Frequent drought events have recently occurred in different Mediterranean regions. These have highlighted a general inadequacy of the current strategies applied to mitigate negative impacts of such phenomenon. This book provides various methods of drought monitoring at different spatial scales, as well as innovative drought forecasting techniques based on stochastic approaches. Besides common drought indices (i.e. SPI), new agrometeorological indices are proposed.

The second volume of this comprehensive global perspective on Integrated Drought Management is focused on drought modeling, meteorological prediction, and the use of remote sensing in assessing, analyzing, and monitoring drought. It discusses risk management, planning, policy, and societal impacts of drought such as water pricing, water transfer, water quality, and crop insurance. Through numerous case studies from India, Iran, Brazil, the US, Nepal, and other countries that cover a broad range of topics and geographical regions, this volume serves as a valuable resource for all professionals, researchers, and academics who want to advance their knowledge about droughts. Features Provides a global perspective on drought prediction and management and a synthesis of the recent state of knowledge. Covers a wide range of topics from essential concepts and advanced techniques for forecasting and modeling drought to societal impacts, consequences, and planning Presents numerous case studies with different management approaches from different regions and countries. Addresses how climate change impacts drought, the increasing challenges associated with managing drought, decision-making, and policy implications. Includes contributions from hundreds of experts from around the world. Professionals, researchers, academics, and postgraduate students with knowledge in environmental sciences, ecology, agriculture, forestry, hydrology, water resources engineering, and earth sciences, as well as those interested in how climate change impacts drought management, will gain new insights from the experts featured in this two-volume handbook.

Explore the classic and cutting-edge quantitative methods for understanding environmental science research Based on the multifaceted 16-volume Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Second Edition, Methods and Applications of Statistics in the Atmospheric and Earth Sciences offers guidance on the application of statistical methods for conducting research in these fields of study. With contributions from more than 100 leading experts in academia and industry, this volume combines key articles from the Encyclopedia with newly developed topics addressing some of the more critical issues, including pollution, droughts, and volcanic activity. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of cutting-edge methods for the acquisition and analysis of data across a wide range of subject areas, from geophysics, geology, and biogeography to meteorology, forestry, agriculture, animal science, and ornithology. The book features new and updated content on quantitative methods and their use in understanding the latest topics in social research, including: Drought Analysis and Forecasting Childhood Obesity Ranked Set Sampling Methodology for Environmental Data Species Richness and Shared Species Richness Geographic Information Systems Each contribution offers authoritative yet easily accessible coverage of statistical concepts. With updated references and discussion of emerging topics, readers are provided with the various statistical methods, techniques, strategies, and applications that are essential for tackling critical issues in environmental science research. Featuring a balance of classical and cutting-edge methodologies, Methods and Applications of Statistics in the Atmospheric and Earth Sciences is an excellent resource for researchers, professionals, and students in the fields of sociology, psychology, philosophy, education, political science, and the related disciplines who would like to learn about the uses of statistics in gathering, reporting, and analyzing data.

This volume includes over 30 chapters, written by experts from around the world. It examines numerous management strategies for dealing with drought and scarcity. These strategies include management approaches for different regions, such as coastal, urban, rural, and agricultural areas. It offers multiple strategies for monitoring, assessing, and forcasting drought through the use of remote sensing and GIS tools. It also presents drought mitigation management strategies, such as groundwater management, rainwater harvesting, conservations practices, and more.

