Vegetation, Water, Humans and the Climate

Land Surface Matter in Climate and Weather: The Climate near the Ground; The Regional Climate; The Global Climate; The Sahelian Climate; The Amazonian Climate; The Boreal Climate;The Asian Monsoon Climate.- How Measurable is the Earth System: The Energy Balance Closure Problem; Radiation Measurements in Integrated Terrestrial Experiments; Surface Turbulent Fluxes; Accuracy and Utility of Aircraft Flux Measurements; Boundary Layer Budgeting; Vegetation Structure, Dynamics and Physiology; Remote Sensing and Land Surface Experiments; The Water Balance Concept; Use of Field Experiments in Improving the Land Surface Description in Atmospheric Models; Further Insight from Large-scale Observational Studies of Land/Atmosphere Interactions.- The Value of Land Surface Data Consolidation: Motivation for Data Consolidation; Existing Degrees of Consolidation; Achieving Full Consolidation; Terrestrial Data Assimilation.- The Integrity of River and Drainage Basin Systems: Responses of Hydrological Processes to Environmental Change at Small Catchment Scales; River Basin Responses to Global Change and Anthropogenic Impacts; Responses of Continental Aquatic Systems at the Global Scale; Case Study 1 - The Amazon Basin; Case Study 2: The Elbe River Basin in Central Europe; Case Study 3: The Mixed Underdeveloped/Developed Mgeni Catchment, South Africa; Scaling Relative Responses of Terrestrial Aquatic Systems to Global Changes.- How to Evaluate Vulnerability in Changing Environmental Conditions: Predictability and Uncertainty; Contrast between Predictive and Vulnerability Approaches; The Scenario Approach; The Vulnerability Approach; Case Studies; Conclusions.