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Books in Earth and planetary sciences

Elsevier's Earth and Planetary Sciences collection brings together pioneering research on the complexities of our planet and beyond. Covering topics from Earth's structural dynamics and ecosystems to planetary exploration, these titles support advancements in geoscience, environmental science, and space studies, offering essential insights for researchers, professionals, and students.

  • Geotechnical Interpretations in Field Practice

    An Introduction
    • 1st Edition
    • February 17, 2024
    • Anjan Patel
    • English
    Geotechnical Interpretations in Field Practice: An Introduction provides the latest on field test results and theoretical knowledge, interpretation and engineering judgement and how this data is essential for proper planning and execution of ground investigations. Maximum subsurface information can be extracted with lesser budget if proper interpretation is made. In other words, no amount of site investigation is adequate without proper interpretation and application of engineering judgement. With this in consideration in mind, this book presents a special focus on the importance of interpretation and engineering judgment in geotechnical projects.

  • Coal and Coalbed Gas

    Future Directions and Opportunities
    • 2nd Edition
    • January 24, 2024
    • Romeo M. Flores + 1 more
    • English
    Coal and Coalbed Gas: Future Directions and Opportunities, Second Edition introduces the latest in coal geology research and the engineering of gas extraction. Importantly, the second edition examines how, over the last 10 years, research has both changed focus and where it is conducted. This shift essentially depicts "a tale of two worlds"—one half (Western Europe, North America) moving away from coal and coalbed gas research and production towards cleaner energy resources, and the other half (Asia–Pacific region, Eastern Europe, South America) increasing both research and usage of coal. These changes are marked by a precipitous fall in coalbed gas production in North America; however, at the same time there has been a significant rise in coal and coalbed gas production in Australia, China, and India. The driver for higher production and its associated research is a quest for affordable energy and economic security that a large resource base brings to any country like Australia’s first large-scale coalbed gas to liquid natural gas projects supplying the demand for cleaner burning LNG to the Asian-Pacific region. Since the last edition of this book, global climate change policies have more forcibly emphasized the impact of methane from coal mines and placed these emissions equal to, or even more harmful than, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels in general. Governmental policies have prioritized capture, use, and storage of CO2, burning coal in new highly efficient low emission power plants, and gas pre-drainage of coal mines. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and China are also introducing new research into alternative, non-fuel uses for coal, such as carbon fibers, nanocarbons, graphene, soil amendments, and as an unconventional ore for critical elements. New to this edition: Each chapter is substantially changed from the 1st edition including expanded and new literature citations and reviews, important new data and information, new features and materials, as well as re-organized and re-designed themes. Importantly, three new chapters cover global coal endowment and gas potential, groundwater systems related to coalbed gas production and biogenic gas generation as well as the changing landscape of coal and coalbed gas influenced by global climate change and net-zero carbon greenhouse gas emissions. FOREWORD When I reviewed the first edition of this book, my initial thought was, "Do we need another book on coal geology?" and then I read it and realised, "Yes, we need this book" and my students downloaded copies as soon as it was available. So now we come to 2023, and a lot has happened in the past decade. For a different reason we might ask if we still need this book, or even coal geoscientists and engineers, as the world aims for rapid decarbonisation of the energy sector and a reduction of coal as a feedstock for industrial resources, like steel manufacture. Natural gas is earmarked as a transition fuel to enable the shift to renewables. In some basins, the source of that gas is directly from coalbed gas production or from conventional reservoirs that were charged by coal and terrestrial organic source rocks. Although the transition is escalating, there are projections that coal will remain part of our future, even after 2050, and can also provide alternative non-fuel resources (e.g., critical elements and carbon-based nanomaterials). Between now and then, we’d best ensure that we extract and utilise coal and coalbed gas as efficiently and safely as possible, that we mitigate any environmental and social impact of the process, and that we improve our certainty of predicting the behaviour of the material and material impacts. To do this we need to understand coal as a material and the inherent variability of its quality and behaviour as a source rock and host of coalbed gas. One can change the technologies but not the geological ground conditions or coal character of the targeted resource. The authors have taken on this ambitious endeavour during their careers and have attempted to capture their knowledge gained from first-hand experience in countries around the world and comprehensive review of published material, within this book. At least three generations of knowledge are drawn upon here. Tim Moore was a student of both Romeo Flores and his supervisor John Ferm, who was the "Warrior of Gentleness" when it came to coal research, teaching, and supervision. This book also reflects the broad and multidisciplinary aspects of coal geology and coal science and provides the tenets for one to understand different disciplines and how they interact to form an integrated view of the resource—technically... economically, and politically. Each chapter takes the reader through different concepts, first setting the scene by examining the status of coal and coalbed gas in a carbon-conscious world, then looking at the science behind coal as a source of gas and as a reservoir- in its own right. Further reading leads to learning about geological settings and the processes through time that led to present-day endowments around the globe and this theme continues throughout the book with detailed examples from different countries. Personally, I like the emphasis on the depositional environments that lead to peat accumulation and preservation—it’s all about the ingredients—which leads nicely into the world of coal macerals and minerals, and why they matter. Coalification and its role in changing the chemistry and material properties of coal is covered from a reservoir perspective, as is the role of biogenic processes. These have produced some of the enormous gas resources we exploit today and could also provide a future circular economy for neo-biogenic gas. The role of groundwater in this past and potentially future endeavour is presented, along with possible adverse effects where there is unexpected communication with regional and local aquifers and surface assets that detract from environmental and social licence. In addition to describing the geology and engineering technologies required to explore for, access, and utilise these resources, the book also provides insights into geostatistical and economic modelling for reserves estimation and challenges as reservoirs become more geologically and politically complex for extraction and alternatively, for injection and carbon sequestration. The final chapters revisit and integrate concepts presented in the book in order to examine global gas production and the geographic shifts in production and research that have occurred over the past decade(s). The also show how government and the market play a role, and project future trends. The authors provide discussion points for the outlook of coal as a fuel feedstock in a carbon-constrained world and the ongoing search for options and alternative non-fuel uses of coal while highlighting the important role that coal and coalbed gas still play during the transition period and beyond. There is much to learn from this book, which is based on decades of observing and interpreting patterns and trends in coal and coal-bearing basins. There is a growing trend towards using machine learning and artificial intelligence to find patterns in data and provide solutions. I’d suggest that domain intelligence, such as that provided in this book, is critical to supervising this process and is required for understanding and validating the outputs upon which many decisions are made and will continue to be made in the future. So yes, we need this book and I invite you to read, learn, and form your own ideas. If you find any gaps—write about them. Joan S. Esterle Emeritus Professor Vale Chair of Coal Geosciences The University of Queensland, AustraliaMay 2023

