1.
Storm drain
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Storm drains vary in design from small residential dry wells to large municipal systems. They are fed by gutters on most motorways, freeways and other busy roads, as well as towns in areas which experience heavy rainfall, flooding. Even the gutters from houses and buildings can be connected to the storm drain, many storm drainage systems are designed to drain the storm water, untreated, into rivers or streams. As a result, it is not acceptable to pour certain types of chemicals into the drains, some storm drains lead to a mixing of stormwater with sewage, either intentionally – in the case of combined sewers – or unintentionally. There are several related terms which are used differently in American and British English, side inlets are located adjacent to the curb and rely on the ability of the opening under the backstone or lintel to capture flow. They are usually depressed at the invert of the channel to improve capture capacity, many inlets have gratings or grids to prevent people, vehicles, large objects or debris from falling into the storm drain. Grate bars are spaced so that the flow of water is not impeded, however, if grate bars are too far apart, the openings may present a risk to pedestrians, bicyclists, and others in the vicinity. Storm drains in streets and parking areas must be enough to support the weight of vehicles. The catchbasin serves much the function as the trap in household wastewater plumbing in trapping objects. In the United States, unlike the plumbing trap, the catchbasin does not necessarily prevent sewer gases such as hydrogen sulfide and methane from escaping. However, in the United Kingdom, where they are called gully pots, they are designed as true water-filled traps and do block the egress of gases and rodents. Most catchbasins will contain stagnant water during the parts of the year. Larvicides or disruptive larval hormones, sometimes released from mosquito biscuits, have used to control mosquito breeding in catchbasins. Mosquitoes may be prevented from reaching the standing water or migrating into the sewer proper by the use of an inverted cone filter. Another method of control is to spread a thin layer of oil on the surface of stagnant water. Municipalities typically have large vacuum trucks that perform this task, pipes can come in many different cross-sectional shapes. Drainage systems may have different features including waterfalls, stairways, balconies and pits for catching rubbish. Pipes made of different materials can also be used, such as brick, concrete, fibre reinforced plastic is being used more commonly for drain pipes and fittings
2.
Stormwater
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Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events and snow/ice melt. Stormwater can soak into the soil, be held on the surface and evaporate, or runoff and end up in streams, rivers. In natural landscapes such as forests, the soil absorbs much of the stormwater, Stormwater is also a resource and important as the worlds human population demand exceeds the availability of readily available water. Techniques of storm water harvesting with point source water management and purification can potentially make urban environments self-sustaining in terms of water, because impervious surfaces do not allow rain to infiltrate into the ground, more runoff is generated than in the undeveloped condition. This additional runoff can erode watercourses as well as cause flooding after the collection system is overwhelmed by the additional flow. Because the water is flushed out of the watershed during the event, little infiltrates the soil, replenishes groundwater. A first flush is the runoff of a rainstorm. During this phase, polluted water entering storm drains in areas with high proportions of impervious surfaces is more concentrated compared to the remainder of the storm. Consequently, these concentrations of urban runoff result in high levels of pollutants discharged from storm sewers to surface waters. Pollutants entering surface waters during precipitation events is termed polluted runoff, daily human activities result in deposition of pollutants on roads, lawns, roofs, farm fields, etc. When it rains or there is irrigation, water runs off and ultimately makes its way to a river, lake, in addition to the pollutants carried in stormwater runoff, urban runoff is being recognized as a cause of pollution in its own right. In natural catchments surface runoff entering waterways is a rare event, occurring only a few times each year. Before development occurred most rainfall soaked into the ground and contributed to groundwater recharge or was recycled into the atmosphere by vegetation through evapotranspiration. In addition to delivering higher pollutants from the catchment, increased stormwater flow can lead to stream erosion, encourage weed invasion. Native species often rely on such flow regimes for spawning, juvenile development, in some areas, especially along the U. S. coast, polluted runoff from roads and highways may be the largest source of water pollution. Stormwater is a cause of urban flooding. Urban flooding is the inundation of land or property in a built-up environment caused by overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems. Although triggered by events such as flash flooding or snow melt, urban flooding is a condition, characterized by its repetitive, costly
3.
New South Wales
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New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south and it has a coast line with the Tasman Sea on its east side. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state, New South Wales state capital is Sydney, which is also Australias most populous city. In March 2014, the population of New South Wales was 7.5 million. Just under two-thirds of the population,4.67 million. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen, the Colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised a more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825, in addition, the colony also included the island territories of New Zealand, Van Diemens Land, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the area was detached to form separate British colonies that eventually became New Zealand. However, the Swan River Colony has never administered as part of New South Wales. Lord Howe Island remains part of New South Wales, while Norfolk Island has become a federal Territory, as have the now known as the Australian Capital Territory. The prior inhabitants of New South Wales were the Aboriginal tribes who arrived in Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, before European settlement there were an estimated 250,000 Aboriginal people in the region. The Wodi Wodi people are the custodians of the Illawarra region of South Sydney. The Bundjalung people are the custodians of parts of the northern coastal areas. The European discovery of New South Wales was made by Captain James Cook during his 1770 survey along the eastern coast of the Dutch-named continent of New Holland. In his original journal covering the survey, in triplicate to satisfy Admiralty Orders, Cook first named the land New Wales, however, in the copy held by the Admiralty, he revised the wording to New South Wales. After years of chaos and anarchy after the overthrow of Governor William Bligh, macquaries legacy is still evident today. During the 19th century, large areas were separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria. Responsible government was granted to the New South Wales colony in 1855, following the Treaty of Waitangi, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840
4.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
5.
Groundwater
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Groundwater is the water present beneath Earths surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or a deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from, and eventually flows to, the naturally, natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps. Groundwater is also withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, Groundwater is hypothesized to provide lubrication that can possibly influence the movement of faults. It is likely that much of Earths subsurface contains some water, Groundwater may not be confined only to Earth. The formation of some of the landforms observed on Mars may have influenced by groundwater. There is also evidence that water may also exist in the subsurface of Jupiters moon Europa. Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface water, therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. For example, groundwater provides the largest source of water storage in the United States. Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the US, many municipal water supplies are derived solely from groundwater. Polluted groundwater is less visible, but more difficult to clean up, than pollution in rivers, Groundwater pollution most often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. An aquifer is a layer of substrate that contains and transmits groundwater. When water can flow directly between the surface and the zone of an aquifer, the aquifer is unconfined. The deeper parts of unconfined aquifers are more saturated since gravity causes water to flow downward. The upper level of this layer of an unconfined aquifer is called the water table or phreatic surface. Below the water table, where in general all pore spaces are saturated with water, is the phreatic zone, substrate with low porosity that permits limited transmission of groundwater is known as an aquitard
6.
Agricultural
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
7.
Soil
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Soil is a mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids, and countless organisms that together support life on Earth. Soil is called the Skin of the Earth and interfaces with the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, the term pedolith, used commonly to refer to the soil, literally translates ground stone. Soil consists of a phase of minerals and organic matter, as well as a porous phase that holds gases. Accordingly, soils are often treated as a system of solids, liquids. Soil is a product of the influence of climate, relief, organisms, Soil continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness soil has been considered as an ecosystem by soil ecologists. Most soils have a dry bulk density between 1.1 and 1.6 g/cm3, while the particle density is much higher. Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, Soil science has two basic branches of study, edaphology and pedology. Edaphology is concerned with the influence of soils on living things, pedology is focused on the formation, description, and classification of soils in their natural environment. In engineering terms, soil is referred to as regolith, or loose material that lies above the solid geology. Soil is commonly referred to as earth or dirt, technically, as soil resources serve as a basis for food security, the international community advocates its sustainable and responsible use through different types of soil governance. Soil is a component of the Earths ecosystem. The worlds ecosystems are impacted in far-reaching ways by the carried out in the soil, from ozone depletion and global warming, to rainforest destruction. Following the atmosphere, the soil is the next largest carbon reservoir on Earth, as the planet warms, soils will add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere due to its increased biological activity at higher temperatures. Thus, soil carbon losses likely have a positive feedback response to global warming. Since soil has a range of available niches and habitats. A gram of soil can contain billions of organisms, belonging to thousands of species, mostly microbial, Soil has a mean prokaryotic density of roughly 108 organisms per gram, whereas the ocean has no more than 107 procaryotic organisms per milliliter of seawater. Since plant roots need oxygen, ventilation is an important characteristic of soil and this ventilation can be accomplished via networks of interconnected soil pores, which also absorb and hold rainwater making it readily available for plant uptake
8.
