ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: Natural hazards and anthropic activities threaten the human environment. The gathering of field data is needed so as to quantify the impact of such activities. To gather the necessary data researchers nowadays use a great variety of new instruments based on electronics. Yet, the working principles of this new instrumentation might not be well understood by some potential users. All operators of these new tools must gain proper insight so as to be able to judge whether the instrument is selected appropriately and functions adequately. This book attempts to demonstrate some characteristics that are not easy to understand by the uninitiated in the use of electronic instruments. The material presented in this book was prepared with the purpose of reflecting the technological changes that have occurred in environmental modern instrumentation in the last few decades. The book is intended for students of hydrology, hydraulics, oceanography, meteorology and environmental sciences. Basic concepts of electronics, special physics principles and signal processing are introduced in the first chapters in order to enable the reader to follow the topics developed in the book, without any prior knowledge of these matters. The instruments are explained in detail and several examples are introduced to show their measuring limitations. Enough mathematical fundamentals are given to allow the reader to reach a good quantitative knowledge.

Description / Table of Contents: The current world biodiversity consists of an inestimable amount of living forms, that at all levels, from genes to biomes, from individuals to populations, from species to communities, are in constant pursuit of the best strategies to react to the natural and anthropic environmental changes. The arrangement of new and dynamic ecosystems balanced by the formation and the vanishing of species, is the direct consequence of these changes. This book contains comprehensive overviews and original studies focused on ecological and ecosystem functioning studies, hazards and conservation management, assessment of environmental variables affecting species diversity, also considering species richness and distribution, in order to identify the best management strategies to face and solve the conservation problems.

Description / Table of Contents: Soil is an irreplaceable resource that sustains life on the planet, challenged by food and energy demands of an increasing population. Therefore, soil contamination constitutes a critical issue to be addressed if we are to secure the life quality of present and future generations. Integrated efforts from researchers and policy makers are required to develop sound risk assessment procedures, remediation strategies and sustainable soil management policies. Environmental Risk Assessment of Soil Contamination provides a wide depiction of current research in soil contamination and risk assessment, encompassing reviews and case studies on soil pollution by heavy metals and organic pollutants. The book introduces several innovative approaches for soil remediation and risk assessment, including advances in phytoremediation and implementation of metabolomics in soil sciences.

Description / Table of Contents: Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions that will produce the desired outcome. The scope of the profession includes: urban design; site planning; town or urban planning; environmental restoration; parks and recreation planning; visual resource management; green infrastructure planning and provision; and private estate and residence landscape master planning and design - all at varying scales of design, planning and management. This book contains chapters on recent developments in studies of landscape architecture. For this reason I believe the book would be useful to the relevant professional disciplines.

Description / Table of Contents: The mitigation of earthquake-related hazards represents a key role in the modern society. The main goal of this book is to present 9 scientific papers focusing on new research and results on earthquake seismology. Chapters of this book focus on several aspect of seismology ranging from historical earthquake analysis, seismotectonics, and damage estimation of critical facilities.

Description / Table of Contents: The mitigation of earthquake-related hazards represents a key role in the modern society. The mitigation of such kind of hazards spans from detailed studies on seismicity, evaluation of site effects, and seismo-induced landslides, tsunamis as well as and the design and analysis of structures to resist such actions. The study of earthquakes ties together science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to minimize human and material losses when they inevitably occur. Chapters deal with different topics aiming to mitigate geo-hazards such as: Seismic hazard analysis, Ground investigation for seismic design, Seismic design, assessment and remediation, Earthquake site response analysis and soil-structure interaction analysis.

Description / Table of Contents: Organic pollutants cause several environmental problems if discharged to air or water body. The occurrence of organic pollutants in the ecosystem, their risk and removal methods are very important issues .This book deals with several aspects of organic pollutants, especially in the light of organic pollutants monitoring, risk assessment as well as the practical application of different techniques for removing it from the environment. The book is divided into three sections contains 9 chapters. The first section explains monitoring of organic pollutants in soil and water. The second section discusse its risk to human, soil and plants. The third section focuse on the different treatment process for the removal of organic pollutants.

