"This volume brings together a sampling of research addressing issues of continental intraplate earthquakes, including a core of papers from special sessions held at the spring 2004 Joint Assembly of the American and Canadian Geophysical Unions in Montreal. Papers address the broad related topics of the science, hazard, and policy issues of large continental intraplate earthquakes in a worldwide context. One group of papers addresses aspects of the primary scientific issue--where are these earthquakes and what causes them? Answering this question is crucial to determining whether they will continue there or migrate elsewhere. A second group of papers addresses the challenge of assessing the hazard posed by intraplate earthquakes. Although it may be a very long time before the scientific issues are resolved, the progress being made is helping attempts to estimate the probability, size, and shaking of future earthquakes, and the uncertainty of the results. A third group of papers explores the question of how society should mitigate the possible effects of future large continental intraplate earthquakes. Communities around the world face the challenge of deciding how to address this rare, but real, hazard, given the wide range of other societal needs. Continental intraplate earthquakes will remain a challenge to seismologists, earthquake engineers, policy makers, and the public for years to come, but significant progress toward understanding and addressing this challenge is now being made."--Publisher's website.

Find out where rain comes from and what geysers look like! Read about soil becoming too salty and why greenhouse gases are increasing. Did you know that fog is a cloud sitting on the ground and that ice can tell you about the environment of millions of years ago? And what is lightning anyway? Australian Backyard Earth Scientist is full of fantastic photos and fascinating information that help explain different aspects of earth science - a science that discovered how old the Earth is, what fossils tell us, how mountains were created, what causes earthquakes, what the difference between weather and climate is, and why glaciers are melting. From the beginnings of the planet through to climate change, 'Australian Backyard Earth Scientist' includes interesting and fun facts and projects help develop an understanding and appreciation - like making your own fossils, collecting cloud types, and using tree rings to find out about past weather. Young readers can discover the influences that have fashioned our earth - and are still acting to change it.

Given its geographical proximity to Asia and its close alliance with the West, Australia, amid the rise of Asian economies, needs to re-formulate its policies on trade, investment and security. Over the years, in making decisions on issues relating to trade, investment and security, the Australian government has often resorted to the notion of 'national interest'. This book attempts to analyse ‘national interest’ from the perspectives of economics, finance, international trade, foreign direct investment, international relations, energy resources, and migration in the context of Australia in the Asian century.Currently, there are no multidisciplinary books on the Australian ‘national interest’. This book fills the gap with a broad and integrated approach in examining the subject. Academics, researchers, and students of various disciplines (such as economics, finance, international relations, international trade, foreign direct investment and Asian studies), policy advisors, government agencies, financial institutions, and trade law practitioners from around the world will find this book useful and stimulating.

This report is the second in a series that examines the role of natural forests and woodlands in the storage of carbon. Understanding the role of natural ecosystems in carbon storage is an important part of solving the climate change problem. This report presents a landscape-wide green carbon account of the `Great Western Woodlands¿ (GWW), sixteen million hectares of mostly contiguous natural woody vegetation to the east of the wheatbelt in south-western Western Australia. For the first time, we provide an overview of the vegetation structure, climate, geology and historical land use of the GWW, and examine how these interact to affect the carbon dynamics of this region¿s landscape ecosystems. An analysis of time-series of satellite imagery is used to develop a fire history of the GWW since the 1970s. These layers of environmental information, along with field survey data and remotely sensed greenness, are used to construct a spatial model to estimate biomass carbon stocks of the woodlands at the present day, and to infer an upper limit to the carbon sequestration potential of the GWW. A range of management options to enable protection of high quality carbon stocks and restoration of degraded stocks are evaluated.

Remote sensing of our environment is becoming increasingly accessible and important in today’s society. This book aims to highlight some of the broad and multi-disciplinary applications, and emerging practices, that remote sensing and photogrammetric technologies lend themselves to. The papers have been selected from the 13th and 14th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conferences given by experts in remote sensing, spatial analysis and photogrammetry from across the Asia Pacific region. They are presented here as a collection of peer reviewed papers covering research into areas such as data fusion techniques and their applications in environmental monitoring, synoptic monitoring and data processing, terrestrial and marine applications of remote sensing, and photogrammetry.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this practical guide to cyber law the law affecting information and communication technology (ICT) in Australia covers every aspect of the subject, including intellectual property rights in the ICT sector, relevant competition rules, drafting and negotiating ICT-related contracts, electronic transactions, privacy issues, and computer crime. Lawyers who handle transnational matters will appreciate the detailed explanation of specific characteristics of practice and procedure. Following a general introduction, the book assembles its information and guidance in seven main areas of practice: the regulatory framework of the electronic communications market; software protection, legal protection of databases or chips, and other intellectual property matters; contracts with regard to software licensing and network services, with special attention to case law in this area; rules with regard to electronic evidence, regulation of electronic signatures, electronic banking, and electronic commerce; specific laws and regulations with respect to the liability of network operators and service providers and related product liability; protection of individual persons in the context of the processing of personal data and confidentiality; and the application of substantive criminal law in the area of ICT. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable time-saving tool for business and legal professionals alike. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Australia will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative law in this relatively new and challenging field.