Waterlogging (agriculture)
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Waterlogging refers to the saturation of soil with water. Soil may be regarded as waterlogged when it is saturated with water much of the time such that its air phase is restricted. In extreme cases of prolonged waterlogging, anaerobiosis occurs, the roots of mesophytes suffer, in agriculture, various crops need air to a greater or lesser depth in the soil. Waterlogging of the soil stops air getting in, how near the water table must be to the surface for the ground to be classed as waterlogged, varies with the purpose in view. A crops demand for freedom from waterlogging may vary between seasons of the year, as with the growing of rice, in irrigated agricultural land, waterlogging is often accompanied by soil salinity as waterlogged soils prevent leaching of the salts imported by the irrigation water. From a gardening point of view, waterlogging is the process whereby the soil blocks off all water and is so hard it stops air getting in and it stops oxygen from getting in
9.
Lothal
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Lothal is one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 3700 BCE. Discovered in 1954, Lothal was excavated from 13 February 1955 to 19 May 1960 by the Archaeological Survey of India, the official Indian government agency for the preservation of ancient monuments. It was a vital and thriving trade centre in ancient times, with its trade of beads, gems and valuable ornaments reaching the far corners of West Asia, the techniques and tools they pioneered for bead-making and in metallurgy have stood the test of time for over 4000 years. Lothal is situated near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka Taluka of Ahmedabad district and it is six kilometres south-east of the Lothal-Bhurkhi railway station on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar railway line. It is also connected by roads to the cities of Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Rajkot. The nearest cities are Dholka and Bagodara, the findings consist of a mound, a township, a marketplace, and the dock. Adjacent to the excavated areas stands the Archaeological Museum, where some of the most prominent collections of Indus-era antiquities in India are displayed, when British India was partitioned in 1947, most Indus sites, including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, became part of Pakistan. The Archaeological Survey of India undertook a new program of exploration, many sites were discovered across northwestern India. Lothal stands 670 kilometers from Mohenjo-daro, which is in Sindh, the meaning of Lothal in Gujarati to be the mound of the dead is not unusual, as the name of the city of Mohenjo-daro in Sindhi means the same. People in villages neighbouring to Lothal had known of the presence of an ancient town, as recently as 1850, boats could sail up to the mound. In 1942, timber was shipped from Broach to Saragwala via the mound, a silted creek connecting modern Bholad with Lothal and Saragwala represents the ancient flow channel of a river or creek. Speculation suggests that owing to the small dimensions of the main city, Lothal was not a large settlement at all. However, the ASI and other contemporary archaeologists assert that the city was a part of a river system on the trade route of the ancient peoples from Sindh to Saurashtra in Gujarat. Lothal provides with the largest collection of antiquities in the archaeology of modern India and it is essentially a single culture site—the Harappan culture in all its variances is evidenced. An indigenous micaceous Red Ware culture also existed, which is believed to be autochthonous, two sub-periods of Harappan culture are distinguished, the same period is identical to the exuberant culture of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. After the core of the Indus civilisation had decayed in Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, Lothal seems not only to have survived and its constant threats - tropical storms and floods - caused immense destruction, which destabilised the culture and ultimately caused its end. Topographical analysis also shows signs that at about the time of its demise, thus the cause for the abandonment of the city may have been changes in the climate as well as natural disasters, as suggested by environmental magnetic records. Lothal is based upon a mound that was a salt marsh inundated by tide, small channel widths when compared to the lower reaches suggest the presence of a strong tidal influence upon the city—tidal waters ingressed up to and beyond the city
10.
Combined sewer
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A combined sewer is a sewage collection system of pipes and tunnels designed to also collect surface runoff. Combined sewers can cause water pollution problems during combined sewer overflow events when wet weather flows exceed the sewage treatment plant capacity. This type of design is no longer used in building new communities. Recent archaeological discoveries have shown some of the earliest sewer systems were developed 2500 BC in the ancient city of Harappa. The primitive sewers were carved in the ground alongside buildings and this discovery reveals the conceptual understanding of waste disposal by the early civilizations. The earliest sewers were designed to carry street runoff away from inhabited areas, open sewers, consisting of gutters and urban streambeds, were common worldwide before the 20th century. Most sewage collection systems of the 19th and early to mid 20th century used single-pipe systems that collect both sewage and urban runoff from streets and roofs and this type of collection system is referred to as a combined sewer system. The rationale for combining the two was that it would be cheaper to build just a single system, most cities at that time did not have sewage treatment plants, so there was no perceived public health advantage in constructing a separate surface water sewerage or storm sewer system. When constructed, combined sewer systems were typically sized to carry three to 160 times the average dry weather sewage flows and it is generally infeasible to treat the volume of mixed sewage and surface runoff flowing in a combined sewer during peak runoff events caused by snowmelt or convective precipitation. As cities built sewage treatment plants, those plants were built to treat only the volume of sewage flowing during dry weather. These relief structures, called storm-water regulators are constructed in combined sewer systems to divert flows in excess of the design flow of the sewage treatment plant. CSO statistics may be confusing because the term may describe either the number of events or the number of relief structure locations at such events may occur. Overflow frequency and duration varies both from system to system, and from outfall to outfall, within a combined sewer system. Some CSO outfalls discharge infrequently, while others activate every time it rains, CSOs should not be confused with sanitary sewer overflows. Absence of a diversion outfall often causes sanitary sewer overflows to flood residential structures and/or flow over traveled road surfaces before reaching natural drainage channels, each storm is different in the quantity and type of pollutants it contributes. For example, storms occur in late summer, when it has not rained for a while, have the most pollutants. Pollutants like oil, grease, fecal coliform from pet and wildlife waste, in cold weather areas, pollutants from cars, people and animals also accumulate on hard surfaces and grass during the winter and then are flushed into the sewer systems during heavy spring rains. About 860 communities in the US have combined sewer systems, serving about 40 million people, CSO discharges during heavy storms can cause serious water pollution problems in these communities
11.
Indus Valley Civilization
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The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
12.
Ancient Near East
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The ancient Near East is studied in the fields of Near Eastern archaeology and ancient history. The ancient Near East is considered one of the cradles of civilization and it also saw the creation of the first writing system and law codes, early advances that laid the foundations of astronomy and mathematics, and the invention of the wheel. During the period, states became increasingly large, until by the end the region was controlled by military empires who had conquered a number of different cultures. The phrase ancient Near East utilizes the 19th-century distinction between Near East and Far East as global regions of interest to the British Empire, the distinction began during the Crimean War. The two theatres were described by the statesmen and advisors of the British Empire as the Near East, shortly, they were to share the stage with Middle East, which came to prevail in the 20th century and continues in modern times. Meanwhile, ancient Near East had become distinct, the Near East ruled by the Ottoman Empire ranged from Vienna to the north to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula to the south, from Egypt in the west to the borders of Iraq in the east. The 19th-century archaeologists added Iran to their definition, which was never under the Ottomans, but they excluded all of Europe and, generally, Egypt, which had parts in the empire. Ancient Near East periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into discrete named blocks, or eras, the result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on Near East periods of time with relatively stable characteristics. Named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia. It was followed by the Sumerian civilization, the late Uruk period saw the gradual emergence of the cuneiform script and corresponds to the Early Bronze Age. Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia, is the earliest known civilization in the world, the Akkadian Empire, founded by Sargon the Great, lasted from the 24th to the 21st century BC, and was regarded by many as the worlds first Empire. The Akkadians eventually fragmented into Assyria and Babylonia, Ancient Elam lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad, in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province. In the Old Elamite period, c.3200 BC, it consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered on Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered on Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Elam was absorbed into the Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC, however, the Proto-Elamite civilization existed from c.3200 BC to 2700 BC, when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites, began to receive influence from the cultures of the Iranian plateau. In archaeological terms, this corresponds to the late Banesh period and this civilization is recognized as the oldest in Iran and was largely contemporary with its neighbour, the Sumerian civilization. The Proto-Elamite script is an Early Bronze Age writing system briefly in use for the ancient Elamite language before the introduction of Elamite Cuneiform, the Amorites were a nomadic Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites is associated with the West, including Syria and Canaan and they ultimately settled in Mesopotamia, ruling Isin, Larsa, and later Babylon. Assyria, after enduring a period of Mitanni domination, emerged as a great power from the accession of Ashur-uballit I in 1365 BC to the death of Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC
13.