Description / Table of Contents: Environments around the globe are undergoing human-induced change. Human population growth, rapid urbanization, expanding global economy, and the diffusion of western consumer lifestyles are placing increasing pressure on natural and social systems. Global institutions, nation-states, and local communities are seeking to identify and employ sustainable solutions to these environmental and socio-economic challenges. Sustainability has emerged as a policy discourse that seeks to balance the desire and need for economic growth with the protection of the environment, and the promotion of social and environmental justice. This book contributes to the study and search for sustainable responses to global environmental change. The authors of this volume explore environmental change in different places around the world and the diverse responses to such changes. The chapters demonstrate the need for place-specific sustainable development; the authors suggest the need to see sustainable responses to environmental change as a negotiated outcome between various social actors living and working in diverse spatial, environmental and socio-economic contexts. Environmental Change and Sustainability is a timely international examination of the relationship between environmental change and sustainability. As an InTech open source volume, current and cutting edge research methodologies and research results are quickly published for the academic policy-making communities. Dimensions of environmental change and sustainability explored in this volume include: Natural science approaches to study of environmental change Importance of perception in human understanding of environmental change Role of external events and institutions in shaping sustainable responses to environmental change Importance of bottom-up sustainable development as key to reducing environmental risk and community vulnerability The need for place-based sustainable development that combines local conditions with global processes Creation of a sustainable development model that synthesizes local, traditional knowledge of the environment and environmental management with the techniques and understandings generated by modern environmental science.

Description / Table of Contents: The importance of seismic wave research lies not only in our ability to understand and predict earthquakes and tsunamis, it also reveals information on the Earth's composition and features in much the same way as it led to the discovery of Mohorovicic's discontinuity. As our theoretical understanding of the physics behind seismic waves has grown, physical and numerical modeling have greatly advanced and now augment applied seismology for better prediction and engineering practices. This has led to some novel applications such as using artificially-induced shocks for exploration of the Earth's subsurface and seismic stimulation for increasing the productivity of oil wells. This book demonstrates the latest techniques and advances in seismic wave analysis from theoretical approach, data acquisition and interpretation, to analyses and numerical simulations, as well as research applications. A review process was conducted in cooperation with sincere support by Drs. Hiroshi Takenaka, Yoshio Murai, Jun Matsushima, and Genti Toyokuni.

Description / Table of Contents: This book contains 15 chapters reporting air pollution of interest to experts in academia and industrial plants dealing with the environmental issues. These chapters emphasize the problems of air pollution involving the human sector as an essential part in the control of air pollutants. The book contains an analysis of various geographic regions and evaluation of different activities related to these areas. Descriptive analyzes present the generation of air pollution and its effect on society and materials evaluations. The major sources of emission of pollutants and the damage that they originate in the towns and industrial plants are reported. This volume provides methods and tools for assessment according to each location. Other important aspects are the activities of governmental authorities, the academic and sectors for solving the environment problem.

Description / Table of Contents: This book is devoted to different aspects of earthquake research. Depending on their magnitude and the placement of the hypocenter, earthquakes have the potential to be very destructive. Given that they can cause significant losses and deaths, it is really important to understand the process and the physics of this phenomenon. This book does not focus on a unique problem in earthquake processes, but spans studies on historical earthquakes and seismology in different tectonic environments, to more applied studies on earthquake geology.

Description / Table of Contents: Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions that will produce the desired outcome. The scope of the profession includes: urban design; site planning; town or urban planning; environmental restoration; parks and recreation planning; visual resource management; green infrastructure planning and provision; and private estate and residence landscape master planning and design - all at varying scales of design, planning and management. This book contains chapters on recent developments in studies of landscape architecture. For this reason I believe the book would be useful to the relevant professional disciplines.

Description / Table of Contents: The studies of Earth's history and of the physical and chemical properties of the substances that make up our planet, are of great significance to our understanding both of its past and its future. The geological and other environmental processes on Earth and the composition of the planet are of vital importance in locating and harnessing its resources. This book is primarily written for research scholars, geologists, civil engineers, mining engineers, and environmentalists. Hopefully the text will be used by students, and it will continue to be of value to them throughout their subsequent professional and research careers. This does not mean to infer that the book was written solely or mainly with the student in mind. Indeed from the point of view of the researcher in Earth and Environmental Science it could be argued that this text contains more detail than he will require in his initial studies or research.

