ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: The sustainability of irrigation and drainage in the face of many variants and constraints like availability of water as a resource, ecological balance, socio-cultural impacts, and climate change effects lies in the strategies adopted and systems emplaced. It has always remained a challenge for the users of irrigation waters to maintain sustainability in quality and quantity. This book aims ?to explore frontiers of knowledge in coining sustainable strategies and systems direly needed in managing the quality and quantity of water required for crop irrigation, surface and root zone drainage and flood management using available tools of research and development?. Eminent authors and their colleagues possessing varied professional backgrounds and expertise have dealt with these issues concerning the strategies and systems of irrigation and drainage. This book will prove to be beneficial for crop growers, agricultural engineers, water resource managers, academicians and graduate students alike.

Description / Table of Contents: Sustainability should be a key component of every process, safeguarding resources and reserves for future generations. This book shows how a responsible use of resources is possible, offering valid technological alternatives to fight climate change. We offer current technologies and valid methods for a wide range of activities: teaching, investigation, work, business and even daily life. We encourage all our readers to join us and become part of the solution to climate change, rather than the problem. After reading this book, we are certain that you will find justified reasons to start your own personal and social awareness campaign in favour of these effective technologies against climate change.

Description / Table of Contents: "In Energy without Conscience" David McDermott Hughes investigates why climate change has yet to be seen as a moral issue. He examines the forces that render the use of fossil fuels ordinary and therefore exempt from ethical evaluation. Hughes centers his analysis on Trinidad and Tobago, which is the world's oldest petro-state, having drilled the first continuously producing oil well in 1866. Marrying historical research with interviews with Trinidadian petroleum scientists, policymakers, technicians, and managers, he draws parallels between Trinidad's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave labor energy economy and its contemporary oil industry. Hughes shows how both forms of energy rely upon a complicity that absolves producers and consumers from acknowledging the immoral nature of each. He passionately argues that like slavery, producing oil is a moral choice and that oil is at its most dangerous when it is accepted as an ordinary part of everyday life.

Description / Table of Contents: The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project: Phase I Activities by a Global Community of Science (Cynthia Rosenzweig, James W Jones, Jerry L Hatfield, John M Antle, Alexander C Ruane, and Carolyn Z Mutter) --- AgMIP's Transdisciplinary Agricultural Systems Approach to Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (John M Antle, Roberto O Valdivia, Kenneth J Boote, Sander Janssen, James W Jones, Cheryl H Porter, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, and Peter J Thorburn) --- AgMIP Climate Data and Scenarios for Integrated Assessment (Alexander C Ruane, Jonathan M Winter, Sonali P McDermid, and Nicholas I Hudson) --- Cropping Systems Modeling in AgMIP: A New Protocol-Driven Approach for Regional Integrated Assessments (Peter J Thorburn, Kenneth J Boote, John N G Hargreaves, Perry L Poulton, and James W Jones) --- Representative Agricultural Pathways and Scenarios for Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (Roberto O Valdivia, John M Antle, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, Joost Vervoort, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ibrahima Hathie, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Richard Mulwa, Charles Nhemachena, Paramasivam Ponnusamy, Herath Rasnayaka, and Harbir Singh) --- Data Interoperability Tools for Regional Integrated Assessments (Cheryl H Porter, Chris Villalobos, Dean Holzworth, Roger Nelson, Jefffrey W White, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, Meng Zhang, Sander Janssen, Rob Knapen, James W Jones, Kenneth J Boote, John Hargreaves, and John M Antle) --- The AgMIP GRIDded Crop Modeling Initiative (AgGRID) and