Review of Handbook of Engineering Hydrology: Fundamentals and Applications, edited by Saeid Eslamian

The title Handbook of engineering hydrology: Fundamentals and applications has three main operative words: handbook, fundamentals and applications, suggesting that this should be a handbook of engineering fundamentals and their applications. In reality, the handbook is a collection of 29 chapters on different topics and therefore it is not a handbook of engineering hydrology fundamentals and applications in a typical sense. The 29 chapters do not follow a logical sequence. Nevertheless, many of the chapters do present fundamental principles and applications.

The first chapter is on catchment water yield and discusses catchment yield modeling, including water balance models, reservoir models, and tank models. It also presents water balance components, comprising precipitation, evapotranspiration, and interception, and their characteristics. Also discussed are land cover and soil properties.

Chapter 2 deals with cold-region hydrology. The emphasis of the chapter is on the engineering challenges related to hydrology that have to be met by those working in cold regions. These challenges include river flow during the snowmelt season, river ice breakup, shrinking shoreline, spreading of pollution, availability of drinking water, sewage transport, and the effect of hydrocarbon production activities. This chapter has a great deal of material that is not commonly found in hydrology books.

Conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water in a semiarid hard-rock region terrain is the theme of Chapter 3. The chapter summarizes the occurrence and development of groundwater, and conjunctive use through dry season recharge from percolation tanks. It then discusses problems at the field level.

Chapter 4 deals with data processing in hydrology. Beginning with hydrometeorolgical network design, it describes hydrological networks, stream gauging, recorders, and weirs. It then discusses accuracy in flow gauging, data processing, transposition of data, trends and homogeneity, and remote sensing. The chapter is concluded with a discussion of water quality and groundwater measurement.

The focus of Chapter 5 is ecohydrology for engineering hydrology in the changing world. It reflects on the role of ecohydrology in problem solving and presents key elements of ecohydrology as a background for systemic solutions. The terrestrial and aquatic dimension of ecohydrology is discussed next, followed by principles of ecohydrology that constitute a framework for scientific investigation and problem solving, and implementation. The chapter provides basic concepts that are quite useful.

Ecohydrology concepts are presented in Chapter 6. The chapter presents fundamentals of ecohydrology, ecoservices as an evaluation tool, and monitoring and assessment. It then discusses application of ecohydrology concepts and future direction.

Chapter 7 is on plant water use, and discusses transpiration, root water uptake, plant-scale water use, and large-scale vegetative water use. Evapotranspiration (ET) and water consumption are discussed in Chapter 8, which deals with ET paradigms, remote-sensing-based ET models, and ET and water consumption variability. It then describes applications of ET in agriculture.

Fundamentals of hydrodynamic modeling in porous media are presented in Chapter 9. The chapter deals with a range of modeling approaches for physical processes, including lumped parameter approach, microscopic continuum approach, macroscopic volume-averaged and continuum approach, spatial scale-dependent macroscopic balance equations, and modeling of multiphase multicomponent transport phenomena.

Hydrological and hydraulic design of green infrastructure is the theme of Chapter 10. The chapter first describes a river system as a hydrodynamic system and includes flows in the river and mass movement, sediment transport and bed forms, hydraulic geometry, patterns of change, change in ephemeral and perennial streams and rivers, and short-term change. Then it considers a river as a lotic system and discusses aquatic ecology, flows, and habitat structure, communities of flowing water bodies, and population dynamics and movement. Hydrological and hydraulic green design is discussed next, treating ecological health and hydrodynamic water body, velocity profiles, habitat mapping, environmental factors, tropic relations, stream food webs, a river as an ecohydrological unit, and quality and ecological health of streams and rivers.

Geophysical, remote-sensing, and geographical information systems (GIS) techniques for groundwater exploration are presented in Chapter 11. For a study area encompassing Delhi, India, the chapter discusses gridding methods, normalized difference vegetation index, geophysical survey, aquifer thickness, and a solid lithology model.