Description / Table of Contents: Vibration is a phenomenon that we can perceive in many systems. Their effects are as diverse as the personal discomfort that can produce the unevenness of a road or the collapse of a building or a bridge during an earthquake. This book is a compendium of research works on vibration analysis and control. It goes through new methodologies that help us understand and mitigate this phenomenon. This book is divided into two sections. The first one is devoted to new advances on vibration analysis while the second part is a series of case studies that illustrate novel techniques on vibration control. The applications are varied and include areas such as vehicle suspension systems, wind turbines and civil engineering structures.

Description / Table of Contents: The study of earthquakes combines science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to minimize human and material losses when their occurrence is inevitable. This book is devoted to various aspects of earthquake research and analysis, from theoretical advances to practical applications. Different sections are dedicated to ground motion studies and seismic site characterization, with regard to mitigation of the risk from earthquake and ensuring the safety of the buildings under earthquake loading. The ultimate goal of the book is to encourage discussions and future research to improve hazard assessments, dissemination of earthquake engineering data and, ultimately, the seismic provisions of building codes.

Description / Table of Contents: Securing the future of the human race will require an improved understanding of the environment as well as of technological solutions, mindsets and behaviors in line with modes of development that the ecosphere of our planet can support. Some experts see the only solution in a global deflation of the currently unsustainable exploitation of resources. However, sustainable development offers an approach that would be practical to fuse with the managerial strategies and assessment tools for policy and decision makers at the regional planning level. Environmentalists, architects, engineers, policy makers and economists will have to work together in order to ensure that planning and development can meet our society's present needs without compromising the security of future generations. Better planning methods for urban and rural expansion could prevent environmental destruction and imminent crises. Energy, transport, water, environment and food production systems should aim for self-sufficiency and not the rapid depletion of natural resources. Planning for sustainable development must overcome many complex technical and social issues.

Description / Table of Contents: This book sheds lights on recent advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering with special emphasis on soil liquefaction, soil-structure interaction, seismic safety of dams and underground monuments, mitigation strategies against landslide and fire whirlwind resulting from earthquakes and vibration of a layered rotating plant and Bryan's effect. The book contains sixteen chapters covering several interesting research topics written by researchers and experts from several countries. The research reported in this book is useful to graduate students and researchers working in the fields of structural and earthquake engineering. The book will also be of considerable help to civil engineers working on construction and repair of engineering structures, such as buildings, roads, dams and monuments.

Description / Table of Contents: The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainability implies efforts directed towards preserving the environment, doing more with less (cost savings, profit increasing), reducing dependence on foreign resources including oil, using alternate forms of energy, etc. Researchers are currently working to meet the challenge (e.g., through creating a conducive environment and allocating resources for sustainability-focused curriculum renovations, equipping faculty with the necessary expertise, embedding graduates with requisite skill-sets, and a research base that feeds into classroom teaching, etc.) posed by the rapidly evolving landscape of sustainability. In order to address the sustainability deficit in education and research, InTech has invited submissions of manuscripts for publication in its focused issue on sustainability. All chapters are high-quality, high-impact manuscripts addressing integration of sustainability efforts with clear lessons and insights for the stake holders (faculty, students, administrators, communities, and industries).

Description / Table of Contents: The links between air pollutants and health impacts are many and complex. The environmental health community is being challenged to take stronger mitigation to respect population health and is taking opportunities to further their implication. Recognizing, observing, and analyzing exposures are a promising way forward, but also raise a myriad of new challenges and questions, including what such approaches are, when and how they can put into practice, and what their implications are for protecting human health. This book gives an overview of key issues in air pollution. Reviews and research papers describe air pollution in a variety of context, such as: evolution of air pollutant, urban structure effects, exposure in agriculture, surface ozone monitoring, the respiratory diseases impacts, appropriate technology, and response management to the air pollution.

Description / Table of Contents: Solid waste management generates big challenges for society due to its large variability in production and composition, and because of its sanitary and environmental impacts. To contribute in facing this situation, this book includes a worldwide overview of experiences and conceptual and technical developments attained through research and development projects. In addition to minimizing generation, considered as the most desirable practice, it includes alternatives of valuation for potentially recoverable waste and strategies to reduce final conditioning and disposition risks. The book includes contextual technical, economical, political and social aspects aimed at proposing integral solutions for the solid waste management.

Description / Table of Contents: Recent major earthquakes around the world have shown the vulnerability of infrastructure and the need for research to better understand the nature of seismic events and their effects on structures. As a result, earthquake engineering research has been expanding as more and more data become available from a large array of seismic instruments, large scale experiments and numerical simulations. The first part of this book presents results from some of the current seismic research work including three-dimensional wave propagation in different soil media, seismic loss assessment, probabilistic hazard analysis, geotechnical problems including soil-structure interaction. The second part of the book focuses on the seismic behavior of structures including historical and monumental structures, bridge embankments, and different types of bridges and bearings.

