Handbook of Himalayan Ecosystems and Sustainability, Two Volume Set

This is a comprehensive handbook focused on geospatial applications used to study, assess, and monitor the Himalayan mountains. As a region of high relevance and very vulnerable regarding geohazards, it is crucial to detect landscape changes and understand the drivers behind the changes. With advanced remote sensing and GIS tools, in-depth analyses, and interdisciplinary approaches, the Handbook of Himalayan Ecosystems and Sustainability, Two Volume Set studies forest and agriculture ecosystems, urban sprawl and air pollution, geo and other hazards, and provides a breadth of data to support decision making and to aids in the preservation of the landscapes in a sustainable way.

Features:

• Uses geospatial technology for studying fragile Himalayan ecosystems and their sustainability

• Includes 21 case studies from Indian Himalayan, Nepal, and Afghanistan regions

• Provides satellite data and geospatial modelling tools for assessing and monitoring all Himalayan landscapes

• Addresses cryospheric studies and related ongoing geohazards and potential climate change impacts

• Discusses ecology of the Himalayan rivers, biodiversity, and floristic shifting of endemic species, and landscape restoration

Bikash Ranjan Parida is an assistant professor at Central University of Jharkhand (CUJ), India since September 2016. He received his M.Sc. in Geoinformatics (2006) from the University of Twente and his PhD from the University of Hamburg/ Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (2011). Prior to joining CUJ, he was employed by various premium institutes involved in Earth and Environmental studies He has contributed to several national research projects such as Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Start-Up Research Grant by UGC, NISAR project by SAC, Ahmedabad, ISRO. He has more than 40 research publications in peer-reviewed journals.

A.C. Pandey is a professor in the Department of Geoinformatics at Central University of Jharkhand (CUJ), India. He is the former Head of the Department of Geoinformatics (2013-2020) and the former Dean of the School of Natural Resource Management (2013-2016) at CUJ. He has been the CUJ Coordinator for ISRO and EDUSAT program since 2013. From 2004-2013 he was an associate professor of Remote Sensing in Birla Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree in Geology from Department of Geology at the University of Delhi in 2001. He has published more than 70 articles and two edited books. He is the recipient of NASA-SERVIR Fellowship in 2013 to work on Himalayan glaciers in Zanskar Valley, J&K.

Mukunda Dev Behera has made outstanding contributions to the fields of forest remote sensing and ecological climatology. His research innovations have fundamentally transformed the study of phytogeography, with attention to ecological functioning of three ecosystem components, plant diversity-water-energy. Dr. Behera has been a Guest Editor for six special issues and has served in three editorial boards of Springer’s journals: Biodiversity and Conservation, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, and Tropical Ecology. With over 20-year research and teaching experience, he has published over 100 articles.

Navneet Kumar is a senior researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn in Germany. He received his PhD in Engineering from the University of Bonn. His main research fields are water and natural resources management and Geoinformatics. Dr. Kumar has contributed to several projects in Algeria, Ethiopia, India, Mali, Niger and Uzbekistan. These projects include research on the impact assessment of climate change and land use change. He has presented his work in several international conferences and has published with several journals.