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Advanced Energy Efficiency Technologies for Solar Heating, Cooling and Power Generation (Green Energy and Technology)

This book, based on the research experience and outcomes of a group of international contributors, addresses a range of advanced energy efficiency technologies and their applications in solar heating, cooling and power generation, while also providing solutions for tackling recurring low efficiency problems in today’s systems. It highlights the latest technologies and methods, which can significantly improve the performance of solar systems, enabling readers to design, construct and apply high-performance solar systems in or for their own projects. The contributors provide a systematic introduction to state-of-the-art energy efficiency technologies that demonstrates how to implement innovative solar systems. These technologies include: • heat pipes and loop heat pipes; • phase change materials (PCMs) and PCM slurries; • micro-channel panels; • desiccant/adsorption cycling; • ejector cooling and heat pumps; and • solar concentration and thermoelectric units. The book shows how innovative solar systems applicable to rural and urban buildings can be analysed and demonstrates the successful implementation of these advanced technologies. It delivers the design principles and associated energy performance assessment methods for a range of selected solar heating, cooling and power generation projects. This book offers a valuable source of information for final-year undergraduate students, as well as graduate students and academic lecturers, as it promotes the widespread deployment of advanced solar heating, cooling and power generation technologies applicable for buildings across the globe. The book is also a good point of reference for design engineers and energy consultants who wish to extend their knowledge of advanced technologies used to achieve energy efficiency.

BRICS Innovative Competitiveness Report 2017 (Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path)

The Report predicts that the coming five years will witness the five countries keep improving in national innovative competitiveness, with China and Russia maintaining their strong growth momentum, India growing at a moderate rate, and Brazil and South Africa gradually picking up speed and climbing out of the trough. It estimates that the five countries’ national innovative competitiveness will be keeping steady growth by 2030. The General Reports part presents a comprehensive analysis of the current status and achievements of STI cooperation between China and other BRICS countries and proposes priority areas of BRICS STI cooperation to provide valuable decision inputs for the BRICS countries to accelerate the improvement of their national innovative competitiveness. The Country Reports part respectively analyzes and makes predictions on the national innovative competitiveness of the BRICS countries based on a survey of their STI development and STI cooperation within the BRICS framework. The Thematic Reports part focuses on four thematic areas closely related to STI, i.e. digital economy, financial inclusion, energy, and agriculture, and offers detailed analysis of the STI development and potential of the countries in relevant areas, providing additional inputs for a further understanding of the national innovative competitiveness of the BRICS countries.

Developing an Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime in China: Lessons Learned from the US and UK

This book explores the complex package of mechanisms used to identify, record, manage and remediate contaminated land, including the system for allocating liabilities that has been set up by China’s contaminated land law and accompanying administrative decrees and environmental standards. Statutory control of soil or land contamination is a comparatively new phenomenon for Chinese lawmakers and researchers. After more than ten years of preparation, China recently adopted its first nationwide contaminated land law—the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Contamination, which entered into effect in the beginning of 2019. The law deals exclusively with risk management in connection with soil contamination, and the remediation of contaminated land. This book analyzes various facets of how China is managing the risks associated with soil contamination and remediating contaminated sites by means of legislation. Chapters 1 and 2 reveal the current extent of the soil contamination problem in China and the initial policy responses of the country’s central government. In turn, Chapters 3 and 4 address the regulatory frameworks and the latest contaminated land legislation at both the local and national level. Lastly, Chapters 5 through 9 offer concrete recommendations, based on lessons learned in the US and UK, for reforming contaminated land management in China. Overall, the book covers the past, present and future of contaminated land management in China, making it of interest to environmental policymakers, administrators, academics, lawyers and engineers engaged in soil or environmental protection. Further, it offers a source of reliable information for those who want to learn more about China’s environmental legislation and contaminated land management policy.

