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What is the Mediterranean? The perception of the Mediterranean leans equally on the nature, culture, history, lifestyle, and landscape. To approach the question of identity, it seems that we have to give importance to all of these. There is no Mediterranean identity, but Mediterranean identities. Mediterranean is not about the homogeneity and uniformity, but about the unity that comes from diversities, contacts, and interconnections. The book tends to embrace the environment, society, and culture of the Mediterranean in their multiple and unique interconnections over the millennia, contributing to the better understanding of the essential human-environmental interrelations. The choice of 17 chapters of the book, written by a number of prominent scholars, clearly shows the necessity of the interdisciplinary approach to the Mediterranean identity issues. The book stresses the most serious concerns of the Mediterranean today - threats to biodiversity, risks, and hazards - mostly the increasing wildfires and finally depletion of traditional Mediterranean practices and landscapes, as constituent parts of the Mediterranean heritage.
This book presents the proceedings of the INternational CongRess on Engineering and Sustainability in the XXI cEntury – INCREaSE 2017, which was held in Faro, Portugal, from October 11 to 13, 2017. The book promotes a multidisciplinary approach to sustainable development, exploring a number of transversal challenges. It discusses natural and anthropogenic risks; tourism and sustainability; healthy food; water and society; sustainable mobility; renewable energy; and energy efficiency, offering perspectives from civil, electronics, mechanical and food engineering.
Soil loss for erosion is a natural phenomenon in soil dynamics, influenced by climate, soil intrinsic properties, and morphology, that can both trigger and enhance the process. Anthropic activities, like inappropriate agricultural practices, deforestation, overgrazing, forest fires and construction activities, may exert a remarkable impact on erosion processes or, on the other hand, contribute to soil erosion mitigation through a sustainable management of natural resources. The book is the continuation of previously published "Soil Erosion Studies"; it is organized in a unique section collecting nine chapters focusing on a variety of aspects of the erosion phenomena.
Since the mid-1970s, the tropical savanna, known as Cerrado, has been transformed into one of the world's largest grain-growing regions. This book explores how and by what Brazil achieved inclusive and sustainable growth in the Cerrado.
This book is a historical review of international food and agriculture since the founding of the international organizations following the Second World War, including the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and into the 1970s, when CGIAR was established and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was created to recycle petrodollars. Despite numerous international consultations and an increased number of actors, there has been no real growth in international assistance, except for the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The book concurrently focuses on the structural transformation of de...
This book gathers the proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Natural Hazards (NATHAZ'19), held in Lajes do Pico, Pico Island, Azores in 2019. Natural hazards constitute the threat of a naturally occurring event having a negative effect on human beings. These effects are often called natural disasters. Among the natural hazards and potential disasters to be considered are: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, subsidence, floods, droughts and coastal erosion. In addition, there are anthropogenic hazards that occur as a result of human interactions with the environment. They include technological hazards, which occur due to exposure to hazardous substances in the environment. ...
This book contains the proceedings of the INternational CongRess on Engineering and Sustainability in the XXI cEntury – INCREaSE 2019, which was held in Faro, Portugal, from October 09 to 11, 2019. The book promotes a multidisciplinary approach to sustainable development, exploring a number of transversal challenges. Among other topics it discusses Climate Changes and Environmental Protection; Renewable Energy; Energy Efficiency in Buildings; Green Governance and Mobility; Water for Ecosystem and Society; Healthy Food; Sustainable Construction; and Sustainable Tourism, offering perspectives from civil, electronics, mechanical, and food engineering.