Renewable Resources a Systematic Approach

Renewable Resources: A Systematic Approach focuses on the use of renewable resources, presenting a multifaceted perspective on its complex process. This book analyzes the social and physical impacts of renewable resource exploitation through different approaches. The importance of photosynthesis in the production of biomass is also presented, as well as the processes of substitution technology and the possibilities of systemizing the flow of energy and materials. This publication likewise covers the management of renewable resources from humid tropics and semiarid zones and components of non-renewability, which unavoidably will be more and more linked to the exploitation of renewable resources. This compilation is valuable to biologists who search for new techniques for the massive propagation of plants, as well as chemists who intend to acquire knowledge of chemical alternatives for the conversion of many sources of raw materials and energy to cellulose.

Contributors

Preface

Part I. Systems and Models

Resource Systems Evolution

The Global Systematization of Resource Depletion in Terms of Nonrenewable Factors

The Reference Materials System—Materials Policy Information System

Automated Information Systems and Systems Analysis Models in Forest Resources Management

Systems Analysis Models in Forest Utilization

The WELMM Method—One Systematic Approach to Renewable Resources

Technological Substitution Models

Socioeconomic Models in Renewable Natural Resource Utilization

Part II. Scientific and Technological Trends

Considerations on the Social Impact of Technologies

The Use of Technology Assessment in Natural Resource Management—Guayule, A Case Study

The Conversion of Renewable Resources into Chemical Feedstocks

Biomass for Energy - A Worldwide View

Fuels from New Crops

Trends in Microbial Technology for Developing Countries

Steroid Drugs from Botanical Sources: Future Prospects

Sustaining Renewable Resources—Techniques from Applied Botany

Renewable Resources from the Tropics

Index