Review of Introduction to Water Resources by Sam Laki, Krishna Kumar Nedunuri, and Ramanitharan Kandiah

In the preface, it is stated that “the purpose of this book is to introduce the knowledge of water, its availability as a natural resource, its daily applications in society, its conservation and protection, and the rules and regulations surrounding its proper use to beginners in the field of water resources and to those who want to know its various facets and appreciate it as a precious resource.” To achieve this purpose, the subject matter developed for the book is organized in 18 chapters.

Chapter 1 deals with the role of water in the development of early civilizations, including the Egyptian, the Mesopotamia, the Mohanjo Daro and Harappan, the Roman, the Chinese, the Mesoamerican, and others. It is a short chapter and provides only a cursory glimpse into the ancient civilizations. The subsequent Chapters 2–9 are on basic hydrology.

Fundamentals of the hydrologic cycle constitute the theme of Chapter 2. It discusses the hydrogen bond, properties of water, and the hydrologic cycle. In the introduction it states the distribution of water on Earth. It would have been desirable to discuss water balance in more detail.

Chapter 3 deals with evaporation and transpiration. Beginning with a discussion of the process of evaporation, it reflects on the measurement and importance of evaporation, and then on transpiration and evapotranspiration. Methods of determination of evaporation and evapotranspiration are not included. Condensation is discussed in Chapter 4. Starting with the process of condensation, it discusses the formation of clouds and fog, measurement of condensation, cloud seeding, fog harvesting, and the importance of condensation.

Chapter 5 deals with precipitation. It discusses the process of precipitation, forms of precipitation, precipitation mechanisms, measurement of precipitation, variations in precipitation, estimating areal precipitation, usefulness of precipitation data, interception by vegetation, acid rain, and the impact of global climate change on precipitation.

Infiltration and soil water are presented in Chapter 6. It discusses soil in Earth’s subsurface zones, the process of infiltration, and estimation and application of infiltration. Then it goes on to discussing soil water and its properties and measurement.

Chapter 7 deals with surface water. Beginning with a discussion of the factors affecting runoff, it goes on to describing measurement of runoff, the floodplain, floods, and surface water bodies. Groundwater in discussed in Chapter 8. It deals with aquifers, geology and hydrology of aquifers, groundwater wells, uses of groundwater, and groundwater contamination.

The quality of natural water is the theme of Chapter 9. It discusses basic characteristics of natural water, distribution of salts in water bodies, water quality and water use, and natural water as a source of minerals.

Chapter 10 is on multiple applications of water, including fish and wildlife, wetlands, navigation, recreation, hydropower, farm ponds, irrigation, and flood control. Chapter 11 discusses water supply and treatment, including municipal water supply systems, desalination, and federal protection of drinking water. Wastewater treatment is discussed in Chapter 12. It presents characteristics of wastewater, transportation of wastewater, wastewater-treatment process, handling of wastewater sludge, and future of wastewater treatment.

The subsequent Chapters 13–18 are on water resources. Chapter 13 is on water law and discusses the riparian doctrine, the prior appropriations doctrine, comparative analysis of doctrines, federal water rights, Indian water rights, interstate compacts, groundwater laws, transboundary water management, and current approaches. Federal legislations are discussed in Chapter 14 encompassing organizational structure, federal agencies involved in water legislations, the administrative agency, federal legislation, effects of environmental regulation in water, and the process of implementing environmental legislation.

Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is contained in Chapter 15. It discusses types of economic evaluations, benefit-cost analysis, discounting techniques, project analysis, sensitivity analysis, cost allocation and cost sharing, and an example illustrating the use of BCA in the selection of water projects. Water conflicts are discussed in Chapter 16. Beginning with the reasons for water conflict, it moves on discussing the tragedy of the commons, potential water conflicts, international water conflicts, and internal water conflicts.

Chapter 17 is on the economics of water. It dwells upon the value of water, valuation of water as environmental good in different uses, privatization of water, water markets, water banking, water conflicts from competing uses, and future water problems and solutions. The last chapter is on the future of water resources. It begins with climate change, and moves on to the population pressure, water conflicts, economic considerations, efficiency of water uses, and institutional considerations.

The book is well-written and as the title suggests, it is truly an introduction for those who are not familiar with the area water resources, hydrology, or civil or agricultural engineering. It is entirely descriptive and no quantitative methods are discussed; it is being true to its purpose. The book will be useful to those who would want to get an idea about water and its many facets, such as lawyers, geographers, agriculturists, economists, or first-year undergraduate students in engineering.