Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science PDF Download

Author: Gerrit Lohmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319138650
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
This book describes the latest advances at the Helmholtz “Earth System Science Research School” where scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, the University of Bremen, and the Jacobs University are involved in research. One of the greatest challenges is understanding ongoing environmental changes. The longer the time scale the more components of the Earth system are involved, e.g. interannual and decadal variations are related to the coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice system, whereas longer variations like glacial-interglacial or Cenozoic transitions involve the carbon cycle, ice sheets and gateways. In order to get deep insights into Earth system science, observations, remote sensing, past environmental data, as well as modeling need to be integrated. These different approaches are traditionally taught in separated disciplines at bachelor and master levels. It is, therefore, necessary to bring these disciplines together in PhD programs.

Author: Gerrit Lohmann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642322352
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
Earth system science is traditionally split into various disciplines (Geology, Physics, Meteorology, Oceanography, Biology etc.) and several sub-disciplines. Overall, the diversity of expertise provides a solid base for interdisciplinary research. However, gaining holistic insights into the Earth system requires the integration of observations, paleoclimate data, analysis tools and modeling. These different approaches of Earth system science are rooted in various disciplines that cut across a broad range of timescales. It is, therefore, necessary to link these disciplines at a relatively early stage in PhD programs. The linking of ‘data and modeling’, as it is the special emphasis in our graduate school, enables graduate students from a variety of disciplines to cooperate and exchange views on the common theme of Earth system science, which leads to a better understanding of processes within a global context.

Author: Claire M. Belcher
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118529561
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
Fire plays a key role in Earth system processes. Wildfires influence the carbon cycle and the nutrient balance of our planet, and may even play a role in regulating the oxygen content of our atmosphere. The evolutionary history of plants has been intimately tied to fire and this in part explains the distribution of our ecosystems and their ability to withstand the effects of natural fires today. Fire Phenomena and the Earth System brings together the various subdisciplines within fire science to provide a synthesis of our understanding of the role of wildfire in the Earth system. The book shows how knowledge of fire phenomena and the nature of combustion of natural fuels can be used to understand modern wildfires, interpret fire events in the geological record and to understand the role of fire in a variety of Earth system processes. By bringing together chapters written by leading international researchers from a range of geological, environmental, chemical and engineering disciplines, the book will stimulate the exchange of ideas and knowledge across these subject areas. Fire Phenomena and the Earth System provides a truly interdisciplinary guide that can inform us about Earth’s past, present and beyond. Readership: Advanced students and researchers across a wide range of earth, environmental and life sciences, including biogeochemistry, paleoclimatology, atmospheric science, palaeontology and paleoecology, combustion science, ecology and forestry.

Author: Vanja Skalicky Klemenčič
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781536173031
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
The built environment is witnessing a worldwide concern followed by intensive consideration of its environmental impacts on the one hand and influence on public health and wellbeing on the other. Respecting both priorities mentioned above, the trends in current design tend to be in line with multiple dimensions of sustainability. Next to its occurrence in scientific research and practice, the topic of sustainable design is ever more emerging within the courses at universities, whereby the educational approaches can be beneficial if interrelated to different scientific or expert disciplines. As universities are recognized as complex organizations inevitably evolving over a long period of time period and responding to changes in society and environment, attempts to improve the efficiency of academic teaching have been intensively introduced also in the study programs of the University of Maribor, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture (UM FGPA) through implementation of various activities related to development of innovative approaches towards education on sustainable design of built environment.The publication presents the interdisciplinary approach to the academic education on sustainable building design through integration of different activities. In addition to basic educational courses, the transfer of latest research findings, implementation of practical student workshops, development projects and various activities aiming at integration of different knowledge transfers makes the level of academic teaching more active and efficient. The book consists of six chapters. The first chapter describes the general aspect of the integrative approach to education on sustainable built environment through the experience of the interdisciplinary course. Chapter 2 introduces a comprehensive set of urban design criteria for creating residential neighbourhoods and emphasizes the role of high-quality open space and green areas, which significantly contributes to liveability. Chapter 3 deals with sustainable transport in connection with the living environment, and emphasises the interdisciplinary approach. Chapter 4 presents the inclusion of energy-efficient building design with the integrated use of new digital technologies, such as building information and energy modelling. Chapter 5 describes the main types of timber structural systems and presents a sustainable design perspective of contemporary prefabricated timber-glass buildings with further development of multi-storey prefabricated timber buildings with enlarged glazing areas. The last chapter is prepared as a graphic summary of interdisciplinary workshop projects which demonstrate the complexity of design and the respect for diverse interdisciplinary principles of sustainable planning.

Author: Dorothy Merritts
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780716728344
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Using the earth systems approach, Dr Merritts and her colleagues guide readers towards an understanding of Earth's varied environments, the whole-Earth systems connecting them and the ramifications of natural events and human interaction.