Harappa
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Harappa is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about 24 km west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a village located near the former course of the Ravi River. The current village of Harappa is 6 km from the ancient site, although modern Harappa has a legacy railway station from the period of the British Raj, it is today just a small crossroads town of population 15,000. The site of the ancient city contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city, which was part of the Cemetery H culture and the Indus Valley Civilization, centered in Sindh and the Punjab. Per archaeological convention of naming a previously unknown civilization by its first excavated site, the ancient city of Harappa was heavily damaged under British rule, when bricks from the ruins were used as track ballast in the construction of the Lahore-Multan Railway. In 2005, an amusement park scheme at the site was abandoned when builders unearthed many archaeological artifacts during the early stages of building work. A plea from the Pakistani archaeologist Ahmad Hasan Dani to the Ministry of Culture resulted in a restoration of the site, the Indus Valley Civilization has its earliest roots in cultures such as that of Mehrgarh, approximately 6000 BCE. The two greatest cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, emerged circa 2600 BCE along the Indus River valley in Punjab, the bricks discovered were made of red sand, clay, stones and were baked at very high temperature. As early as 1826 Harappa located in west Punjab attracted the attention of a British officer in India, Indus Valley civilization was mainly an urban culture sustained by surplus agricultural production and commerce, the latter including trade with Sumer in southern Mesopotamia. Both Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa are generally characterized as having differentiated living quarters, flat-roofed brick houses, the weights and measures of the Indus Valley Civilization, on the other hand, were highly standardized, and conform to a set scale of gradations. Distinctive seals were used, among other applications, perhaps for identification of property, although copper and bronze were in use, iron was not yet employed. Wheel-made pottery—some of it adorned with animal and geometric motifs—has been found in profusion at all the major Indus sites, harappans had many trade routes along the Indus River that went as far as the Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Some of the most valuable things traded were carnelian and lapis lazuli, what is clear is that Harappan society was not entirely peaceful, with the human skeletal remains demonstrating some of the highest rates of injury found in South Asian prehistory. The excavators of the site have proposed the following chronology of Harappas occupation, Ravi Aspect of the Hakra phase, kot Dijian phase, c.2800 –2600 BC. Harappan Phase, c.2600 –1900 BC, transitional Phase, c.1900 –1800 BC. Late Harappan Phase, c.1800 –1300 BC, by far the most exquisite and obscure artifacts unearthed to date are the small, square steatite seals engraved with human or animal motifs. A large number of seals have been found at sites as Mohenjo-Daro. Many bear pictographic inscriptions generally thought to be a form of writing or script, despite the efforts of philologists from all parts of the world, and despite the use of modern cryptographic analysis, the signs remain undeciphered
14.
Mohenjo-daro
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Mohenjo-daro is an archeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BCE as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. The site is threatened by erosion and improper restoration. Mohenjo-daro, the name for the site, has been variously interpreted as Mound of the Dead Men in Sindhi. The citys original name is unknown, based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the citys ancient name could have been Kukkutarma. Cock-fighting may have had ritual and religious significance for the city, with domesticated chickens bred there for sacred purposes, Mohenjo-daro may also have been a point of diffusion for the eventual worldwide domestication of chickens. Mohenjo-daro is located west of the Indus River in Larkana District, Sindh, Pakistan and it is sited on a Pleistocene ridge in the middle of the flood plain of the Indus River Valley, around 28 kilometres from the town of Larkana. The Indus still flows east of the site, but the Ghaggar-Hakra riverbed on the side is now dry. Mohenjo-daro was built in the 26th century BCE and it was one of the largest cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization, which developed around 3,000 BCE from the prehistoric Indus culture. Mohenjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with remarkably sophisticated civil engineering, when the Indus civilization went into sudden decline around 1900 BCE, Mohenjo-daro was abandoned. The ruins of the city remained undocumented for around 3,700 years until R. D and this led to large-scale excavations of Mohenjo-daro led by Kashinath Narayan Dikshit in 1924–25, and John Marshall in 1925–26. In the 1930s, major excavations were conducted at the site under the leadership of Marshall, D. K. Dikshitar, further excavations were carried out in 1945 by Ahmad Hasan Dani and Mortimer Wheeler. The last major series of excavations were conducted in 1964 and 1965 by Dr. George F. Dales, a dry core drilling conducted in 2015 by Pakistans National Fund for Mohenjo-daro revealed that the site is larger than the unearthed area. Mohenjo-daro has a layout based on a street grid of rectilinear buildings. Most were built of fired and mortared brick, some incorporated sun-dried mud-brick, the covered area of Mohenjo-daro is estimated at 300 hectares. The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History offers an estimate of a peak population of around 40,000. The sheer size of the city, and its provision of buildings and facilities. The city is divided into two parts, the so-called Citadel and the Lower City
15.
Water
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Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earths streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Its chemical formula is H2O, meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen, Water strictly refers to the liquid state of that substance, that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure, but it often refers also to its solid state or its gaseous state. It also occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, Water covers 71% of the Earths surface. It is vital for all forms of life. Only 2. 5% of this water is freshwater, and 98. 8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0. 3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, a greater quantity of water is found in the earths interior. Water on Earth moves continually through the cycle of evaporation and transpiration, condensation, precipitation. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land, large amounts of water are also chemically combined or adsorbed in hydrated minerals. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. There is a correlation between access to safe water and gross domestic product per capita. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in developing regions of the world. Water plays an important role in the world economy, approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture. Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a source of food for many parts of the world. Much of long-distance trade of commodities and manufactured products is transported by boats through seas, rivers, lakes, large quantities of water, ice, and steam are used for cooling and heating, in industry and homes. Water is an excellent solvent for a variety of chemical substances, as such it is widely used in industrial processes. Water is also central to many sports and other forms of entertainment, such as swimming, pleasure boating, boat racing, surfing, sport fishing, Water is a liquid at the temperatures and pressures that are most adequate for life. Specifically, at atmospheric pressure of 1 bar, water is a liquid between the temperatures of 273.15 K and 373.15 K
16.
Tank Stream
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Tank Stream, a fresh water tributary of Sydney Cove, located in New South Wales, Australia, was the fresh water supply for the fledgling colony of New South Wales in the late 18th century. Today it is more than a storm water drain. The catchment was 65 hectares, corresponding roughly the size of the Sydney central business district, excavations around Tank Stream have uncovered aboriginal flake stone artifacts made from water-worn pebbles. The stream is thought to have given the Aboriginal people fresh water, fish, the area was chosen by the commander of the First Fleet, Captain Arthur Phillip, R. N. in 1788 as the location for the New South Wales colony for similar reasons. Sydney Cove was chosen for settlement as it was at the head of the cove, on 26 January 1788 the new colony was inaugurated. The Tank Stream rose in marshy ground roughly bounded by what is now Elizabeth, Market, Pitt and it filtered through the soil between Pitt and George Streets before forming a definite channel near King Street and flowing to Sydney Cove. During a drought in 1790 three storage tanks were constructed in the sandstone beside the Tank Stream and it is from these that the stream gets its name. One of these was at the present intersection of Pitt and Spring Streets, the Tank Stream could not meet the needs of the growing colony and, despite efforts by successive Governors, it became increasingly polluted by runoff from the settlement. It was finally abandoned in 1826, though it had little more than an open sewer for the preceding decade. Sydneys next supply of water was Busbys Bore, in 1830, in 1850 the swamp feeding the Tank Stream was drained. Starting in 1860, the Tank Stream was progressively covered and is now a water channel which is controlled by Sydney Water. Recently there have been calls from some to see it run above ground again to create a feature in the city. Tank Stream tours are run by the Historic Houses Trust and Sydney Water and these are usually in April and November. The tickets are limited, doled by ballot, there is an information centre behind locked gates at the beginning of the tour. One can also trace the previous stream course following art work, street names, the Tank Stream has been commemorated in a sculpture by Stephen Walker, created in 1981. The sculpture is located at Circular Quay, list of public art in the City of Sydney The Tank Stream - Creative Spirits The Tank Stream - ABC Off Track
17.
