This book is the result of a research project entitled "Reference function for Global Air Pollution/C0 " initiated by RIVM. It deals with the description 2 of a computer simulation model of the greenhouse effect. This model, IMAGE, tries to capture the fundamentals of the complex problem of climate change in a simplified way. The model is a multidisciplinary product and is based on knowledge from disciplines as economics, atmospheric chemistry, marine and terrestrial biogeochemistry, ecology, climatology, and glaciology. This book might be of interest for anyone working in the broad field of climate change. Furthermore, it can be useful for model builders, simulation experts, mathematicians etc. A PC version of the model will become avail able free of charge. Requests can be sent to the author. Although being the only author of this book, I could never have written it without the help of many other people. First of all I would like to thank Koos Vrieze, originally a colleague at RIVM, later my professor. Without his inspiring attitude I would have never finished this thesis. I am also very grateful to RIVM for giving me the opportunity to write this thesis. lowe many thanks to Hans de Boois and Rob Swart for their support and assis tance during the research. Furthermore, I would like to thank my trainees who have substantially contributed to the contents of this book.

This book is the result of a research project entitled "Reference function for Global Air Pollution/C0 " initiated by RIVM. It deals with the description 2 of a computer simulation model of the greenhouse effect. This model, IMAGE, tries to capture the fundamentals of the complex problem of climate change in a simplified way. The model is a multidisciplinary product and is based on knowledge from disciplines as economics, atmospheric chemistry, marine and terrestrial biogeochemistry, ecology, climatology, and glaciology. This book might be of interest for anyone working in the broad field of climate change. Furthermore, it can be useful for model builders, simulation experts, mathematicians etc. A PC version of the model will become avail able free of charge. Requests can be sent to the author. Although being the only author of this book, I could never have written it without the help of many other people. First of all I would like to thank Koos Vrieze, originally a colleague at RIVM, later my professor. Without his inspiring attitude I would have never finished this thesis. I am also very grateful to RIVM for giving me the opportunity to write this thesis. lowe many thanks to Hans de Boois and Rob Swart for their support and assis tance during the research. Furthermore, I would like to thank my trainees who have substantially contributed to the contents of this book.

This book begins with a brief background on greenhouse gases sources and sinks and continues with a discussion in different sectors including forest fluxes to human health and modeling techniques to policy measures. The chapters explore in detail about the GHG emission budgets, mitigation strategies, technical advancement and input-output analysis. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) occur naturally in our atmosphere and are essential to the survival of most of the organisms on the planet earth. GHGs such as such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone etc. play a major role in balancing the radiative budget, by absorbing or emitting some of the infrared rays reflecting from the earth’s surface. But unfortunately, anthropogenic activities like use of fossil fuel, intensive agriculture and livestock farming, use of synthetic fertilizers, deforestation, and industrial processes etc. have drastically interfered in the natural air composition, by releasing excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This has led to the increase in the ability of the atmosphere to absorb more infrared energy. This book is a complete information set covering all aspects of GHGs, sources, sinks and control/mitigation strategies. This book is also written in simple language with helpful photographs, diagrams and flowcharts which will make the reader comfortable in understanding the concepts a more relatively easier way. The book is a valuable tool for students in Environmental Science, Ecology, Biological Science, Economics and Agriculture. It is unique to environmental consultants, researchers and other professionals involved in climate change studies, Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s).

Only a few laboratories in the world have taken the bold step to attempt the integration of sub-models of the climate system, the global biogeochemical cycles and the human/societal components. This volume reports such a major undertaking and it is an important step towards an integrated approach to global change science. The IMAGE 2 model is important in demonstrating our current ability to model the complex global system.

We are living on the cusp of a new era, in which everything that we took for granted is being called into question. Professor Rotmans offers fascinating examples of successful change and encourages us to act decisively and embrace the chaos in order to build a more optimistic future.

IPCC assessment of the scientific, technical, environmental, economic, and social aspects of the mitigation of climate change.

Despite international initiatives such as the Earth Summit in 1992 and ongoing efforts to implement the Kyoto Protocol, human activities continue to register a destructive toll on the planetary environment. At root, research on global environmental risk seeks new pathways for reversing unsustainable trends, curtailing ongoing destructive activities, and creating a life-sustaining planet. This book takes stock of the distinctive challenges posed by global environmental risks, the capacity of knowledge systems to identify and characterize such risks, and the competence of human society to manage the unprecedented complexity. Particular attention trains on engaging, in ways conducive to enhancing social learning and adaptation, the large uncertainties inherent in these risks. Various chapters enlist different scales of analysis to explore the manifestation and causes of global environmental risks in all the diversity of their regional expression. Throughout, the editors and contributors accord prominence to the vulnerability of people and places to environmental degradation. Understanding vulnerability is a neglected key to assessing the nature of the risks and determining strategies for altering trajectories of threat. Global risk futures, the editors argue, are not intractable, and are still amenable to a risk-analysis enterprise that is democratic in principle, humanistic in concept, and geared to the realities that pertain to the particular societies, locales, and regions that will ultimately bear the risk.

Ecological economics can help create the future that most people want – a future that is prosperous, just, equitable and sustainable. This forward-thinking book lays out an alternative approach that places the sustainable wellbeing of humans and the rest of nature as the overarching goal. Each of the book’s chapters, written by a diverse collection of scholars and practitioners, outlines a research and action agenda for how this future can look and possible actions for its realisation.

Urban Ecology is a rapidly growing field of academic and practical significance. Urban ecologists have published several conference proceedings and regularly contribute to the ecological, architectural, planning, and geography literature. However, important papers in the field that set the foundation for the discipline and illustrate modern approaches from a variety of perspectives and regions of the world have not been collected in a single, accessible book. Foundations of Urban Ecology does this by reprinting important European and American publications, filling gaps in the published literature with a few, targeted original works, and translating key works originally published in German. This edited volume will provide students and professionals with a rich background in all facets of urban ecology. The editors emphasize the drivers, patterns, processes and effects of human settlement. The papers they synthesize provide readers with a broad understanding of the local and global aspects of settlement through traditional natural and social science lenses. This interdisciplinary vision gives the reader a comprehensive view of the urban ecosystem by introducing drivers, patterns, processes and effects of human settlements and the relationships between humans and other animals, plants, ecosystem processes, and abiotic conditions. The reader learns how human institutions, health, and preferences influence, and are influenced by, the others members of their shared urban ecosystem.