Water in a Dry Land is a story of research about water as a source of personal and cultural meaning. The site of this exploration is the iconic river system which forms the networks of natural and human landscapes of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. In the current geological era of human induced climate change, the desperate plight of the system of waterways has become an international phenomenon, a symbol of the unsustainable ways we relate to water globally. The Murray-Darling Basin extends west of the Great Dividing Range that separates the densely populated east coast of Australia from the sparsely populated inland. Aboriginal peoples continue to inhabit the waterways of the great artesian basin and pass on their cultural stories and practices of water, albeit in changing forms. A key question informing the book is: What can we learn about water from the oldest continuing culture inhabiting the world's driest continent? In the process of responding to this question a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers formed to work together in a contact zone of cultural difference within an emergent arts-based ethnography. Photo essays of the artworks and their landscapes offer a visual accompaniment to the text on the Routledge Innovative Ethnography Series website, http://www.innovativeethnographies.net/. This book is perfect for courses in environmental sociology, environmental anthropology, and qualitative methods.

One of the last undammed perennial rivers in the desert Southwest, the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona illustrates important processes common to many desert riparian ecosystems. Although historic land uses and climatic extremes have led to aquifer depletion, river entrenchment, and other changes, the river still sustains a rich and varied selection of life. Resilient to many factors, portions of the San Pedro have become increasingly threatened by groundwater pumping and other impacts of population growth.
This book provides an extensive knowledge base on all aspects of the San Pedro, from flora and fauna to hydrology and human use to preservation. It describes the ecological patterns and processes of this aridland river and explores both the ongoing science-driven efforts by nonprofit groups and government agencies to sustain and restore its riparian ecosystems and the science that supports these management decisions.
An interdisciplinary team of fifty-seven contributors--biologists, ecologists, geomorphologists, historians, hydrologists, lawyers, political scientists--weave together threads from their diverse perspectives to reveal the processes that shape the past, present, and future of the San Pedro's riparian and aquatic ecosystems. They review the biological communities of the San Pedro and the stream hydrology and geomorphology that affect its riparian biota. They then look at conservation and management challenges along three sections of the San Pedro, from its headwaters in Mexico to its confluence with the Gila River, describing legal and policy issues and their interface with science; activities related to mitigation, conservation, and restoration; and a prognosis of the potential for sustaining the basin's riparian system.
These chapters demonstrate the complexity of the San Pedro's ecological and hydrological conditions, showing that there are no easy answers to the problems--and that existing laws are inadequate to fully address them. Collectively, they offer students, professionals, and environmental advocates a better grasp of the San Pedro's status as well as important lessons for restoring physical processes and biotic communities to rivers in arid and semiarid regions.

This new volume addresses the environmental impacts of pollution on freshwater aquatic ecosystems and presents sustainable management and remediation practices and advanced technology help to address the different types of pollutants. Freshwater Pollution and Aquatic Ecosystems: Environmental Impact and Sustainable Management considers the need for sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective tools and technologies to assess, monitor, and properly manage the increasing issues of aquatic pollution. It provides detailed accounts of the phenomena and mechanisms related to aquatic pollution and highlights the problems and threats associated with pollution contamination in freshwater. It provides useful insight into the sustainable and advanced pollution remediation technology adopted by different countries for the monitoring, assessment, and sustainable management of pollution. The chapters in the volume evaluate the sources of harmful pollutants, which include industrial effluents, sewage, and runoff from agricultural industries, which result in toxic microbes, organic waste, oils, and high load of nutrients. Unsustainable management practices of domestic sewage and indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides lead to the technological disturbance of aquatic biota. In addition to harming aquatic biota, these pollutants find their way into the human body through inhalation, ingestion, or absorption and finally tend to bio-accumulate in trophic levels of the food chain, which poses a major risk to human beings. This book will be a valuable resource for ecologists, environmentalists, scientists, and many others for their work in understanding and management of aquatic pollutants in freshwater biospheres.

- A unique topic that integrates legacy, pathogenic and emerging contaminants. - Equally appeals to both beginners and experts, owing to a diverse level of chapters as well as topics. - Numerous case studies to illustrate the proof of concepts. - Implications for policy, guidelines, and regulation. - Helps new scholars, especially M.Tech and PhDs to provide insights on current issues, methods and technologies in the proposed area.

