Shipra Singh – författare

Understanding Soils of Mountainous Landscapes: Sustainable Use of Soil Ecosystem Services and Management focuses on the patterns and processes of mountainous soils, including threats due to the fragile nature of mountain ecosystems, and the conservation and management of soil ecosystem services and restoration processes. The book covers a balanced approach to land and resource management, ensuring that environmentally and socio-culturally sound interventions are developed and applied in the complex geophysical, ecological, and social landscapes of the world's mountain systems. The book provides holistic understanding of mountain soils to help environmental and soil scientists gain insight and develop new problem-solving approaches.

With obvious up- and downstream linkages (e.g., a large proportion of urban canters globally depend on water that originates in the mountains) as well as globalization (e.g., continental-scale impacts of air pollution and climate change on glaciers), the long-range success of conservation measures in mountain regions requires that the following discrete but interconnected interventions be pursued concurrently: (1) the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, (2) empowerment of mountain communities (including family farming), and (3) elaboration of more thoughtful, context-specific policy environments for sustainable mountain development.

This book focuses on integrated disaster risk reduction arising out of climate change and shows how communities build resilience through adaptive and transformative strategies at the local and global levels. It integrates disaster risk, uncertainty, and maladaptation to climate change with evidence from empirical research and a systematic review of existing studies. The book also proposes two important contributions, which makes it distinctive. First, it gives a systematic review of the literature to capture the changing context and concept of risk, uncertainty, and maladaptation to climate change. Second, it uses case studies from around the globe to demonstrate the ways that communities have fostered to build resilience to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

There is a growing recognition that decision-makers often rely on intuitive thinking processes rather than undertaking a systematic analysis of options in a deliberative fashion. This latter approach requires accepting a plurality of narratives, embracing multiple disciplinary perspectives, and above all, integrating the appropriate disciplines that can help in finding better solutions. Thus, the book adds value to the existing knowledge on climate change adaptation, perception, and policy initiatives to address disaster risk reduction. It considers all these interconnected issues of risk, uncertainty, and maladaptation through a series of conceptual review- and evidence-based case studies to create new knowledge to address climate change adaptation and a resilient future. The book is a useful contribution to resilience scientists, policymakers, and practitioners from diverse disciplines.