Ongoing landscape transformation worldwide has raised global concerns and there is a need to rethink landscaping to protect the environment. This is especially true for previously developed sites, currently abandoned or underused. Instead of consuming green lands, these derelict landscapes need to be redeveloped and given new life, enabling their transition to an increasingly sustainable urban setting. In this scenario, the present book, considers a set of subjects that highlight the diverse nature of the scientific domains associated with landscape reclamation, emphasizing the need to acknowledge that the contribution of each sustainability dimension is equally important. This will offer complementary development opportunities, while enabling redeveloped landscapes to fulfill multiple functions in an integrated way and underline the relevance of multifunctionality to promote sustainable landscape reclamation, planning, and development.

A critical and interdisciplinary exploration of our world's continuously urbanizing and expanding coastline. For centuries, cities have grown and expanded onto previously saturated grounds; "reclaiming" land from estuaries, marshes, mangroves, and seabeds. While these artificial coastlines are sites of tremendous real estate, civic, and infrastructural investments, they are also the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Terra-Sorta-Firma documents the global extent of reclaimed coastal lands, and provides a framework for comparison across varying geographies, cultures, and histories. It renders visible the ubiquity and precarity of urban coastal reclamation in an age of increased environmental and economic indeterminacy. It challenges designers, developers, policymakers, engineers, and urbanists to reconsider the design and construction of land itself, and to re-imagine this most fundamental of all infrastructures along a gradient of inundation.

Land Reclamation and Restoration Strategies for Sustainable Development: Geospatial Technology Based Approach, Volume Ten covers spatial mapping, modeling and risk assessment in land hazards issues and sustainable management. Each section in the book explores state-of-art techniques using commercial, open source and statistical software for mapping and modeling, along with case studies that illustrate modern image processing techniques and computational algorithms. A special focus is given on recent trends in data mining techniques. This book will be of particular interest to students, researchers and professionals in the fields of earth science, applied geography, and those in the environmental sciences. - Demonstrates a geoinformatics approach to data mining techniques, data analysis, modeling, risk assessment, visualization, and management strategies in different aspects of land use, hazards and reclamation - Covers land contamination problems, including effects on agriculture, forestry, and coastal and wetland areas - Suggests specific techniques of remediation - Explores state-of-art techniques based on commercial, open source, and statistical software for mapping and modeling using modern image processing techniques and computational algorithm

Land contamination is of global concern with many of the world’s industries potentially harming the environment and human health. Along with rapidly changing policy and technological developments, this is an interdisciplinary area in which successful contaminated land management depends on the expertise of and interaction between a number of scientific and engineering disciplines. Reclamation of Contaminated Land takes into account the different groups involved in contaminated land management and offers a flexible learning approach based on practical experience and research. It presents an overview of the general skills and knowledge required, encompassing both general management and regulatory practice and specific land contamination issues. Divided into two parts, Part I discusses site characterisation and the design of site investigations, and the central role of conceptual models and risk assessment in decision making. Part II discusses how risks from contaminated land are managed and the role of different remediation approaches to achieving this. This book is of great value for 2nd/3rd/4th year undergraduates and MSc students in Environmental Science, Environmental Technology, Environmental Management, Geography, Geology, Estate and Land Management. It is also key reading for undergraduates and MSc students in Chemical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering and Environmental Chemistry, as well as professional planners and developers, and local authorities.

First practical but in-depth exploration of how to reclaim the post-industrial landscape Draws on work of well-known think tank on reclamation practice, based at Harvard Excellent case studies by practitioners and policy makers from around the United States illustrate the book in practical terms.

Soils and Landscape Restoration provides a multidisciplinary synthesis on the sustainable management and restoration of soils in various landscapes. The book presents applicable knowledge of above- and below-ground interactions and biome specific realizations along with in-depth investigations of particular soil degradation pathways. It focuses on severely degraded soils (e.g., eroded, salinized, mined) as well as the restoration of wetlands, grasslands and forests. The book addresses the need to bring together current perspectives on land degradation and restoration in soil science and restoration ecology to better incorporate soil-based information when restoration plans are formulated. - Incudes a chapter on climate change and novel ecosystems, thus collating the perspective of soil scientists and ecologists on this consequential and controversial topic - Connects science to international policy and practice - Includes summaries at the end of each chapter to elucidate principles and key points

This book collects and summarizes current scientific knowledge concerning coal-mined landscapes of the Appalachian region in eastern United States. Containing contributions from authors across disciplines, the book addresses topics relevant to the region’s coal-mining history and its future; its human communities; and the soils, waters, plants, wildlife, and human-use potentials of Appalachia’s coal-mined landscapes. The book provides a comprehensive overview of coal mining’s legacy in Appalachia, USA. It book describes the resources of the Appalachian coalfield, its lands and waters, and its human communities – as they have been left in the aftermath of intensive mining, drawing upon peer-reviewed science and other regional data to provide clear and objective descriptions. By understanding the Appalachian experience, officials and planners in other resource extraction- affected world regions can gain knowledge and perspectives that will aid their own efforts to plan and manage for environmental quality and for human welfare. Appalachia's Coal-Mined Landscapes: Resources and Communities in a New Energy Era will be of use to natural resource managers and scientists within Appalachia and in other world regions experiencing widespread mining, researchers with interest in the region’s disturbance legacy, and economic and community planners concerned with Appalachia’s future.