Developing an Appropriate Contaminated Land Regime in China: Lessons Learned from the US and UK

Like all industrialized countries, China has encountered increasing problems with land contamination in recent years. Abandoned mining and manufacturing sites and obsolete industrial complexes, while also creating new polluting industrial enterprises, represent impending environmental threats. More importantly, a number of social and economic problems have developed and must be dealt with, in some cases urgently. Contaminated land laws and regulations have been established and have evolved in the US and UK and many other jurisdictions over the past few decades. These regimes have substantially influenced the relevant legislation in the context of numerous Asian and European countries and will inevitably benefit similar legislative efforts in China. This book is the first monograph that focuses on how China can learn from the US and UK with respect to contaminated land legislation and comprehensively illustrates how contaminated land law could be created in China. It will be of interest to academics and practitioners in environmental law in China, as well as the US and UK.

Coupled DEM-CFD Analyses of Landslide-Induced Debris Flows (Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering)

This book reflects the latest research results in computer modelling of landslide-induced debris flows. The book establishes an understanding of the initiation and propagation mechanisms of landslides by means of numerical simulations, so that mitigation strategies to reduce the long-term losses from landslide hazards can be devised. In this context, the book employs the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to investigate the mechanical and hydraulic behaviour of granular materials involved in landslides – an approach that yields meaningful insights into the flow mechanisms, concerning e.g. the mobilization of sediments, the generation and dissipation of excess pore water pressures, and the evolution of effective stresses. As such, the book provides valuable information, useful methods and robust numerical tools that can be successfully applied in the field of debris flow research.

Point-of-Interest Recommendation in Location-Based Social Networks (SpringerBriefs in Computer Science)

This book systematically introduces Point-of-interest (POI) recommendations in Location-based Social Networks (LBSNs). Starting with a review of the advances in this area, the book then analyzes user mobility in LBSNs from geographical and temporal perspectives. Further, it demonstrates how to build a state-of-the-art POI recommendation system by incorporating the user behavior analysis. Lastly, the book discusses future research directions in this area. This book is intended for professionals involved in POI recommendation and graduate students working on problems related to location-based services. It is assumed that readers have a basic knowledge of mathematics, as well as some background in recommendation systems.

Transport Efficiency and Safety in China (Population, Regional Development and Transport)

This book is the first comprehensive analysis of transport efficiency in China. It presents a series of rigorous empirical analysis for the operation and environmental efficiencies of major transport sectors, including highway, railway, civil aviation, and waterway. It also evaluates transport safety of China. The book innovatively employs a DEA model based on Epsilon measures (EBM) to evaluate transport efficiency and an EBM DEA model with undesirable outputs to calculate transport environmental efficiency. The factors of transport efficiency are quantitatively studied, including economic growth, social transition, and technology changes. Also, China's policies aimed at improving transportation efficiency are evaluated.The theoretical analyses and discussions would enhance our existing knowledge of the changes and determinants of transport system’s efficiency in a context of rapid urbanization, industrialization, and marketization in China. The findings of the existing policy evaluation would bring fresh evidences for transport policy performances to both scholars and politicians. In particular, it shows policymakers the experiences or lessons of how to create an efficient transport system in order to save energy use, reduce GHGs emissions, and improve social security. This book is of great interest to scholars interested in sustainable transport, regional planning and development, environmental policy and is relevant to China and other developing countries.

Rural Transition and Transport in China (Population, Regional Development and Transport)

This book examines the rural transition and transportation in China. It covers demographic change, settlement transformation, and infrastructure development in rural areas, as well as changes in transportation expenditures, travel behavior, and accessibility of basic public services among rural Chinese residents. The book contributes to the new body of knowledge from an international perspective in three ways. First, it explores the changes in travel behavior of rural residents and related factors. Second, it provides new evidence on the relationship between rural social transformation and transportation infrastructure development. Third, it discusses the impact of transportation investments on rural poverty reduction. The book enhances our understanding of the changes in travel behavior of rural residents. In particular, the results of the multi-source big data analysis will provide new evidence on the link between social transformation and changes in travel behavior in rural China. It also helps planners and politicians to develop policies aimed at improving quality of life, rural poverty, and the efficiency of transportation investments in rural areas. The book is of great interest to scholars interested in rural transformation and development, sustainable transport, regional planning, and environmental policy and is relevant to China and other developing countries.