Geotextile
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Geotextiles are permeable fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter, reinforce, protect, or drain. Typically made from polypropylene or polyester, geotextile fabrics come in three forms, woven, needle punched, or heat bonded. Geotextile composites have been introduced and products such as geogrids and meshes have been developed, Geotextiles were originally intended to be an alternative to granular soil filters. The original, and still used, term for geotextiles is filter fabrics. He used different styles of woven monofilament fabrics, all characterized by a high percentage open area. He discussed the need for both adequate permeability and soil retention, along with adequate strength and proper elongation and set the tone for geotextile use in filtration situations. Usually geotextiles are placed at the surface to strengthen the soil. Geotextiles are also used for sand dune armoring to protect upland coastal property from storm surge, wave action, a large sand-filled container within the dune system prevents storm erosion from proceeding beyond the SFC. Using a sloped unit rather than a single tube eliminates damaging scour, erosion control manuals comment on the effectiveness of sloped, stepped shapes in mitigating shoreline erosion damage from storms. Geotextile sand-filled units provide a soft armoring solution for upland property protection, Geotextiles are used as matting to stabilize flow in stream channels and swales. Geotextiles can improve soil strength at a lower cost than conventional soil nailing, in addition, geotextiles allow planting on steep slopes, further securing the slope. Geotextiles have been used to protect the fossil footprints of Laetoli in Tanzania from erosion, rain. In building demolition, geotextile fabrics in combination with wire fencing can contain explosive debris. Coir geotextiles are popular for erosion control, slope stabilization and bioengineering, coir geotextiles last approximately 3 to 5 years depending on the fabric weight. The product degrades into humus, enriching the soil, hard landscape materials Sediment control Koerner, R. M. Designing With Geosynthetics, 6th Edition, Xlibris Publishing Co.914 pgs. Geotextiles, From Design to Applications, Woodhead Publishing Co, john, N. W. M. Geotextiles, Blackie Publishing Ltd
18.
Civil engineering
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Civil engineering is traditionally broken into a number of sub-disciplines. It is the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering, and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering, Civil engineering takes place in the public sector from municipal through to national governments, and in the private sector from individual homeowners through to international companies. Engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginnings of human existence, during this time, transportation became increasingly important leading to the development of the wheel and sailing. The construction of pyramids in Egypt were some of the first instances of large structure constructions, the Romans developed civil structures throughout their empire, including especially aqueducts, insulae, harbors, bridges, dams and roads. In the 18th century, the civil engineering was coined to incorporate all things civilian as opposed to military engineering. The first self-proclaimed civil engineer was John Smeaton, who constructed the Eddystone Lighthouse, in 1771 Smeaton and some of his colleagues formed the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, a group of leaders of the profession who met informally over dinner. Though there was evidence of some meetings, it was little more than a social society. In 1818 the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in London, the institution received a Royal Charter in 1828, formally recognising civil engineering as a profession. The first private college to teach engineering in the United States was Norwich University. The first degree in engineering in the United States was awarded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1835. The first such degree to be awarded to a woman was granted by Cornell University to Nora Stanton Blatch in 1905, throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as stonemasons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Knowledge was retained in guilds and seldom supplanted by advances, structures, roads and infrastructure that existed were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental. Brahmagupta, an Indian mathematician, used arithmetic in the 7th century AD, based on Hindu-Arabic numerals, Civil engineers typically possess an academic degree in civil engineering. The length of study is three to five years, and the degree is designated as a bachelor of engineering. The curriculum generally includes classes in physics, mathematics, project management, design, after taking basic courses in most sub-disciplines of civil engineering, they move onto specialize in one or more sub-disciplines at advanced levels. In most countries, a degree in engineering represents the first step towards professional certification. After completing a degree program, the engineer must satisfy a range of requirements before being certified. Once certified, the engineer is designated as a engineer, a chartered engineer
19.
Environmental engineering
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It also includes studies on the environmental impact of proposed construction projects. Environmental engineers study the effect of advances on the environment. To do so, they conduct studies on management to evaluate the significance of such hazards, advise on treatment and containment. Environmental engineers design municipal water supply and industrial wastewater treatment systems, at many universities environmental engineering programs are offered at either the department of civil engineering or the department of chemical engineering at engineering faculties. Environmental civil engineers focus on hydrology, water management, bioremediation. Environmental chemical engineers, on the hand, focus on environmental chemistry, advanced air and water treatment technologies. Additionally, engineers are more frequently obtaining specialized training in law and are utilizing their technical expertise in the practices of environmental engineering law, most jurisdictions also impose licensing and registration requirements. Ever since people first recognized that their health is related to the quality of their environment, the ancient Indian Harappan civilization utilized early sewers in some cities more than 5000 years ago. The Romans constructed aqueducts to prevent drought and to create a clean, in the 15th century, Bavaria created laws restricting the development and degradation of alpine country that constituted the regions water supply. However, its roots back to early efforts in public health engineering. The introduction of drinking water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reduced waterborne diseases from leading causes of death to rarities, in many cases, as societies grew, actions that were intended to achieve benefits for those societies had longer-term impacts which reduced other environmental qualities. One example is the application of the pesticide DDT to control agricultural pests in the years following World War II. The story of DDT as vividly told in Rachel Carsons Silent Spring is considered to be the birth of the environmental movement. Conservation movements and laws restricting public actions that would harm the environment have been developed by various societies for millennia. Notable examples are the laws decreeing the construction of sewers in London and Paris in the 19th century, to some extent, this field overlaps the desire to decrease carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from combustion processes. If impacts are expected, they then develop mitigation measures to limit or prevent such impacts, in the United States, the practice of environmental assessment was formally initiated on January 1,1970, the effective date of the National Environmental Policy Act. Since that time, more than 100 developing and developed nations either have planned specific analogous laws or have adopted procedure used elsewhere, NEPA is applicable to all federal agencies in the United States. Water is treated to water quality objectives for the end uses
20.
Granular material
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A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy whenever the particles interact. The constituents that compose granular material must be large enough such that they are not subject to thermal motion fluctuations, thus, the lower size limit for grains in granular material is about 1 µm. Some examples of materials are snow, nuts, coal, sand, rice, coffee, corn flakes, fertilizer. Powders are a class of granular material due to their small particle size. Granular materials are important in applications as diverse as pharmaceutical industry, agriculture. Research into granular materials is thus directly applicable and goes back at least to Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, according to material scientist Patrick Richard, Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and are the second-most manipulated material in industry. In some sense, granular materials do not constitute a phase of matter but have characteristics reminiscent of solids, liquids. However, in each of these states granular materials also exhibit properties which are unique, Granular materials also exhibit a wide range of pattern forming behaviors when excited. As such granular materials under excitation can be thought of as an example of a complex system, when the average energy of the individual grains is low and the grains are fairly stationary relative to each other, the granular material acts like a solid. In general, stress in a solid is not distributed uniformly but is conducted away along so-called force chains which are networks of grains resting on one another. Between these chains are regions of low stress whose grains are shielded for the effects of the grains above by vaulting and arching, if the granular material is driven harder such that contacts between the grains become highly infrequent, the material enters a gaseous state. Correspondingly, one can define a granular temperature equal to the mean square of grain velocity fluctuations that is analogous to thermodynamic temperature. Unlike conventional gases, granular materials will tend to cluster and clump due to the nature of the collisions between grains and this clustering has some interesting consequences. This effect, known as the granular Maxwells demon, does not violate any thermodynamics principles since energy is constantly being lost from the system in the process. Granular systems are known to exhibit jamming and undergo a transition which is thought of as a thermodynamic phase transition to a jammed state. The Lubachevsky-Stillinger algorithm of jamming allows one to produce simulated jammed granular configurations, excited granular matter is a rich pattern-forming system. Some of the pattern-forming behaviours seen in granular materials are, The un-mixing or segregation of unlike grains under vibration, Some larger materials get stuck while going down the circle and therefore stay on the top. The formation of surface patterns in vibrated granular layers and these patterns include but are not limited to stripes, squares and hexagons
21.
