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This book describes the basic concepts and recent advances in new discoveries and technologies related to microbial omics and their role in environmental research and human health. The term "omics" refers to a blend of high-throughput analysis and traditional methods including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics for a variety of applications in the field of life sciences, biomedical sciences, environmental sciences, and related industries. The book aims to fill the existing gap in terms of a comprehensive approach that incorporates recent advances in this dynamic field and provides an answer to why this field requires an interdisciplinary research approach.The focus of this book is on the applications of genomics, epigenomics, metagenomics, integrative omics, machine learning and microbiome research in environmental health, disease, wastewater epidemiology, antibiotic resistance, drug discovery, cancer, production of secondary metabolites of microbial origin, oxidative stress alleviating mechanisms, etc. The overall construction of this book emphasizes three major perspectives, namely, elaborate knowledge from fundamentals to recent advances in technologies about omics in general and its application in microbiology, environment, and health in particular; illustrative figures capable of easy visualization of complex pathways; and serving as a platform for highly demanded bioinformatics strategies including relevant codes, programming scripts, machine learning and use of artificial intelligence strategies needed to streamline the research outcomes. With global contributions from authors from internationally renowned organizations who excel in relevant research, this book will benefit bibliophiles and prospective audiences from the research fraternity, academia, professionals, and experts in the field of life sciences, biomedical as well as industries related to the development of drug design and novel advances in biotechnological applications.

This edited book brings together a diverse group of environmental science, sustainability, and health researchers to address the challenges posed by global mass poisoning caused by chromium contamination of soil and plants. In recent years, contamination of the environment by chromium has become a major concern. Chromium is a non-degradable, harmful, and toxic pollutant which negatively affects the environment. It is unique among the heavy metals found in industrial wastewater and sewage and sludge, as it may exist as a trivalent cation and as anion in the hexavalent state in the pH range of agricultural soils. It is used on a large scale in many different industries, including metallurgy, electroplating, production of paints and pigments, tanning, wood preservation, chemical production, and pulp and paper production. These industries are contributing larger amount of chromium, which can ultimately have significant adverse effects on biological and ecological activities of ecosystem. Chromium enters the food chain through consumption of plant material. A high concentration of chromium has been found to be harmful to vegetation. As the chromium concentration in plants increases, it adversely affects several biological parameters and eventually renders the soil barren.The book sheds light on this global environmental issue and proposes solutions to contamination through multi-disciplinary approaches and case studies from different parts of the world.This book is a valuable resource to students, academicians, researchers, and environmental professionals who are doing field work on chromium contamination throughout the world.

This book represents the latest research on urban forestry in a Malaysian context. It demonstrates that urban forestry is concerned not only with environmental enhancement, but also other aspects, such as recreation, health and well-being, and government policies. This edited collection provides a comprehensive overview of urban forestry studies from various researchers in Malaysia, and includes rich historical perspectives of urban forestry in the country. It also tackles related issues in policy. The greening of urban Malaysia in the 1970s focused primarily on beautification and was primarily the province of horticulturists, landscapers, nursery workers, town planners, and architects, with negligible inputs from foresters, particularly urban foresters. Perhaps for that reason, the term "e;landscaping"e; has been used more widely than "e;urban forestry"e; by government and private institutions, politicians, stakeholders, academicians, and the public. Nevertheless, the authors show that the concept of urban forestry is not new for developing countries such as Malaysia, where urbanization is increasing at a rapid rate. The book unpacks this demographic shift from a predominantly rural to a principally urban society. As the only unified body of work on urban forestry and arboricultural studies in Malaysia, this volume presents an important interdisciplinary reference for students, researchers, and scholars in physical geography, forestry and urban forestry, arboriculture and landscape architecture, both in Malaysia, and in other developing urbanizing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. It is also an important resource for those working in environmental policy and practice, excavating the vital connection between the environment and well-being.

