Translating Diverse Environmental Data into Reliable Information
1st Edition
How to Coordinate Evidence from Different Sources
Description
Translating Diverse Environmental Data into Reliable Information: How to Coordinate Evidence from Different Sources is a resource for building environmental knowledge, particularly in the era of Big Data. Environmental scientists, engineers, educators and students will find it essential to determine data needs, assess their quality, and efficiently manage their findings. Decision makers can explore new open access databases and tools, especially portals and dashboards. The book demonstrates how environmental knowledgebases are and can be built to meet the needs of modern students and professionals. Topics covered include concepts and principles that underpin air, water, and other public health and ecological topics. Integrated and systems perspectives are woven throughout, with clues on how to build and apply interdisciplinary data, which can increasingly be obtained from sources ranging from peer-reviewed research appearing in scientific journals to information gathered by citizen scientists. This opens the door to using vast amounts of open data and the necessary quality assurance and metadata considerations for their countless applications.
Key Features
- Provides tools to manage data of varying sizes and quality
- Identifies both opportunities and cautions in using “other people’s data”
- Updates physical, chemical and biological factors that must be considered in risk evaluations and life cycle assessments
- Applies to data collected by academic, governmental, businesses, and citizen scientists across environmental systems
- Improves readers’ ability to organize and visualize their work in the age of Big Data
Readership
Graduate students, researchers and professionals in environmental science, environmental engineering or related fields like pollution, ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry
Table of Contents
Part I: Data and the Environment
1. Building a New Environmental Knowledgebase
2. The Environmental Knowledge Cascade
Part II: Environmental Knowledgebases
3. Stressors
4. Pathways
5. Air
6. Water
7. Contaminant Storage Systems
Part III: Managing Environmental Knowledge Building
8. Environmental Models
9. Environmental Data Analysis
10. Data Interpretation and Presentation
11. Examples and Case Studies
Appendices
1. Physicochemical Data Sources
2. OECD’s Emission Scenario Document Method for Calculating Environmental Releases
3. Key terms and notation
Details
- No. of pages:
- 500
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- © Academic Press 2018
- Published:
- 20th September 2017
- Imprint:
- Academic Press
- Paperback ISBN:
- 9780128124468
- eBook ISBN:
- 9780128124475
About the Author
Daniel Vallero
Dr. Daniel A. Vallero is an internationally recognized expert in environmental science and engineering. His four decades of research, teaching and professional experience in hazardous waste engineering and management have addressed a wide range of human health risk and ecological issues, from global climate change to the release of hazardous wastes. His research has advanced the state-of-the-science of air and water pollution measurement, models of potential exposures to chemicals in consumer products, and environmental impact assessments. He established the Engineering Ethics program and is a key collaborator in the Responsible Conduct of Research Program at Duke University. These programs introduce students, from first-year through PhD, to the complex relationships between science, technology and societal demands on the engineer. The lessons learned from the cases in this book are a fundamental part of Duke’s preparation of its future engineers to address the ethical dilemmas likely to be encountered during the careers of the next generation engineers. Dr. Vallero received a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University, a Master of Science in City & Regional Planning from SIU, a Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Environmental Health Sciences) from the University of Kansas, and a PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Duke.
Affiliations and Expertise
Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA