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You're a farmer in 1930s Oklahoma and you never thought you’d see this day. Your fields have literally turned to dust. This Depression the radio folks were talking about just reached the heartland.

The epic disaster of the Dust Bowl brings home the cruel consequences of drought. The calamity that struck Depression-era America was startling for its far-reaching effects across our country, teaching us much about the nature of droughts and their dreadful devastation. The science section of this book examines the lessons from the Dust Bowl droughts for farmers, including the importance of topsoil. The history of droughts around the world compares impacts on a wide variety of societies.

The final chapter looks at the latest tools and technologies developed to help us survive future droughts. The ample back matter will help students find sources to write informed and compelling reports on this subject. ... Read more

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This book is dedicated to furthering scientific understandingof drought assessment and management and the policy issues associatedwith drought preparedness worldwide. The authors invited to contributeto the volume are uniquely qualified to address their respectivetopics. The book is divided into two parts. Part One emphasizestheoretical aspects of drought assessment, management, andpreparedness; it also includes a discussion of the concept of drought.These chapters are aimed at improving the reader's understanding andawareness of drought; appropriate technologies to monitor drought'sonset, development and termination; emerging methodologies to estimateimpacts; adjustment strategies to alleviate drought effects; and amethodology for countries to follow in the development of a nationaldrought policy and plan. Part One concludes with an insightfulexamination of how changes in climate may alter climatic variabilityand the frequency and intensity of extreme events, particularlydrought.
The successes and failures of previous assessment and response effortsare highlighted in Part Two through case studies in Israel, India,Brazil, South Africa, Australia, the United States, and China. Severalof these case studies provide insight into the difficulties inherentin the provision of timely and effective drought assistance bygovernment in both a developed and developing country setting. Thelessons learned in these instances provide both an extraordinaryopportunity and challenge to other drought-prone nations to learn fromthese experiences and avoid some of the mistakes of the past. Some ofthe case studies in Part Two illustrate remarkable progress in droughtpreparedness and are examples for other nations to follow. ... Read more

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Ages 7 to 14 years. Long periods of sweltering weather can scorch crops, cause widespread famine, and kill animals and people. Governments around the world are continuously developing plans to conserve electricity and water in the event of a drought or heat wave. The full-colour illustrations and photographs of will have children thirsting for more!Topics include: techniques to stay safe during times of extreme heat and drought; step-by-step explanation of how long periods of hot weather and droughts occur; famous heat waves and droughts throughout the world, and the damage that they caused; how ancient peoples predicted droughts, and the equipment that; meteorologists use to forecast these natural disasters today; the ways that countries recover from droughts, and the harmful effects of droughts and heat waves on our environment. ... Read more

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What Happens When the Well Runs Dry...For Younger Readers!
Drought-related disasters that have increasingly plagued the world are discussed in this comprehensive if dry - no pun intended! - volume by author Paul Challen. Published in 2005 by Crabtree Publishing, it is part of their 'Disaster Alert' series.

I give Challen credit. He crams a wide variety of heat/drought-related material in the book's 32 pages. He talks about the conditions that create and maintain droughts, famous droughts of the past, the effects/impact of heat/drought on society and human beings, ways to prevent drought, etc. Unfortunately, much of that material - temperature, air pressure, greenhouse effect, drought forecasting, conservation techniques, etc. - by its very nature, is dull and doesn't make for terribly exciting reading. The color and b&w photographs and illustrations that accompany the text, however, do make the book a more appealing package.

The publisher seems unsure of the book's audience. At one point, the targeted audience is listed as readers 7-14; a second mentions 9-12. I think the book is too advanced for the 7-9 age bracket.

