Category: History

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The classic reference work that provides annually updated information on the countries of the world.

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Each country - Sweden, Norway and Denmark - is unique, but all three have been bound together by a common heritage since the Viking era. This guide covers the major cities (Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm), as well as the small towns and the beautiful mountains, forests and lakes. The spectacular fjords here are long and usually enclosed by mountains. The author explores the legends, the history, and the food, from Sweden's smorgasbord to the 200 kinds of fish eaten in Norway!

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This book represents an interdisciplinary approach to the relevant aspects of agricultural production related to the interactions between natural processes, human activities and the environment. It provides condensed and comprehensive knowledge on the functions of various agroecosystems at the field, landscape and global scale. Understanding and integrating complex ecological processes into field production, land management and food systems is essential in order to deal with the challenges of modern crop and livestock production: the need for food security for the growing human population, and the necessity to combat the detrimental effects of food production on the environment. The book provides the scientific basis required by students and scientists involved in the development of sustainable agroecosystems and contributes to a range of disciplines including Agriculture, Biology, Geography, Landscape Ecology, Organic Farming, Biological Control, and Global Change Ecology.

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Is our world more dynamic than it used to be in the past? Have phenomena in the social science field become unpredictable? Are chaotic events nowadays occurring more frequently than in the past? Such questions are often raised in popular debates on nonlinear evolution and self-organizing systems. At the same time, many scientists are also raising various intruiging methodological issues. Is it possible to separate deterministic chaos from random disturbances if their trajectories are (almost) similar? Is prediction still possible in a world of chaos (Poincare)? Is it possible to distinguish specification errors from measurement errors in a nonlinear dynamic model? Is evolution a random process? The list of such questions can easily be extended with dozens of others. But despite the myriad of questions on problems of nonlinear evolution, one common trait is evident: in both the natural and the social sciences we are still groping in the dark in areas which are par excellence promising hunting grounds for exploratory and exploratory research, viz. structural grounds in an uncertain nonlinear world. The present book aims at offering a collection of refreshing contributions to the above research issues by focusing attention, in particular on nonlinear dynamic evolution in space at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. The Institute has to be thanked for its hospitality and support, reflected inter alia in a workshop at which several of the papers included in this book were discussed.

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Reconstruction of the climate variability of the past 500 years is a topic of great scientific interest not only in global terms, but also at regional and local levels. This period is interesting on account of the increasing influence of anthropogenic forcing and its overlap with natural factors. The Polish Climate in the European Context: An Historical Overview summarises the results of research into climate variability based on a combination of instrumental, documentary, dendrochronological and borehole data from Poland. The first part of the book provides a Central European perspective of research in these fields, which forms the general background for a presentation of the state of the art of climatic change studies in Poland during the past 500 years (Part 2). This is followed by a selection of papers dealing mainly with different aspects of climate variability in Poland and Central Europe (Part 3). "This book is a valuable tool integrating Polish, Central and Eastern European climate research into the global context. It is, as such, a must for climate researchers worldwide." (Gaston Demarée, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium) "This volume marks a significant step forward in our understanding of European climatic history." (Christian Pfister, University of Bern)

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This atlas provides a macro-regional overview of the areas that surround the European Union, from the Sahara to the Middle East, Western Balkans to European Russia, Turkey to the Arctic. Detailing key socio-economic data as well as developmental trends, the maps provide a comprehensive territorial analysis at a local scale and explore the potential for regional integration and cooperation.These pioneering maps examine challenges that threaten this wide, yet inter-connected, region, including environmental concerns in the North, political unrest in the East, social factors in the Western Balkans, and the upheaval in the Mediterranean since the Arab spring. Coverage investigates such key countries and areas as Libya, Israel, Palestine, Syria, and the Ukraine as well as explores such essential issues as Europe’s energy procurement. In addition, it also presents a comparison with other world regions such as East Asia and North America.In the end, readers discover that territorial integration faces many shortcomings, but that deep regional cooperation would be a key driver for the EU’s sustainable future. This atlas features the main results of the “Integrated Territorial Analysis of the Neighbourhoods” research project undertaken by ESPON (The European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion). It provides scholars; local authorities and NGOs involved in cross-border cooperation; companies interested in energy, agriculture, water, transportation and communication; and interested readers with key insights into this important region.

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The goal of this Third Edition is to update long-term data presented in earlier editions and to generate new syntheses and conclusions about the biogeochemistry of the Hubbard Brook Valley based on these longer-term data. There have been many changes, revelations, and exciting new insights generated from the longer data records. For example, the impact of acid rain peaked during the period of the HBES and is now declining. The longer-term data also posed challenges in that very marked changes in fluxes occurred in some components, such as hydrogen ion and sulfate deposition, calcium and nitrate export in stream water and biomass accumulation, during the almost 50 years of record. Thus, presenting “mean” or “average” conditions for many components for such a long period, when change was so prominent, do not make sense. In some cases, pentads or decades of time are compared to show these changes in a more smoothed and rational way for this long period. In some cases, a single period, often during periods of rapid change, such as acidification, is used to illustrate the main point(s). And, for some elements a unique mass balance approach, allowing the calculation of the Net Ecosystem Flux (NEF), is shown on an annual basis throughout the study.

Book Summary :

The classic reference work that provides annually updated information on the countries of the world.

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This book provides an up-to-date and comprehensive report on the soils of Wisconsin, a state that offers a rich tapestry of soils. It discusses the relevant soil forming factors and soil processes in detail and subsequently reviews the main soil regions and dominant soil orders, including paleosols and endemic and endangered soils. The last chapters address soils in a changing climate and provide an evaluation of their monetary value and crop yield potential. Richly illustrated, the book offers both a valuable teaching resource and essential guide for policymakers, land users, and all those interested in the soils of Wisconsin.

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This book examines a range of subjects with a specific focus on architectural and technological advancements. Architecture is the constant innovation in designing for high efficiency in the performance of buildings, in terms of planning, construction and energy, while maintaining creativity in its form. Moreover, the field of architecture goes hand in hand with that of technology. Nowadays, engineering technology has to cope with the rapid industrialization and urbanization seen in most countries. Furthermore, creative design and construction practices are challenging tasks to the architects and engineers to meet the ever-growing demands of society. Therefore, this book on "Advances in Engineering Science and Architectural Design" is provided to cover a wide range of topics in architecture, engineering, and technology.

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Hugh P. Possingham Landscape-scale conservation planning is coming of age. In the last couple of decades, conservation practitioners, working at all levels of governance and all spatial scales, have embraced the CARE principles of conservation planning – Comprehensiveness, Adequacy, Representativeness, and Efficiency. Hundreds of papers have been written on this theme, and several different kinds of software program have been developed and used around the world, making conservation planning based on these principles global in its reach and influence. Does this mean that all the science of conservation planning is over – that the discovery phase has been replaced by an engineering phase as we move from defining the rules to implementing them in the landscape? This book and the continuing growth in the literature suggest that the answer to this question is most definitely ‘no. ’ All of applied conservation can be wrapped up into a single sentence: what should be done (the action), in what place, at what time, using what mechanism, and for what outcome (the objective). It all seems pretty simple – what, where, when, how and why. However stating a problem does not mean it is easy to solve.