This book focuses, in seven chapters, on the perspectives and solutions that different research groups offer to try to address problems related to SDG 14: Life Below Water. The different objectives developed in SDG 14 are treated independently, with an attempt to give a global vision of the issues. The mechanism used to select the book's content was through an Artificial Intelligence program, choosing articles related to the topics by means of keywords. The program selected those articles, and those that were not related to the topic or did not focus on SDG 14 were discarded by a subject matter expert. Obviously, the selection was partial and the entire subject is not covered, but the final product gives a very solid idea of how to orient ourselves to delve deeper into the topic of SDG 14 using published chapters and articles. The AI program itself selected the text of these contributions to show the progress in different topics related to SDG 14. This mode of operation will allow specialists (and non-specialists) to collect useful information for their specific research purposes in a short period of time. At a time when information is essential in order to move quickly by providing concrete answers to complex problems, this type of approach will become essential for researchers, especially for a subject as vast as SDG 14.

This book aims to contribute to the transdisciplinary study of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in cities and to help policy makers adopt a more integrated approach to natural resources management in urban environments to face the challenges and threats of climate change. This approach is based on a multidimensional scientific framework that seeks to understand the complex and non-linear interrelationships and interdependencies between water-energy-food under climate change and to generate solutions to reduce trade-offs among development goals and generate co-benefits that help encourage sustainable development and contribute to the achievement of SDGs, mainly SDG 11 (make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and SDG 13 (take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts).Governing the WEF nexus in cities is one of the greatest resource challenges of our time, as cities consume large amounts of WEF, but one that can also generate relevant alternatives with which to tackle climate change. To help fostering these alternatives, this book analyzes the governance, institutional and political economy factors that determine the effectiveness of the nexus approach and reviews the potential, the benefits and the policy implications of the adoption of the WEF nexus approach at the urban level. Through a series of hands-on cases, chapters in this book present the opportunities of the WEF nexus approach to achieve innovation and transformative change and discuss concrete areas of synergy and policy initiative to raise urban resilience. Water-Energy-Food Nexus and Climate Change in Cities will serve both as a guide for policy makers as well as a useful resource for students and researchers in fields such as urban studies, public health, environmental sciences, energy studies and public policy interested in learning how cities can represent possibilities to navigate and manage sustainability from local to global.

This book presents a profile of the majority of hot springs in and around tourist destinations in Nepal.  In particular, there is a focus on  Pokhara, Jumla, the world- famous Annapurna region, Ruby Valley, and Api Nampa Conservation Area.  The chapter on health benefits of mineral hot springs provides a history of hot springs supported by a literature review and case study.   Further chapters explore the direct uses of geothermal energy for various purposes and power generation, together with a section on conventional hydrothermal resources.This book is of interest to the general  public, students, national and international researchers, energy planners, and health professionals.  The book is a valuable tool for sociologists who want to gain insight into the cultural and religious aspects of hot water mineral springs.

This book addresses the operationalization of community resilience in the United Kingdom (UK) in connection with severe floods. Written for early academic professionals, students, and community practitioners, it investigates the educational and practical meaning and application of community resilience using a UK-centric local-level case study. Exploring the perceptions of both those who have been affected by a natural hazard and those who have not, the book reveals how trust, community resources, and neighborhood security can offer effective ways of bringing communities together after a natural hazard.The author introduces the topic of community resilience as it applies to disasters in Chapter 1 and its implications for securing and improving the wellbeing of disaster-affected communities in Chapters 2 and 3. In Chapter 4, the lessons learned contributing to the available information and research on community resilience are reviewed. Finally, the author offers recommendations and outlines future directions in coping with the uncertainty and insecurity caused by natural hazards in Chapter 5.

