Maximising space in our urban towns and cities remains one of the great challenges of the future. As the need to protect existing green areas grows amid ever increasing demands for more homes and work places, mass transit systems and modern infrastructure, so new approaches must be found to better utilise space available. Improved use of underground space offers new and exciting opportunities f...

The reasons why many insects breathe discontinuously at rest are poorly understood and hotly debated. Three adaptive hypotheses attempt to explain the significance of these discontinuous gas exchange cycles (DGCs), whether it be to save water, to facilitate gas exchange in underground environments or to limit oxidative damage. Comparative studies favour the water saving hypothesis and mechanist...

The Otomo rice field zone in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture was catastrophically damaged by large-scale subsidence and the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan earthquake, which occurred on March 11th, 2011. Electrical conductivity of underground water, bulk electrical conductivity of the soil, and various meteorological elements were observed at a fixed point for eight months. The ...

Historical groundwater levels in a coastal region of Hong Kong Island (China) were reviewed and compared with data collected recently to reveal changes to the groundwater regime over the last century. The coastal springs and seeps have disappeared and the lower boundary of the seepage zone has moved uphill. Groundwater was found to be flowing upward along the boundary of natural slopes and urba...

Today, bottled and tap drinking water mainly originates from underground waters which might contain considerable amounts of naturally occurring radionuclides. One of the most toxic radionuclide in drinking water is 226Ra. Following the metabolism of calcium, it could be deposited into the bone where, in sufficient amount, it could cause bone sarcoma. Although current drinking water preparation ...

This paper focusses on the description of reliable, safe and economical treatment of mine water from different types of mines and applications by advanced membrane systems. The applications include mine drainage water from underground mines, intrusion water in open pit mines and excess water from tailing storage facilities. The illustrated references confirm the existence of robust, reliable, a...

Buffer strips have been widely recognized as to promote infiltration, deposition and sorption of contaminants for protecting surface water against agricultural contamination. However, such strips do not intercept all contaminants, particularly soluble ones. Although preferential flow (PF) has been suggested as one factor among several decreasing the efficiency of buffer strips, the mechanisms i...

Underground storage organs (USOs) have been proposed as critical fallback foods for early hominins in savanna, but there has been little discussion as to which habitats would have been important sources of USOs. USOs consumed by hominins could have included both underwater and underground storage organs, i.e., from both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Shallow aquatic habitats tend to offer hi...

The safety of groundwater resources is a serious issue, particularly when these resources are the main source of water for drinking, irrigation and industrial use in coastal areas. In Italy, 85% of the water used by the public is of underground origin. The aim of this report is to analyze the main factors that make groundwater vulnerable. Soil characteristics and filtration capacity can promote...

Introduction What can the canary in the coal mine tell us? Historically, canaries accompanied coal miners deep underground. Their small lung capacity and unidirectional lung ventilation system made them more vulnerable to small concentrations of carbon monoxide and methane gas than their human companions. As late as 1986, the acute sensitivity of these birds served as a biological indicator of ...