In his memoir, Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain personified the river as "Sudden Death and General Desolation! Sired by a hurricane, dam'd by an earthquake, half-brother to the cholera, nearly related to the small-pox on the mother's side! Look at me! I take nineteen alligators and a bar'l of whiskey for breakfast when I'm in robust health, and a bushel of rattlesnakes and a dead body when I'm ailing!" Twain's time as a steamboat pilot showed him the true character of The Great River, with its unpredictable moods and hidden secrets. Still a vital route for U.S. shipping, the Mississippi River has given life to riverside communities, manufacturing industries, fishing, tourism, and other livelihoods. But the Mighty Mississippi has also claimed countless lives as tribute to its muddy waters. Climate and environmental conditions made the Mississippi the perfect incubator for diseases like malaria. Natural disasters like tornadoes, floods, and even an earthquake have changed and reshaped the river's banks over thousands of years. Shipwrecks and steamboat explosions were once common in the difficult-to-navigate waters. But when there was money to be made, there were some willing to risk it all-from the brave steamboat captains who went down with their ships, to the illegal moonshiners and pirates who pillaged the river's bounty. In this book, author and Mississippi River historian Dean Klinkenberg explores the many disastrous events to have occurred on and along the river in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-from steamboat explosions, to Yellow Fever epidemics, floods, and Prohibition piracy. Enjoy this journey into the darkest deeds of the Mississippi River.

Drawing on the author's experience as a paddler and as the leader of an environmental nonprofit working to protect and restore the Willamette River, this book illustrates what it is like to travel the Willamette River Greenway. It also provides a first hand account of how the State of Oregon and other entities fail to protect the river's water quality and habitat. The "greenway" is a lens through which to view both policy and practice in relation to the river's health.

Combining memoir and studies in the Environmental Humanities, Black Swan Song weaves together an autobiographically-based account of the unique life and work of Rod Giblett. For over 25 years he was a leading local wetland conservationist, environmental activist, and pioneer transdisciplinary researcher and writer of fiction and non-fiction. He has researched, written, and published more than 25 books in the environmental humanities, especially wetland cultural studies, and psychoanalytic ecology. Black Swan Song traces Rod's early and later life and work from being born in Borneo as the child of Christian missionaries, through his childhood in Bible College, being a High School dropout and studying at three universities to becoming an academic, activist and author, and now a writer. Following in the footsteps of New Lives of the Saints: Twelve Environmental Apostles, Black Swan Song also comprises conversations in conservation counter-theology between the twelve minor biblical prophets and twelve environmental apostles, such as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. It also introduces the lives and works of twelve more environmental apostles, such as John Clare, Rebecca Solnit, John Charles Ryan, and others who have made a valuable contribution to green thinking and living. Black Swan Song mixes modes and genres, such as memoir, essay, story, criticism, etc., making up the writer's black swan song. It provides ways of living and being with the earth in dark and troubled times by providing resources of a journey of hope for learning to live bio- and psycho-symbiotic livelihoods in bioregional home habitats of the living earth and in the Symbiocene, the hoped-for age superseding the Anthropocene.

Water resources and services are integrated measures of social systems that range beyond the technical world and the IWRM requires a balance between competing views of social and political issues. This volume focuses on increased awareness of the human dimension, women's role, environmental protection, sustainability and food security aspects in achieving sustainable water management. Understanding the strategies used by small farmers, as well as how small farming systems work or why they fail, could shed light on the constraints they face and the measures to be taken to overcome them. It also draws key insights on movements promoting the involvement of grassroots communities in the sustainable management of their resources.

Water is a key driver of economic and social development while it also has a basic function in maintaining the integrity of the natural environment. Presents the rationale approach for the Integrated Water Resources Management; this volume brings together both the different environmental problems that affect the very different ecosystems and the main methodologies able to face the problem of IWM. It will be of an invaluable resource for those involved in urban water management, including water utility managers, engineering technical staff, operations and maintenance specialists.

From Lake Coeur d'Alene to its confluence with the Columbia, the Spokane River travels 111 miles of varied and often spectacular terrain-rural, urban, in places wild. The river has been a trading and gathering place for Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. With bountiful trout, accessible swimming holes, and challenging rapids, it is a recreational magnet for residents and tourists alike. The Spokane also bears the legacy of industrial growth and remains caught amid interests competing over natural resources. The contributors to this collection profile this living river through personal reflection, history, science, and poetry. They bring a keen environmental awareness of resource scarcity, climate change, and cultural survival tied to the river's fate.

What are the challenges we face around water in Western Canada? What are our rights to water? Does water itself have rights? Water Rites: Reimagining Water in the West documents the many ways that water flows through our lives, connecting the humans, animals and plants that all depend on this precious and endangered resource. Essays from scholars, activists, environmentalists, and human rights advocates illuminate the diverse issues surrounding water in Alberta, including the right to access clean drinking water, the competing demands of the resource development industry and Indigenous communities, and the dwindling supply of fresh water in the face of human-caused climate change. Statements from community organizations detail the challenges facing watersheds, and the actions being taken to mitigate these problems. With a special focus on Environmental and Indigenous issues, Water Rites explores how deeply water is tied to human life. These essays are complemented by full-colour portfolios of work by contemporary painters, photographers, and installation artists who explore our relation to water. Reproductions of historical paintings, engravings and film stills demonstrate how water has shaped our country's cultural imaginary from its beginnings, proving that water is a vital resource for our lives and our imaginations.