the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI) (Joshua Elliott and Christoph Müller) --- The AgMIP Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP): Methods and Protocols (Sonali P McDermid, Alexander C Ruane, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Nicholas I Hudson, Monica D Morales, Prabodha Agalawatte, Shakeel Ahmad, L R Ahuja, Istiqlal Amien, Saseendran S Anapalli, Jakarat Anothai, Senthold Asseng, Jody Biggs, Federico Bert, Patrick Bertuzzi, Virender S Bhatia, Marco Bindi, Ian Broad, Davide Cammarano, Ramiro Carretero, Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha, Uran Chung, Stephanie Debats, Paola Deligios, Giacomo De Sanctis, Thanda Dhliwayo, Benjamin Dumont, Lyndon Estes, Frank Ewert, Roberto Ferrise, Thomas Gaiser, Guillermo Garcia, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Vellingiri Geethalakshmi, Edward Gerardeaux, Richard Goldberg, Brian Grant, Edgardo Guevara, Jonathan Hickman, Holger Hoffmann, Huanping Huang, Jamshad Hussain, Flavio Barbosa Justino, Asha S Karunaratne, Ann-Kristin Koehler, Patrice K Kouakou, Soora Naresh Kumar, Arunachalam Lakshmanan, Mark Lieffering, Xiaomao Lin, Qunying Luo, Graciela Magrin, Marco Mancini, Fabio Ricardo Marin, Anna Dalla Marta, Yuji Masutomi, Theodoros Mavromatis, Greg McLean, Santiago Meira, Monoranjan Mohanty, Marco Moriondo, Wajid Nasim, Lamyaa Negm, Francesca Orlando, Simone Orlandini, Isik Ozturk, Helena Maria Soares Pinto, Guillermo Podesta, Zhiming Qi, Johanna Ramarohetra, Muhammad Habib ur Rahman, Helene Raynal, Gabriel Rodriguez, Reimund Rötter, Vaishali Sharda, Lu Shuo, Ward Smith, Val Snow, Afshin Soltani, K Srinivas, Benjamin Sultan, Dillip Kumar Swain, Fulu Tao, Kindie Tesfaye, Maria I Travasso, Giacomo Trombi, Alex Topaj, Eline Vanuytrecht, Federico E Viscarra, Syed Aftab Wajid, Enli Wang, Hong Wang, Jing Wang, Erandika Wijekoon, Lee Byun-Woo, Yang Xiaoguang, Ban Ho Young, Jin I Yun, Zhigan Zhao, and Lareef Zubair) --- Uncertainty in Agricultural Impact Assessment (Daniel Wallach, Linda O Mearns, Michael Rivington, John M Antle, and Alexander C Ruane) --- Uncertainties in Scaling-Up Crop Models for Large-Area Climate Change Impact Assessments (Frank Ewert, Lenny G J van Bussel, Gang Zhao, Holger Hoffmann, Thomas Gaiser, Xenia Specka, Claas Nendel, Kurt-Christian Kersebaum, Carmen Sosa, Elisabet Lewan, Jagadeesh Yeluripati, Matthias Kuhnert, Fulu Tao, Reimund Rötter, Julie Constantin, Helene Raynal, Daniel Wallach, Edmar Teixeira, Balasz Grosz, Michaela Bach, Luca Doro, Pier Paolo Roggero, Zhigan Zhao, Enli Wang, Ralf Kiese, Edwin Haas, Henrik Eckersten, Giacomo Trombi, Marco Bindi, Christian Klein, Christian Biernath, Florian Heinlein, Eckart Priesack, Davide Cammarano, Senthold Asseng, Joshua Elliott, Michael Glotter, Bruno Basso, Guillermo A Baigorria, Consuelo C Romero, and Marco Moriondo) --- Statistical Analysis of Large Simulated Yield Datasets for Studying Climate Change Effects (David Makowski, Senthold Asseng, Frank Ewert, Simona Bassu, Jean-Louis Durand, Pierre Martre, Myriam Adam, Pramod K Aggarwal, Carlos Angulo, Christian Baron, Bruno Basso, Patrick Bertuzzi, Christian Biernath, Hendrik Boogaard, Kenneth J Boote, Nadine Brisson, Davide Cammarano, Andrew J Challinor, Sjakk J G Conijn, Marc Corbeels, Delphine Deryng, Giacomo De Sanctis, Jordi Doltra, Sebastian Gayler, Richard Goldberg, Patricio Grassini, Jerry L Hatfield, Lee Heng, Steven Hoek, Josh Hooker, Tony L A Hunt, Joachim Ingwersen, Cesar Izaurralde, Raymond E E Jongschaap, James W Jones, Armen R Kemanian, Christian Kersebaum, Soo-Hyung Kim, Jon Lizaso, Christoph Müller, Naresh S Kumar, Claas Nendel, Garry J O'Leary, Jorgen E Olesen, Tom M Osborne, Taru Palosuo, Maria V Pravia, Eckart Priesack, Dominique Ripoche, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, Fredirico Sau, Mickhail A Semenov, Iurii Shcherbak, Pasquale Steduto, Claudio Stöckle, Pierre Stratonovitch, Thilo Streck, Iwan Supit, Fulu Tao, Edmar I Teixeira, Peter Thorburn, Denis Timlin, Maria Travasso, Reimund Rötter, Katharina Waha, Daniel Wallach, Jeffrey W White, Jimmy R Williams, and Joost Wolf) --- Crop Diseases and Climate Change in the AgMIP Framework (Ariena H C van Bruggen, James W Jones, Jose Mauricio C Fernandes, Karen Garrett, and Kenneth J Boote) --- Perspectives on Climate Effects on Agriculture: The International Efforts of AgMIP in Sub-Saharan Africa (Job Kihara, Dilys S MacCarthy, Andre Bationo, Saidou Koala, Jonathan Hickman, Jawoo Koo, Charles Vanya, Samuel Adiku, Yacob Beletse, Patricia Masikate, Karuturi P C