- Email: [email protected]
Field Hydrogeology, 2nd ed.
Journal of Hydrology 234 (2000) 264 www.elsevier.com/locate/jhydrol
Book Review Field Hydrogeology, 2nd ed. R. Brassington; Wiley, Chichester, UK, 1998, XII ⫹ 248 pages, paperback, ISBN 0-471-97347-5, £19.99 Authored by an experienced consultant hydrogeologist, this is a refreshingly well written book that will impress equally practitioners and academicians, undergraduate and graduate students, novices and experts: all will benefit from browsing, reading, or studying it in depth. It will spark the interest of anyone involved in using, collecting, and interpreting hydrogeological data, i.e. professionals and students of hydrology, hydrogeology, water resources, environmental sciences and engineering, and related disciplines. The book is especially noteworthy for its organization from the hydrogeologic investigation point of view. In Chapter 1 the reader moves from the introductory question, “Why investigate groundwater?”, to a concise background in the hydrologic cycle and its effects on groundwater, and finally to what is the book’s essence: strategies and different levels of a groundwater investigation. Chapter 4 outlines the initial hydrogeologic investigation—the important stagesetting desk study—and appropriately emphasizes the need to synthesize information from different sources. Chapter 11 discusses the needs of special investigations pertinent to new groundwater supplies; waste disposal sites; lowering or rising water tables; and groundwater contamination, remediation, and modeling. The remaining chapters provide a wealth of information about the necessary instruments, auxiliary equipment, and procedures used historically and today to collect soil and water samples as well as data on groundwater levels, surface-water flows and levels, rainfall and evaporation, and water-quality parameters. Detailed figures and pictures complement the text nicely. Always keeping with the hydrogeologic investigation in mind, the book discusses different sources of information available to a hydrologist, from hydrogeologic records, on through topographic maps and satellite and airplane aerial photographs, to
remote sensing and infrared aerial photographs. The last, as the author appropriately emphasizes, are extraordinarily useful in pinpointing springs and discharge areas through seasonal and diurnal contrasts. The book also provides a solid introductory background in making sense of rainfall and evaporation data, interpreting groundwater levels and their fluctuations, as well as designing, conducting, and interpreting pumping tests. Recharge estimation, stream-flow measurements, groundwater chemistry, artificial tracers, and many other topics are discussed intelligently. Bibliography is not a strong point of this book. One also wonders at the sparse, two-paragraph treatment of the slug test, the most popular methodology in the USA for preliminary aquifer characterization. Referred to as the rising-head and falling-head test, it is not even mentioned by its standard name. Equally little attention is given to mathematical modeling and, particularly, to contaminant transport through heterogeneous formations. Although I agree that detailed mathematical modeling is clearly beyond the scope of this book, I do not doubt that the reader would welcome slightly more thorough treatment. Characterization of the spatial variability of hydraulic properties by the flowmeter test especially begs to be included in this book. Then again, one might argue that such topics cannot be expanded upon if the book is to stay concise and continue to whet its readers’ appetite for moving on to more specialized texts. Overall, Rick Brassington’s Field Hydrogeology is a delightful gem that is full of sparkles with intriguing information. It is definitely worth adding to your bookshelf. Z.J. Kabala* Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA E-mail address: [email protected] * Fax: ⫹1-9196605219.
0022-1694/00/$ - see front matter 䉷 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0022-169 4(00)00258-4
Book Review Field Hydrogeology, 2nd ed. R. Brassington; Wiley, Chichester, UK, 1998, XII ⫹ 248 pages, paperback, ISBN 0-471-97347-5, £19.99 Authored by an experienced consultant hydrogeologist, this is a refreshingly well written book that will impress equally practitioners and academicians, undergraduate and graduate students, novices and experts: all will benefit from browsing, reading, or studying it in depth. It will spark the interest of anyone involved in using, collecting, and interpreting hydrogeological data, i.e. professionals and students of hydrology, hydrogeology, water resources, environmental sciences and engineering, and related disciplines. The book is especially noteworthy for its organization from the hydrogeologic investigation point of view. In Chapter 1 the reader moves from the introductory question, “Why investigate groundwater?”, to a concise background in the hydrologic cycle and its effects on groundwater, and finally to what is the book’s essence: strategies and different levels of a groundwater investigation. Chapter 4 outlines the initial hydrogeologic investigation—the important stagesetting desk study—and appropriately emphasizes the need to synthesize information from different sources. Chapter 11 discusses the needs of special investigations pertinent to new groundwater supplies; waste disposal sites; lowering or rising water tables; and groundwater contamination, remediation, and modeling. The remaining chapters provide a wealth of information about the necessary instruments, auxiliary equipment, and procedures used historically and today to collect soil and water samples as well as data on groundwater levels, surface-water flows and levels, rainfall and evaporation, and water-quality parameters. Detailed figures and pictures complement the text nicely. Always keeping with the hydrogeologic investigation in mind, the book discusses different sources of information available to a hydrologist, from hydrogeologic records, on through topographic maps and satellite and airplane aerial photographs, to
remote sensing and infrared aerial photographs. The last, as the author appropriately emphasizes, are extraordinarily useful in pinpointing springs and discharge areas through seasonal and diurnal contrasts. The book also provides a solid introductory background in making sense of rainfall and evaporation data, interpreting groundwater levels and their fluctuations, as well as designing, conducting, and interpreting pumping tests. Recharge estimation, stream-flow measurements, groundwater chemistry, artificial tracers, and many other topics are discussed intelligently. Bibliography is not a strong point of this book. One also wonders at the sparse, two-paragraph treatment of the slug test, the most popular methodology in the USA for preliminary aquifer characterization. Referred to as the rising-head and falling-head test, it is not even mentioned by its standard name. Equally little attention is given to mathematical modeling and, particularly, to contaminant transport through heterogeneous formations. Although I agree that detailed mathematical modeling is clearly beyond the scope of this book, I do not doubt that the reader would welcome slightly more thorough treatment. Characterization of the spatial variability of hydraulic properties by the flowmeter test especially begs to be included in this book. Then again, one might argue that such topics cannot be expanded upon if the book is to stay concise and continue to whet its readers’ appetite for moving on to more specialized texts. Overall, Rick Brassington’s Field Hydrogeology is a delightful gem that is full of sparkles with intriguing information. It is definitely worth adding to your bookshelf. Z.J. Kabala* Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA E-mail address: [email protected] * Fax: ⫹1-9196605219.
0022-1694/00/$ - see front matter 䉷 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0022-169 4(00)00258-4