Description / Table of Contents: Environmental change is increasingly considered a critical topic for researchers across multiple disciplines, as well as policy makers throughout the world. Mounting evidence shows that environments in every part of the globe are undergoing tremendous human-induced change. Population growth, urbanization and the expansion of the global economy are putting increasing pressure on ecosystems around the planet. To understand the causes and consequences of environmental change, the contributors to this book employ spatial and non-spatial data, diverse theoretical perspectives and cutting edge research tools such as GIS, remote sensing and other relevant technologies. International Perspectives on Global Environmental Change brings together research from around the world to explore the complexities of contemporary, and historical environmental change. As an InTech open source publication current and cutting edge research methodologies and research results are quickly published for the academic policy-making communities. Dimensions of environmental change explored in this volume include: Climate change Historical environmental change Biological responses to environmental change Land use and land cover change Policy and management for environmental change.

Description / Table of Contents: The study of earthquakes plays a key role in order to minimize human and material losses when they inevitably occur. Chapters in this book will be devoted to various aspects of earthquake research and analysis. The different sections present in the book span from statistical seismology studies, the latest techniques and advances on earthquake precursors and forecasting, as well as, new methods for early detection, data acquisition and interpretation. The topics are tackled from theoretical advances to practical applications.

Description / Table of Contents: This book deals with earthquake-resistant structures, such as, buildings, bridges and liquid storage tanks. It contains twenty chapters covering several interesting research topics written by researchers and experts in the field of earthquake engineering. The book covers seismic-resistance design of masonry and reinforced concrete structures to be constructed as well as safety assessment, strengthening and rehabilitation of existing structures against earthquake loads. It also includes three chapters on electromagnetic sensing techniques for health assessment of structures, post earthquake assessment of steel buildings in fire environment and response of underground pipes to blast loads. The book provides the state-of-the-art on recent progress in earthquake-resistant structures. It should be useful to graduate students, researchers and practicing structural engineers.

Description / Table of Contents: The technological advancement of our civilization has created a consumer society expanding faster than the planet's resources allow, with our resource and energy needs rising exponentially in the past century. Securing the future of the human race will require an improved understanding of the environment as well as of technological solutions, mindsets and behaviors in line with modes of development that the ecosphere of our planet can support. Some experts see the only solution in a global deflation of the currently unsustainable exploitation of resources. However, sustainable development offers an approach that would be practical to fuse with the managerial strategies and assessment tools for policy and decision makers at the regional planning level. Environmentalists, architects, engineers, policy makers and economists will have to work together in order to ensure that planning and development can meet our society's present needs without compromising the security of future generations.

Description / Table of Contents: As everybody knows, the dynamic interactions between biotic and abiotic factors, as well as the anthropic ones, considerably affect global climate changes and consequently biology, ecology and distribution of life forms of our planet. These important natural events affect all ecosystems, causing important changes on biodiversity. Systematic and phylogenetic studies, biogeographic distribution analysis and evaluations of diversity richness are focal topics of this book written by international experts, some even considering economical effects and future perspectives on the managing and conservation plans.

Description / Table of Contents: Ecosystems can be considered as dynamic and interactive clusters made up of plants, animals and micro-organism communities. Inevitably, mankind is an integral part of each ecosystem and as such enjoys all its provided benefits. Driven by the increasing necessity to preserve the ecosystem productivity, several ecological studies have been conducted in the last few years, highlighting the current state in which our planet is, and focusing on future perspectives. This book contains comprehensive overviews and original studies focused on hazard analysis and evaluation of ecological variables affecting species diversity, richness and distribution, in order to identify the best management strategies to face and solve the conservation problems.

