This volume features papers from the First International Conference on Monitoring, Simulation and Remediation of the Geological Environment.

Published to coincide with the Fourth United Nations Environmental Assembly, UN Environment's sixth Global Environment Outlook calls on decision makers to take bold and urgent action to address pressing environmental issues in order to protect the planet and human health. By bringing together hundreds of scientists, peer reviewers and collaborating institutions and partners, the GEO reports build on sound scientific knowledge to provide governments, local authorities, businesses and individual citizens with the information needed to guide societies to a truly sustainable world by 2050. GEO-6 outlines the current state of the environment, illustrates possible future environmental trends and analyses the effectiveness of policies. This flagship report shows how governments can put us on the path to a truly sustainable future - emphasising that urgent and inclusive action is needed to achieve a healthy planet with healthy people. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The focus of this book is on the management of the geoenvironment. It seeks to explain how, through an understanding of the environmental processes that take place in rocks, soils, waters, sediments, air and so on, the resources contained in them could be managed sustainably. Topics covered in the book include: Ecologically-sustainable industrial development; dynamics of the geoenvironment; the impact of mining on rocks, soils, water and biota; the natural radiation environment; the use of geotechnology to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters and the disposal of various kinds of waste, particulary hazardous waste. The models proposed by the World Bank on how to make environemntal amelioration economcially viable are also looked at.

Published to coincide with the Fourth United Nations Environmental Assembly, the Summary for Policymakers of the sixth Global Environment Outlook provides an evidence-based source of environmental information to help policymakers in government, local authorities and businesses achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Since the first edition in 1997, there have been many examples of environmental improvement, especially where problems have been well identified, manageable, and where regulatory and technological solutions have been readily available. Nevertheless, the overall condition of the global environment has deteriorated and urgent action, involving ambitious and effective policies, is necessary to arrest and reverse this situation. This Summary for Policymakers answers key policy questions by assessing the drivers of environmental change, the scale and effectiveness of policy responses, potential pathways for achieving sustainability goals in an increasingly complex world, and the data and information that can support the decision-making process. Also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Geomatics, the handling and processing of information and data about the Earth, is one geoscience discipline that has seen major changes in the last decade, as mapping and observation systems become ever more sensitive and sophisticated. This book is a unique and in-depth survey of the field, which has a central role to play in tackling a host of environmental issues faced by society. Covering all three strands of geomatics - applications, information technology and surveying - the chapters cover the history and background of the subject, the technology employed both to collect and disseminate data, and the varied applications to which geomatics can be put, including urban planning, assessment of biodiversity, disaster management and land administration. Relevant professionals, as well as students in a variety of disciplines such as geography and surveying, will find this book required reading. This rapidly developing field uses increasingly complex and accurate systems. Today, technology enables us to capture geo-data in full 3D as well as to disseminate it via the Web at the speed of light. We are able to continuously image the world from space at resolutions of up to 50 cm. Airborne LiDAR (laser surveying) sensors can be combined with digital camera technology to produce geometrically correct images of the Earth's surface, while integrating these with large-scale topographic maps and terrestrial as well as aerial images to produce 3D cityscapes that computer users can explore from their desktops.

Floods and flash floods with hydro-meteorological and tropical cyclones are the some of the most devastating natural disasters causing massive damages to natural and man-made features. Flood hazards are a major threat to human life, properties (agricultural area, yield production, building and homes) and infrastructures (bridges, roads, railways, urban infrastructures, etc). Flood hazards susceptibility mapping (risk assessment) and modelling is an essential step for early warning systems, emergency services, prevention and mitigation of future environmental and social hazards and implementation of risk management strategies. Due to the lack of proper information, technology-based policies and strategies, mapping and modelling can often not be implemented to the best possible level. Geo-spatial techniques have enjoyed rising interest in recent decades among the earth environmental and social sciences research communities for their powerful ability to solve and understand various complex problems and develop novel approaches toward sustainable earth and human society. By linking geo-spatial computational intelligence techniques with societal and environmental-oriented problems, this book demonstrates geospatial technology approaches to data mining techniques, data analysis, modelling, risk assessment and visualization and management strategies in different aspects of flood hazards. We believe that a diverse group of academics, scientists, geographers, hydrologist, remote sensing and GIS expertise, environmentalists, meteorologists and computing experts with a common interest in geospatial sciences within the earth environmental sciences and humanistic and social sciences will find this book to be of great value.

This volume contains peer-reviewed papers from the Third World Landslide Forum organized by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) in June 2014. The complete collection of papers from the Forum is published in three full-color volumes and one mono-color volume.