturbances such as earthquakes is needed to safeguard water resources, to shield underground waste repositories, and to mitigate groundwater contamination. Although the effect…
As a powerful tool in the production of knowledge, comparing plays a crucial part in the sciences and the humanities. This volume explores the relationship between comparing and narrating in epistemic practices and clarifies the ways in which narratives enable or impede practices of comparing. It takes into account related activities, such as measuring and classifying, modeling, establishing no…
This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the…