Physical Geology

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Physical Geology

Physical Geology
Charles (Carlos) C Plummer , David McGeary , and Diane Carlson
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0072402466

Such information is a pre-requisite for carrying out environmental impact assessments and for developing environmentally sensitive design and management procedures to preserve riverine environments and restore degraded ones. Designing with nature is preferable to imposing hard engineering solutions as it sustains natural biodiversity and minimises costs. This book will also be a very useful teaching aid for students, both under- and post-graduate, studying civil engineering, environmental management or sciences, or geography who are looking to have a wider knowledge of new approaches to the subject.

Geomorphology requires the collection and consideration of a wide range of data, mostly field based but also including historical information such as archive documents and maps, which are outside the experience of most river engineers and managers. These data enable the current condition of the river to be explained, both locally and within the catchment, and establish historical changes and future trends. In addition, process studies have now identified many of the mechanisms controlling river moprhology which underpin the development of soft, bio-engineering, design procedures. The book incorporates material on methods and techniques of data collection, analysis and interpretation, making extensive use of case studies throughout.

Thus the experienced authors go some way towards demystifying applied fluvial geomorphology by demonstrating that, while there is still an element of judgement, major contributions to geomorphic understanding usually come from the careful assemblage and objective analysis of all available data and information.

“Never before has the case been more compellingly made that America’s dependence on a free and abundant water supply has become an illusion. Cynthia Barnett does it by telling us the stories of the amazing personalities behind our water wars, the stunning contradictions that allow the wettest state to have the most watered lawns, and the thorough research that makes her conclusions inescapable. Barnett has established herself as one of Florida’s best journalists and Mirage is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of the state.”

—Mary Ellen Klas, Capital Bureau Chief, Miami Herald

“Mirage is the finest general study to date of the freshwater-supply crisis in Florida. Well-meaning villains abound in Cynthia Barnett’s story, but so too do heroes, such as Arthur R. Marshall Jr., Nathaniel Reed, and Marjorie Harris Carr. The author’s research is as thorough as her prose is graceful. Drinking water is the new oil. Get used to it.”

—Michael Gannon, Distinguished Professor of history, University of Florida, and author of Florida: A Short History

“With lively prose and a journalist’s eye for a good story, Cynthia Barnett offers a sobering account of water scarcity problems facing Florida—one of our wettest states—and the rest of the East Coast. Drawing on lessons learned from the American West, Mirage uses the lens of cultural attitudes about water use and misuse to plead for reform. Sure to engage and fascinate as it informs.”

—Robert Glennon, Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Arizona, and author of Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters

Part investigative journalism, part environmental history, Mirage reveals how the eastern half of the nation—historically so wet that early settlers predicted it would never even need irrigation—has squandered so much of its abundant freshwater that it now faces shortages and conflicts once unique to the arid West.

Florida’s parched swamps and supersized residential developments set the stage in the first book to call attention to the steady disappearance of freshwater in the American East, from water-diversion threats in the Great Lakes to tapped-out freshwater aquifers along the Atlantic seaboard.

Told through a colorful cast of characters including Walt Disney, Jeb Bush and Texas oilman Boone Pickens, Mirage ferries the reader through the key water-supply issues facing America and the globe: water wars, the politics of development, inequities in the price of water, the bottled-water industry, privatization, and new-water-supply schemes.

From its calamitous opening scene of a sinkhole swallowing a house in Florida to its concluding meditation on the relationship between water and the American character, Mirage is a compelling and timely portrait of the use and abuse of freshwater in an era of rapidly vanishing natural resources.

A 'must' not just for Eastern U.S. libraries, but for any collection on environmental issues and challenges........2007-07-27