Summary

With the continuing increase in population, more people are sharing the finite resources of the urban watershed, resulting in new and increasingly complex interactions between humans and the environment. Environmental contamination is a chronic problem--and an expensive one. In urban areas, water and soil contamination poses a threat to public health and has implications for future development. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Urban Watersheds: Geology, Contamination, and Sustainable Development offers a framework for those working to improve the urban environment and create sustainable urban watersheds.

The book presents over 20 years of research and professional practice on urban watersheds from the fields of environmental geology, geochemistry, risk analysis, hydrology, and urban planning. The geological characteristics of urbanized watersheds along with the properties of their common contaminants are integrated to assess risk factors for soil, groundwater, and air. With a framework rooted in scientific knowledge, the authors demonstrate the benefits of scientifically informed planning and decision making, offering guidelines to improve watershed management practices as well as urban development and redevelopment practices.

Suitable for use as a textbook and as a professional practice reference, the book includes case studies on successful and unsuccessful approaches to contaminant remediation as well as practical methods for environmental risk assessment. PowerPoint® presentations of selected portions of the book are available with qualifying course adoption.

Choice Review

Kaufman (Univ. of Michigan, Flint), Rogers (Amsted Industries), and Murray (Univ. of Michigan, Dearborn) have written a very timely book. As the world population increasingly shifts from rural to urban areas, people need to understand how to use and protect the watersheds on which cities are built. These urban watersheds have their own set of concerns and problems. This volume is divided into three main sections as described in the subtitle: "Geology," "Contamination," and "Sustainable Development," with five main themes uniting the approach of the three sections (near-surface geology, water resources planning, industrial contamination, industrial remediation, and landscape planning). The first two sections occupy most of the book. This content tends to follow that of a typical contaminant hydrogeology textbook. However, it contains some interesting, unique chapters not typically found in such textbooks, including "Urban Geologic Mapping," "Metal Contamination in Urban Watersheds," and "Contaminant Risk Factors.. The last section looks at the general impacts of urbanization and the disruptions of matter and energy flows due to human-generated and urban-related processes. This section also includes a useful chapter of case studies on contaminated sites that have undergone both successful and unsuccessful redevelopment. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and professionals. E. Gomezdelcampo Bowling Green State University