Dictionary of Environmental Protection Technology [antikvár]

PREFACE Effective measures to protect and shape the natural environment require not only practical application of modern technology but also the exchange of international experiences. After the 1972 World Environment Conference in Stockholm, international efforts in the field of environmental protection were intensified in the analysis and interprétation of environmental conditions as well as in environmental protection technology, i.e., the development and application of methods, measures and techniques for changing environmental conditions. The call for a multilingual dictionary of environmental protection technology was thus quite natural. This call was answered by a team of authors who devoted severa! years to compiling in a systematic way the terms from this field and finding the equivalents in English, German, French and Russian. In the course of this work, the authors kept up-to-date with the latest international developments in this-relatively new branch of technology. The vocabulary of this volume is generally based on extensive évaluation of original literature such as books, documents, periodicals, Company pamphlets and other technical and scientific materials. A great deal of cross-checking had to be done to provide suitable translations. Furthermore, thorough studies had to be made to guarantee a sound comparability of terms. This is especially true of the sections on soil, eco-systems, flora and fauna. The dictionary deals above all with the technological aspects of environmental protection, i.e., techniques, methods, equipment, machinery, plants and plant systems. Terms regarding the scientific, socioeconomic and politico-cultural aspects have also been included, though in less detail. The authors focused their attention on the following: (1) Methods to increase economic efficiency by improving waste disposai and utilization, including pro-cesses that produce less waste and require less water and energy, recycling and processes that increase the availabllity of nonrenewable and renewable natural resources, especially air, water and soil, but also flora, fauna, ecosystems and landscapes. (2) Measures to improve working and living conditions, and related physical fundamentais such as radiation and noise. (3) Problems of management, planning and Organization, in particular those concerning environmental monitoring engineering, as well as analyzing techniques, remote sensing, biological monitoring and ec-ological monitoring. In this wav. an attempt has been made to cover the dynamic development of environmental protection, especially over the past decade. However, one must not ignore the fact that the interdisciplinary field ot environmental protection is developing and changing at such a rate that it is virtually impossible to cover its vo-cabularies completely, and many terms will have to be defined more precisely in future éditions. Because of the complex nature of environmental protection and the special importance of environmental protection technology in protecting and shaping the natural working and living environment and, thus, in increasing economic efficiency and improving the working and living conditions of people, it was neces-sary to draw the line somewhere concerning related scientific, socioeconomic and social terms. Thus, the dictionary does not contain specialized words from biochemistry or biophysics, nor from sewage engineering or coastal engineering. On the other hand, it appeared to be necessary to include the vocabulary of such newcomers as radiation protection, and the most important terms from data acquisition as related to automated environmental monitoring Workstations. Processes and methods of environmental technology are covered insofar as they are relevant to environmental monitoring. The basic terms concerning air-pollu-tion and water-pollution control had to be defined precisely and very clearly because sometimes they have different meanings. On principie, only those works which have a clear relationship with environmental science have been included. The chemical components of wastes, for instance, have been left out, while words concerning relevant branches of industry, such as the glass industry, have been included, ás have certain subjects relating to environmental design, such as parks, lawns and plant engineering, landscape shaping and maintenance engineering. Municipal waste disposai engineering is covered as is radioactive waste disposai engineering. Recent trends, such as the use of oil shale and oil sand as alternative sources of energy, have also been covered. There are many cases where there are different terms for one and the same process; this is found to be the case, for example, in environmental monitoring, particularly ecological and biological monitoring. In such instances, explanations appeared to be appropriate. This is especially true for soil profiles and their description. The reader will find terms that are related to soil utilization and soil utilization engineering, such as