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Books in Social sciences

The Social Sciences collection forms a definitive resource for those entering, researching, or teaching in any of the many disciplines making up this interdisciplinary area of study. Written by experts and researchers from both Academic and Commercial domains, titles offer global scope and perspectives.

Key subject areas include: Library and Information Science; Transportation; Urban Studies; Geography, Planning, and Development; Security; Emergency Management.

  • AI-Driven Urban Planning

    Shaping the Future of Cities
    • 1st Edition
    • Zhong-Ren Peng
    • English
    AI-Driven Urban Planning: Shaping the Future of Cities presents a comprehensive guide to the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in urban planning. This book equips readers with the knowledge to harness data, analytics, and AI for creating sustainable, equitable, and livable urban environments. Exploring diverse applications—from understanding human mobility patterns to enhancing disaster response strategies and optimizing design processes—the book offers practical projects and illustrates how AI is shaping contemporary urban landscapes. By addressing both theoretical and practical dimensions, this resource aims to empower students, professionals, and policymakers with a holistic understanding of Urban Planning AI.It is organized into five parts, each tackling crucial aspects of Urban Planning AI. It first introduces core concepts, types, mechanisms, and ethical considerations surrounding AI. Part II then discusses the history of computer applications in urban and regional planning. Part III focuses on AI Applications in Urban Planning, addressing critical domains such as transportation, environmental, housing, economic, participatory, and health and safety planning. Part IV tackles challenges and ethical considerations, emphasizing equity, transparency, and data-related issues. Lastly, Part V explores future pathways of urban planning AI, discussing current trends, future visions, and interdisciplinary approaches essential for effective governance and policymaking.
  • Digital Transformation in Retail Supply Chain Management for Logistics 5.0

    • 1st Edition
    • Adnan Ahmed Sheikh + 3 more
    • English
    Digital Transformation in Retail Supply Chain Management for Logistics 5.0 explains how these technologies are reshaping retail supply chain management. The book elucidates on the digital tools and strategies organizations can employ to optimize their retail supply chain management, minimize costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainability objectives through industry 5.0-enabled technologies. It innovatively blends the details of recent advancements across retail supply chains and supply chain-related digital transformations. Its cutting-edge perspective makes it an invaluable asset for industry professionals, policymakers, business owners, managers, researchers, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students in retail, logistics supply chain management, digital business, and innovation.The book explores the nuances of the Supply Network 5.0, discussing the synergy between humans and machines, especially in the context of robotic process automation systems and artificial intelligence tools in the “new normal” of retail supply chain management. In addition, it specifically addresses textile products, FMCG, online products, construction, food and beverages, the shoe industry, SMEs, and other manufacturing sectors. Other sections delves into the often-overlooked environmental sustainability ramifications of the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
  • Community Trees and Forests

    Improving Environmental and Human Well-Being
    • 1st Edition
    • David J. Nowak
    • English
    Improving Environmental and Human Health with Community Trees and Forests provides the latest and most comprehensive information on community forests globally, how these trees improve human health and well-being, the value of community trees, and what local land managers, from the lot to regional scale, could do to improve the benefits provided by community trees. It offers a complete understanding of the benefits and costs associated with trees in cities and how these benefits occur. This book facilitates the creation of sustainable community forests that provide optimal benefits to individuals and society.It takes a systems approach, focusing on the forest population rather than the individual tree, and providing information on the best tree species and designs to produce optimal effects. The book is divided into three major sections: The Basics, Urban Forest Benefits, and Improving the Urban Environment with Trees. It covers how cities affect our local environment, the monetary value of trees, and specific steps that land managers should follow to manage and improve their local tree and forest population. This comprehensive resource is valuable for city forest and park managers, policy makers, regional managers, and non-profit groups.
  • Securing Electric Mobility

    • 1st Edition
    • Aparna Kumari
    • English
    Electric vehicles (EVs) continue to capture a growing share of the smart car market across the globe. Like most new technologies, e-mobility comes with a learning curve. Securing Electric Mobility provides readers with in-demand knowledge relating to the dynamically evolving intersection between information & communication technology and vehicle engineering.The edited volume offers in-depth understanding of the distinct features of EV cybersecurity. It opens with a description of the fundamental elements of EVs, their interconnectedness, their cyber-physical characteristics and resulting vulnerabilities. It then dissects the digital threat landscape to increase awareness of all possible risks posed by cyberattacks on electric vehicles, and from there it systematically covers data management, regulatory frameworks, existing solutions and emerging cybersecurity protocols and methodologies that are enhanced by blockchain, artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things integration, machine learning, and real-time monitoring systems. The value of this thorough overview is strengthened further through the inclusion of real-word case studies, which prove the effectiveness of the adopted approaches to safeguard vehicle control systems, owners’ personal data, and the broader cyber-physical network and related equipment.This book proves to be an indispensable, state-of-the-art resource for academia and industry alike as it encourages further transformative, interdisciplinary investigations into the security-assurance complexities that guide EVs’ resilience evolution.
  • Integrating Activity-Based Models with Mobile Phone Data

    Advances in Traffic Modeling and Multi-Agent Simulation
    • 1st Edition
    • Fei Yang + 2 more
    • English
    Integrating Activity-Based Models with Mobile Phone Data: Advances in Traffic Modeling and Multi-Agent Simulation analyzes the path from the observation to prediction using traffic big data. The book explores the refined identification method of individual travel chains in the diversified and complex urban travel environment, reconstructing the structure and algorithms of Activity-based Models or ABM based on the characteristics identified by mobile phone signaling data. Final sections develop an activity decision-making and microscopic behavior simulation platform. Users will find this to be a resource that supports urban and regional traffic management optimization and traffic planning using traffic big data.
  • Technology in Supply Chain Management and Logistics