The book reviews and reports the recent progress and knowledge on the specific impact of current and projected urban overheating as well as of the urban mitigation technologies on mortality and morbidity and urban vulnerability. It presents recent data and developments on the topic reported by some of the more distinguished researchers in this area. In parallel, it discusses new findings related to the characteristics and the magnitude of urban overheating and reports and analyzes the recent knowledge on the synergies between urban heat island and heatwaves. This book helps to advance our understanding on the interaction between Urban Heat Island (UHI) and overheating as well as their impact on energy demand and public health globally. Exploring the interaction between UHI and energy consumption requires the understanding on the dynamics of UHI intensity and air pollution index in different land use and how such interactions may vary in different cities in the world.  Moreover, this book focuses on different cities in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Asia, Spain, UK, and USA.

This book contains a set of papers which explore the subject matter of human and planetary health at various anglesThe year 2015 was a special year in the field of human and planetary health. In that year, the report, produced by the Rockefeller Foundation and the journal The Lancet, called "e;Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission  on planetary health"e; was launched. Also in 2015, the World Health Organization and the Secretariat of the Convention on  Biological Diversity published the report "e;Connecting global priorities: biodiversity and human health:  a state of knowledge review"e; with over 100 contributors, meant to guide future joint actions. Both documents comprehensively address the need for a better understanding of the connections between human health and ecosystems and the risks associated with damages to the integrity of the planet. The period in which humanity finds itself right now, the Anthropocene, is a risk one since mankind is putting the planet under considerable pressure. These elements have led to the emergence of a new field of research, namely planetary health. Planetary health seeks to address a very concrete and urgent contemporary problem, namely the need to understand, quantify, and act in order  to reverse the effects of human population growth and the acceleration of socioeconomic activities  on the environment and, inter alia, the disturbances in the Earth's natural ecosystems and how these, in turn, impact human health and well-being. Anthropic disturbances in natural ecosystems are characterized by changes in climate, land use, changes in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycle, chemical pollution of soil, water and air, reduction in the availability of drinking water, loss of biodiversity, destruction of the ozone layer, and ocean acidification, among others. In all these areas, there is a perceived need to document and promote examples of initiatives and good practice, which may change current trends. This book addresses this need. It documents experiences, case studies, and projects which explore the connections between human and planetary health and illustrates examples which show the consequences of ecosystemic disturbances to the health and well-being of humanity, with the emergence of new diseases, worsening of infectious diseases and increase in chronic non-communicable diseases related to the deterioration of the current food system, hyper-urbanization, microbial resistance, climate-led migration and zoonoses, among others.  Planetary health is a new effort to deal with the question of sustainability and human life on the planet under an increasingly integrative, transdisciplinary, and global perspective, since the problems of this planetary crisis cross geopolitical borders and academic boundaries and affect humanity as a whole. This book provides a contribution to this emerging field. Thanks to its design and the contributions by experts from various areas, it provides a welcome contribution to the literature on planetary health, and it inspires further works in this field.

Arsenic contamination in drinking water and associated adverse outcomes is one of the major health issues in more than 50 countries worldwide. The scenario is getting even more detrimental with increasing number of affected people and newer sites reported from all over the world. Apart from drinking water, the presence of arsenic has been found in various other dietary sources. Threatening the health of millions of people due to arsenic¿s toxicity and carcinogenicity, the major routes of arsenic exposure for humans are either through drinking water or crops. This edited volume brings together a diverse group of environmental science, sustainability, and health researchers to address the challenges posed by global mass poisoning caused by arsenic water contamination. The book sheds light on this global environmental issue and proposes solutions to aquatic contamination through multi-disciplinary sustainable approaches and case studies from different parts of world. This book addresses the problem of arsenic by pursuing a holistic approach. It presents the status quo in different parts of the world and provides essential information on food-related arsenic exposure risks for humans and possible preventive and curative measures for tackling arsenic poisoning. The mechanisms of arsenic uptake, translocation, and distribution in plants and grains are also explained. In closing, the book reviews a variety of prospective sustainable solutions to the problem of arsenic accumulation in soil and water.The book comprises three sections. First section describes the routes of exposure to environmental arsenic and its transport in soil and aquatic ecosystems including its source and distribution in specific locations. Second section explains the health risks linked to arsenic exposure in food and the environment. Third section addresses sustainable arsenic contamination mitigation strategies using the potential applications of recent biotechnological techniques, bioremediation, phytoremediation, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and in silico approaches.The book is intended for a broad audience including researchers, scientists, and readers with diverse backgrounds including agriculture, environmental science, food science, environmental management, and human health. It can also be used as an important reference guide for undergraduate and graduate students, university faculties, and environmentalists. The book may serve as a reference to environment and sustainability researchers, students, and policy makers.