In any case, though it doesn't make for scintillating reading, DROUGHT AND HEAT WAVE ALERT will be useful for report writing. Recommended.
In any case, DROUGHT AND HEAT WAVE ALERT will be useful for reports. ... Read more

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Water is the key to human civilization. Most of the ancient civilization had its roots to river basins, where people-water interaction was the key aspect. Due to innovations of knowledge and technology and modernization of lifestyles, the human-water direct contact has become less significant. People have become more dependent to the system, and consequently, the closeness to water is gradually diminishing. It is however, a challenge on how to learn from the basic principles of water human interaction and apply those lessons to the current context of urban and rural settings. This book will provide a few analytical case studies on different aspects of water communities, which is defined as the human-water interaction process. ... Read more

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The importance of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is increasing due, in part, to recent major disasters throughout the world. CCA and DRR are closely associated and there has been significant awareness at global and national levels to make collective focus on CCA and DRR. Although there are several books on CCA, this is the first systematic academic publication to highlight the linkages between CCA and DRR, CCA-DRR synergy and interactions. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 focuses on the theory of CCA and DRR and its enabling environment; Part 2 focuses on governance, education and technology as the framework of CCA-DRR linkage; Part 3 focuses on different entry points with chapters on urban, coast, mountain, river and housing; and Part 4 focuses on regional perspective of CCA and DRR looking at developing nations, south Asia, ASEAN and Small Island Developing States. Key issues and challenges related to the CCA and DRR are highlighted throughout, mostly drawing lessons and experiences from the field practices. This book gives researchers and practitioners greater awareness on the current trend of research in the field. ... Read more

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Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) are closely associated. This volume provides 19 case studies from 13 countries and regions in Asia. The case studies highlight different aspects of CCA-DRR entry points, like policy interventions, drought risk management, coastal management, agro-forestry, lagoon management, livelihood issues and risk communication. ... Read more

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Initiated when the state of Gujarat was suffering a severedrought, this landmark volume is one of the few studiesavailable on this natural disaster. The study describes andanalyzes the strategies adopted by different types ofhouseholds to cope with seasonality and the harsh ecologicalconditions. Dr. Chen explores the spatial and temporaldimensions of the drought, the drought's impact on differentoccupational groups, and both community and officialresponses. She focuses on the differences between seasonalcrisis-coping strategies, the sequence and timing of thesestrategies, and the options and objectives which influence thechoice of strategies. Two dimensions of household copingstrategies are of particular interest: the significance ofgender as a basic variable in understanding householdbehavior; and the centrality of non-market resources,activities, relationships, and institutions to householdlivelihoods.Coping with Seasonality and Drought will interest bothstudents and professionals in anthropology, developmenteconomics, gender studies, social and economic change."Clearly organized and written, this book offers modeldescriptive and analytical frameworks for consideringlivelihoods and coping strategies . . . a careful study."--The Annals"An important and useful book. . . . The reviewer warmlyrecommends a perusal of this excellent book."--Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics ... Read more

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The story of drought, told through the eyes of people who have lived through droughts over the more than 200 years of European settlement - a story of creativity, endurance and suffering. ... Read more

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Through an examination of public policy responses to the great California drought of 1976-77, this book illustrates how the effort to reduce demand for water worked in California and why this should be the primary response to water shortages. Co-authors of this volume, originally published in 1981 by Abt Books, are C.J. LaCivita, Katherine Sredl, and Thomas F. Cooley. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Life in the Dust Bowl...For Younger Readers!
The 1930s Dust Bowl was probably the worst disaster to hit America. Poor farming techniques coupled with drought conditions created a situation where valuable farm land turned to dust and blew away in huge dust storms that blotted out the sun. The loss of farm land forced thousands of Great Plains residents to relocate in the hopes of finding a future. Richard Levey describes those trying times in DUST BOWL, a volume in Bearport Publishing's 'X-treme Disasters that Changed America' series.

Intended for readers 9-12, Levey's book relates how farmers unknowingly brought on the Dust Bowl disaster by failing to use good soil conservation practices. (Back then, who knew!?!) Lack of rain set the stage for the huge 'black blizzards' that paralyzed cities, killed livestock and animals and eventualy forced 'Okies' and others to go west. Eventually the federal government stepped in, the rains came and the crisis was over but, in the meantime, some very hard times were endured by thousands of Americans.

Lever's book, which tops out at 32 pages, is an excellent Dust Bowl primer. He shares experiences of people who survived the droughts/black blizzards. He also includes many b&w and color photographs, graphs and maps that help define where the Dust Bowl was and depict what Great Plains life was like in the 1930s. The pix of black blizzards are fascinating.

Young readers should be intrigued by DUST BOWL. It shows how different - and hard - life was like for Americans of the 1930s. Recommended.

