Review of The Dutch Rhine, a Restrained River by Wilfried Ten Brinke: Veen Magazines B.V., The Netherlands; 2005; ISBN 90 76988 91 9, NUR 933; 228 pp. Price: $50.00.

The Rhine River in The Netherlands is not a single watercourse but rather a system of river branches fanning out over the country. These fluvial processes are reminders of a more dynamic past and are still recognizable in today’s land surface. After the dikes were constructed, the river and the sea were excluded from the countryside and the rivers were largely restrained. This book centers on dynamic fluvial processes between the dikes, with reference to the lowlands in the period before channel restraint. Wilfried Ten Brinke works for the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) in Arnhem. He brings a unique perspective on rivers in which old river courses partly determine the processes in modern-day rivers. His primary contribution is to link geology and river science with applications to the Rhine River Branches in the Netherlands.

The content is subdivided into twelve chapters, namely; (1) “A Straightjacket of Dikes and Groynes;” (2) “Discharge of Rainwater and Meltwater;” (3) “A Sand and Gravel Bed;” (4) “The Rhine River Courses in the Low Countries;” (5) “Turbid Waters and Shifting Riverbeds;” (6) “Riverbed Erosion: Trends and Causes;” (7) “Floods: The Force of the Water and the Reaction of the River;” (8) “River Bank Beaches: Thanks to the Groynes;” (9) “Levee Formation and Sand Drifts;” (10) “River Bifurcations;” (11) “Flows of Gravel, Sand and Silt: From Germany to the North Sea;” and (12) “Managing and Controlling Restrained Rivers.” The book contains a short bibliography, acknowledgments, and a relatively detailed and useful index.

This manuscript was first brought to my attention as a translation from the original Dutch version. The text was easy to read, well-written and interesting; however, it seemed to lack any apparent logical sequence. In hindsight, it is obvious that the main theme of this book is a contrasting view of the Rhine River branches. It contains a well-illustrated perspective on the fascinating duality of large river systems. Ten Brinke’s contribution is unique in that he portrays rivers as integrating largely opposite views of the past and the present, natural free flow and man-made restrictions, geology and modern day technology, flood protection engineering and stream ecology.

In my opinion, he erects a monument to the success of the Dutch engineering technology. This brings a peaceful environmental closure to a fight against the devastating forces of nature at sea and during major floods. The 150 wonderful and large color illustrations and photographs will trigger curiosity and amazement from all readers. Many photos relate to geological processes, river engineering structures, and stream ecology. This visual treasure nurtures our perpetual fascination with rivers and fluvial processes. It will interest anyone attracted to rivers—from students to professionals.

Engineers will discover numerous application examples of an environmentally-friendly approach to river engineering. It seems as if someone can open this book anywhere and just start reading and exploring at will. Valuable scientific information and some data are presented, but they may be incomplete for hydraulic engineering studies. This book was not intended as an academic textbook, although physical processes are illustrated and explained. The primary audience for this book may well be in geography. The qualitative and visual information can also nicely complement more-quantitative river engineering classes.

The publisher should be complimented for the outstanding quality of the presentation at a very reasonable price. Most large color photographs are wonderfully rendered. The book is not too heavy for such high-quality photographs. The format is larger than that of many books, but the publisher and author found the proper balance in volume and weight, quality and size of the photographs, and readability of the text and captions.

In summary, this book is a visual treasure and testimony to the environmentally-friendly river engineering achievements of Dutch engineers and scientists. It is appealing to a broader scientific audience and contains a considerable amount of technical and visual information on fluvial processes and river engineering. The book features wonderful illustrations of river engineering structures. The author emphasizes a contrasting view of the Dutch Rhine from a free-flowing geologic delta to a restrained stream in urbanized modern times.