This book describes how natural or constructed wetlands can be used to reduce pollution of freshwater and coastal ecosystems, while still preserving their biodiversity and ecological functions. Through a series of case histories described in 10 chapters in the monograph, the readers will gain an understanding of the opportunities, as well as the challenges associated with reducing point and non-point source pollution using natural, restored or constructed wetlands. The target audience will be water practitioners involved in projects utilizing integrated watershed management approaches to pollution abatement, as well as researchers who are designing projects focused on this topic.

The Mekong Region has come to represent many of the important water governance challenges faced more broadly by the mainland Southeast Asian region. This book focuses on the complex nature of water rights and social justice in the Mekong region. The chapters delve into the diverse social, political and cultural dynamics that shape the various realities and scales of water governance in the region, in an effort to bring to the forefront some of the local nuances required in the formulation of a larger vision of justice in water governance. It is hoped that this contextualized analysis will deepen our understanding of the potential of, and constraints, on water rights in the region, particularly in relation to the need to realize social justice. The authors show how vitally important it is that water governance is democratized to allow a more equitable sharing of water resources and counteract the pressures of economic growth that may pose risks to social welfare and environmental sustainability.

Within the realm of the newly evolving discipline of environmental sciences, the stable-isotope methodology is being used to an ever-increasing extent, especially in the study of the water cycle and of paleo-climatology. This book introduces the rules of the game, by reviewing the natural variability of stable isotopes in the hydrosphere, describing the physico-chemical basis of isotope fractionation, and applying this knowledge to natural waters as they move through the hydrologic cycle from the ocean to the atmosphere, the biosphere and the lithosphere. There is a special focus on the processes at the surface-atmosphere and land-biosphere-atmosphere interfaces, since these are the sites of major changes in isotope composition. In response to the increasing awareness of our changing climate, a discussion on the global view of the changing water cycle, in the past and future, winds up the presentation.

Recent contributions have significantly enhanced the understanding of the SCS-CN method and consequently its application potential. In the simplest form, the fundamental proportionality concept of the method relates the two orthogonal hydrological processes of surface water and ground water and the other hypothesis relates to the atmospheric process. Qualitatively, the method broadly integrates all the three major processes of the hydrologic cycle; and therefore it can form one of the fundamental concepts of hydrology. This textbook is aimed at presenting an up-to-date account of the SCS-CN method and clarify its potential for practical applications, and especially those other than originally intended.

The subject matter of the book is divided into nine chapters, treating the following topics: a brief introduction of rainfall-runoff modeling and elements of catchment, precipitation, interception, surface detention and depression storage, evaporation, infiltration, runoff, and the runoff hydrograph; the factors affecting the curve number (CN), the determination of CN, the use of NEH-4 tables, sensitivity analysis, advantages and limitations of the SCS-CN method, and application to distributed watershed modeling; an analytical derivation of the SCS-CN method focusing on the Mockus and other methods; a determination of S' using the volumetric concept encompassing an analytical derivation, verification of the existing AMC criteria, determination of S, use of NEH-4 tables and advantages and limitations of the modified model; the determination of S' using physical principles, involving Fokker-Planck equation of infiltration, description of S, S/P relations for the modified model anddetermination of Ds from universal soil loss equation; simulation of infiltration and runoff hydrographs, with particular emphasis on SCS-CN-based infiltration and runoff models and application of infiltration and runoff models; long-term hydrologic simulation and hydrologic models of Williams and LaSeur, Hawkins, Pandit and Gopalkrishnan, and Mishra and others; rainfall-excess computation, soil moisture budgeting, catchment routing, and baseflow computation; transport of pollutants in urban watersheds; and sediment yield.

Audience: This volume will be of interest to agricultural scientists, agricultural and civil engineers, environmental engineers, forest and range scientists, as well as watershed managers. It will also be useful to college students and faculty members engaged in environment and water related studies.

Lost Waters charts the history of waterscape change for a Moorabool River catchment near Ballarat in the central highlands of western Victoria since white settlement. It is a water supply catchment area where water has been gathered and channelled, waterways reconfigured and connections with local community weakened. In bringing a historical rather than scientific perspective to the issues of water allocation and river management, Erica Nathan considers how people experienced the 'settlement' of water. She questions the central volumetric value that water is given in contemporary debates by discovering a lost geography of water in the knowledge and memory of petitions, water races, picnics, frontage disputes, forest settlements, swimming holes, hidden waterfalls and ti-treed springs. ""Lost Waters"" is a history of one rural waterscape, but with implications that extend to our wider understanding of how water resource conflict is framed and how our waterways are managed. It shows that water has been distilled from its past to produce a resource removed from history and landscapes disconnected from community.

