The Arid Frontier

The Arid Frontier
Author: Hendrik J. Bruins
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401148880

The arid frontier has been a challenge for humanity from time immemorial. Drylands cover more than one-third of the global land surface, distributed over Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Southern Europe. Disasters may develop as a result of complex interactions between drought, desertification and society. Therefore, proactive planning and interactive management, including disaster-coping strategies, are essential in dealing with arid-frontier development. This book presents a conceptual framework with case studies in dryland development and management. The option of a rational and ethical discourse for development that is beneficial for both the environment and society is emphasized, avoiding extreme environmentalism and human destructionism, combating both desertification and human livelihood insecurity. Such development has to be based on appropriate ethics, legislation, policy, proactive planning and interactive management. Excellent scholars address these issues, focusing on the principal interactions between people and dryland environments in terms of drought, food, land, water, renewable energy and housing. Audience: This volume will be of great value to all those interested in Dryland Development and Management: professionals and policy-makers in governmental, international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as researchers, lecturers and students in Geography, Environmental Management, Regional Studies, Development Anthropology, Hazard and Disaster Management, Agriculture and Pastoralism, Land and Water Use, African Studies, and Renewable Energy Resources.

Irrigation, Salinity, and Rural Communities in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, 1945–2020

Irrigation, Salinity, and Rural Communities in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, 1945–2020
Author: Daniel Rothenburg
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2023-01-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 3031184513

This book explores the issue of salinization in the context of contemporary conflicts about irrigation, water, and the environment in Australia, considering the Murray-Darling Basin in particular. It provides an environmental and social history charting the transformation of rural communities in the basin through the salinization of soils and water. Focusing on the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation district in the southwest of the Murray-Darling basin – the largest irrigation district in Australia – it explores the history of state-directed, large-scale engineering in the district, where the environment has been altered dramatically to facilitate white agricultural settlement inland. Changes to the landscape led to extensive salinization, however – a significant environmental threat in Australia. This book traces the impact of these changes on rural communities, taking a ‘bottom-up’ approach, highlighting the connections between environmental, social, and political change. It provides an important reflection on the importance of environmental history for facing the challenges posed by anthropogenic climate change.

The Americas and Oceania: Assessing Sustainability

The Americas and Oceania: Assessing Sustainability
Author: Ray C. Anderson
Publisher: Berkshire Publishing Group
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1933782730

The Americas and Oceania: Assessing Sustainability provides extensive coverage of sustainability practices in two regions linked culturally and historically by their relative isolation before the Columbian exchange, by their colonization after it, and by the challenges of pollution, resource overuse, and environmental degradation. Regional experts and international scholars focus on environmental history in areas such as the South Pacific islands, now particularly threatened by rising ocean levels due to climate change, and on countries whose governments and corporations can play a major role in promoting or discouraging sustainable choices: Brazil, an emergent power on the world stage; the United States, the world's third most populous nation; and New Zealand, seemingly on its way to becoming an enviable model of sustainable development.

Ecology and Empire

Ecology and Empire
Author: Tom Griffiths
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1474468659

Examines the relationship between the expansion of empire and the environmental experience of the extra-European world.

Frontiers in Regional Development

Frontiers in Regional Development
Author: Y. Gradus
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1996
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780847680740

In fifteen insightful new essays noted scholars in geography, economics, and public policy provide a comparative examination of the problems and prospects for development in frontier areas. Blending theory with case studies, the essays challenge the widely held notion that peripheral areas are marginal or backward.

The Colonial Earth

The Colonial Earth
Author: Tim Bonyhady
Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2003-04-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780522850536

"Using the work of great Australian painters and poets as an entry point, this cultural study counters the popular myth that early colonial settlers were environmentally irresponsible and offers both aesthetic and historical evidence that suggests nature always figured prominently in the Australian national consciousness. Preserving endangered species, protecting forests, maintaining public land rights, and staving off climate change were at issue in the first environmental law of Australia enacted in 1788. Parlimentary debates, personal observations, and artistic renderings explore the texture and dimensions of early Australian environmentalism."

Basin Futures

Basin Futures
Author: Daniel Connell
Publisher: ANU E Press
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2011-05-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1921862254

This unique book brings together 27 chapters from some of the world's leading practitioners and experts on environmental water, communities, law, economics and governance. Its goal is to understand the many dimensions of water in the Murray-Darling Basin and provide guidance about how to implement a water management plan that addresses the needs of communities, the economy and the environment. The comprehensiveness of topics covered, the expertise of its authors, and the absolute need to take a multidisciplinary approach to resolving the "wicked problem" of governing our scarce water resource makes this volume a must read for all who care about Australian communities and the environment.

The Routledge Handbook of Australian Urban and Regional Planning

The Routledge Handbook of Australian Urban and Regional Planning
Author: Neil Sipe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2017-08-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317604628

Where is planning in twenty-first-century Australia? What are the key challenges that confront planning? What does planning scholarship reveal about the state of planning practice in meeting the needs of urban and regional Australians? The Routledge Handbook of Australian Urban and Regional Planning includes 27 chapters that answer these and many other questions that confront planners working in urban and regional areas in twenty-first-century Australia. It provides a single source for cutting edge thinking and research across a broad range of the most important topics in urban and regional planning. Divided into six parts, this handbook explores: contexts of urban and regional planning in Australia critical debates in Australian planning planning policy climate change, disaster risk and environmental management engaging and taking planning action planning education and research This handbook is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in urban planning, built environment, urban studies and public policy as well as academics and practitioners across Australia and internationally.

The SAGE Handbook of Historical Geography

The SAGE Handbook of Historical Geography
Author: Mona Domosh
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 1619
Release: 2020-11-25
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1529738660

Historical geography is an active, theoretically-informed and vibrant field of scholarly work within modern geography, with strong and constantly evolving connections with disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Across two volumes, The SAGE Handbook of Historical Geography provides you with an an international and cross-disciplinary overview of the field, presenting chapters that examine the history, present condition and future potential of the discipline in relation to recent developments and research.