High Accuracy Surface Modeling Method: The Robustness

This book focuses on the robustness analysis of high accuracy surface modeling method (HASM) to yield good performance of it. Understanding the sensitivity and uncertainty is important in model applications. The book aims to advance an integral framework for assessing model error that can demonstrate robustness across sets of possible controls, variable definitions, standard error, algorithm structure, and functional forms. It is an essential reference to the most promising numerical models. In areas where there is less certainty about models, but also high expectations of transparency, robustness analysis should aspire to be as broad as possible. This book also contains a chapter at the end featuring applications in climate simulation illustrating different implementations of HASM in surface modeling. The book is helpful for people involved in geographical information science, ecological informatics, geography, earth observation, and planetary surface modeling.

Towards Sustainable Cities in China: Analysis and Assessment of Some Chinese Cities in 2008 (SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science)

To promote China’s sustainable city construction and development, this Brief has preliminarily used an assessment indicator system and development index of a sustainable city, based on a summary and analysis of the existing Sustainable City theories and practices both at home and aboard. Meanwhile, mainly based on the data from 2008, this Brief has made a tentative assessment of the development level of Sustainable City in some major Chinese cities.

The Economics and Politics of China’s Energy Security Transition

The Economics and Politics of China’s Energy Security Transition clarifies China’s energy and foreign policies through a comprehensive examination of energy sources, providing an insider’s unique perspective for assessing China’s energy policies. China’s historic decline in coal consumption since 2013-2014 and a plateauing of its carbon dioxide emissions have given China an unprecedented opportunity to decarbonize while growing its economy. In response to global questions about China’s institutional, administrative, and political challenges and risks, this book provides the answers that everyone is asking. Provides a rare assessment of China’s energy policies and reveals insights into the Chinese governmentDevotes attention to issues of global energy governance and energy sanctionsIncludes data and reference content suitable for researchers in economics, sustainability, energy policy, geopolitics and political science

Transparent Soil Modelling Technique and Its Application (Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering)

This book systematically introduces the advancement of transparent soil modelling technique and its application. The transparent soil modelling technique provides an essential tool for visualizing soil-structure interaction and other geotechnical problems such as grouting, soil plugging. The geotechnical properties of the newest transparent soils were reported on model sand, clay and rock. In addition, more advanced image processing methods were summarized. In this book, numerous applications of transparent soil modelling techniques for different geotechnical problems were presented, and the results obtained are supplemented by numerical calculation and theoretical analysis.

Multiscale Seismic Tomography (Springer Geophysics)

This book on multiscale seismic tomography, written by one of the leaders in the field, is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and professionals in Earth and planetary sciences who need to broaden their horizons about seismotectonics, volcanism, and interior structure and dynamics of the Earth and Moon. It describes the state-of-the-art in seismic tomography, with emphasis on the new findings obtained by applying tomographic methods in local, regional, and global scales for understanding the generating mechanism of large and great earthquakes such as the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0), crustal and upper mantle structure, origin of active arc volcanoes and intraplate volcanoes including hotspots, heterogeneous structure of subduction zones, fate of subducting slabs, origin of mantle plumes, mantle convection, and deep Earth dynamics. The first lunar tomography and its implications for the mechanism of deep moonquakes and lunar evolution are also introduced.

A Brief Overview of China’s ETS Pilots: Deconstruction and Assessment of Guangdong’s Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Mechanism

This book systematically introduces readers to the framework of China’s ETS pilots, exploring their design and operating process, the current state of the carbon market, and various barriers encountered. To do so, it deconstructs the Guangdong ETS, which is the largest and most representative of China’s seven ETS pilots. The book subsequently describes and evaluates all seven pilots in terms of their efficiency, macro and micro effects, the method involved in the DEA model, the CGE model, and cost-benefit analysis. In turn, in the assessment section it demonstrates how some ETS pilots have failed to control carbon emissions due to inordinately high emissions quotas issued by the local government etc. Further, it argues that ETS should focus on those industries with large emissions and high mitigating potential for the time being, and then gradually expand the scale of its coverage.As China’s national ETS is slated for launch on the basis of the lessons learned from the ETS pilots, the book offers a timely and valuable resource for all those who want to understand and forecast the development of China’s ETS. It includes a wealth of descriptions and explanations of Chinese government policies involving carbon emissions control, making it a unique resource.

