This open access book highlights Singapore’s development into a city in which water and greenery, along with associated environmental, technical, social and political aspects have been harnessed and cultivated into a liveable sustainable way of life. It is also a story about a unique and thoroughgoing approach to large-scale and potentially transferable water sustainability, within largely urbanized circumstances, which can be achieved, along with complementary roles of environmental conservation, ecology, public open-space management and the greening of buildings, together with infrastructural improvements.

The traditional patterns of land use that have created many of the world's cultural landscapes contribute to biodiversity, support ecological processes, provide important environmental services, and have proven sustainable over the centuries. Protected landscapes can serve as living models of sustainable use of land and resources, and offer important lessons for sustainable development. Examples of these landscapes and the diverse strategies needed to maintain this essential relationship between people and the land are provided.

This volume offers comprehensive 'state-of-the-art' overviews of educational policies concerning the teaching of English in a large number of Asian countries. Each contribution is written by a leading expert and gives a clear assessment of current policies and future trends. Starting with a description of the English education policies in the respective countries, the contributors then delve into the 'nuts and bolts' of the English education policies and how they play out in practice in the education system, in schools, in the curriculum, and in teaching. Topics covered include the balance between the acquisition of English and the national language, political, cultural, economic and technical factors that strengthen or weaken the learning of English.

"Themed spaces have, at their foundation, an overarching narrative, symbolic complex, or story that drives the overall context of their spaces. Theming, in some very unique ways, has expanded beyond previous stereotypes and oversimplifications of culture and place to now consider new and often controversial topics, themes, and storylines."--Publisher's website.

Energy recovery from waste resources holds a significant role in the sustainable waste management hierarchy to support the concept of circular economies and to mitigate the challenges of waste originated problems of sanitation, environment, and public health. Today, waste disposal to landfills is the most widely used methodology, particularly in developing countries, because of limited budgets and lack of efficient infrastructure and facilities to maintain efficient and practical global standards. As a consequence, the dump-sites or non-sanitary landfills have become the significant sources of greenhouse gases emissions, soil and water contamination, unpleasant odors, leachate, and disease spreading vectors, flies, and rodents. However, waste can be utilized to produce a range of potential products such as energy, fuels and value-added products under waste biorefineries. A holistic and quantitative view, such as waste biorefinery, on waste management must be linked to the actual country, taking into account its socio-economic situation, local waste sources, and composition, as well as the available markets for the recovered energy and products. Therefore, it is critical to understand that solutions cannot be just copied from one region to the others. In fact, all waste handling, transportation, and treatment can represent a burden to the cities’ environment and macro and micro economics, except for the benefits obtained from recovered materials and energy. Equally significant is a clear and quantitative understanding of the industrial, and public potential of utilizing recovered materials and energy in the markets as these can be reached without exacerbating the environmental issues using excessive transport. The book explores new advancements and discoveries on the development of emerging waste-to-energy technologies, practical implementation, and lessons learned from sustainable wastemanagement practices under waste biorefinery concept, which will accelerate the growth of circular economies in the world. The articles presented in this book have been written by expert researchers and academics working in institutions at different countries across the world including Germany, Greece, Japan, South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, and India. The research articles have been arranged into three main subject categories; 1) Resource recovery from waste, 2) Waste to energy technologies and 3) Waste biorefineries. This book will serve as an important resource for research students, academics, industry, policy makers, and government agencies working in the field of integrated waste management, energy and resource recovery, waste to energy technologies, waste biorefineries etc. The editorial team of this book is very grateful to all the authors for their excellent contributions and making the book successful.

This book focuses on the cultural challenges often faced by international managers and global business operations. In the last few decades, the world has witnessed unprecedented economic turmoil, volatility, and uncertainty which has altered the political dynamics and sociocultural landscape around the globe and directly or indirectly affected international business activities. Further, new markets have opened up in every corner of the world. Brazil, Russia, India, and China, collectively known as BRIC, are strong emerging economic powers similar to the once captivated ‘Asian Tigers’ such as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan which rose decades ago. The emergence of these markets has heightened both the opportunities and challenges for national and international businesses. Multinational firms are gradually expanding in the emerging markets and are expected to become giants in the foreseeable future. As they expand, they also need to assume increasing social responsibilities in a global context, and it is important that the ways business is conducted are developed accordingly. As such, understanding the practices, challenges, and strategies that companies have developed is critical to global firm’s success. Against this background, the book highlights the importance of understanding cultural elements when managing multicultural human behaviors in the workplace. Based on conceptual and empirical work, it pushes the frontiers of knowledge of this emerging field in international business setup and management, and explores how globalization is changing the way in which multinational firms formulate their business strategies. “The editors of this text bring a wealth of expertise in this area, as is evidenced by their choice of topics, and the strength of the experts they have invited to contribute to the book. The combined chapters provide both strategic guidance as well as a focus on operational concerns that may arise in international business including expatriation and human resource mobility. The authors not only correctly identify the oncoming challenges, but also present evidence regarding the likely solutions such as culture and innovation and global change management. Overall, this book will be a tremendous resource for scholars in the international business field, but I believe the audience will be much wider. The international team of editors and authors bring a wide range of perspective as well as real-world contextual knowledge that will be useful for scholars and practitioners who seek to leverage culture and human capital to advance international business and drive the global economy. I applaud the editors for their vision and leadership in guiding us through one of the most challenging contemporary research areas and through one of the most pressing challenges of our day.” -Dr. Richard L. Griffith, Executive Director, Institute for Cross Cultural Management, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA