Foreword II
The study of environmental physics requires a truly holistic approach forming an
important plank in support of the environmental sciences. It provides the basis for
the understanding of the complex physical interactions among living beings and
their natural environmental components such as the atmosphere, natural or
anthropogenic canopies, or water basins. These interactions are based on fluid
dynamics and heat transfer processes associated with micrometeorology, airflow
turbulence, vertical fluxes of mass and energy, or particle transportation. A major
fraction of these phenomena occurs within the atmospheric surface layer of around
1 km depth from that surface, although not independent of the above atmosphere.
This textbook on Environmental Physics follows a first one published in 2014 in
the Portuguese Language by Piaget Publisher entitled “Princípios Fundamentais de
Ecologia Física” by Abel Rodrigues and Gabriel Pita, after two decades of research
on those topics, with a focus on energy budgets in horticultural greenhouses and
vertical fluxes of water vapor and carbon dioxide fluxes of cork oak and eucalypt
stands, representative of forest stands with lower and higher biomass productivity.
The fundamentals of scientific knowledge in the mass and heat transfer were laid in
the disciplines of Physical Ecology, lasting between 1993 and 2003, and Heat and
Mass Transfer, still existing in the graduate program of Environmental Engineering
in the Instituto Superior Técnico, of the University of Lisbon.
The content of the former book was maintained but enriched with information on
global carbon budgets and climate change, and principles of mass transfer regarding
particles, gases, and vapors. These later environmental topics, despite not restricted
to the surface layer, are nowadays of such relevance that its inclusion in a textbook
like this is deemed essential because the whole technical and scientific information
provides an interdisciplinary view on them.
A comprehensive applied theoretical approach is followed, grounded on fundamentals of fluid turbulent dynamics, heat transfer, or micrometeorology in distinct environments aiming to contribute to addressing applied matters such as
vertical flows of sensible heat, evaporation, sediment transport, carbon sequestration, and emissions or climate change. This approach encompasses natural and
vii
The study of environmental physics requires a truly holistic approach forming an
important plank in support of the environmental sciences. It provides the basis for
the understanding of the complex physical interactions among living beings and
their natural environmental components such as the atmosphere, natural or
anthropogenic canopies, or water basins. These interactions are based on fluid
dynamics and heat transfer processes associated with micrometeorology, airflow
turbulence, vertical fluxes of mass and energy, or particle transportation. A major
fraction of these phenomena occurs within the atmospheric surface layer of around
1 km depth from that surface, although not independent of the above atmosphere.
This textbook on Environmental Physics follows a first one published in 2014 in
the Portuguese Language by Piaget Publisher entitled “Princípios Fundamentais de
Ecologia Física” by Abel Rodrigues and Gabriel Pita, after two decades of research
on those topics, with a focus on energy budgets in horticultural greenhouses and
vertical fluxes of water vapor and carbon dioxide fluxes of cork oak and eucalypt
stands, representative of forest stands with lower and higher biomass productivity.
The fundamentals of scientific knowledge in the mass and heat transfer were laid in
the disciplines of Physical Ecology, lasting between 1993 and 2003, and Heat and
Mass Transfer, still existing in the graduate program of Environmental Engineering
in the Instituto Superior Técnico, of the University of Lisbon.
The content of the former book was maintained but enriched with information on
global carbon budgets and climate change, and principles of mass transfer regarding
particles, gases, and vapors. These later environmental topics, despite not restricted
to the surface layer, are nowadays of such relevance that its inclusion in a textbook
like this is deemed essential because the whole technical and scientific information
provides an interdisciplinary view on them.
A comprehensive applied theoretical approach is followed, grounded on fundamentals of fluid turbulent dynamics, heat transfer, or micrometeorology in distinct environments aiming to contribute to addressing applied matters such as
vertical flows of sensible heat, evaporation, sediment transport, carbon sequestration, and emissions or climate change. This approach encompasses natural and
vii