Gravel
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Gravel /ˈɡrævəl/ is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel is categorized by the Udden-Wentworth scale into granular gravel and pebble gravel, one cubic metre of gravel typically weighs about 1,800 kg. Gravel is an important commercial product, with a number of applications, many roadways are surfaced with gravel, especially in rural areas where there is little traffic. Globally, far more roads are surfaced with gravel than with concrete or tarmac, both sand and small gravel are also important for the manufacture of concrete. Large gravel deposits are a geological feature, being formed as a result of the weathering. The action of rivers and waves tends to pile up gravel in large accumulations and this can sometimes result in gravel becoming compacted and concreted into the sedimentary rock called conglomerate. Where natural gravel deposits are insufficient for human purposes, gravel is often produced by quarrying and crushing hard-wearing rocks, such as sandstone, limestone, quarries where gravel is extracted are known as gravel pits. Southern England possesses particularly large concentrations of them due to the deposition of gravel in the region during the Ice Ages. As of 2006, the United States is the leading producer and consumer of gravel. The word gravel comes from the Breton language, adding the -el suffix in Breton denotes the component parts of something larger. Thus gravel means the stones which make up such a beach on the coast. Many dictionaries ignore the Breton language, citing Old French gravele or gravelle, Gravel often has the meaning a mixture of different size pieces of stone mixed with sand and possibly some clay. American English also allows small stones without sand mixed in also known as crushed stone, types of gravel include, Bank gravel, naturally deposited gravel intermixed with sand or clay found in and next to rivers and streams. Also known as Bank run or River run, bench gravel, a bed of gravel located on the side of a valley above the present stream bottom, indicating the former location of the stream bed when it was at a higher level. Creek rock, this is rounded, semi-polished stones, potentially of a wide range of types. It is also used as concrete aggregate and less often as a paving surface. Crushed stone, rock crushed and graded by screens and then mixed to a blend of stones and fines and it is widely used as a surfacing for roads and driveways, sometimes with tar applied over it. Crushed stone may be made from granite, limestone, dolomite, also known as crusher run, DGA QP, and shoulder stone
22.
Animal shell
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An exoskeleton is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animals body, in contrast to the internal skeleton of, for example, a human. In usage, some of the kinds of exoskeletons are known as shells. Examples of animals with exoskeletons include insects such as grasshoppers and cockroaches, the shells of certain sponges and the various groups of shelled molluscs, including those of snails, clams, tusk shells, chitons and nautilus, are also exoskeletons. Some animals, such as the tortoise, have both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton, exoskeletons have a role in defense from pests and predators, support, and in providing an attachment framework for musculature. Exoskeletons contain chitin, the addition of calcium carbonate makes them harder and stronger, ingrowths of the arthropod exoskeleton known as apodemes serve as attachment sites for muscles. These structures are composed of chitin, and are six times as strong. Similar to tendons, apodemes can stretch to store energy for jumping. Many different species produce exoskeletons, which are composed of a range of materials, bone, cartilage, or dentine is used in the Ostracoderm fish and turtles. Chitin forms the exoskeleton in arthropods including insects, arachnids such as spiders, crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters, calcium carbonates constitute the shells of molluscs, brachiopods, and some tube-building polychaete worms. Silica forms the exoskeleton in the microscopic diatoms and radiolaria, one species of mollusc, the scaly-foot gastropod, even makes use of the iron sulfides greigite and pyrite. Some organisms, such as some foraminifera, agglutinate exoskeletons by sticking grains of sand, contrary to a common misconception, echinoderms do not possess an exoskeleton, as their test is always contained within a layer of living tissue. Exoskeletons have evolved many times,18 lineages evolved calcified exoskeletons alone. Further, other lineages have produced tough outer coatings analogous to an exoskeleton and this coating is constructed from bone in the armadillo, and hair in the pangolin. The armor of reptiles like turtles and Ankylosaurs is constructed of bone, crocodiles have bony scutes, since exoskeletons are rigid, they present some limits to growth. Organisms with open shells can grow by adding new material to the aperture of their shell, as is the case in snails, bivalves, a true exoskeleton, like that found in arthropods, must be shed when it is outgrown. A new exoskeleton is produced beneath the old one, as the old one is shed, the new skeleton is soft and pliable. The animal will pump itself up to expand the new shell to maximal size, when the shell has set, the empty space inside the new skeleton can be filled up as the animal eats. Failure to shed the exoskeleton once outgrown can result in the animal being suffocated within its own shell and this is the mechanism behind some insect pesticides, such as Azadirachtin
23.
Rock (geology)
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Rock or stone is a natural substance, a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, granite, a rock, is a combination of the minerals quartz, feldspar. The Earths outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock, rock has been used by mankind throughout history. The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization, three major groups of rocks are defined, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is a component of geology. At a granular level, rocks are composed of grains of minerals, the aggregate minerals forming the rock are held together by chemical bonds. The types and abundance of minerals in a rock are determined by the manner in which the rock was formed, many rocks contain silica, a compound of silicon and oxygen that forms 74. 3% of the Earths crust. This material forms crystals with other compounds in the rock, the proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their name and properties. Rocks are geologically classified according to such as mineral and chemical composition, permeability, the texture of the constituent particles. These physical properties are the end result of the processes that formed the rocks, over the course of time, rocks can transform from one type into another, as described by the geological model called the rock cycle. These events produce three general classes of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, the three classes of rocks are subdivided into many groups. However, there are no hard and fast boundaries between allied rocks, hence the definitions adopted in establishing rock nomenclature merely correspond to more or less arbitrary selected points in a continuously graduated series. Igneous rock forms through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava and this magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planets mantle or crust. Typically, the melting of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes, an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition, igneous rocks are divided into two main categories, plutonic rock and volcanic. Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earths crust, a common example of this type is granite. Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta, the chemical abundance and the rate of cooling of magma typically forms a sequence known as Bowens reaction series. Most major igneous rocks are found along this scale, about 64. 7% of the Earths crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts and gabbros, 16% are granite, only 0. 6% are syenites and 0. 3% peridotites and dunites
24.
High-density polyethylene
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High-density polyethylene or polyethylene high-density is a polyethylene thermoplastic made from petroleum. It is sometimes called alkathene or polythene when used for pipes, with a high strength-to-density ratio, HDPE is used in the production of plastic bottles, corrosion-resistant piping, geomembranes, and plastic lumber. HDPE is commonly recycled, and has the number 2 as its identification code. In 2007, the global HDPE market reached a volume of more than 30 million tons, HDPE is known for its large strength-to-density ratio. The density of HDPE can range from 0.93 to 0.97 g/cm3 or 970 kg/m3, although the density of HDPE is only marginally higher than that of low-density polyethylene, HDPE has little branching, giving it stronger intermolecular forces and tensile strength than LDPE. The difference in strength exceeds the difference in density, giving HDPE a higher specific strength and it is also harder and more opaque and can withstand somewhat higher temperatures. High-density polyethylene, unlike polypropylene, cannot withstand normally required autoclaving conditions, the lack of branching is ensured by an appropriate choice of catalyst and reaction conditions. For example, in Rotational Molding, to identify the environmental stress crack resistance of a sample the Notched Constant Tensile Load Test is put to use, HDPE is preferred by the pyrotechnics trade for mortars over steel or PVC tubes, being more durable and safer. HDPE tends to rip or tear in a malfunction instead of shattering and becoming shrapnel like the other materials. Milk jugs and other goods manufactured through blow molding are the most important application area for HDPE, accounting for one-third of worldwide production. There is some evidence that this form of recycling is less intensive than conventional recycling. Above all, China, where beverage bottles made from HDPE were first imported in 2005, is a market for rigid HDPE packaging. In India and other highly populated, emerging nations, infrastructure expansion includes the deployment of pipes, HDPE for Robotics Advantages & Disadvantages How to Recycle Plastic
25.
