Understanding Water in a Dry Environment : IAH International Contributions to Hydrogeology 23

ISBN-13: 9789058096180 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 358 str.

Ian Simmers

Opis

With water security being so crucial an issue in the twenty-first century, this text provides topical discussion on related issues, such as: hydrological processes, water resources management, and rainfall in arid and semi-arid regions.

In order to provide water security in the twenty-first century, there is universal agreement that a continuation of current policies and extrapolation of trends is not an option. Also clear is that from both water supply and development perspectives, the world's arid and semi-arid regions are those currently and potentially experiencing the highest water stresses. One third of the world's land surface is classified as arid or semi-arid, and about half of all countries are directly affected in some way by problems of aridity. The hydrology of arid and semi-arid areas is also known to be substantially different from that in more humid regions. It is therefore essential that investigation methods appropriate to the former are developed and applied, and that strategies for arid and semi-arid region water resources development recognise the principal characteristics of in-situ hydrological processes.

Spis treści

1. Hydrological Processes and Water Resources Management2. Rainfall in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions3. Operational Solutions of Actual Evapotranspiration4. Surface Runoff and Sediment Dynamics in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions5. Water Flow Processes in Arid and Semi-Arid Vadose Zones6. Aquifer Dynamics7. Hydrogeochemical Processes in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: Focus on North Africa8. Human Impacts and Management Issues in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

O autorze

Dr Ian Simmers is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Free University of Amsterdam.  His research interests were in recharge and flow in porous media as applied to the management and protection of wetlands, on which he has published extensively.  He is Editor in Chief of the publication series of IAH.