A Guide to Understanding the Fundamental Principles of Environmental Management : It Ain''t Magic: Everything Goes Somewhere /
ISBN: 9781789060997
Platform/Publisher: Knowledge Unlatched / IWA Publishing
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: unlimited; Download: unlimited

In this human-dominated "Anthropocene Epoch," how does one protect and manage scarce environmental resources?This book uses plain language to introduce the non-expert to the fundamentals of environmentalmanagement, without requiring them to have a solid grounding in the basic sciences. The authorsbuild upon the reader's natural understanding of scientific principles to learn how to followthe consequences of change through natural systems and to ask better questions about one'senvironment. Case studies are provided, drawn from temperate ecosystems and human-alteredlandscapes. Two sets of stories are crafted to explain scientific concepts and introduce analyticalapproaches, identifying where and how to obtain relevant information. The first covers waterand where it goes and what factors affect its fate, and the second how key building blocks of life(carbon and the nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus) change chemical forms and cycles through theenvironment. The role of soils in the nexus of environmental media is explained. Finally, the authorsdescribe, and also lead the reader to identify, how humans have altered core processes and tojudge the significance of these changes. The reader will learn how to fix environmental dysfunctionin both private and public lives.


hidden image for function call