Coir
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Coir, or coconut fibre, is a natural fibre extracted from the husk of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes and mattresses. Coir is the material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir are in upholstery padding, sacking, white coir, harvested from unripe coconuts, is used for making finer brushes, string, rope and fishing nets. The English word coir comes from the Malayalam and Tamil word kayar, ropes and cordage have been made from coconut fibre since ancient times. Indian navigators who sailed the seas to Malaya, Java, China, arab writers of the 11th century AD referred to the extensive use of coir for ship ropes and rigging. A coir industry in the UK was recorded before the half of the 19th century. Coir fibres are found between the hard, internal shell and the coat of a coconut. The individual fibre cells are narrow and hollow, with walls made of cellulose. They are pale when immature, but later become hardened and yellowed as a layer of lignin is deposited on their walls, each cell is about 1 mm long and 10 to 20 µm in diameter. Fibres are typically 10 to 30 centimetres long, the two varieties of coir are brown and white. Brown coir harvested from fully ripened coconuts is thick, strong and has high abrasion resistance and it is typically used in mats, brushes and sacking. Mature brown coir fibres contain more lignin and less cellulose than fibres such as flax and cotton, so are stronger, white coir fibres harvested from coconuts before they are ripe are white or light brown in color and are smoother and finer, but also weaker. They are generally spun to make yarn used in mats or rope, the coir fibre is relatively waterproof, and is one of the few natural fibres resistant to damage by saltwater. Fresh water is used to process brown coir, while seawater and it must not be confused with coir pith, or formerly cocopeat, which is the powdery material resulting from the processing of the coir fibre. Coir fibre is locally named coprah in some countries, adding to the confusion, green coconuts, harvested after about six to 12 months on the palm, contain pliable white fibres. Brown fibre is obtained by harvesting fully mature coconuts when the nutritious layer surrounding the seed is ready to be processed into copra, the fibrous layer of the fruit is then separated from the hard shell by driving the fruit down onto a spike to split it. A well-seasoned husker can manually separate 2,000 coconuts per day, machines are now available which crush the whole fruit to give the loose fibres. These machines can process up to 2,000 coconuts per hour, the fibrous husks are soaked in pits or in nets in a slow-moving body of water to swell and soften the fibres
26.
Cloth
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A textile or cloth is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, hemp, Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting. The words fabric and cloth are used in textile assembly trades as synonyms for textile, however, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. Textile refers to any material made of interlacing fibres, a fabric is a material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods. Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but is often a piece of fabric used for a specific purpose. The word textile is from Latin, from the adjective textilis, meaning woven, from textus, the word cloth derives from the Old English clað, meaning a cloth, woven or felted material to wrap around one, from Proto-Germanic kalithaz. The discovery of dyed flax fibres in a cave in the Republic of Georgia dated to 34,000 BCE suggests textile-like materials were made even in prehistoric times. The production of textiles is a craft whose speed and scale of production has been altered almost beyond recognition by industrialization, however, for the main types of textiles, plain weave, twill, or satin weave, there is little difference between the ancient and modern methods. Textiles have an assortment of uses, the most common of which are for clothing and for such as bags. In the household they are used in carpeting, upholstered furnishings, window shades, towels, coverings for tables, beds, and other flat surfaces, in the workplace they are used in industrial and scientific processes such as filtering. Textiles are used in traditional crafts such as sewing, quilting. Textiles for industrial purposes, and chosen for other than their appearance, are commonly referred to as technical textiles. Technical textiles include textile structures for applications, medical textiles, geotextiles, agrotextiles. In all these applications stringent performance requirements must be met, woven of threads coated with zinc oxide nanowires, laboratory fabric has been shown capable of self-powering nanosystems using vibrations created by everyday actions like wind or body movements. Fashion designers commonly rely on textile designs to set their fashion collections apart from others, armani, the late Gianni Versace, and Emilio Pucci can be easily recognized by their signature print driven designs. Textiles can be made from many materials and these materials come from four main sources, animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic. In the past, all textiles were made from natural fibres, including plant, animal, in the 20th century, these were supplemented by artificial fibres made from petroleum. Textiles are made in various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest gossamer to the sturdiest canvas, microfibre refers to fibres made of strands thinner than one denier
27.
Filter (water)
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A water filter removes impurities from water by means of a fine physical barrier, a chemical process or a biological process. Filters cleanse water to different extents for purposes such as providing agricultural irrigation, accessible drinking water, public and private aquaria, filters use sieving, adsorption, ion exchanges, biological metabolite transfer, and other processes to remove unwanted substances from a quantity of water. And unlike a sieve or screen, a filter can potentially remove particles much smaller than the holes through which its water passes. Types of water filters include media filters, screen filters, disk filters, slow sand filter beds, rapid sand filters, cloth filters, some filters use more than one filtration method. An example of this is a multi-barrier system, jug filters can be used for small quantities of drinking water. Some kettles have built-in filters, primarily to reduce limescale buildup, flowmatic cartridge style filters are cylinders 10 inches long by 2.5 inches in diameter. They are made by multiple manufactures and are available in 1-50 micron ratings as well as activated carbon, point-of-use microfiltration devices can be directly installed at water outlets in order to protect users against Legionella spp. Nontuberculous mycobacteria, Escherichia coli and other potentially harmful pathogens by providing a barrier to them and/or minimizing patient exposure. Water filters are used by hikers, aid organizations during humanitarian emergencies, dirty water is pumped via a screen-filtered flexible silicon tube through a specialized filter, ending up in a container. These filters work to remove bacteria, protozoa and microbial cysts that can cause disease, filters may have fine meshes that must be replaced or cleaned, and ceramic water filters must have their outside abraded when they have become clogged with impurities. These water filters should not be confused with devices or tablets that disinfect water which remove or kill viruses such as hepatitis A, each certifies that home water treatment units meet or exceed National Standard Institute/National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards. Certification from these organizations will specify one or both of specific standards. NSF International as it is now known started out as the National Sanitation Foundation in 1944 at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, the NSFs water treatment Device Certification Program requires extensive product testing and unannounced audits of production facilities. As with all filters, follow the instructions for filter use. The term water polishing can refer to any process that removes particulate material. In this sense, water polishing is simply another term for whole house water filtration systems, polishing is also done on a large scale in water reclamation plants. During the 19th and 20th centuries, water filters for domestic water production were divided into slow sand filters. While there were many small-scale water filtration systems prior to 1800, Paisley, the Paisley filter began operation in 1804 and was an early type of slow sand filter
28.
Civil engineer
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The term civil engineer was established in 1750 to contrast engineers working on civil projects with the military engineers, who worked on armaments and defenses. Over time, various sub-disciplines of civil engineering have become recognized, other engineering practices became recognized as independent engineering disciplines, including chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. In some places, an engineer may perform land surveying, in others, surveying is limited to construction surveying. Civil engineers generally work in a variety of locations and conditions, many spend time outdoors at construction sites so that they can monitor operations or solve problems onsite. The job is typically a blend of in-office and on-location work, in many countries, civil engineers are subject to licensure. In some jurisdictions with mandatory licensing, people who do not obtain a license may not call themselves civil engineers, in Belgium, Civil Engineer is a legally protected title applicable to graduates of the five-year engineering course of one of the six universities and the Royal Military Academy. Their speciality can be all fields of engineering, civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, chemical, physics and this use of the title may cause confusion to the English speaker as the Belgian civil engineer can have a speciality other than civil engineering. In fact, Belgians use the adjective civil in the sense of civilian, traditionally, students were required to pass an entrance exam on mathematics to start civil engineering studies. This exam was abolished in 2004 for the Flemish Community, but is organised in the French Community. Today the degree spans over all fields within engineering, like engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, electronics engineering. A civil engineer is the most well-known of the two, still, the area of expertise remains obfuscated for most of the public. A noteworthy difference is the courses in mathematics and physics, regardless of the equivalent masters degree. This is because the educational system is not fully adopted to the international standard graduation system. Today this is starting to change due to the Bologna process, a Scandinavian civilingenjör will in international contexts commonly call herself Master of Science in Engineering and will occasionally wear an engineering class ring. At the Norwegian Institute of Technology, the tradition with an NTH Ring goes back to 1914, in Norway, the title Sivilingeniør will no longer be issued after 2007, and has been replaced with Master i teknologi. In the English translation of the diploma, the title will be Master of Science, since Master of Technology is not a title in the English-speaking world. The extra overlapping year of studies have also been abolished with this change to make Norwegian degrees more equal to their international counterparts, in Spain, a civil engineering degree can be obtained after four years of study in the various branches of mathematics, physics, mechanics, etc. The earned degree is called Grado en Ingeniería Civil, further studies at a graduate school include masters and doctoral degrees
29.