  • Safeguarding Mountain Social-Ecological Systems, vol. 1

    A Global Challenge: Facing Emerging Risks and Adapting to Changing Environments
    • 1st Edition
    • December 1, 2023
    • Stefan Schneiderbauer + 3 more
    • English
    Safeguarding Mountain Ecosystems: A Global Challenge provides an overview of the relevant research in mountain regions worldwide, identifying existing challenges and providing an understanding of the diversity of mountain ecosystems in different regions. Mountain ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable to modified climate conditions and other global changes (demographic, migration, urbanization). In this time of change, efforts for sustainable development in mountain ecosystems deserve all the attention, especially in synergy with the United Nations’ International Frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement, and the New Urban Agenda.Sections underline the importance of mountain regions for humanity at global, regional and local scales, describe the challenges of safeguarding mountains and possible solutions worldwide, and scrutinize regional specificities of the major mountain ranges, describing the challenges and opportunities of each. Final sections reflect on applications and technologies that address and solve major problems.

  • Water Resources Systems Planning and Management

    • 2nd Edition
    • Volume 51
    • November 25, 2023
    • Sharad K. Jain + 1 more
    • English
    Water Resources Systems Planning and Management, Second Edition, Volume 51 presents new and updated material, including case studies, examples and important updates on topics such as climate change and integrated water resources management. Authored by two renowned experts in the field of water resources, this text provides an overview of the current status of water resources utilization, the likely scenario of future demands, simulation and techniques of economic analysis, concepts of planning, the planning process, integrated planning, public involvement, reservoir sizing, and finally, systems operation and management. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the field that is relevant for students, professors, scholars, researchers, and consultants in the fields of Water Resources, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Hydrology.

  • Astrochemical Modeling

    Practical Aspects of Microphysics in Numerical Simulations
    • 1st Edition
    • November 23, 2023
    • Stefano Bovino + 1 more
    • English
    Astrochemical Modelling: Practical Aspects of Microphysics in Numerical Simulations is a comprehensive and detailed guide to dealing with the standard problems that students and researchers face when they need to take into account astrochemistry in their models, including building chemical networks, determining the relevant processes, and understanding the theoretical challenges and the numerical limitations. The book provides chapters covering the theoretical background on the predominant areas of astrochemistry, with each chapter following theoretical background with information on existing databases, step-by-step computational examples with solutions to recurrent problems, and an overview of the different processes and their numerical implementation. Furthermore, a section on case studies provides concrete examples of computational modelling usage for real-world applications and cases where the techniques can be applied is also included.