Convective and Advective Heat Transfer in Geological Systems (Advances in Geophysical and Environmental Mechanics and Mathematics)

Fundamentals of Computational Geoscience: Numerical Methods and Algorithms (Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences #122)

Geoscience is a fundamental natural science discipline dealing with the origin, evolutionary history and behaviour of the planet Earth. As a result of its complicated and complex nature, the Earth system not only provides the necessary materials and environment for mankind to live, but also brings many types of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, ?oods and tornadoes, to mention just a few. With the ever-increasing demand for improving our living standards, it has been recognized that the existing natural resources will be exhausted in the near future and that our living environments are, in fact, deteriorating. To maintain the sustainable development of our living standards and the further improvement of our living environments, an inevitable and challenging task that geoscientists are now confronting is how accurately to predict not only the occurrences of these natural disasters, but also the locations of large concealed natural resources in the deep Earth. For this reason, geoscientists must study the processes, rules and laws, by which the Earth system operates, instead of simply describing and observing g- science phenomena.

Dynamic and Transient Infinite Elements: Theory and Geophysical, Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Applications (Advances in Geophysical and Environmental Mechanics and Mathematics)

This book presents state-of-the-art theory and the application of dynamic and transient infinite elements for simulating the far fields of infinite domains involved in many of scientific and engineering problems.

Physical and Chemical Dissolution Front Instability in Porous Media: Theoretical Analyses and Computational Simulations (Lecture Notes in Earth System Sciences)

This monograph provides state-of-the-art theoretical and computational findings from investigations on physical and chemical dissolution front instability problems in porous media, based on the author’s own work. Although numerical results are provided to complement theoretical ones, the focus of this monograph is on the theoretical aspects of the topic and those presented in this book are applicable to a wide range of scientific and engineering problems involving the instability of nonlinear dynamic systems. To appeal to a wider readership, common mathematical notations are used to derive the theoretical solutions. The book can be used either as a useful textbook for postgraduate students or as a valuable reference book for computational scientists, mathematicians, engineers and geoscientists.

Bioenergy and Land Use Change (Geophysical Monograph Series #231)

Although bioenergy is a renewable energy source, it is not without impact on the environment. Both the cultivation of crops specifically for use as biofuels and the use of agricultural byproducts to generate energy changes the landscape, affects ecosystems, and impacts the climate. Bioenergy and Land Use Change focuses on regional and global assessments of land use change related to bioenergy and the environmental impacts. This interdisciplinary volume provides both high level reviews and in-depth analyses on specific topics. Volume highlights include: Land use change concepts, economics, and modeling Relationships between bioenergy and land use change Impacts on soil carbon, soil health, water quality, and the hydrologic cycle Impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services Effects of bioenergy on direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions Biogeochemical and biogeophysical climate regulation Uncertainties and challenges associated with land use change quantification and environmental impact assessments Bioenergy and Land Use Change is a valuable resource for professionals, researchers, and graduate students from a wide variety of fields including energy, economics, ecology, geography, agricultural science, geoscience, and environmental science. Read an interview with the editors to find out more:https://eos.org/editors-vox/bioenergys-impacts-on-the-landscape

Patterns and Mechanisms of Climate, Paleoclimate and Paleoenvironmental Changes from Low-Latitude Regions: Proceedings of the 1st Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG-1), Tunisia 2018 (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)

Middle East and Mediterranean region locates at a crossroad of global climatic patterns. The region is under the influence of a convergence of different maritime conditions which together with extensive adjacent land masses marked by extreme differences in topographical features transporting continental air masses lead to a diverse climate. This edited volume is based on the best papers accepted for presentation during the 1st Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG-1), Tunisia 2018. It gives new insights on patterns and mechanisms of past, present and future climate/environmental changes mainly on Middle East and Mediterranean region by international researchers. The book is of interest to all researchers in the fields of climate, paleo-climate and paleo-environmental studies. Main topics include: • Spatio-temporal Patterns of Climate Change • Sea Level Variability • Climate Change Impacts and Migration Schemes • Paleoclimate Evolution • Paleoenvironmental Evolution

New Prospects in Environmental Geosciences and Hydrogeosciences: Proceedings of the 2nd Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG-2), Tunisia 2019 (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)