Description / Table of Contents: The objective of this multi-disciplinary book is to provide a collection of expert writing on different aspects of pre- and post- tsunami developments and management techniques. It is intended to be distributed within the scientific community and among the decision makers for tsunami risk reduction. The presented chapters have been thoroughly reviewed and accepted for publication. It presents advanced methods for tsunami measurement using Ocean-bottom pressure sensor, kinematic GPS buoy, satellite altimetry, Paleotsunami, Ionospheric sounding, early warning system, and scenario based numerical modeling. It continues to present case studies from the Northern Caribbean, Makran region and Tamil Nadu coast in India. Furthermore, classifying tsunamis into local, regional and global, their possible impact on the region and its immediate vicinity is highlighted. It also includes the effects of tsunami hazard on the coastal environment and infrastructure (structures, lifelines, water resources, bridges, dykes, etc.); and finally the need for emergency medical response preparedness and the prevention of psychological consequences of the affected survivors has been discussed.

Description / Table of Contents: Every ecosystem is a complex organization of carefully mixed life forms; a dynamic and particularly sensible system. Consequently, their progressive decline may accelerate climate change and vice versa, influencing flora and fauna composition and distribution, resulting in the loss of biodiversity. Climate changes effects are the principal topics of this volume. Written by internationally renowned contributors, Biodiversity loss in a changing planet offers attractive study cases focused on biodiversity evaluations and provisions in several different ecosystems, analysing the current life condition of many life forms, and covering very different biogeographic zones of the planet.

Description / Table of Contents: Biological Diversity and Sustainable Resources Use is a very interesting volume, including attractive overviews and original case studies mainly focused on socio-economical effects of the right management of the ecosystems biodiversity, as well as on the useful integration between human activities and environmental responses. Ecological, medical and historical aspects of the sustainable development are also discussed in this book which consists of articles written by international experts, offering the reader a clear and extensive view of the present condition in which our planet is.

Description / Table of Contents: Over the years, environmental change has sharpened significant dynamic evolution and knowledge in organizational structures of organisms, from cellular/molecular to macro-organism level including our society. Changes in social and ecological systems due to environmental change will hopefully result in a shift towards sustainability, with legislative and government entities responding to diverse policy and management issues concerning the building, management and restoration of social-ecological systems on a regional and global scale. Solutions are particularly needed at the regional level, where physical features of the landscape, biological systems and human institutions interact. The purpose of this book is to disseminate both theoretical and applied studies on interactions between human and natural systems from multidisciplinary research perspectives on global environmental change. It combines interdisciplinary approaches, long-term research and a practical solution to the increasing intensity of problems related to environmental change, and is intended for a broad target audience ranging from students to specialists.

Description / Table of Contents: We are increasingly faced with environmental problems and required to make important decisions. In many cases an understanding of one or more geologic processes is essential to finding the appropriate solution. Earth and Environmental Sciences are by their very nature a dynamic field in which new issues continue to arise and old ones often evolve. The principal aim of this book is to present the reader with a broad overview of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Hopefully, this recent research will provide the reader with a useful foundation for discussing and evaluating specific environmental issues, as well as for developing ideas for problem solving. The book has been divided into nine sections; Geology, Geochemistry, Seismology, Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Mineralogy, Soil, Remote Sensing and Environmental Sciences.

Description / Table of Contents: Driven by the increasing necessity to define the biological diversity frame of widespread, endemic and threatened species, as well as by the stimulating chance to describe new species, the study of the evolutive and spatial dynamics is in constant execution. Systematic overviews, biogeographic and phylogenic backgrounds, species composition and distribution in restricted areas are focal topics of the 15 interesting independent chapters collected in this book, chosen to offer to the reader an overall view of the present condition in which our planet is.

Description / Table of Contents: Submarine earthquakes, submarine slides and impacts may set large water volumes in motion characterized by very long wavelengths and a very high speed of lateral displacement, when reaching shallower water the wave breaks in over land – often with disastrous effects. This natural phenomenon is known as a tsunami event. By December 26, 2004, an event in the Indian Ocean, this word suddenly became known to the public. The effects were indeed disastrous and 227,898 people were killed. Tsunami events are a natural part of the Earth’s geophysical system. There have been numerous events in the past and they will continue to be a threat to humanity; even more so today, when the coastal zone is occupied by so much more human activity and many more people. Therefore, tsunamis pose a very serious threat to humanity. The only way for us to face this threat is by increased knowledge so that we can meet future events by efficient warning systems and aid organizations. This book offers extensive and new information on tsunamis; their origin, history, effects, monitoring, hazards assessment and proposed handling with respect to precaution. Only through knowledge do we know how to behave in a wise manner. This book should be a well of tsunami knowledge for a long time, we hope.

