In recent years, much work has been done in formulating and clarifying the concept of sustainable development and related theoretical and research issues. Now, the challenge has shifted to designing and stimulating processes of effective planning and decision-making, at all levels of human activity, in such a way as to achieve local and global sustainable development. Information technology can help a great deal in achieving sustainable development by providing well-designed and useful tools for decision makers. One such tool is the decision support system, or DSS. This book explores the area of DSS in the context of sustainable development. As DSS is a very new technique, especially in the developing world, this book will serve as a reference text, primarily for managers, government officials, and information professionals in developing countries. It covers the concept of sustainable development, defines DSS and how it can be used in the planning and management of sustainable development, and examines the state of the art in DSS use. Other interested readers will include students, teachers, and analysts in information sciences; DSS designers, developers, and implementors; and international development agencies.

The major challenges of the 21st century faced by human beings are how to achieve water security, food security, energy security and environmental security. Owing to enhanced natural/anthropogenic disasters worldwide, these challenges become much more complicated and daunting especially for developing countries. Therefore, it is important to highlight the risk of different disasters as well as the modern tools and techniques for minimizing disaster incidence and losses. Disaster management being highly multidisciplinary in nature, a comprehensive book dealing with different aspects of disaster management, and encompassing important disasters faced by humankind is presently not available. This book is an attempt to fulfill this gap. It provides clear, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about different facets of disaster management along with salient case studies. The book highlights the current status of disaster management focusing on developing nations, discusses vital issues such as climate change and sustainable development, modern approaches and tools/techniques, and the challenges of and future R&D needs for sustainable disaster management.

Confronting Climate Uncertainty in Water Resources Planning and Project Design describes an approach to facing two fundamental and unavoidable issues brought about by climate change uncertainty in water resources planning and project design. The first is a risk assessment problem. The second relates to risk management. This book provides background on the risks relevant in water systems planning, the different approaches to scenario definition in water system planning, and an introduction to the decision-scaling methodology upon which the decision tree is based. The decision tree is described as a scientifically defensible, repeatable, direct and clear method for demonstrating the robustness of a project to climate change. While applicable to all water resources projects, it allocates effort to projects in a way that is consistent with their potential sensitivity to climate risk. The process was designed to be hierarchical, with different stages or phases of analysis triggered based on the findings of the previous phase. An application example is provided followed by a descriptions of some of the tools available for decision making under uncertainty and methods available for climate risk management. The tool was designed for the World Bank but can be applicable in other scenarios where similar challenges arise.

This book presents a number of modeling studies of various water resources systems in the humid tropics and the typical short, steep mountain-to-coast systems in the archipelagic setting of the Philippines. Covering natural and rural systems, urban watersheds and built systems, such as reservoirs and flood control systems, it discusses modeling studies based on pure simulation and combined optimization-simulation. The book offers insights into real-world water resources modeling, and as such is a valuable resource for academics and practitioners in the Philippines, as well as those in other Asian regions with similar water resources systems, and similar issues, problems and concerns.

The protection of water resources from deterioration in quality by pollution discharges is probably the biggest challenge in sustainable water resources management in the recent decades. In practice, most countries have adopted pollution control strategies and measures which are based on ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions: wastewater treatment plants and adjustments to the regulations, including taxes for wastewater discharges (Conventional Strategy). Although this approach involves very high costs, on many occasions, this strategy has been a complete failure. The research described in this book contribute to the development of sustainable solutions for the previously outlined problem. It was based on the validation of the Three-Step Strategic Approach concept (3-SSA), which includes: 1) prevention or minimisation of waste production; 2) treatment aimed at recovery and reuse of waste components, and 3) disposal of remaining waste with stimulation of natural self-purification of the receiving water body. The study showed overall positive effects of the 3-SSA, in comparison of Conventional Strategy, on wastewater management in the Upper Basin (389 km) of the Cauca river, the second most important river in Colombia. The Cost Benefit Analysis clearly favoured the 3-SSA, generating a major impact on the river water quality at lower cost compared to the Conventional Strategy.

This two-volume set (CCIS 158 and CCIS 159) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Workshop on Computer Science for Environmental Engineering and EcoInformatics, CSEEE 2011, held in Kunming, China, in July 2011. The 150 revised full papers presented in both volumes were carefully reviewed and selected from a large number of submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on computational intelligence; computer simulation; computing practices and applications; ecoinformatics; image processing information retrieval; pattern recognition; wireless communication and mobile computing; artificial intelligence and pattern classification; computer networks and Web; computer software, data handling and applications; data communications; data mining; data processing and simulation; information systems; knowledge data engineering; multimedia applications.