This book presents a comprehensive survey about the most recent developments in industrial applications, processing techniques and modifications of polymers from marine sources. It systematically introduces the reader to the biomaterials Chitin, Collagen, Alginates, Cellulose and Polyesters and links their interwoven industrial significance and environmental implications. The book elucidates the impact of industrial sourcing of the aquatic system for organic and inorganic matter on the environment and deepens the understanding of the industrial and economic significance of aquatic biopolymers. Further it addresses the question of how to balance the conservation of aquatic life and the industrial and economic interest in developing biodegradable alternatives for plastic. Thus the book will appeal to scientists in the field of chemistry, materials and polymer science as well as engineering.

Cyanobacterial toxins are among the hazardous substances most widely found in water. They occur naturally, but concentrations hazardous to human health are usually due to human activity. Therefore, to protect human health, managing lakes, reservoirs and rivers to prevent cyanobacterial blooms is critical. This second edition of Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water presents the current state of knowledge on the occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins as well as their impacts on health through water-related exposure pathways, chiefly drinking-water and recreational activity. It provides scientific and technical background information to support hazard identification, assessment and prioritisation of the risks posed by cyanotoxins, and it outlines approaches for their management at each step of the water-use system. It sets out key practical considerations for developing management strategies, implementing efficient measures and designing monitoring programmes. This enables stakeholders to evaluate whether there is a health risk from toxic cyanobacteria and to mitigate it with appropriate measures. This book is intended for those working on toxic cyanobacteria with a specific focus on public health protection. It intends to empower professionals from different disciplines to communicate and cooperate for sustainable management of toxic cyanobacteria, including public health workers, ecologists, academics, and catchment and waterbody managers. Ingrid Chorus headed the department for Drinking-Water and Swimming-Pool Hygiene at the German Environment Agency. Martin Welker is a limnologist and microbiologist, currently with bioMerieux in Lyon, France.

Until recently, focus on groundwater mainly concerned its use as drinking water and as an important resource for industry (e.g. cooling waters) and agriculture (irrigation). It has, however, become increasingly obvious that groundwater should not only be viewed as a drinking water reservoir, but that it should also be protected for its environmental value. In this respect, groundwater represents an important link of the hydrological cycle through the maintenance of wetlands and river flows, acting as a buffer through dry periods. Hence, deterioration of groundwater quality may directly affect other related aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The groundwater legislative framework under the EU Water Framework Directive and the newly adopted Groundwater Directive establishes criteria linked to environmental objectives which have to be met by 2015 following successive operational steps including characterisation, risk assessment (analysis of pressures and impacts), monitoring and design of programmes of measures. These milestones require that sound technical and scientific information be made accessible to water managers, which is so far still not sufficiently streamlined. In this context, this book describes the groundwater legislative milestones and presents series of research and development activities that aim to directly support them. It has, therefore, the ambition to become a vehicle liaising policy requirements and available scientific knowledge in this area.

As they provide a negotiating space for a diversity of interests, Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs) are an increasingly popular mode of involving civil society in resource management decisions. This book focuses on water management to take a positive, if critical, look at this phenomenon. Illustrated by a wide geographical range of case studies from both developed and developing worlds, it recognizes that MSPs will neither automatically break down divides nor bring actors to the table on an equal footing, and argues that MSPs may in some cases do more harm than good. The volume then examines how MSPs can make a difference and how they might successfully co-opt the public, private and civil-society sectors. The book highlights the particular difficulties of MSPs when dealing with integrated water management programmes, explaining how MSPs are most successful at a less complex and more local level. It finally questions whether MSPs are - or can be - sustainable, and puts forward suggestions for improving their durability.

This volume presents the contemporary issues surrounding groundwater pollution risk assessment and the application of vulnerability and risk assessment maps for the effective protection and management of aquifers. Numerous new and improved approaches to intrinsic and specific vulnerability assessment (modified DRASTIC, GOD, VULK, VURAAS) are described, some coupled with geophysical and hydrological surveys and hydrodynamic and transport modelling. Widespread use is made of GIS format.