This book focuses on governance and management issues in the much publicized 'Ganga Rejuvenation Project', led by the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. Attempts over the past three decades to clean up and rejuvenate one of the world's greatest rivers have proved futile. The major reasons for the lack of success are absence of long-term planning, poor co-ordination and failure to sustain whatever little infrastructure for water and sewage treatment could be developed. Focusing on these broad aspects, the book explores spaces for better governance through active community participation, knowledge management, prospects of Public-Private-Partnership, e-governance, youth education, waterfront development, lessons from past failures, comparative international analogies, utilization of external aid and global expertise in successful implementation of a sustainable long-term plan for a river basin's integrated development of both the economy and environment. A host of activities, such as, improving pollution monitoring systems, new development plans for tourism enhancement; river dredging and sewering riparian cities are already being carried in the hope of quick results. The Government of India has also appointed a task force for preparation of a long-term strategy. However, substantial knowledge gaps persist especially with regard to governance. This book aims to address the governance and policy issues and will be a very timely contribution to cleaning as well as rejuvenating Ganga, a river that is lifeline of millions of people.

Who would have guessed that a small province could hold so many falls? Overall, New Brunswick is home to more than 1,000 waterfalls -- some remote, and some surprisingly accessible. Spilling over an incredible range of ancient geological terrain, each of the fifty-five waterfalls photographed for this richly illustrated volume is complemented by descriptoins, directions, and background information on each site. Guitard's photographs are composed with an eye to the diversity and particular beauty and geological situation of each watercourse. A map locates each waterfall. Spanning all five regions of New Brunswick (Acadian Coastal, Appalachian Range, River Valley Scenic, Fundy Coastal, and Miramichi River), there's something for everyone -- you may even want to strap on your backpack and head out to experience them yourself.

Ecohydrology is an emerging new sub-discipline which links elements of ecology with hydrology at all points in the water cycle, ranging in scale from water-plant physiological relationships to whole catchment water-ecosystem processes. This book pays most attention to the larger scales of ecohydrology, emphasising the use of this tool in striving towards the goal of sustainable water management. Authors from Eastern as well as Western Europe; from America, Australia and South Africa, give a broad global context.

The lands and waters of the Mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) have changed significantly since before the 16th century when the Susquehannock lived in the area. Much has changed since Captain John Smith penetrated the estuaries and rivers during the early 17th century; since the surveying of the Mason-Dixon Line to settle border disputes among Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware during the middle of the 18th century; and since J. Thomas Scharf described the physiographic setting of Baltimore County in the late 19th century. As early as 1881, Scharf provides us with an assessment of the condition of the aquatic ecosystems of the region, albeit in narrative form, and already changes are taking place - the conversion of forests to fields, the founding of towns and cities, and the depletion of natural resources. We have always conducted our work with the premise that "man" is part of, and not apart from, this ecosystem and landscape. This premise, and the historical changes in our landscape, provide the foundation for our overarching research question: how do human activities impact the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and the ecosystem services that they provide, and how can we optimize this relationship?

A vital and volatile part of the New Orleans landscape and lifestyle, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin actually contains three major bodies of water--Lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain, and Maurepas. These make up the Pontchartrain estuary. Robert W. Hastings provides a thorough examination of the historical and environmental research on the basin, with emphasis on its environmental degradation and the efforts to restore and protect this estuarine system. He also explores the current biological condition of the lakes.

Hastings begins with the geological formation of the lakes and the relationship between Native Americans and the water they referred to as Okwa'ta, the "wide water." From the historical period, he describes the forays of French explorer Pierre Le Moyne D'Iberville in 1699, and traces the environmental history of the basin through the development of the New Orleans metropolitan area. Using the lakes for transportation and then recreation, the surrounding population burgeoned, and this growth resulted in severe water pollution and other environmental problems. In the 1980s the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation led a concerted drive to restore the lakes, an ongoing effort that has proved significant.

In this comprehensive, one-volume reference, Nature Conservancy scientist Bryan P. Piazza poses five key questions:
--What is the Atchafalaya River Basin?
--Why is it important?
--How have its hydrology and natural habitats been managed?
--What is its current state?
--How do we ensure its survival?
For more than five centuries, the Atchafalaya River Basin has captured the flow of the Mississippi River, becoming its main distributary as it reaches the Gulf of Mexico in south Louisiana. This dynamic environment, comprising almost a million acres of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and Mississippi River Deltaic Plain, is perhaps best known for its expansive swamp environments dominated by baldcypress, water tupelo, and alligators. But the Atchafalaya River Basin contains a wide range of habitats and one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the North American continent.
Piazza has compiled and synthesized the body of scientific knowledge for the Atchafalaya River Basin, documenting the ecological state of the basin and providing a baseline of understanding. His research provides a crucial resource for future planning. He evaluates some common themes that have emerged from the research and identifies important scientific questions that remain unexplored.

This report contains the findings from a rapid biological assessment of the Grensgebergte and Kasikasima mountains of southeastern Suriname. Suriname is one of the last places on Earth where an opportunity still exists to conserve huge tracts of pristine, diverse tropical forests. This volume is part of a series of surveys in Suriname designed to support the protection of biodiversity and freshwater and other ecosystem services through collection of baseline biological and socioeconomic data. The researchers in southeastern Suriname investigated plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, and water quality. Over one hundred new species were discovered, including fish, beetles, and katydids.