This volume discusses climate change impacts on groundwater quality in arid and semi-arid regions, and provides human health risk assessments due to pollution of surface and groundwater. The book presents recent trends in monitoring groundwater management and implementing pollution mitigation strategies, including practices involving remote sensing and GIS techniques, entropy water quality index, weighted arithmetic water quality index, fuzzy logic applications, and improved irrigation methods. The book also outlines hydrological processes in arid and semi-arid regions and hydrochemical properties of surface and groundwater as a necessary background for understanding how pollution impacts groundwater quality and resources, and how geographical modeling of hydrological processes can aid in human health risk assessments. The book is intended for academics, administrators, policymakers, social scientists, and professionals involved in the various aspects of climate change impact on groundwater quality, hydrological process, pollution mitigation strategies, sustainable development, and environmental planning and management. 

This book delivers an outline to graduate, undergraduate students, and researchers, as well as academicians who are working on lead toxicity with respect to remediation. It covers sources of lead contamination and its impact on human health and on prospective remediation through multi-disciplinary approaches with application of recent advanced biological technology. Lead is among the elements that have been most extensively used by man over time. This has led to extensive pollution of surface soils on the local scale, mainly associated with mining and smelting of the metal and addition of organic lead compounds to petrol. Release of lead to the atmosphere from various high-temperature processes has led to surface contamination on the regional and even global scale. In addition, plants grown on lead-rich soils incorporate lead, and thus, the concentration of lead in crop plants may be increased. Lead enters in the food chain through consumption of plant material. A high concentration oflead has been found to be harmful to vegetation. As the lead concentration increases, it adversely affects several biological parameters and eventually renders the soil barren. This edited book brings together a diverse group of researchers to address the challenges posed by global mass poisoning caused by lead contamination of soil and plants. The book sheds light on this global environmental issue and proposes solutions to contamination through multi-disciplinary approaches. This book contains three sections. The first section describes the different sources and distribution of lead in soil and plant ecosystems. The second section explains the health risks linked to lead toxicity. The third section addresses sustainable lead toxicity mitigation strategies and the potential applications of recent biological technology in providing solutions. This book is a valuable resource to students, academics, researchers, and environmental professionals doing fieldwork on lead contamination throughout the world.

The fundamental purpose of this handbook is to raise awareness about environmental impacts of fire and fire suppression, primarily within the fire engineering and firefighting communities, but also within the environmental engineering and planning disciplines. The Handbook provides readers with a fundamental understanding of the problem and its magnitude and includes a set of tools and methods for assessing environmental, social and financial impacts, and a set of tools for identifying and selecting appropriate mitigation options.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are a class of chemicals that are persistent, bio accumulative and toxic (PBT), which are restricted for use under the Stockholm Convention. They adversely impact the environment, human and animal health. Most of the POPs are semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and known to have a long-range transport potential and are often deposited in colder climate and found in places away from the regions they are produced. POPs are usually hydrophobic (i.e., ¿water-hating¿) and lipophilic (i.e., ¿fat-loving¿) chemicals, due to which they bind to solids, particularly organic matter, and fatty tissues in both marine and terrestrial environments. As a result, POPs may move up the food chain. This book focuses on determining the sources, fate, analytical techniques of detecting POPs as well as their health impacts. It further dwells on the regulatory aspects, management of POPs, best environmental practices (BEPs), Indian and international case studies, gaps in understanding the regulatory aspects. A few key recommendations for the way forward form the concluding chapters of this book.