Nowhere are floods more paradoxical than in the generally arid Australian continent. This book brings together experts in meteorology, hydrology, limnology, ornithology, landscape ecology, veterinary and medical sciences, economics, anthropology and sociology to synthesize current knowledge on floods, their occurrence, and their consequences for the environment and societies in the Australian context.
Floods can have either beneficial or detrimental effects on the landscape and human societies. This book fills this important gap in our study and offers a multidisciplinary approach in understanding the effects of global climate change. The editors provide complete coverage on dynamics, patterns and consequences of floods, studied from several perspectives. Although the geographic focus of the book is Australia, the synthesis that is detailed in this book will undoubtedly be useful for the understanding of floods in all other regions of the planet.
* Offers detailed trends of effects on global climatic change
* Provides an understanding of past and future floods in Australia
* Discusses disturbances on landscape
* Includes effects on aquatic birds, infectious diseases, and economy

Pollutant Effects in Freshwater provides a practical and concise introduction to the ecological consequences of water pollution in aquatic ecosystems. In tackling the problem of water quality deterioration, this book combines the limnological and water pollution literature to describe how pollutants in wastewater affect populations of organisms in freshwater environments. Substantially revised, updated and expanded, with additional specialist contributors, this retitled new edition of Ecological Effects of Wastewater will continue to focus on the effects and management of eutrophication, water quality standards to protect aquatic life, and widen the debate over micro organisms and their public health significance in the aquatic environment. With ever tighter controls on pollution levels of freshwater bodies being implemented and enforced world wide, this book is essential reading for students of public health and environmental engineering, and a reference tool for professionals in consultancies, contractors and for those in regulatory and enforcement bodies.

World renowned scientists present valuable contributions to stochastic and statistical modelling of groundwater and surface water systems. The philosophy of probabilistic modelling in the hydrological sciences is put into proper perspective and the importance of stochastic differential equations in the environmental sciences is explained and illustrated. The new research ideas put forward in groundwater modelling will assist decision makers in tackling challenging problems such as controlling pollution of underground aquifers and obtaining adequate water supplies. Additionally, different types of stochastic models are used in modelling a range of interesting surface water problems. Other topics covered in this landmark volume include stochastic optimization, moment analysis, carbon dioxide modelling and rainfall prediction. Audience: The book is of interest to researchers, teachers, students and practitioners who wish to be at the leading edge of stochastic and statistical modelling in the environmental sciences.

The Ganges is one of the most complex yet fascinating river systems in the world. The basin is characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity from climatic, hydrological, geomorphological, cultural, environmental and socio-economic perspectives. More than 500 million people are directly or indirectly dependent upon the Ganges River Basin, which spans China, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. While there are many books covering one aspect of the Ganges, ranging from hydrology to cultural significance, this book is unique in presenting a comprehensive inter-disciplinary overview of the key issues and challenges facing the region. Contributors from the three main riparian nations assess the status and trends of water resources, including the Himalayas, groundwater, pollution, floods, drought and climate change. They describe livelihood systems in the basin, and the social, economic, geopolitical and institutional constraints, including transboundary disputes, to achieving productive, sustainable and equitable water access. Management of the main water-use sectors and their inter-linkages are reviewed, as well as the sustainability and trade-offs in conservation of natural systems and resource development such as for hydropower or agriculture.

This illustrated introduction to Central American Chironomidae offers extensive photographic material, as well as detailed morphological and ecological descriptions of chironomid subfossils found in Central American lake sediments. The book uniquely provides two identification keys: one for living larvae occurring (or potentially being present) in Central America and one for the recorded subfossil remains, using limited morphological characters. Paleolimnological investigations using chironomid remains have undergone a resurgence of interest, and this taxonomic guide will aid the thorough analysis of the diversity and distribution of the taxa encountered to date in Central America. Out of the total 64 described genera, the book brings 20 endemic genera, and more than half of the presented morphotypes are new. Plates are included for each taxon with generic characters and also provide a key to morphotypes, if present, their specific characters, distribution, and ecology. Authored by a (paleo)limnologist and a taxonomist, the guide draws on a thorough taxonomical knowledge of the region's recent chironomid fauna. It uses a paleolimnological approach to transmit this information to morphotypes that can be linked with ecology and used to reconstruct the past development of nature. The book thus helps paleo-workers and taxonomists to learn more about these fascinating insects and, through them, to discover the world around us. Providing a comprehensive reference for aquatic ecologists, paleolimnologists, students, and researchers, the guide will also be of interest to non-academic professionals working on applied research and biomonitoring of lakes. It will be useful for people studying both recent and subfossil material, not only in Central America, but in the whole Neotropical region.