Description / Table of Contents: Exciting developments in earthquake science have benefited from new observations, improved computational technologies, and improved modeling capabilities. Designing models of the earthquake generation process is a grand scientific challenge due to the complexity of phenomena and range of scales involved from microscopic to global. Such models provide powerful new tools for the study of earthquake precursory phenomena and the earthquake cycle. Through workshops, collaborations and publications, the APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Simulations (ACES) aims to develop realistic supercomputer simulation models for the complete earthquake generation process, thus providing a "virtual laboratory" to probe earthquake behavior. Part II of the book embraces dynamic rupture and wave propagation, computational environment and algorithms, data assimilation and understanding, and applications of models to earthquakes. This part also contains articles on the computational approaches and challenges of constructing earthquake models.

Description / Table of Contents: Exciting developments in earthquake science have benefited from new observations, improved computational technologies, and improved modeling capabilities. Designing models of the earthquake of the earthquake generation process is a grand scientific challenge due to the complexity of phenomena and range of scales involved from microscopic to global. Such models provide powerful new tools for the study of earthquake precursory phenomena and the earthquake cycle. Through workshops, collaborations and publications the APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Simulations (ACES) aims to develop realistic supercomputer simulation models for the complete earthquake generation process, thus providing a "virtual laboratory" to probe earthquake behavior. Part I of the book covers microscopic simulations, scaling physics and earthquake generation and cycles. This part also focuses on plate processes and earthquake generation from a macroscopic standpoint.

Description / Table of Contents: Geophysicists use seismic signals to image structures in the Earth's interior, to understand the mechanics of earthquake and volcanic sources, and to estimate their associated hazards. Keiiti Aki developed pioneering quantitative methods for extracting useful information from various portions of observed seismograms and applied these methods to many problems in the above fields. This volume honors Aki's contributions with review papers and results from recent applications by his former students and scientific associates pertaining to topics spawned by his work. Discussed subjects include analytical and numerical techniques for calculating dynamic rupture and radiated seismic waves, stochastic models used in engineering seismology, earthquake and volcanic source processes, seismic tomography, properties of lithospheric structures, analysis of scattered waves, and more. The volume will be useful to students and professional geophysicists alike.

Description / Table of Contents: In the last decade of the 20th century, there has been great progress in the physics of earthquake generation; that is, the introduction of laboratory-based fault constitutive laws as a basic equation governing earthquake rupture, quantitative description of tectonic loading driven by plate motion, and a microscopic approach to study fault zone processes. The fault constitutive law plays the role of an interface between microscopic processes in fault zones and macroscopic processes of a fault system, and the plate motion connects diverse crustal activities with mantle dynamics. An ambitious challenge for us is to develop realistic computer simulation models for the complete earthquake process on the basis of microphysics in fault zones and macro-dynamics in the crust-mantle system. Recent advances in high performance computer technology and numerical simulation methodology are bringing this vision within reach. The book consists of two parts and presents a cross-section of cutting-edge research in the field of computational earthquake physics. Part I includes works on microphysics of rupture and fault constitutive laws, and dynamic rupture, wave propagation and strong ground motion. Part II covers earthquake cycles, crustal deformation, plate dynamics, and seismicity change and its physical interpretation. Topics covered in Part I range from the microscopic simulation and laboratory studies of rock fracture and the underlying mechanism for nucleation and catastrophic failure to the development of theoretical models of frictional behaviors of faults; as well as the simulation studies of dynamic rupture processes and seismic wave propagation in a 3-D heterogeneous medium, to the case studies of strong ground motions from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake and seismic hazard estimation for Cascadian subduction zone earthquakes.

