This volume is the first comprehensive description of the most spectacular landforms of Hungary. It is a richly illustrated book which presents a collection of significant sites, capturing the geodiversity of Hungarian landscapes. The Landscapes and Landforms of Hungary discusses the effects of geomorphological features to the landscape, such as volcanism, weathering, fluvial or aeolian erosion, karst formation, gravitational movements, and others. The importance of the conservation of geomorphological heritage is underlined, as well as the importance of geomorphological heritage and conservation. This book can be used for undergraduate and graduate courses in geomorphology, physical geography, hydrogeography, and nature conservation. It will be of benefit to environmental scientists, geomorphologists, conservationists, among others.

Landscapes and Landforms of the Slovakia provides an attractive physiographical overview of the most prominent landscapes of Slovakia and the distinctive landforms associated with them. It describes the main driving factors leading to their evolution and importance for geoconservation and geotourism. The richly illustrated book provides the reader with enjoyable and informative descriptions of the selected sites within their regional geographical and geological settings range from the Tatras Mts. with glacially shaped relief as the highest region in the Carpahians to caves and lowlands taking into account fluvial, gravity-induced, karst and structural landscapes of the Slovakia. The book is organized in 3 parts: a) Introduction, which presents a general framework of the physical geography of Slovakia, b) Geomorphological landscapes, presenting papers dealing with key geomorphological areas, resp. landforms, c) Geoheritage and landscape protection, providing an updated vision on the geomorphological/geological heritage sites and landscape protection policy in Slovakia. The book will be relevant to scientists, scholars and any readers interested in geomorphology, geology, physical geography, geoheritage, landscape tourism and environmental protection. It can be also used for undergraduate and graduate courses in Earth and environmental sciences.

This book presents the most comprehensive and detailed overview of the physical environment of Hungary. The book makes a specific effort to connect regional geography with natural forcing and influencing factors. The first section discusses general characteristics relating to the physical geography of Hungary on a more theoretical basis including relief evolution, climate, hydrography, soils and vegetation. The second part focuses on regional content and analyzes conflicts, environmental values, threats and impacts of the different geographical units. This book appeals to researchers as well as students of physical geography and related disciplines and serves as a useful source for regional information on Hungary. This book can also be used as a field guide of the physical properties of this European country.

This new four-volume set, Global Biodiversity, provides a wealth of insightful information on the biodiversity of selected nations around the world. The volumes provide informative summaries of the available data on both wild and cultivated plants, wild and domesticated animals, and microbes of the different nations selected.

This book describes Hungarian karst areas and Hungarian karst research results. The chapters present the general characteristics of karst areas, their geology, their paleokarst, their hydrology, their surface and subsurface morphology (more significant caves are classified according to karst areas and their morphology and development is described), ecology and flora and fauna. This book also includes a separate chapter which deals with the history of Hungarian karst and cave research. Another chapter deals with theories that were made during Hungarian karst researches.

This book offers perspectives on how to develop a sustainable global balance of urbanization, land-use intensification, land abandonment, and multifunctional cultural landscapes. The focus is on the latter by describing the large variety of traditional cultural landscapes having evolved through centuries or even millennia by the use of the natural, terrestrial and aquatic resources. Those cultural landscapes encompass pasture, agroforestry, terraced, irrigation, coastal, monastic, and sacred landscapes as well as lake-, river-, and saltscapes. The restoration of low-input land-use systems which often carry a high biodiversity on the species, ecosystem, and landscape level as well as agrobiodiversity and agrodiversity is outlined. The restoration of multifunctional and diverse landscapes, however, is not only an ecological issue but encompasses many socio-economic aspects such as e.g., the revitalization of villages, eco-tourism, healthy food production, infrastructure, and rural-urban partnerships. Global environmental problems, which are related to urbanization and the intensification of the use of land and water resources are comprehensively outlined. Land abandonment which occurs on all continents is qualitatively and quantitatively assessed and the consequences for natural and cultural heritage loss is highlighted. With the presentation of current rural development and landscape conservation strategies on the national as well as international level, the topic reflects the high significance of environmental policy on the global scale. The global implementation of natural and cultural heritage conservation is, for example, given by the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, National Parks, Biosphere Reserves, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Sites, High Nature Value Farmland, and the Satoyama initiative. However, also the “every-day” landscapes can contribute to biodiversity and strong sustainability. This comprehensive compendium, based on about 4,000 references of scientific studies, literature reviews, project reports, and environmental policy papers is thought for all students, scholars, and stakeholders from multifaceted disciplines, interested in multifunctional cultural landscapes and how traditions and innovation on the landscape level can be merged for a sustainable future on our planet. Case studies from all over the world are presented which can be used in Higher Education or to demonstrate the numerous approaches of sustainable rural development.

The Cultural Landscape - Past, Present and Future considers different aspects of man's intervention with natural vegetation and the landscape resulting from a long equilibrium of co-existence. These landscapes are not stable, and the recent and ever accelerating changes in technology and life-style have increasingly affected many ancient landscapes, as old land-use practices are abandoned and traditions forgotten. The papers in this book describe and trace the development of cultural landscapes in different climatic and biogeographical regions in Europe. Remnants of traditional land-use still remaining are described, particularly from Western Norway, where traditions have lingered because the rugged topography of the region is inimicable to high-technology. Each chapter is by an expert in the field. The topics cover the documentation of present cultural landscapes, their maintenance and restoration, and the history of the development of cultural landscapes from the Stone Age onwards, linking the intensity of landscape utilization with population dynamics and technological attainments. The disciplines involved include vegetation science, vegetation history, ecology, palaeoecology, archaeology, sociology, geography and history.

An inventory of nearly 300 megafans across five continents, describing the major morphological attributes of megafans and multi-megafan landscapes. It examines the controls on megafan development and discusses the application of megafan research to aquifers as well as economic and planetary geology, including layered deposits on Mars.

Changes in land use and land cover can have many drivers, including population growth, urbanization, agriculture, demand for food, evolution of socio-economic structure, policy regulations, and climate variability. The impacts of these changes on water resources range from changes in water availability (due to changes in losses of water to evapotranspiration and recharge) to degradation of water quality (increased erosion, salinity, chemical loadings, and pathogens). The impacts are manifested through complex hydro-bio-geo-climate characteristics, which underscore the need for integrated scientific approaches to understand the impacts of landscape change on water resources. Several techniques, such as field studies, long-term monitoring, remote sensing technologies, and advanced modeling studies, have contributed to better understanding the modes and mechanisms by which landscape changes impact water resources. Such research studies can help unlock the complex interconnected influences of landscape on water resources in terms of quantity and quality at multiple spatial and temporal scales. In this Special Issue, we published a set of eight peer-reviewed articles elaborating on some of the specific topics of landscape changes and associated impacts on water resources.

The region of Europe and Central Eurasia defined in this volume encompasses territory that extends from the Atlantic Coast of Europe to the Pacific Coast of the Russian Federation. It includes the British Isles, Iceland, and Greenland (a self- governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark). Included are mineral commodity outlook tables, plus global overview research for particularly commodities within a specific regions/countries are presented throughout the text. Manufacturers of these metals and commodities, along with trade brokers that may specialize in imports and exports, political scientists, and economists may also be interested in this volume. Students pursuing research on specific metals and mineral commodities for world economy courses may be interested in this volume.