This illustrated introduction to Central American Chironomidae offers extensive photographic material, as well as detailed morphological and ecological descriptions of chironomid subfossils found in Central American lake sediments. The book uniquely provides two identification keys: one for living larvae occurring (or potentially being present) in Central America and one for the recorded subfossil remains, using limited morphological characters. Paleolimnological investigations using chironomid remains have undergone a resurgence of interest, and this taxonomic guide will aid the thorough analysis of the diversity and distribution of the taxa encountered to date in Central America. Out of the total 64 described genera, the book brings 20 endemic genera, and more than half of the presented morphotypes are new. Plates are included for each taxon with generic characters and also provide a key to morphotypes, if present, their specific characters, distribution, and ecology. Authored by a (paleo)limnologist and a taxonomist, the guide draws on a thorough taxonomical knowledge of the region's recent chironomid fauna. It uses a paleolimnological approach to transmit this information to morphotypes that can be linked with ecology and used to reconstruct the past development of nature. The book thus helps paleo-workers and taxonomists to learn more about these fascinating insects and, through them, to discover the world around us. Providing a comprehensive reference for aquatic ecologists, paleolimnologists, students, and researchers, the guide will also be of interest to non-academic professionals working on applied research and biomonitoring of lakes. It will be useful for people studying both recent and subfossil material, not only in Central America, but in the whole Neotropical region.

From perpetually snow-capped peaks to stifling deserts below sea-level, the Colorado cuts the deepest and truest cross-section through the heart of the continent.It flows through time as well as space. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon lies one of the early layers of the earth's crust. The cliff dwellers' civilization, and the rise and fall of the great pueblos were only a brief moment in its history. Later came the Spaniards, and then the trappers and prospectors. Not so long ago the Indians battled to defend their invaded country and new technological developments--the greatest is which is Boulder Dam--are beginning to change the face of a region other generations were unable to alter. Frank Waters, a native to Colorado, has brought to his book an understanding of the relation between man and nature which is part of his Indian heritage.

Finally, someone has written a comprehensive, easily readable explanation of the tides on earth that is both simple enough for students and solid enough for their professors. Step by step, by analogy and illustration, Beyond the Moon describes how the cyclical motion of the near solar system is impressed upon the earth's oceans, and how the hydraulics over the continental shelf and the geography of the coastline orchestrate this rhythm into the bewildering variety of tide patterns seen around the globe. This volume demystifies the complexity of the tides by systematically examining its many constituents and demonstrates that: "Nature is, at once, awesome in complexity and beautiful in simplicity."

Pollution of freshwater resources becomes an issue in virtually every country undergoing an industrialization process. While the main emphasis has been for many years on lakes due to their limited capacity of self-renewal, streams and rivers attract increasing attention due to their importance for agriculture, fisheries, drinking water reserves and as feeder of freshwater lakes and reservoirs. There are many factors influencing the ecology of streams, only some of them relating to direct anthropogenic influences and it is important to have reliable long term data on natural occurring variations in order to better estimate the default' status of a stream and to judge the influence of modern anthropogenic influences.

The Breitenbach is one of the best-studied streams on earth, as the nearby Max-Planck Outstation in Schlitz was founded in 1949 and scientists there have been collecting data ever since.

"Central European Stream Ecosystems: The Long Term Study of the Breitenbach "is the result of this research, and special focus has been placed on animal and microorganism occurrence and variation as well as chemical and physical parameters. Already this data influences the discussion of the good ecological state' reference values and it will be in particular useful to analyze the effect of global warming on the ecology of streams.

An invaluable data basis for modeling purposes, this important book is a useful resource for everyone in the world dealing with stream ecology, for example limnologists, ecologists, biologists and hydrologists.

Finally, someone has written a comprehensive, easily readable explanation of the tides on earth that is both simple enough for students and solid enough for their professors. Step by step, by analogy and illustration, Beyond the Moon describes how the cyclical motion of the near solar system is impressed upon the earth's oceans, and how the hydraulics over the continental shelf and the geography of the coastline orchestrate this rhythm into the bewildering variety of tide patterns seen around the globe. This volume demystifies the complexity of the tides by systematically examining its many constituents and demonstrates that: "Nature is, at once, awesome in complexity and beautiful in simplicity."

Water is a precious natural resource, which is crucial to our survival. It needs to be used judiciously in the context of an increasing population not only to sustain essential requirements such as those for drinking and domestic usage, but also for increased food production, industrial usage, power generation, navigational requirements, pisciculture, recreation, landscaping etc. There are many books dealing with hydrology, hydraulics and hydraulic structures, which generally deal with larger problems of development, analysis, design and implementation of water resources. However, there are few books, which deal with small-scale development of water resources consistent with the environmental concerns as well as application of relevant eco-friendly technologies. This book provides both the perspectives.