This edited book gives a general overview on current research, focusing on geoenvironmental issues and challenges in hydrogeosciences in model regions in Asia, Europe, and America, with a focus on the Middle East and Mediterranean region and surrounding areas. This proceedings book is based on the accepted papers for oral/poster presentations at the 2nd Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG-2), Tunisia 2019. It offers a broad range of recent studies that discuss the latest advances in geoenvironmental and hydrogeosciences from diverse backgrounds including climate change, geoecology, biogeochemistry, water resources management, and environmental monitoring and assessment. It shares insights on how the understanding of ecological, climatological, oceanic and hydrological processes is the key for improving practices in environment management, including the eco-responsibility, scientific integrity, and social and ethical dimensions. It is of interest to scientists, engineers, practitioners, and policymakers in the field of environmental sciences including climatology, oceanography, ecology, biogeochemistry, environmental management, hydrology, hydrogeology, and geosciences in general. In particular, this book is of great value to students and environment-related professionals for further investigations on the state of Earth systems.

Multivariate Time Series Analysis in Climate and Environmental Research

This book offers comprehensive information on the theory, models and algorithms involved in state-of-the-art multivariate time series analysis and highlights several of the latest research advances in climate and environmental science. The main topics addressed include Multivariate Time-Frequency Analysis, Artificial Neural Networks, Stochastic Modeling and Optimization, Spectral Analysis, Global Climate Change, Regional Climate Change, Ecosystem and Carbon Cycle, Paleoclimate, and Strategies for Climate Change Mitigation. The self-contained guide will be of great value to researchers and advanced students from a wide range of disciplines: those from Meteorology, Climatology, Oceanography, the Earth Sciences and Environmental Science will be introduced to various advanced tools for analyzing multivariate data, greatly facilitating their research, while those from Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, and the Computer Sciences will learn how to use these multivariate time series analysis tools to approach climate and environmental topics.

3D Dynamic Scene Analysis: A Stereo Based Approach (Springer Series in Information Sciences #27)

he problem of analyzing sequences of images to extract three-dimensional T motion and structure has been at the heart of the research in computer vi­ sion for many years. It is very important since its success or failure will determine whether or not vision can be used as a sensory process in reactive systems. The considerable research interest in this field has been motivated at least by the following two points: 1. The redundancy of information contained in time-varying images can over­ come several difficulties encountered in interpreting a single image. 2. There are a lot of important applications including automatic vehicle driv­ ing, traffic control, aerial surveillance, medical inspection and global model construction. However, there are many new problems which should be solved: how to effi­ ciently process the abundant information contained in time-varying images, how to model the change between images, how to model the uncertainty inherently associated with the imaging system and how to solve inverse problems which are generally ill-posed. There are of course many possibilities for attacking these problems and many more remain to be explored. We discuss a few of them in this book based on work carried out during the last five years in the Computer Vision and Robotics Group at INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique).

Pelton Turbines

This book concerns the theoretical foundations of hydro mechanics of Pelton turbines from a viewpoint of engineering. For reference purposes all relevant flow processes and hydraulic aspects in a Pelton turbine have been analyzed completely and systematically. The analyses especially include the quantification of all possible losses existing in the Pelton turbine and the indication of most available potential for further enhancing the system efficiency. As a guideline the book therefore supports further developments of Pelton turbines with regard to their hydraulic designs and optimizations. It is thus suitable for the development and design engineers as well as those working in the field of turbo machinery. Many laws described in the book can also be directly used to simplify aspects of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or to develop new computational methods. The well-executed examples help better understanding the related flow mechanics.

Hydraulic Transients and Computations

This book describes the fundamental phenomena of, and computational methods for, hydraulic transients, such as the self-stabilization effect, restriction of the Joukowsky equation, real relations between the rigid and elastic water column theories, the role of wave propagation speed, mechanism of the attenuation of pressure fluctuations, etc. A new wave tracking method is described in great detail and, supported by the established conservation and traveling laws of shockwaves, offers a number of advantages. The book puts forward a novel method that allows transient flows to be directly computed at each time node during a transient process, and explains the differences and relations between the rigid and elastic water column theories. To facilitate their use in hydropower applications, the characteristics of pumps and turbines are provided in suitable forms and examples. The book offers a valuable reference guide for engineers and scientists, helping them make transient computations for their own programming, while also contributing to the final standardization of methods for transient computations.