Author: David C. Gosselin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030032736
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Interdisciplinary Teaching about the Earth and Environment for a Sustainable Future presents the outcomes of the InTeGrate project, a community effort funded by the National Science Foundation to improve Earth literacy and build a workforce prepared to tackle environmental and resource issues. The InTeGrate community is built around the shared goal of supporting interdisciplinary learning about Earth across the undergraduate curriculum, focusing on the grand challenges facing society and the important role that the geosciences play in addressing these grand challenges. The chapters in this book explicitly illustrate the intimate relationship between geoscience and sustainability that is often opaque to students. The authors of these chapters are faculty members, administrators, program directors, and researchers from institutions across the country who have collectively envisioned, implemented, and evaluated effective change in their classrooms, programs, institutions, and beyond. This book provides guidance to anyone interested in implementing change—on scales ranging from a single course to an entire program—by infusing sustainability across the curriculum, broadening access to Earth and environmental sciences, and assessing the impacts of those changes.

Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780309224468
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has played a key role over the past several decades in advancing understanding of Earth's systems by funding research on atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, geologic, polar, ecosystem, social, and engineering-related processes. Today, however, those systems are being driven like never before by human technologies and activities. Our understanding has struggled to keep pace with the rapidity and magnitude of human-driven changes, their impacts on human and ecosystem sustainability and resilience, and the effectiveness of different pathways to address those challenges. Given the urgency of understanding human-driven changes, NSF will need to sustain and expand its efforts to achieve greater impact. The time is ripe to create a next-generation Earth systems science initiative that emphasizes research on complex interconnections and feedbacks between natural and social processes. This will require NSF to place an increased emphasis on research inspired by real-world problems while maintaining their strong legacy of curiosity driven research across many disciplines ? as well as enhance the participation of social, engineering, and data scientists, and strengthen efforts to include diverse perspectives in research.

Author: Gunilla Oberg
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444348337
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Environmental issues are inherently interdisciplinary, and environmental academic programs increasingly use an interdisciplinary approach. This timely book presents a core framework for conducting high quality interdisciplinary research. It focuses on the opportunities rather than the challenges of interdisciplinary work and is written for those doing interdisciplinary work (rather than those studying it). It is designed to facilitate high quality interdisciplinary work and the author uses illustrative examples from student work and papers published in the environmental literature. This book's lucid, problem-solving approach is framed in an accessible easy-to-read style and will be indispensable for anyone embarking on a research project involving interdisciplinary collaboration. Readership: graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and researchers involved in the interface between human and natural environmental systems

Author: Andrew Barry
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136658459
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
The idea that research should become more interdisciplinary has become commonplace. According to influential commentators, the unprecedented complexity of problems such as climate change or the social implications of biomedicine demand interdisciplinary efforts integrating both the social and natural sciences. In this context, the question of whether a given knowledge practice is too disciplinary, or interdisciplinary, or not disciplinary enough has become an issue for governments, research policy makers and funding agencies. Interdisciplinarity, in short, has emerged as a key political preoccupation; yet the term tends to obscure as much as illuminate the diverse practices gathered under its rubric. This volume offers a new approach to theorising interdisciplinarity, showing how the boundaries between the social and natural sciences are being reconfigured. It examines the current preoccupation with interdisciplinarity, notably the ascendance of a particular discourse in which it is associated with a transformation in the relations between science, technology and society. Contributors address attempts to promote collaboration between, on the one hand, the natural sciences and engineering and, on the other, the social sciences, arts and humanities. From ethnography in the IT industry to science and technology studies, environmental science to medical humanities, cybernetics to art-science, the collection interrogates how interdisciplinarity has come to be seen as a solution not only to enhancing relations between science and society, but the pursuit of accountability and the need to foster innovation. Interdisciplinarity is essential reading for scholars, students and policy makers across the social sciences, arts and humanities, including anthropology, geography, sociology, science and technology studies and cultural studies, as well as all those engaged in interdisciplinary research. It will have particular relevance for those concerned with the knowledge economy, science policy, environmental politics, applied anthropology, ELSI research, medical humanities, and art-science.

Author: Irina Artemieva
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139504460
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 875

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Book Description
Presenting a coherent synthesis of lithosphere studies, this book covers a range of geophysical methods (seismic reflection, refraction, and receiver function methods; elastic and anelastic seismic tomography; electromagnetic and magnetotelluric methods; thermal, gravity and rheological models), complemented by petrologic and laboratory data on rock properties. It also provides a critical discussion of the uncertainties, assumptions, and resolution issues that are inherent in the different methods and models of the lithosphere. Multidisciplinary in scope, global in geographical extent, and covering a wide variety of tectonics settings across 3.5 billion years of Earth history, this book presents a comprehensive overview of lithospheric structure and evolution. It is a core reference for researchers and advanced students in geophysics, geodynamics, tectonics, petrology, and geochemistry, and for petroleum and mining industry professionals.