  • Ices in the Solar-System

    A Volatile-Driven Journey from the Inner Solar System to its Far Reaches
    • 1st Edition
    • November 20, 2023
    • Richard Soare + 4 more
    • English
    Ices in the Solar System: A Volatile-Driven Journey from the Inner Solar System to Its FarReaches explores the origins, evolution and distribution of various ice species throughout thesolar system.Geographicall... the book’s focus on ice(s) migrates outwardly from Mercury, the Earth and theMoon, Mars, then Ceres and other volatile-rich small bodies; it carries on with the moons ofJupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, followed by Pluto and other Kuiper Belt/Trans-Neptunian objects.Conceptually and empirically, the book depicts the often-enigmatic narratives of the differentice species (H2O, CO2, CH4, etc.) in the solar system and examines their interaction with a widerange of surface, near-subsurface, interior and atmospheric processes.

  • Dual Frequency Induced Polarization Method

    An Effective Approach for Mineral Exploration
    • 1st Edition
    • November 15, 2023
    • Jishan He
    • English
    Dual Frequency Induced Polarization Method: An Effective Approach for Mineral Exploration provides the first English-language text on the successful but little-known dual frequency induced polarization method. Engineers and technicians in geophysical exploration will appreciate learning about this enhanced method in sections that comprehensively explain the basic principle, method, technology and application of the dual frequency induced polarization method. Chapters cover the mathematical basis, observation parameters, instrument principle, application essentials, field work methods, technology, interference factors and their overcoming methods, ore prospecting and engineering application examples, and more. In particular, the needs of frontline engineering and technical personnel are addressed in chapters specifically related to field work. Researchers, engineers and technicians working in geophysical exploration will discover a thorough and detailed description of all aspects of the dual frequency induced polarization method.

  • Earth Observation in Urban Monitoring

    Techniques and Challenges
    • 1st Edition
    • November 9, 2023
    • Amit Kumar + 3 more
    • English
    Earth Observation in Urban Monitoring: Techniques and Challenges presents the latest techniques of remote sensing in urban monitoring, along with methods for quantitative and qualitative assessment using state-of-the-art Earth observation technologies. The book details the advances of remote sensing technologies in urban environmental monitoring for a range of practical and research applications, Earth observation datasets, remote sensing of environmental considerations, geostatistical techniques and resilience perspectives. Chapters cover sensor applications, urban growth modelling, SAR applications, surveying techniques, satellite time series analysis and a variety of other remote sensing technologies for urban monitoring. Each chapter includes detailed case studies at a variety of scales and from a variety of geographies, offering up-to-date, global, urban monitoring methodologies for researchers, scientists and academics in remote sensing, geospatial research, environmental science and sustainability.

  • Remote Sensing of Soil and Land Surface Processes

    Monitoring, Mapping, and Modeling
    • 1st Edition
    • October 31, 2023
    • Assefa M. Melesse + 2 more
    • English
    Remote Sensing of Soil and Land Surface Processes: Monitoring, Mapping, and Modeling couples artificial intelligence and remote sensing for mapping and modeling natural resources, thus expanding the applicability of AI and machine learning for soils and landscape studies and providing a hybridized approach that also increases the accuracy of image analysis. The book covers topics including digital soil mapping, satellite land surface imagery, assessment of land degradation, and deep learning networks and their applicability to land surface processes and natural hazards, including case studies and real life examples where appropriate. This book offers postgraduates, researchers and academics the latest techniques in remote sensing and geoinformation technologies to monitor soil and surface processes.

  • Science and Engineering of Freak Waves

    • 1st Edition
    • October 27, 2023
    • Nobuhito Mori + 2 more
    • English
    Science and Engineering of Freak Waves provides a holistic and interdisciplinary view of extreme ocean waves for both scientific and engineering applications. Readers will learn the fundamental theory of extreme waves and the implications they have on coastal structures and methods of prediction through chapters that review the definitions of extreme waves, their history and other important observations. After this, the book's authors describe the theory and modeling of extreme waves that occur in various situations. Final sections provide examples of the application of extreme wave research results to various engineering designs are presented. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of our understandings on freak/rogue waves, the science of extreme waves, prediction, and their engineering applications. As such, it is a must read for physical oceanographers looking for a better understanding of prediction models and the history of these waves, and engineers looking for more information on preparedness and implications for offshore structures and shipping.

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