Description / Table of Contents: Synthetic Discussions --- Geophysical Studies of the Northern Cascadia Subduction Zone off Western Canada and Their Implications for Great Earthquake Seismotectonics: A Review / Ron M. Clowes and Roy D. Hyndman / pp. 1-23 --- Understanding the Seismotectonics of the Cascadia Subduction Zone: Overview and Recent Seismic Work / Thomas L. Pratt, Craig S. Weaver, Thomas M. Brocher, Thomas Parsons, Michael A. Fisher, Kenneth C. Creager, Robert S. Crosson, Roy D. Hyndman, George Spence, Anne M. Tréhu, Kate C. Miller and Uri S. TEN Brink / pp. 25-36 --- Long-Term Probabilistic Forecast in Japan and Time-Predictable Behavior of Earthquake Recurrence / Kunihiko Shimazaki / pp. 37-43 --- Recipe for Estimating Strong Ground Motions from Active Fault Earthquakes / Kojiro Irikura / pp. 45-55 --- Seismic Velocity --- New Features of Island Arc Crust Inferred from Seismic Refraction/Wide-Angle Reflection Expeditions in Japan / Takaya Iwasaki, Toshikatsu Yoshii, Naoshi Hirata and Hiroshi Sato / pp. 57-70 --- Seeking the Cause of Large Crustal Earthquakes in Japan: Influence of Arc Magma and Fluids / Dapeng Zhao / pp. 71-91 --- Conductivity --- Stress, Stress Release and Geoelectromagnetism / Fiona Simpson / pp. 93-106 --- Network-MT Survey in Japan to Determine Nation-Wide Deep Electrical Conductivity Structure / Makoto Uyeshima, Masahiro Ichiki, Ikuko Fujii, Hisashi Utada, Yasunori Nishida, Hideyuki Satoh, Masaaki Mishina, Tadashi Nishitani, Satoru Yamaguchi, Ichiro Shiozaki, Hideki Murakami and Naoto Oshiman / pp. 107-121 --- Understanding of Seismic Activity Using Conductivity Data in the Central Part of Northeastern Japan / Yukio Fujinawa, Noriaki Kawakami, Jun Inoue, Theodore H. Asch, Shinji Takasugi and Yoshimori Honkura / pp. 123-140 --- Crustal Activity --- Monitoring of Crustal Deformation in Japan Using L-band SAR Interferometry / Makoto Murakami, Satoshi Fujiwara, Takuya Nishimura, Mikio Tobita, Hiroyuki Nakagawa, Shinzaburo Ozawa and Masaki Murakami / pp. 141-146 --- Detection of a Coupling State in the Tokai Plate-Subducting Region Based on Microearthquake Seismicity and on Crustal Deformation / Shozo Matsumura / pp. 147-155 --- Coseismic Slip Distribution of the 1944 Tonankai and 1946 Nankai Earthquakes / Yuichiro Tanioka / pp. 157-165 --- The Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN) / Kenneth W, Hudnut, Yehuda Bock, John E. Galetzka, Frank H. Webb and William H. Young / pp. 167-189 --- Crustal Movement in Southwest Japan, Deduced from Continuous GPS Measurements, and Its Seismotectonic Implications / Kaoru Miyashita, Jianxin Li and Takashi Kawachi / pp. 191-200 --- Active Faults --- Deep Geometry and Evolution of Active Faults in Northern Honshu, Japan / Hiroshi Sato, Naoshi Hirata And Takaya Iwasaki / pp. 201-207 --- Rupturing History of Active Faults during the Last 1000 Years in the Central Japan / Eikichi Tsukuda / pp. 209-218 --- Active Faulting, Lower Crustal Delamination and Ongoing Hidaka Arc-Arc Collision, Hokkaido, Japan / Tanio Ito / pp. 219-224 --- Seismotectonics in the Subduction Zone: Japan --- Inhomogeneous Structure of the Crust and Its Relationship to Earthquake Occurrence / Norihito Umino and Akira Hasegawa / pp. 225-235 --- Configuration of the Philippine Sea Slab and Seismic Activity in the Tokai Region, Central Japan / Satoshi Harada and Akio Yoshida / pp. 237-246 --- On-Line Operating Network of the High Gain Seismometers and Tsunami Sensors, Deployed at the Sea-Floor of the Sagami Trough Subduction Zone, Central Japan / Takao Eguchi, Yukio Fujinawa, Eisuke Fujita, Sin-Iti Iwasaki, Isao Watabe, Hiroaki Negishi and Hiroyuki Fujiwara / pp. 247-260 --- Seismotectonics around the Active Convergent Zones --- Seismotectonics of the Frontal Himalaya through the Electrical Conductivity Imaging / B. R. Arora / pp. 261-272 --- Models of Subduction Zones --- A Simple Review on the Simulation of Earthquake Cycle at Subduction Zones / Kazuro Hirahara / pp. 273-282 --- Systematic Variations in Non-Local Seismicity Patterns in Southern California / K. F. Tiampo, J. B. Rundle, S. McGinnis, W. Klein and S. J. Gross / pp. 283-292 --- Earthquake in Turkey --- Deep Resistivity Structure around the Fault Associated with the 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake, Turkey / N. Oshiman, R. Yoshimura, T. Kasaya, Y. Honkura, M. Matsushima, S. Baris, C. Celik, M. K. Tuncer and A. M. Isikara / pp. 293-303 --- S Wave Splitting Observation inside of the North Anatolian Fault, Turkey / Keiichi Tadokoro, Masataka Ando, Serif Baris, Kin'ya Nishigami, Mamoru Nakamura, S. Balamir Ücer, Akihiko Ito, Yoshimori Honkura and A. Mete Isikara / pp. 305-310 --- Earthquake in Taiwan --- Drilling the Chelungpu Fault, Taiwan: Cores and Heat-Flow from a Thrust-Fault with Very Large Displacements in a Recent Earthquake / Masataka Ando, James Mori, Hidemi Tanaka and Kuo-Fong Ma / pp. 311-317 --- The Ms7.6 Chi-Chi, Taiwan, Earthquake of September 20, 1999 / J.-H. Wang, R.-D. Hwang, B.-S. Huang, K.-C. Chen, W.-G. Huang, and T.-M. Chang / pp. 319-324 --- Some Observations about the Chi-Chi, Taiwan Earthquake of September 21, 1999 / Yi-Ben Tsai / pp. 325-366 --- In-situ Measurements to Understand Seismotectonics in the Subduction Zone --- Borehole Observatories into Subduction Seismogenic Zones / Kiyoshi Suyehiro / pp. 367-374 --- Continental Scientific Drilling for Studying Plate Subduction Earthquakes / Ryuji Ikeda / pp. 375-382 --- Scismotectonics Applied to Earthquake Hazard Mitigation --- Stress Drop Distribution of Micro-Earthquakes at Ootaki, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, Obtained from Waveform Data by Borehole Stations / Shigeki Horiuchi and Yoshihisa Iio / pp. 383-391 --- Site Amplification of' K-NET Sites in the Kanto Region, Central Japan / Shigeo Kinoshita and Yousuke Ogue / pp. 393-405 --- Caltech-USGS Element of TriNet: Remote Stations, Communications, and Data Acquisition / E. Hauksson, P. Maechling, R. Busby and H. Kanamori / pp. 407-423 --- Microzoning Studies for Seismic Risk Mitigation / Kazuoh Seo, Diana Polonska, Katsumi Kurita and Kentaro Motoki / pp. 425-450 --- Earthquake Clusters in the Kanto and Tokai Subduction Zones: Implications for Modes of Plate Consumption / Shin-ichi Noguchi / pp. 451-467 --- Seismic Scattering from Small-Scale Heterogeneities: Numerical Simulations and Observation / Kiyoshi Yomogida / pp. 469-480 --- Tectonic Characteristics of Seismogenic Stress Field in East Asia / Jiren Xu, Zhixin Zhao and Kazuo Oike / pp. 481-497