This book covers every aspect of radiation myelopathy and considers the evidence from all species in which it has been studied. The historical and current understanding of the pathogenesis of this rare but devastating injury is first discussed. The evidence regarding the role of a variety of factors in radiation myelopathy is then reviewed. Readers will find detailed information on the impacts of total radiation dose, radiation volume, dose fractionation, hyper fractionation, age, anatomic level, comorbidities, radiation modifiers, other therapies, and retreatment of the spinal cord. Given the similarity of the pathogenesis of radiation myelopathy in humans and experimental animals, the potential for cross-species modelling of dose response is explored, with attention to relevant species differences. Treatment of the condition is also fully considered. New theories are presented regarding retreatment, small volume response, and the final step in white matter necrosis. The final chapter addresses the medicolegal issues elicited by radiation myelopathy, which is often the result of treatment error. Radiation Myelopathy will be of high value for radiation oncologists, radiation physicists, dosimetrists, biologists, neurologists, medical oncologists, and attorneys.

This book brings together innovative research that examines respectively climate change, agricultural production, environmental impacts, food security, nutrition and human health issues with regard to international policies as well as sustainable development goals.  As sustainability continues to be a high concern in the scholarly community, food security has become a critical worldwide topic. Food supplies are challenged by factors such as toxicity, substandard food processes, difficulties in providing food to struggling populations and changes to the environment due to climate change egislation can protect public health, but law-makers must understand the current complications facing food security today. This book features a broad range of topics including ecotoxicology, smart food, and wastewater reuse impacts.The book aims to look at how we can protect and improve the health of vulnerable populations as well as innovative solutions to food insecurity. It is ideally designed for university students, from undergraduate to Ph.D. level, professors, researchers, professionals, environmentalists, physio-pathologists, medical doctors, epidemiologists, policies makers and sociologists.

This book discusses a wide range of health-related mining issues, with particular reference to occupational diseases, metal toxicity, postural injuries in miners, modern fire safety controls, noise-induced hearing loss prevention, and noise mapping. Mining plays a central role in the development of modern civilization. By providing the essential raw materials, mining ensures progress, safety, and comfort of people. However, this necessary activity comes with several woes, the most important of which are occupational health hazards. Mines act as sources of constant danger and risk to the miners irrespective of the scale of mining, such as large-scale industrial mining or small-scale artisanal mining. Not only are there accidents, but continuous exposure to dust, metal toxicity, hazardous gases and fumes, and loud noises, giving rise to a variety of diseases to mine workers. The comprehensive coverage of issues and the case studies will make this book an essential reference and critical reading. Medical geology is a necessary discipline in earth sciences. Unfortunately, not much literature is available on this subject. Therefore, this book is essential for practicing engineers and supervisors in mines, health and safety professionals, researchers, and mining industry students.

Research on the relationship between health and the environment in a postgenomic context is increasingly aimed at understanding the various exposures as a whole, simultaneously taking into account data pertaining to the biology of organisms and the physical and social environment. Exposome research is a paradigmatic case of this new trend in environmental health studies. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach focusing on the conceptual, epistemological, and sociological reflections in the latest research on environmental and social determinants of health and disease. It offers a combination of theoretical and practical approaches and the authors are scholars from a multidisciplinary background (epidemiology, geography, philosophy of medicine and biology, sociology). Crucially, the book balances the benefit and cost of the integration of biological and social factors when modelling aetiology of disease.

This volume provides a collection of research findings on the distribution and risk associated with emerging contaminants (ECs) in water and wastewater across the globe, and effective remediation techniques and technologies. The book covers various monitoring techniques for ECs in water and wastewater and its related impacts on the ambient environment, and offers valuable information on cost-effective monitoring techniques and sustainable treatment technologies for ECs. The authors detail the risks and biological effects of ECs and legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in freshwater and marine systems, including their adverse interactions with aquatic organisms, while also discussing the associated impacts on human health. The book comprehensively covers current research outcomes on treatment methods, cost-effectiveness, and infrastructure needs for effective removal of ECs. It will be of interest to students, researchers, and scholars in environmental science and engineering, water and wastewater, toxicology, environmental biotechnology, soil sciences, and microbial ecology.

