Cluster formation and cluster head selection are important problems in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) applications and can drastically affect the network's communication energy dissipation. However, selecting the cluster head is not easy in different environments which may have different...

Following its devastating experience with recent disasters, Japan has been strengthening or drawing up new disaster management plans at the national and local levels. The Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) revealed a number of weaknesses in planning for complex and extraordinary disasters....

It is an empirical fact that it is very difficult to balance economic growth, poverty reduction, and environment protection, particularly for developing and transitional economies. While the economic environment of a country is influenced by conditions within the country, it is also influenced...

The global financial crisis and the resulting economic slowdown may be assumed to have at least the benefit of also reducing environmental degradation in the individual countries. This paper discusses the consequences of the crisis for energy use, pollution prevention, and land use in Asia and...