    Current Practice and Future Applications
    • 2nd Edition
    • Anthony M. Pagano + 1 more
    • English
    Technology in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Current Practice and Future Applications, Second Edition analyzes the implications of these technologies in a variety of supply chain settings, including block chain, Internet of Things (IoT), inventory optimization, and medical supply chain. This book outlines how technologies are being utilized for product planning, materials management and inventory, transportation and distribution, workflow, maintenance, the environment, and in health and safety. Readers will gain a better understanding of the implications of these technologies with respect to value creation, operational effectiveness, investment level, technical migration and general industry acceptance.The book identifies emerging supply chain technologies, and trends in technology acceptance and utilization levels across various industry sectors. It includes contributions from experts in their fields to illustrate how technology can be applied in a variety of areas including manufacturing, equipment distribution, retail, aerospace repair and maintenance, and medical supply chain. Also included are chapters on cutting edge exponential technologies, principals for implementing technological change in supply chain management, and future estimates of technology in supply chain. This second edition updates this constantly changing area.
  • Rethinking Rural

    Data-Driven Approaches for Sustainable Development
    • 1st Edition
    • Luca Salvati
    • English
    Rethinking Rural: Data-Driven Approaches for Sustainable Development offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of sustainable rural development through a quantitative lens. Drawing on official statistics, spatial analysis, and refined indicators, this edited volume brings together leading scholars from ecology, economics, and planning to rethink the environmental-econom... nexus shaping rural territories. With a focus on Europe and the Mediterranean but applicable globally, the book emphasizes continuous, spatially explicit monitoring of socio-ecological and socio-economic complexities to inform effective, place-specific policies that enhance sustainability and resilience.Structure... in three parts, the book first presents integrated perspectives on rural system evolution, including climate change impacts, land use, and socio-economic drivers across diverse contexts such as Mediterranean landscapes and Colombia’s deforestation. The second part details traditional and advanced tools for monitoring rural environments, from territorial indicators to wildfire and habitat assessment. The final section addresses planning and policy challenges, evaluating natural disaster management, resilience strategies, environmental degradation costs, and socio-demographic influences on tourism insurance.Ideal for academics, researchers, and students in spatial planning, applied economics, environmental science, GIS, ecology, agronomy, demography, rural sociology, and geography, this volume equips readers with innovative methodologies and case studies to understand and shape sustainable rural futures.
  • Autonomous Driving and Traffic Dynamics in Road Transportation

    Modeling, Simulation, and Control
    • 1st Edition
    • Michail Makridis + 1 more
    • English
    Autonomous Driving and Traffic Dynamics in Road Transportation: Modeling, Simulation, and Control provides an introduction to autonomous vehicles (AV) in road transport systems, along with discussions on the critical similarities and differences with human drivers. Focusing on key concepts in traffic dynamics and AI-based modeling, the book also offers a comprehensive discussion of the unique dynamics introduced by AVs and their impacts on congestion, safety, energy, and their role in sustainable future intelligent transportation systems. Sections delve into traditional driving behaviors, examining the basics of car-following, driver characteristics, lateral movement, and how well AI models generalize these behaviors. Further sections covers shifts to autonomous driving systems, analyzing their operational principles and providing comparative evidence with human drivers. Assessments on the performance of traditional car-following models against artificial intelligence developments that highlight strengths and weaknesses for each approach are also included. Final sections integrate human drivers and AVs into broader traffic flow theories, presenting findings on how autonomous driving impacts traffic patterns, look at the role of AI and modeling, explore the pros and cons of various methods and data sources, and discuss real-world traffic management applications, combining AI and traditional models for traffic estimation, control, and ensuring fair, disruption-resilient outcomes.
  • Hospital and Healthcare Security

    • 7th Edition
    • Tony W. York
    • English
    Hospital and Healthcare Security, Seventh Edition reflects the current state of healthcare security, particularly in data security and privacy, patient-generated violence, new technologies, and regulatory changes. The book explains the basics and higher expertise concerns, such as the roles of design, emergency management, and policy. Conveying a wide spectrum of topics in an easy-to-comprehend format, it provides a thorough understanding of how the modern healthcare security program should be structured, resourced, and integrated around the principles of people, processes, and technology. This industry-leading resource includes best practices, security master planning, and how to layer in protection philosophies in policies and procedures. Due to rapid changes in violence in healthcare, regulatory requirements, litigation, accreditation standards, advancements in technology, and new healthcare security issues and topics, the new edition contains approximately 25-30% new and updated data and corresponding examples. It is deemed by healthcare executives, accrediting agencies, and industry associations to set the standard of care for healthcare security systems and programs.
  • Smart Cities of AI Robots and Autonomous Vehicles

    The Vision for 2030
    • 1st Edition
    • Paras Chawla + 2 more
    • English
    Smart Cities of AI Robots and Autonomous Vehicles: The Vision for 2030 explores the transformative potential and challenges of integrating AI-powered robots and autonomous vehicles in urban landscapes, envisioning a futuristic smart city landscape by 2030. It examines how artificial intelligence (AI) robots and self-driving cars will transform daily life, healthcare, education, industry, agriculture, and transportation.