To plan successfully and manage the increased uncertainties posed by likely future climate change, knowledge needs to advance much more for the water profession beyond what it is now available. Meeting these challenges does not depend exclusively on advances in climatological-hydrologic models. Policies for adaptation and strategies for mitigation measures have to be formulated on the basis of what are likely to be the potential impacts. These will have to be regularly fine-tuned and implemented according to changing needs and as more reliable knowledge and data become available. Even more challenging will be the politics of policy making and implementation, which will require a quantum leap from current policy-making and implementation processes. One can even say that, in addition to the development of more reliable models, the politics of climate change and water management remains one of the greatest uncertainties for the water profession. This book addresses water management practices and how these should and could be modified to cope with climatic and other related uncertainties over the next two to three decades; the types of strategies and good practices that may be available or have to be developed to cope with the current and expected uncertainties in relation to climate change; and the types of knowledge, information and technological developments needed to incorporate possible future climate change impacts within the framework of water resources management. Decision making in the water sector under changing climate and related uncertainties, and societal water security under altering and fluctuating climate are also discussed. Several case studies are included from several basins, cities, regions and countries in both developed and non-developing countries. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 has identified four priority areas for Disaster Risk Reduction: understanding disaster risk; strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response; and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Although tremendous progress has been made in recent decades in understanding the workings of the Earth systems and, in particular, its impacts on and responses to human actions, there remains a continuing and pressing need for knowledge that will allow society to simultaneously reduce exposure to global environmental hazards, while also meeting economic development goals. Exploring Natural Hazards: A Case Study Approach, contributes to the knowledge showcasing advanced practices for the monitoring of natural hazards. Through each case study, the book examines mainly hazards arising from processes within the hydrosphere and atmosphere, triggered or exacerbated by inputs to and transfers of energy between environmental components. It discusses the causes of these phenomena, and ways in which improved policy making, sometimes coupled with the application of appropriate modern technologies, can help to reduce people’s exposure to harm. Discussing challenges, lessons learned and recommendations, this book provides a snapshot of issues related to tropical cyclones and typhoons, desertification, floods, lightning as a hazard and the need for alert systems. It is a valuable resource for practitioners and professionals alike, for researchers, students and others who work at the intersection between environmental hazards, sustainable development and social justice.

Remote Sensing of Climate provides cutting-edge techniques in remote sensing of climate variability and the environment. The book focuses on methods and data analytics, advancements in scientific research in the field, and further proffers recommendations on the possible knowledge gaps and future scientific research directions. It covers eight key themes of remote sensing and climate variability, including discussions on how the various aspects from each chapter of the themes interrelate. It also integrates several divergent perspectives on remote sensing and climate variability and the environment to show the interrelationships between the perspectives. This is an important reference for those in education and research working on remote sensing and climate science who need methods, data analytics, case studies, research strides, and key knowledge gaps in the field. - Discusses advancements and future research directions in remote sensing for climate variability in a variety of environments - Includes simplified and condensed methodologies and data analytics - Provides case studies on remote sensing of climate variability, both of the Northern hemisphere temperate systems which are little affected by climate variability, and the greater-impacted global south

This book approaches the grid computing with a perspective on the latest achievements in the field, providing an insight into the current research trends and advances, and presenting a large range of innovative research papers. The topics covered in this book include resource and data management, grid architectures and development, and grid-enabled applications. New ideas employing heuristic methods from swarm intelligence or genetic algorithm and quantum encryption are considered in order to explain two main aspects of grid computing: resource management and data management. The book addresses also some aspects of grid computing that regard architecture and development, and includes a diverse range of applications for grid computing, including possible human grid computing system, simulation of the fusion reaction, ubiquitous healthcare service provisioning and complex water systems.

This edition of Evapotranspiration - Remote Sensing and Modeling contains 23 chapters related to the modeling and simulation of evapotranspiration (ET) and remote sensing-based energy balance determination of ET. These areas are at the forefront of technologies that quantify the highly spatial ET from the Earth's surface. The topics describe mechanics of ET simulation from partially vegetated surfaces and stomatal conductance behavior of natural and agricultural ecosystems. Estimation methods that use weather based methods, soil water balance, the Complementary Relationship, the Hargreaves and other temperature-radiation based methods, and Fuzzy-Probabilistic calculations are described. A critical review describes methods used in hydrological models. Applications describe ET patterns in alpine catchments, under water shortage, for irrigated systems, under climate change, and for grasslands and pastures. Remote sensing based approaches include Landsat and MODIS satellite-based energy balance, and the common process models SEBAL, METRIC and S-SEBS. Recommended guidelines for applying operational satellite-based energy balance models and for overcoming common challenges are made.