... Read more

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One giant, black dust storm in April of 1935 became the signature event of a devastating period in the history of the South Plains of the United States. The author, who grew up in Pampa in the Texas Panhandle, gathered a collection of reminiscences, reports, and responses to the storm by individuals who had been in it, and by newspapers that had reported about it, then reflected about the storm during the following years. But this is basically an oral history of interviews with well over 100 people and their personal experiences on that Black Sunday in the mid-thirties.  ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Recollections of Black Blizzard Survivors!
Only those who lived in the Dust Bowl in the 1930s can testify to the incredible spectacle of the huge dust storms that swept through the region. These so-called 'Black Blizzards' were huge creatures of nature, blotting out the sun sometime for hours at a time and sending dust/dirt through every opening in a house or building. One of the largest blizzards occurred on 14 April 1935, rampaging through Kansas and Texas. BLACK SUNDAY tells the story of that storm.

BLACK SUNDAY is basically a collection of 200+ oral histories of Texas and Kansas citizens that lived through Black Sunday. Most accounts are fairly short; a few run to two pages. In these accounts, men, women and children tell the tale of a huge, dark dust cloud rolling across the Plains, a cloud that soon swept up their house, farm or town and reduced visibility to zero. The sun was blotted out and day became night. People caught outside struggled to find their homes or even the road they were supposed to be driving on! Many of the Plains houses were in poor shape and the swirling, high-powered dirt/dust soon poured through every crack and left the interiors covered in fine dirt. It was an incredible experience to live through...and to read about. BLACK SUNDAY has some amazing accounts in it; I found it fascinating. The book also includes about two dozen photographs showing the on-coming dust storm; great stuff!

As much as I was fascinated by the accounts found in BLACK SUNDAY, I wish Stallings had tried to organize all the different accounts into some sort of chronological/geographical arrangement. As it is, he divides the reminiscences into memories of women & children, then men followed by newspaper accounts from April 1935, newspaper accounts from later years, miscellaneous material (poems, songs, etc.) and so on. The story would have been more effectively told if there had been some sort of combined narrative rather than running one block of tales after another.

Having said that, BLACK SUNDAY offers a you-are-there view of one of the rarest natural phenomenons around. The Dust Bowl was pillored by such Black Blizzards throughout the '30 and, thanks to Frank Stallings, modern readers can now share in the experience. Recommended.

Black Sunday
"Black Sunday" was a fascinating study of a dust storm of mythic proportions.I enjoyed reading the recollections of the storm from many of the people who experienced it.As I have never lived in the prairie states, I had no idea these "dusters" even existed. ... Read more

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After five decades, the field of Statistical Hydrology continues to evolve and remains a very active area of investigation. Researchers continue to examine various distributions, methods of estimation of parameters, and problems related to regionalization. However, much of this research appears in journals and reports and usually in a form not easily accessible to practitioners and students-producing a gap between research and practice.Flood Frequency Analysis fills this gap by presenting many of these distributions and estimation procedures in a unified format within a single, self-contained book. Focusing on distribution families popular within the hydrologic community, the authors discuss three parameter estimation methods for each distribution: the method of moments, the maximum likelihood method, and the method of probability weighted moments. They present the details behind the procedures to provide the basis for the computations, and they illustrate each procedure with real data. Most of the computations discussed have been programmed for use with personal computers, and executable versions of these programs are available on CD-ROM from the senior author.Only increased use of new methods and distributions can produce a consensus on their validity. With other books on the subject either limited in scope or seriously outdated, Flood Frequency Analysis provides the ideal vehicle for practicing hydrologists and engineers to explore and apply the latest methods and researchresults, and in doing so, contribute to the advancement of the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

All you need to know about flood frequency analysis
This book tell you all you need to know about flood frequency analysis. It's very systematic in it's presentation, and gives good examples of how to use the theory in practice.

A comprehensive guide!
Dr. Rao's and Dr. Hamed's comprehensive andthorough guide to Flood Frequency Analysis isextraordinary and a classical piece in CivilEngineering literature. ... Read more

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The historic drought our Earth is currently experiencing has overtaken two-thirds of our entire World’s total agricultural output and risks plunging humanity into “catastrophic conditions” as Nations begin preparing to fight each other in order to feed their starving populations. ... Read more