Fundamental Principles of Environmental Physics - Hardcover

by Abel Rodrigues (Author), Raul Albuquerque Sardinha (Author), Gabriel Pita (Author)

Back Jacket

This book is an interdisciplinary guide to environmental physics grounded in sound mathematical formulation. Its holistic approach allows readers to gain a more complete understanding of physical processes and their interactions with ecological ones, which underpin important environmental issues. The primary focus is on the atmospheric surface layer and topsoil layers. This book interests researchers, students, agronomists, foresters, and urbanist engineers alike. The book covers a wide range of topics within environmental physics, including:

- natural and anthropogenic canopies, including forests, urban or wavy terrains;

- fundamentals of heat and mass transfer;

- atmospheric flow dynamics;

- eddy covariance and aerodynamic approaches for quantification of atmospheric fluxes;

- global carbon budget;

- soil-water relationships;

- climate change; and

- the relevance of biochar as a global carbon sink.

Each chapter includes solved exercises, numerous illustrations, and tables. This refreshed and updated edition also contains a new chapter on soil-water relationships.

Author Biography

Abel Rodrigues gained his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and D. Ph. in Environmental Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST, U. Lisbon), in 1994 and 2002, respectively. He was interim Forest Department Head from 2005 to 2011 at the Forestry Research Unit of the National Institute for Agricultural and Veterinary Research, as well as a senior researcher from 2002, where he developed research on atmospheric fluxes and on production and conversion of biomass from short rotation coppices. He authored and co-authored 72 scientific publications and 3 books. Raúl Sardinha has a M.Sc. in Forestry from the School of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Lisbon (1962) and a D. Ph. in Wood Science from Oxford (1974). He was a full professor at ISA (Un. Lisboa) and retired in 2002. Professor Sardinha directed the Portuguese National Forest Research Station in 1988-1995 and headed the University of Madeira (1988-1993) and University Piaget in Guinea-Bissau (2010-2014). He was a member of the Board of the European Forest Institute (1993-1995) and represented Portugal in various international research organizations. He developed research on the properties and suitability of the use of forest products and on natural resources research policy for sustainable management in tropical countries. He has authored 85 scientific research papers and co-authored more than 120 more.

Gabriel Pita has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering/Applied Thermodynamics (1975) and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (1988), both from IST. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IST, where he teaches applied thermodynamics, physical ecology, and mass and energy transfer. Professor Pita's research has dealt with applied combustion, characterization of the impacts of droughts on Portuguese forests, and analysis of carbon uptake and productivity in eucalypt plantations. He has co-authored 44 scientific research publications.