Sustainable practices in geoenvironmental engineering / Raymond N. Yong, Catherine N. Mulligan, Masaharu Fukue. Yong, R. N. (Raymond Nen)

Boca Raton : CRC Press, 2015.

xxiii, 535 p. : ill. ; 23 cm

"Preface to the Second Edition Much has happened in the past 7 years since publication of the first edition of this book (Geoenvironmental Sustainability). Since that time, the combination of population growth and increased exploitation of both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources have added increased stresses on the quality and health of the geoenvironment. This is especially true when viewed in the context of the growing demand for food and shelter, and particularly for energy and mineral resources and their resultant effects on the natural capital of the geoenvironment. There is considerable need for governments, stakeholders, and geoenvironmental scientists and engineers to develop and implement measures needed to manage the natural capital and resources of the geoenvironment to ensure that future generations of humankind are not compromised because of the lack of availability of geoenvironmental resources. As we have pointed out in the preface for the first edition of this book, continued harvesting or exploitation of the nonrenewable geoenvironmental natural resources means that we will never be able to achieve geoenvironment sustainability. We recognize this and acknowledge that the means and measures to diminish the depletion rate of the nonrenewable resources (conservation?) lie with industry. That being said, it is the renewable natural resources and the natural capital of the geoenvironment that need to be managed to ensure their sustainability. This means the development and implementation of technology and practices that seek to protect the quality and health of the natural resources and capital in the face of chemical, mechanical, hydraulic, thermal, and biogeochemical stressors originating from natural and anthropogenic sources.