Rao, Carolyn Z Mutter, Cynthia Rosenzweig, and James W Jones) --- Climate Change Impacts on West African Agriculture: An Integrated Regional Assessment (CIWARA) (Samuel G K Adiku, Dilys S MacCarthy, Ibrahima Hathie, Madina Diancoumba, Bright S Freduah, Joseph Amikuzuno, P C Sibiry Traore, Seydou Traore, Eric Koomson, Alhassane Agali, Jon I Lizaso, Dougbedji Fatondji, Myriam Adams, Lodoun Tigana, Daouda Z Diarra, Ousmane N'diaye, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Agricultural Systems in East Africa (Karuturi P C Rao, Gummadi Sridhar, Richard M Mulwa, Mary N Kilavi, Anthony Esilaba, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Projected Impacts of Climate Change Scenarios on the Production of Maize in Southern Africa: An Integrated Assessment Case Study of the Bethlehem District, Central Free State, South Africa (Yacob G Beletse, Wiltrud Durand, Charles Nhemachena, Olivier Crespo, Weldemichael A Tesfuhuney, Matthew R Jones, Mogos Y Teweldemedhin, Sunshine M Gamedze, Pontsho M Bonolo, Syanda Jonas, SueWalker, Patrick Gwimbi, Thembeka N Mpuisang, Davide Cammarano, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Crop-Livestock Intensification in the Face of Climate Change: Exploring Opportunities to Reduce Risk and Increase Resilience in Southern Africa by Using an Integrated Multi-modeling Approach (Patricia Masikati, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Katrien Descheemaeker, Olivier Crespo, Sue Walker, Christopher J Lennard, Lieven Claessens, Arthur C Gama, Sebastiao Famba, Andre F van Rooyen, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Assessments of the Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture: An Overview of AgMIP Regional Research in South Asia (Sonali P McDermid, Guntuku Dileepkumar, K M Dakshina Murthy, S Nedumaran, Piara Singh, Chukka Srinivasa, B Gangwar, N Subash, Ashfaq Ahmad, Lareef Zubair, and S P Nissanka) --- Impact of Climate Change on the Rice–Wheat Cropping System of Pakistan (Ashfaq Ahmad, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ghulam Rasul, Syed Aftab Wajid, Tasneem Khaliq, Fahd Rasul, Umer Saeed, Muhammad Habib ur Rahman, Jamshad Hussain, Irfan Ahmad Baig, Syed Asif Ali Naqvi, Syed Ahsan Ali Bokhari, Shakeel Ahmad, Wajid Naseem, Gerrit Hoogenboom, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Climate Change Assessment through Linking Crop Simulation with Economic Modeling — Results from the Indo-Gangetic Basin (Nataraja Subash, Babooji Gangwar, Harbir Singh, Guillermo Baigorria, Alok Kumar Sikka, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Maize Farms and Farm Household Incomes in South India: A Case Study from Tamil Nadu (Paramasivam Ponnusamy, Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, Raji Reddy Danda, Lakshmanan Arunachalam, Dakshina Murthy, Sunandini Prema, Sreenivas Gade, Sonali P McDermid, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Climate Change Impacts on Rice Farming Systems in Northwestern Sri Lanka (Lareef Zubair, Sarath P Nissanka, W M W Weerakoon, Dumindu I Herath, Asha S Karunaratne, A S M Prabodha, M B Agalawatte, Rasnayaka M Herath, S Zeenas Yahiya, B V R Punyawardene, Janan Vishwanathan, Punya Delpitiya, A Erandika N Wijekoon, Janaka Gunaratna, Sewwandhi S K Chandrasekara, P Wickramagamage, K D N Weerasinghe, Champa M Navaratne, Ruchika S Perera, Asela I Gunesekara, G M Pradeep Kumara, Daniel Wallach, Roberto O Valdivia, and Sonali P McDermid) --- AgMIP Regional Activities in a Global Framework: The Brazil Experience (Eduardo D Assad, Fábio R Marin, Roberto O Valdivia, and Cynthia Rosenzweig) --- AgMIP Regional Activities in a Global Framework: The China Experience (Fulu Tao and Erda Lin) --- AgMIP Training in Multiple Crop Models and Tools (Kenneth J Boote, Cheryl H Porter, John Hargreaves, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Peter Thorburn, and Carolyn Mutter) --- Major Findings and Future Activities (Cynthia Rosenzweig and Daniel Hillel)

Description / Table of Contents: Nishimura, T. Rust Formation Mechanism on Low Alloy Steels after Exposure Test in High Cl− and High SOx Environmen. Materials 2017, 10(2), 199; doi:10.3390/ma10020199. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/2/199 --- Chang, T.; Odnevall Wallinder, I.; de la Fuente, D.; Chico, B.; Morcillo, M.; Welter, J.; Leygraf, C. Analysis of Historic Copper Patinas. Influence of Inclusions on Patina Uniformity. Materials 2017, 10(3), 298; doi:10.3390/ma10030298. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/3/298 --- Na, O.; Cai, X.; Xi, Y. Corrosion Prediction with Parallel Finite Element Modeling for Coupled Hygro-Chemo Transport into Concrete under Chloride-Rich Environment. Materials 2017, 10(4), 350; doi:10.3390/ma10040350. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/4/350 --- Kreislova, K.; Knotkova, D. The Results of 45 Years of Atmospheric Corrosion Study in the Czech Republic. Materials 2017, 10(4), 394; doi:10.3390/ma10040394. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/4/394 --- Alcántara, J.; Fuente, D.; Chico, B.; Simancas, J.; Díaz, I.; Morcillo, M. Marine Atmospheric Corrosion of Carbon Steel: A Review. Materials 2017, 10(4), 406; doi:10.3390/ma10040406. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/4/406 --- Hosseinpour, S.; Johnson, M. Vibrational Spectroscopy in Studies of Atmospheric Corrosion. Materials 2017, 10(4), 413; doi:10.3390/ma10040413. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/4/413 --- Panchenko, Y.; Marshakov, A. Prediction of First-Year Corrosion Losses of Carbon Steel and Zinc in Continental Regions. Materials 2017, 10(4), 422; doi:10.3390/ma10040422. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/4/422 --- Chico, B.; de la Fuente, D.; Díaz, I.; Simancas, J.; Morcillo, M. Annual Atmospheric Corrosion of Carbon Steel Worldwide. An Integration of ISOCORRAG, ICP/UNECE and MICAT Databases. Materials 2017, 10(6), 601; doi:10.3390/ma10060601. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/6/601 --- Bouchar, M.; Dillmann, P.; Neff, D. New Insights in the Long-Term Atmospheric Corrosion Mechanisms of Low Alloy Steel Reinforcements of Cultural Heritage Buildings. Materials 2017, 10(6), 670; doi:10.3390/ma10060670. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/6/670 --- Tidblad, J.; Kreislová, K.; Faller, M.; de la Fuente, D.; Yates, T.; Verney-Carron, A.; Grøntoft, T.; Gordon, A.; Hans, U. ICP Materials Trends in Corrosion, Soiling and Air Pollution (1987–2014). Materials 2017, 10(8), 969; doi:10.3390/ma10080969. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/8/969 --- Cole, I. Recent Progress and Required Developments in Atmospheric Corrosion of Galvanised Steel and Zinc. Materials 2017, 10(11), 1288; doi:10.3390/ma10111288. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/10/11/1288

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction: Climate Crisis and the Cultural Imagination / pp. 1–22 --- Chapter 1. Collapse / pp. 23–48 --- Chapter 2. Pastoral / pp. 49–78 --- Chapter 3. Urban / pp. 79–104 --- Chapter 4. Polar / pp. 105–132 --- Conclusion / pp. 133–145

Description / Table of Contents: Climate change will bring about significant changes to the capacity of, and the demand on, water resources. The resulting changes include increasing climate variability that is expected to affect hydrologic conditions. The effects of climate variability on various meteorological variables have been extensively observed in many regions around the world. Of these, rainfall is one of the most important variables. Understanding the effects of climate variability on spatial and temporal rainfall characteristics is of special interest to water resource policy makers. Investigating rainfall variability at the regional scale is essential for understanding potential impacts on humans and the natural environment. Atmospheric circulation, topography, land use and other regional features modify global changes to produce unique patterns of change at the regional scale. As the future changes to these water resources cannot be measured in the present, hydrological models are critical in the planning required to adapt our water resource management strategies to future climate conditions. Such models include catchment runoff models, reservoir management models, flood prediction models, groundwater recharge and flow models, and crop water balance models. In water-scarce regions such as Australia, urban water systems are particularly vulnerable to rapid population growth and climate change. In the presence of climate change induced uncertainty, urban water systems need to be more resilient and multi-sourced. Decreasing volumetric rainfall trends have an effect on reservoir yield and operation practices. Severe intensity rainfall events can cause failure of drainage system capacity and subsequent urban flood inundation problems. Policy makers, end users and leading researchers need to work together to develop a consistent approach to interpreting the effects of climate variability and change on water resources.

