"The world belongs to us now. The humans were amazing, but their day has passed. Oh, there's still a few of them out there, trying to take back the world they squandered. But without claws? Without fur? Without scent? Heh. Good luck to 'em." Thirteen shared-world tales of future fantasy and solarpunk from some of the brightest stars of anthropomorphic literature. After calamity and a new dark age, humans return from their flying cities to reclaim the Earth from the sentient animals that are its new inhabitants. Love and danger, power and promise, and a world to win or lose in the balance

In the arid American West, settlement was generally contingent on the availability of water to irrigate crops and maintain livestock and human residents. Early irrigation projects were usually the cooperative efforts of pioneer farmers, but by the early twentieth century they largely reflected federal intentions to create new farms out of the western public domain. The Yuma Reclamation Project, authorized in 1904, was one of the earliest federal irrigation projects initiated in the western United States and the first authorized on the Colorado River. Its story exemplifies the range of difficulties associated with settling the nation’s final frontier—the remaining irrigable lands in the arid West, including Indian lands—and illuminates some of the current issues and conflicts concerning the Colorado River. Author Robert Sauder’s detailed, meticulously researched examination of the Yuma Project illustrates the complex multiplicity of problems and challenges associated with the federal government’s attempt to facilitate homesteading in the arid West. He examines the history of settlement along the lower Colorado River from earliest times, including the farming of the local Quechan people and the impact of Spanish colonization, and he reviews the engineering problems that had to be resolved before an industrial irrigation scheme could be accomplished. The study also sheds light on myriad unanticipated environmental, economic, and social challenges that the government had to confront in bringing arid lands under irrigation, including the impact on the Native American population of the region.The Yuma Reclamation Project is an original and significant contribution to our understanding of federal reclamation endeavors in the West. It provides new and fascinating information about the history of the Yuma Valley and, as a case study of irrigation policy, it offers compelling insights into the history and consequences of water manipulation in the arid West.

Without proper hydraulic fill and suitable specialised equipment, many major infrastructure projects such as ports, airports, roads, industrial or housing projects could not be realised. Yet comprehensive information about hydraulic fill is difficult to find. This thoroughly researched book, written by noted experts, takes the reader step-by-step through the complex development of a hydraulic fill project. Up-to-date and in-depth, this manual will enable the client and his consultant to understand and properly plan a reclamation project. It provides adequate guidelines for design and quality control and allows the contractor to work within known and generally accepted guidelines and reasonable specifications. The ultimate goal is to create better-designed, more adequately specified and less costly hydraulic fill projects. The Hydraulic Fill Manual covers a range of topics such as: • The development cycle of a hydraulic fill project • How technical data are acquired and applied • The construction methods applicable to a wide variety of equipment and soil conditions, the capabilities of dredging equipment and the techniques of soil improvement • How to assess the potentials of a borrow pit • Essential environment assessment issues • The design of the hydraulic fill mass, including the boundary conditions for the design, effects of the design on its surroundings, the strength and stiffness of the fill mass, density, sensitivity to liquefaction, design considerations for special fill material such as silts, clays and carbonate sands, problematic subsoils and natural hazards • Quality control and monitoring of the fill mass and its behaviour after construction. This manual is of particular interest to clients, consultants, planning and consenting authorities, environmental advisors, contractors and civil, geotechnical, hydraulic and coastal engineers involved in dredging and land reclamation projects.

A former WWII pilot, battling a grave illness, teaches his son 9 unforgettable lessons about transforming all our adversities, setbacks and losses into wealth of every kind.