Road
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Roads consist of one or two roadways, each with one or more lanes and any associated sidewalks and road verges. Roads that are available for use by the public may be referred to as parkways, avenues, freeways, interstates, highways, or primary, secondary, and tertiary local roads. In urban areas roads may diverge through a city or village and be named as streets, serving a function as urban space easement. Modern roads are normally smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel, historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or maintenance. In the United Kingdom there is ambiguity between the terms highway and road. The Highway code details rules for road users and this includes footpaths, bridleways and cycle tracks, and also road and driveways on private land and many car parks. Vehicle Excise Duty, a use tax, is payable on some vehicles used on the public road. The definition of a road depends on the definition of a highway, in the United States, laws distinguish between public roads, which are open to public use, and private roads, which are privately controlled. The assertion that the first pathways were the trails made by animals has not been universally accepted, others believe that some roads originated from following animal trails. The Icknield Way is given as an example of type of road origination. By about 10,000 BC, rough roads/pathways were used by human travelers, the worlds oldest known paved road was constructed in Egypt some time between 2600 and 2200 BC. Stone-paved streets are found in the city of Ur in the Middle East dating back to 4000 BC, corduroy roads are found dating to 4000 BC in Glastonbury, England. The Sweet Track, a timber causeway in England, is one of the oldest engineered roads discovered. Built in winter 3807 BC or spring 3806 BC, tree-ring dating enabled very precise dating and it was claimed to be the oldest road in the world until the 2009 discovery of a 6, 000-year-old trackway in Plumstead, London. Brick-paved streets were used in India as early as 3000 BC, in 500 BC, Darius I the Great started an extensive road system for Persia, including the Royal Road, which was one of the finest highways of its time. The road remained in use after Roman times, a hybrid of road transport and ship transport beginning in about 1740 is the horse-drawn boat in which the horse follows a cleared path along the river bank. From about 312 BC, the Roman Empire built straight strong stone Roman roads throughout Europe and North Africa, at its peak the Roman Empire was connected by 29 major roads moving out from Rome and covering 78,000 kilometers or 52,964 Roman miles of paved roads. In the 8th century AD, many roads were built throughout the Arab Empire, the most sophisticated roads were those in Baghdad, which were paved with tar
30.
Street gutter
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A street gutter is a depression running parallel to a road designed to collect rainwater flowing along the street and divert it into a storm drain. A gutter alleviates water buildup on a street, allowing pedestrians to pass without walking through puddles, depending on local regulations, a gutter usually discharges in a storm drain whose final discharge falls into a detention pond or into a body of water. Not all streets have gutters, and they are most often found in areas of a city which have pedestrian traffic. In past centuries when urban streets did not have sanitary sewers, gutters were made deep enough to serve that purpose as well, road debris Street sweeper Pervious concrete
31.
Culvert
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A culvert is a structure that allows water to flow under a road, railroad, trail, or similar obstruction from one side to the other side. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, in the United Kingdom the word can also be used for a longer artificially buried watercourse. A structure that carries water above land is known as an aqueduct, Culverts are commonly used both as cross-drains for ditch relief and to pass water under a road at natural drainage and stream crossings. A culvert may be a structure designed to allow vehicle or pedestrian traffic to cross over the waterway while allowing adequate passage for the water. Culverts come in sizes and shapes including round, elliptical, flat-bottomed, pear-shaped. The culvert type and shape selection is based on a number of factors including requirements for performance, limitation on upstream water surface elevation. The process of removing culverts, which is becoming increasingly prevalent, is known as daylighting, in the UK, the practice is also known as deculverting. Culverts can be constructed of a variety of materials including cast-in-place or precast concrete, galvanized steel, aluminum, or plastic, two or more materials may be combined to form composite structures. For example, open-bottom corrugated steel structures are built on concrete footings. Culverts must be sized and installed, and protected from erosion. Most agencies adhere to these standards when designing, engineering, if the failure is sudden and catastrophic, it can result in injury or loss of life. Sudden road collapses are often at poorly designed and engineered culvert crossing sites, water passing through undersized culverts will scour away the surrounding soil over time. This can cause a failure during medium-sized rain events. There are more than 5,000,000 culverts currently in use in the United States alone, continued inspection, maintenance, and replacement of these structures is crucial for infrastructure and safety. Accidents due to culvert failure can occur if a culvert has not been adequately sized. Improperly designed backfill support around aluminum or plastic culverts can result in material collapse or failure from inadequate load support. Soil and sand carried through a culvert can wear away the galvanizing of a culvert, allowing it to corrode and eventually collapse. This happened at a culvert near Gosford, New South Wales in 2007, safe and stable stream crossings can accommodate wildlife and protect stream health while reducing expensive erosion and structural damage
32.
Sewerage
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Sewerage is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, Sewerage ends at the entry to a sewage treatment plant or at the point of discharge into the environment. It is the system of pipes, chambers, manholes, etc. that conveys the sewage or storm water, according to this definition, sewerage and sewage are two different terms. However, at least in American English colloquial usage, both terms are used interchangeably. The main part of a system is made up of large pipes that convey the sewage from the point of production to the point of treatment. In certain areas it has resulted in a significant lowering of the water table, in the example of Belgium, a lowering of the water table by 100 meters has been the result. The freshwater that is accumulated by the system is then piped to the sea. In areas where this is a concern, vacuum sewers may be used due to the shallow excavation that is possible for them. Severe constraints are applied to sewerage, which may result in premature deterioration and these include root intrusion, joint displacement, cracks and holes formation leading to a significant volume of leakage with an overall risk for the environment and public health. For example, it is estimated that 500 million m3 of contaminated water per year can leak into soil, the rehabilitation and replacement of damaged sewers is very costly. Annual rehabilitation costs for Los Angeles County are about €400 million, and in Germany, hydrogen sulfide is indirectly responsible for biogenic sulfide corrosion and consequently, sewerage need rehabilitation works. Various repairs options are available to Owners over a range of costs. Depending of the condition and contamination, the cleaning can range from simple high pressure jet water cleaning up to real hydro-demolition. One method to ensure sound concrete is exposed is to verify that the surface pH is superior to 10, as for any concrete repair, the state-of-the-art rules must be followed. It utilizes classical facade rotor pump, easily available in the market, the main drawback is the limited pumping distance that cannot exceed 75 meters. Spinning head wet spray, this method is similar to the first and this method is fast and especially suited for cylindrical chambers like manholes. When a structure is so severely corroded that man entry is a risk, high pressure dry spray, this method, also called “shotcrete” or “gunite” is allowing a faster rate of rehabilitation, and also to make a thicker application in a single pass. The main interest of dry shotcrete is the capacity to pump the mortar over a long distance, longest dry shotcrete distance the authors are aware is a job site in Australia in 2014 where 100% calcium aluminate mortar was air transported over 800 meters before being sprayed
33.
Construction
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Construction is the process of constructing a building or infrastructure. Construction as an industry comprises six to nine percent of the domestic product of developed countries. Construction starts with planning, design, and financing, and continues until the project is built, large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple disciplines. An architect normally manages the job, and a manager, design engineer. For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential, the largest construction projects are referred to as megaprojects. Construction is a term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations. Construction is used as a verb, the act of building, and a noun, how a building was built, in general, there are three sectors of construction, buildings, infrastructure and industrial. Building construction is further divided into residential and non-residential. Infrastructure is often called heavy/highway, heavy civil or heavy engineering and it includes large public works, dams, bridges, highways, water/wastewater and utility distribution. Industrial includes refineries, process chemical, power generation, mills, there are other ways to break the industry into sectors or markets. Engineering News-Record is a magazine for the construction industry. Each year, ENR compiles and reports on data about the size of design and they publish a list of the largest companies in the United States and also a list the largest global firms. In 2014, ENR compiled the data in nine market segments and it was divided as transportation, petroleum, buildings, power, industrial, water, manufacturing, sewer/waste, telecom, hazardous waste plus a tenth category for other projects. In their reporting on the Top 400, they used data on transportation, sewer, hazardous waste, the Standard Industrial Classification and the newer North American Industry Classification System have a classification system for companies that perform or otherwise engage in construction. To recognize the differences of companies in this sector, it is divided into three subsectors, building construction, heavy and civil engineering construction, and specialty trade contractors, there are also categories for construction service firms and construction managers. Building construction is the process of adding structure to real property or construction of buildings, the majority of building construction jobs are small renovations, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as laborer, paymaster, for this reason, those with experience in the field make detailed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to ensure a positive outcome. Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building authority regulations, materials readily available in the area generally dictate the construction materials used
34.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
35.