Description / Table of Contents: In the last decade of the 20th century, there has been great progress in the physics of earthquake generation; that is, the introduction of laboratory-based fault constitutive laws as a basic equation governing earthquake rupture, quantitative description of tectonic loading driven by plate motion, and a microscopic approach to study fault zone processes. The fault constitutive law plays the role of an interface between microscopic processes in fault zones and macroscopic processes of a fault system, and the plate motion connects diverse crustal activities with mantle dynamics. An ambitious challenge for us is to develop realistic computer simulation models for the complete earthquake process on the basis of microphysics in fault zones and macro-dynamics in the crust-mantle system. Recent advances in high performance computer technology and numerical simulation methodology are bringing this vision within reach. The book consists of two parts and presents a cross-section of cutting-edge research in the field of computational earthquake physics. Part I includes works on microphysics of rupture and fault constitutive laws, and dynamic rupture, wave propagation and strong ground motion. Part II covers earthquake cycles, crustal deformation, plate dynamics, and seismicity change and its physical interpretation. Topics in Part II range from the 3-D simulations of earthquake generation cycles and interseismic crustal deformation associated with plate subduction to the development of new methods for analyzing geophysical and geodetical data and new simulation algorithms for large amplitude folding and mantle convection with viscoelastic/brittle lithosphere, as well as a theoretical study of accelerated seismic release on heterogeneous faults, simulation of long-range automaton models of earthquakes, and various approaches to earthquake predicition based on underlying physical and/or statistical models for seismicity change.