The interdisciplinarity between the biological and human sciences is here to serve a daring objective: to decipher, by means of a logical chain, the explanatory factors of human trajectories and imbalances between societies and nations. To do this, The World’s Construction Mechanism is based on an unprecedented analysis of the dynamics of the human species, combining the contributions of anthropology, archeology, biology, climatology, economics, geography, history and sociology. This book analyzes the roots of societal disharmony and presents ways of realizing a clear-sighted human project that is in step with the general interest of humanity.

Since 1971, UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme has embraced a number of principles that link the political, scientific and academic spheres. Biosphere Reserves and Sustainable Development Goals 2 is a reminder of the fundamental issues involved in governance. The diversity and multiplicity of stakeholders, and the complexity of the interplay between them, as well as their organization, are decisive factors in the proper management of resources and territories. The book also presents a number of case studies demonstrating that, between the strong development aspirations of their populations, the impact of human activities and the need to conserve their biological heritage, the biosphere reserves of the southern Mediterranean are facing major issues: agricultural pollution, forest fires, water use in a context of climate change, etc.

The book China and the World Bank: Promoting Capacity Development summarizes the experience of China’s capacity development under the support of the World Bank through the detailed analysis of China’s 50 loan projects. Professor Yifu Lin, former chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank wrote the foreword of the book. And he recommends the book as filling the gap of the research field in China’s capacity development under the help of the World Bank. Capacity development usually refers to a dynamic and perfecting process, that the recipient countries’ public sectors allocate and use available resources for promoting the development capacity to achieve the expected goals of economic and social development in a more effective, efficient, appropriate and sustainable way. This book is divided into five parts: the first part is "economic management and system reform", which discusses the experience of capacity development in economic reform, finance, taxation and industry sectors; the second part is "poverty alleviation and rural development", which analyzes the experience of capacity development in poverty alleviation and development, agricultural comprehensive development and rural water supply and environmental sanitation; the third part is "infrastructure", which refines water conservancy and hydropower experience in capacity development of expressways and urban transportation. The fourth part is "human development", which describes the experience of capacity development of basic education and medical health. The fifth part is "environmental protection", summarizing the experience of environmental management and urban water industry capacity development.

The use of digital technology in our societies is growing to meet the ever-increasing challenges of data collection, raising awareness, education and understanding nature. Artificial intelligence, for example, appears to be the answer to collecting massive amounts of data on biodiversity at a global scale and facilitating citizen participation in such data collection. Linking with Nature in the Digital Age explores the reconfiguration of our relationship with nature within this digital framework. This book examines this mediated linking from three angles. Firstly, it shows how digital technology can foster the development of links to nature. Then, it describes in greater detail the materiality of these links and how they have evolved with the developments in information technology. Finally, it questions the belief in the digital as a facilitator and opens up new perspectives on our relationship with nature and the living world

This book gathers the peer-reviewed papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC), held in Kyoto, Japan, on September 12-15, 2023. It highlights the latest advances and innovations in the field of conservation and restoration of historical and heritage structures. The conference topics encompass history of construction and building technology, theory and practice of conservation, inspection methods, non-destructive techniques and laboratory testing, numerical modeling and structural analysis, management of heritage structures and conservation strategies, structural health monitoring, repair and strengthening strategies and techniques, vernacular constructions, seismic analysis and retrofit, vulnerability and risk analysis, resilience of historic areas to climate change and hazard events, durability, and sustainability. As such the book represents an invaluable, up-to-the-minute tool, providing an essential overview of conservation of historical constructions, and offers an important platform to engineers, architects, archeologists, and geophysicists. Chapter The Challenges of the Conservation of Earthen Sites in Seismic Areas, Chapter Performance Evaluation of Patch Repairs on Historic Concrete Structures (PEPS): Preliminary Results from Two English Case Studies are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.