Description / Table of Contents: Prior to May 2015, the oil-rich jurisdiction of Alberta had, for over four decades, been a one-party state. During that time, the rule of the Progressive Conservatives essentially went unchallenged, with critiques of government policy falling on deaf ears and Alberta ranking behind other provinces in voter turnout. Given the province’s economic reliance on oil revenues, a symbiotic relationship also developed between government and the oil industry. Cross-national studies have detected a correlation between oil-dependent economies and authoritarian rule, a pattern particularly evident in Africa and the Middle East. Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada sets out to test the “oil inhibits democracy” hypothesis in the context of an industrialized nation in the Global North.In probing the impact of Alberta’s powerful oil lobby on the health of democracy in the province, contributors to the volume engage with an ongoing discussion of the erosion of political liberalism in the West. In addition to examining energy policy and issues of government accountability in Alberta, they explore the ramifications of oil dependence in areas such as Aboriginal rights, environmental policy, labour law, women’s equity, urban social policy, and the arts. If, as they argue, reliance on oil has weakened democratic structures in Alberta, then what of Canada as whole, where the short-term priorities of the oil industry continue to shape federal policy? In Alberta, the New Democratic Party is in a position to reverse the democratic deficit that is presently fuelling political and economic inequality. The findings in this book suggest that, to revitalize democracy, provincial and federal leaders alike must find the courage to curb the influence of the oil industry on governance.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Comparison of Evapotranspiration Methods Under Limited Data by Hsin-Fu Yeh --- Chapter 2: Assessment and Prediction of Evapotranspiration Based on Scintillometry and Meteorological Datasets by Antonin Poisson, Angel Fernandez, Dario G. Gomez, Régis Barillé and Benoit Chorro --- Chapter 3: Sensitivity of Evapotranspiration Models to Onsite and Offsite Meteorological Data for a Poderosa Pine Forest by Wonsook Ha, Abraham E. Springer, Frances C. O'Donnell and Thomas E. Kolb --- Chapter 4: Evapotranspiration in Northern Agro-Ecosystems: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Comparison by Watcharee Ruairuen, Gilberto J. Fochesatto, Marco Bittelli, Elena B. Sparrow, Mingchu Zhang and William Schnabel --- Chapter 5: Moisture Evaporation from Granular Biopesticides Containing Quiescent Entomopathogenic Nematodes by Carlos Inocencio Cortés-Martínez, Jaime Ruiz-Vega and Gabino Alberto Martínez-Gutiérrez

Description / Table of Contents: 1 The Climate Crisis and Systemic Alternatives Vishwas Satgar --- PART ONE :THE CLIMATE CRISIS AS CAPITALIST CRISIS --- 2 The Limits of Capitalist Solutions to the Climate Crisis Dorothy Grace Guerrero --- 3 The Anthropocene and Imperial Ecocide: Prospects for Just Transitions Vishwas Satgar --- PART TWO: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN THE WORLD --- 4 The Employment Crisis, Just Transition and the Universal Basic Income Grant Hein Marais --- 5 The Rights of Mother Earth Pablo Sólon --- 6 Buen Vivir: An Alternative Perspective from the Peoples of the Global South Alberto Acosta and Mateo Martínez Abarca --- 7 Challenging the Growth Paradigm: Marx, Buddha and the Pursuit of ‘Happiness’ Devan Pillay --- 8 Ubuntu and the Struggle for an African Eco-socialist Alternative Christelle Terreblanche --- 9 The Climate Crisis and the Struggle for African Food Sovereignty Nnimmo Bassey --- PART THREE: DEMOCRATIC ECO-SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA --- 10 The Climate Crisis and a ‘Just Transition’ in South Africa: An Eco-Feminist-Socialist Perspective Jacklyn Cock --- 11 Energy, Labour, and Democracy in South Africa Michelle Williams --- 12 Capital, Climate and the Politics of Nuclear Procurement in South Africa David Fig --- 13 Climate Jobs at Two Minutes to Midnight Brian Ashley --- 14 Deepening the Just Transition Through Food Sovereignty and the Solidarity Economy Andrew Bennie and Athish Satgoor --- 15 Eco-Capitalist Crises in the ‘Blue Economy’: Operation Phakisa’s Small, Slow Failures Desné Masie and Patrick Bond --- CONCLUSION: Vishwas Satgar