Magome-juku
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Magome-juku was the forty-third of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, an ancient road that connected Kyoto and Edo during the Edo period. It was also the last of eleven stations along the Kisoji and this well-preserved section of the old route is in the present-day city of Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. As a post town, it was prosperous and cosmopolitan. It fell into obscurity and poverty, however, after the completion of the Chūō Main Line railway, in recent decades, it has been restored to its appearance as an Edo period post town and is now a popular tourist destination. The central feature of Magome is its row of houses along the former post road. Most were built for people in the mid-18th century, with shops. A quiet portion of the highway has been preserved between Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku, the next post town, which was also restored. It provides for a pleasant walk through forests and past waterfalls, bus service is also provided between the two post towns, allowing visitors to easily start at either end of the path. Records show that in 1843, Magome-juku had 717 residents and 69 buildings, among the building, there was one honjin, one sub-honjin, and 18 hatago. Magome was the birthplace and childhood home of noted author Shimazaki Tōson and he is buried in the towns small cemetery. The town also offers a view of Mount Ena, which rises 2,190 m. Panoramic views of the mountains may be enjoyed from a vista above the main parking lot at Magomes upper end. Nakasendō Tsumago-juku - Magome-juku - Ochiai-juku Kisoji Tsumago-juku - Magome-juku Media related to Magome-juku at Wikimedia Commons
36.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
37.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
38.
Glaciation
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A glacial period is an interval of time within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the hand, are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods. The last glacial period ended about 15,000 years ago, the Holocene epoch is the current interglacial. A time when there are no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state, within the Quaternary glaciation, there have been a number of glacials and interglacials. The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age, occurring in the Pleistocene epoch, the glacial advance reached its maximum extent about 18,000 BP. In Europe, the ice sheet reached northern Germany, since orbital variations are predictable, computer models that relate orbital variations to climate can predict future climate possibilities. Work by Berger and Loutre suggests that the current warm climate may last another 50,000 years
39.
Lake
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A lake is an area of variable size filled with water, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, and therefore are distinct from lagoons, Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are usually flowing. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams, natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, in some parts of the world there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them. The word lake comes from Middle English lake, from Old English lacu, from Proto-Germanic *lakō, cognates include Dutch laak, Middle Low German lāke as in, de, Moorlake, de, Wolfslake, de, Butterlake, German Lache, and Icelandic lækur. Also related are the English words leak and leach, none of these definitions completely excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure. For this reason, simple size-based definitions are used to separate ponds. One definition of lake is a body of water of 2 hectares or more in area, however, others have defined lakes as waterbodies of 5 hectares and above, or 8 hectares and above. Charles Elton, one of the founders of ecology, regarded lakes as waterbodies of 40 hectares or more. The term lake is used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre. In common usage, many bear names ending with the word pond. One textbook illustrates this point with the following, In Newfoundland, for example, almost every lake is called a pond, whereas in Wisconsin, the majority of lakes on Earth are fresh water, and most lie in the Northern Hemisphere at higher latitudes. Canada, with a drainage system has an estimated 31,752 lakes larger than 3 square kilometres and an unknown total number of lakes. Finland has 187,888 lakes 500 square metres or larger, most lakes have at least one natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, which maintain a lakes average level by allowing the drainage of excess water. Some lakes do not have an outflow and lose water solely by evaporation or underground seepage or both. Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for power generation, aesthetic purposes, recreational purposes, industrial use. Globally, lakes are greatly outnumbered by ponds, of an estimated 304 million standing water bodies worldwide, 91% are 1 hectare or less in area
40.
Humus
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In soil science, humus refers to the fraction of soil organic matter that is amorphous and without the cellular cake structure characteristic of plants, micro-organisms or animals. Humus significantly influences the bulk density of soil and contributes to moisture, soil formation begins with the weathering of humus. In agriculture, humus is sometimes used to describe mature. It is also used to describe a topsoil horizon that contains organic matter, humus is the dark organic matter that forms in the soil when plant and animal matter decays. Humus contains many nutrients for healthy soil, nitrogen being the most important of all. A great part of the material that reaches the soil is broken down by the action of microorganisms. In this way the nitrogen and the nutrients are recycled. These organic polymers are stable, that is resistant to the action of microorganisms and this stability implies that once formed humus integrates the permanent structure of soil, contributing to its improvement. It is difficult to define precisely, it is a highly complex substance. Humus should be differentiated from decomposing organic matter, the latter is rough-looking material and remains of the original plant are still visible. Fully humified organic matter, on the hand, has a uniform dark, spongy, jelly-like appearance. It may remain like this for millennia or more and it has no determinate shape, structure or character. However, humified organic matter, when examined under the microscope may reveal tiny plant, animal or microbial remains that have been mechanically and this suggests a fuzzy boundary between humus and organic matter. In most literature, humus is considered a part of soil organic matter. The process of humification can occur naturally in soil, or in the production of compost, organic matter is degraded into humus by a combination of mycorrhizal fungi, bacteria, microbes and animals such as earthworms, nematodes, protozoa and various arthropods. It helps the soil retain moisture by increasing microporosity, and encourages the formation of soil structure. Humus allows soil organisms to feed and reproduce, and is described as the life-force of the soil. Plant remains contain organic compounds, sugars, starches, proteins, carbohydrates, lignins, waxes, resins, simple proteins, organic acids, starches and sugars break down rapidly, while crude proteins, fats, waxes and resins remain relatively unchanged for longer periods of time
41.
Marsh
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A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams and they are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, Marshes provide a habitat for many species of plants, animals, and insects that have adapted to living in flooded conditions. The plants must be able to survive in wet mud with low oxygen levels, many of these plants therefore have aerenchyma, channels within the stem that allow air to move from the leaves into the rooting zone. Marsh plants also tend to have rhizomes for underground storage and reproduction, familiar examples include cattails, sedges, papyrus and sawgrass. Aquatic animals, from fish to salamanders, are able to live with a low amount of oxygen in the water. Some can obtain oxygen from the air instead, while others can live indefinitely in conditions of low oxygen, Marshes provide habitats for many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. Marshes have extremely high levels of production, some of the highest in the world. Marshes also improve water quality by acting as a sink to filter pollutants, Marshes are able to absorb water during periods of heavy rainfall and slowly release it into waterways and therefore reduce the magnitude of flooding. The pH in marshes tends to be neutral to alkaline, as opposed to bogs, Marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors influence the range and scope of animal and plant life that can survive. The three main types of marsh are salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and freshwater marshes. These three can be found worldwide and each contains a different set of organisms, saltwater marshes are found around the world in mid to high latitudes, wherever there are sections of protected coastline. They are located close enough to the shoreline that the motion of the tides affects them and they flourish where the rate of sediment buildup is greater than the rate at which the land level is sinking. Salt marshes are dominated by specially adapted rooted vegetation, primarily salt-tolerant grasses, salt marshes are most commonly found in lagoons, estuaries, and on the sheltered side of shingle or sandspit. The currents there carry the fine particles around to the side of the spit. These locations allow the marshes to absorb the nutrients from the water running through them before they reach the oceans. Coastal development and urban sprawl has caused significant loss of these essential habitats, although considered a freshwater marsh, this form of marsh is affected by the ocean tides
42.
Ditch
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A ditch is a small to moderate depression created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields. A trench is a narrow ditch. Ditches are commonly seen around farmland, especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in eastern England and much of the Netherlands. Roadside ditches may provide a hazard to motorists and cyclists, whose vehicles may crash into them and get damaged, flipped over or stuck, especially in weather conditions. In Anglo-Saxon, the word dïc already existed and was pronounced deek in northern England, the origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name dïc was given to either the excavation or the bank, thus Offas Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench, though it once had raised banks as well. In the midlands and north of England, a dike is what a ditch is in the south, a property boundary marker or small drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a dike as in Rippingale Running Dike. The Weir Dike is a dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty. Drainage ditches play major roles in agriculture throughout the world, improper drainage systems accelerate water contamination, excessively desiccate soils during seasonal drought, and become a financial burden to maintain. Industrial earth-moving equipment facilitates maintenance of straight drainage trenches, but entrenchment results in increasing environmental, sustainable channel design can result in ditches that are largely self-maintaining due to natural geomorphological equilibrium. Slowed net siltation and erosion result in net reduction in sediment transport, flooding can be a major cause of recurring crop loss—particularly in heavy soils—and can severely disrupt urban economies as well. However, excess drainage results in recurring drought induced crop yield losses, controlled subsurface drainage from sensitive areas to vegetated drainage ditches makes possible a better balance between water drainage and water retention needs. The initial investment allows a community to draw down local water tables when, particularly in Colorado, the term ditch is also applied to open aqueducts that traverse hillsides as part of transbasin diversion projects. Examples include the Grand Ditch over La Poudre Pass, the Berthoud Pass Ditch, black Beach, The Mucklands of Canastota, New York