The aim of the book was to produce the most comprehensive examination of a pandemic that has ever been attempted. By cataloging the full extent of the Zika pandemic, this book will be the most complete history and epistemic contextualization ever attempted to date. The work should function as the primary source for students, researchers, and scholars who need information about the Zika pandemic.This book examines the technical literature, digital and popular literature, and online materials to fully contextualize this event and provide a bona fide record of this event and its implications for the future. It is somewhat serendipitous that while this work was underway, we are going through another pandemic. One of the primary lessons we did not learn by Zika was pandemic events will return repeatedly, and we need to learn from each one of them to prepare the planet for the next one. Just because Zika seemed to have died out does not make it less important. We were lucky that thevirus evolved into what seemed to be a less virulent version of itself, and the vector mosquitoes were concentrated elsewhere. Finally, this book represents a tour de force in scholarship involving nearly 4,000 sources of information and does not shy from a detailed examination of the controversies, conspiracies, and long-term consequences when we avoid learning from outbreaks, such as Zika.

This book details how the water quality of the Blesbokspruit River in Gauteng, South Africa was socially constructed by stakeholders and key individuals in the context of acid mine drainage (AMD) and its treatment. Social constructionism is used as the framing for this research to explain how water is intrinsically social. Findings presented here show that stakeholders are aware that the changes in the physicality of the Blesbokspruit resulted from human interventions and varied uses of the water over the years. Such knowledge, among factors such as the historical context of mining, current coal mining, flows and volumes of water, technology used and processes followed, information and communication, and vested interests influence social constructions of the water quality. What counts as the truth about water varies depending on the individual's perspective, their purpose, and their individual interests. Further, how one defines water quality influences what treatment processes are preferred in order to improve water quality.  The book explains why, for example, a treatment process meant to improve water quality gained a bad reputation by the public because of the South African government's silo approach. The book explains how these social constructions are entrenched in power relations between stakeholders regarding AMD treatment and illustrates how power was used to influence decisions to improve the water quality of the Blesbokspruit. The case presented in this book offers insights and recommendations for policymakers working in water governance, including means to influence social constructions of water quality and ways to clarify roles and responsibilities in pursuit of improved cooperative government.

This book examines the impacts that the COVID-19 lockdown has had on environmental and ecological health, with a focus on coastal ecosystems in the Lower Gangetic Delta. The book begins with an overview of COVID-19's spread and impact before and after the lockdown in the focus region, then addresses the specific impacts that the lockdown period had and continues to have on air quality, marine and estuarine water quality, coastal biodiversity, and the livelihoods of the region's inhabitants, especially those who live below the poverty line. The decrease in human activity combined with the complete closure of various sectors, including air travel, oil and gas drilling, and construction, has had a pronounced effect on biodiversity and overall environmental health that is yet to be fully realized. The book sheds light on these changes and assesses how biodiversity, ambient air quality, and ecosystem functioning will progress as COVID-19 remains a threat and the lockdown persists. The studywill be of interest to researchers, government officials and professionals dealing with disaster management, environmental science, biological science, and health.

This book contains a set of papers which explore the links among climate change, health, and hazards and demonstrate how they interact. It emphasizes the urgency of immediate and more ambitious action to address climate risks. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), human-induced climate change is known to be causing dangerous and widespread disruptions in nature and is affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. Climate change is also negatively influencing health and is mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet. The world is also facing significant climate hazards over the next two decades, with global warming expected to soon reach 1.5°C. Even temporarily exceeding this warming level will result in additional severe impacts, some of which may be irreversible. There is therefore a perceived need for publications which may foster a greater understanding of how climate changeconnects to human health and the role played by hazards in this context. It is against this background that this book is being prepared.