Groundwater hydrology is presented in Chapter 12. Beginning with a discussion of total and kinematic or effective porosity, it discusses Darcy’s law, hydraulic conductivity and permeability, fluid potential, piezometers and piezometer nests, coupled flow, aquifer compressibility, specific storage, transmissivity, storativity, groundwater flow equations for confined and unconfined aquifers, steady radial flow to a well, nonequilibrium well pumping equation, base flow recession curve, and groundwater intrusion. This is a good summary of groundwater hydrology concepts and principles.

Chapter 13 deals with groundwater–surface water interactions. Starting with a discussion of federal statutory/regulatory/policy with respect to groundwater–surface water interaction (GSWI), it discusses the interaction of groundwater with streams, lakes, and wetlands; chemical evolution of groundwater in drainage basins; chemical interactions of groundwater with other water resources; GSWIs in mountain terrain, riverine terrain, coastal terrain, glacial and dune terrain, and karst terrain; delineation and field technology of hyporheic zones; and field methods for determining GSWI, including direct measurement, qualitative indicators of groundwater discharge to surface water, and indicators of flow between surface water and groundwater using chemical data.

Hydrogeology of hard-rock aquifers (HRAs) is discussed in Chapter 14. Introducing hard rocks and their hydrogeology, it presents the structure and hydrodynamic properties of HRAs, such as fracture permeability, influence of mineralogy, texture, structure on the development of fissured layer and hydrogeological functioning of HRAs; and characterization, valorization, and management of HRAs, including mapping, water-well siting, management, and modeling of HRAs; assessment, management, and protection of groundwater resources; drainage discharge; and hydrological impacts of tunnels drilled in hard rocks. The chapter is concluded with a discussion of applications in other geosciences.

Hydrograph analysis and baseflow separation are discussed in Chapter 15. It discusses recession curve; master recession curve; techniques for baseflow separation, including graphical, analytical, linear conceptual, hydrograph separation, and nonlinear method for separation and its application.

Hydrology–ecology interactions are discussed in Chapter 16. Considering a wetland and a large catchment area in Japan, the chapter presents interaction models, such as hydrologic cycle model, elevation change model, vegetation dynamics and succession model, and feedback process models. Model parameterization and analysis are discussed next. The chapter is concluded with a discussion of verification of scale-dependent hydrogeologic changes, relationship between drying phenomenon and Alder invasion, and nonlinear interaction between geomorphologic and eco-hydrology.

Chapter 17 reports on isotope hydrogeology. It presents the basics of isotopes, including definitions, abundances, isotope effects and fractionations, isotope ratios, delta notation, and standards; environmental isotopes in hydrological applications, including stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in hydrologic cycle; groundwater quality and oxygen of dissolved compounds; and modern groundwater dating with tritium.

Karst hydrogeology is discussed in Chapter 18, which presents a definition of karst, flow through a karst hydrogeologic system, typical regime of a karst system, drinking water, flood management in karst areas, hydropower, water infiltration, geothermal exploitation, and human impacts on karst waters. Then, methods of investigation are presented. These include geological and hydrologic data compilation, karst system (KARSYS) approach, global approaches, field investigation methods, and computer simulation and flow and transport.

Long-term generation scheduling of hydro plants is presented in Chapter 19. The chapter discusses closed-loop versus open-loop optimal control approach, nonlinear optimization model considering electric connections, and large-scale hydrothermal systems with a case study on the Brazilian interconnected power systems.

Chapter 20 discusses low-flow hydrology. Starting with a discussion of hydrograph recession curve and low flow, it goes on to discussing factors affecting low flow, flow duration curves, low-flow measures and indices, methods for estimation of low flow in ungagged catchments, and river flow and environmental flow in hydroecology. The chapter in concluded with a discussion of case studies from the United Kingdom and the Rhine River basin in Europe.

Modern flood-prediction and flood-warning systems are discussed in Chapter 21, which includes flooding and rainfall-runoff processes, river gauging and flood alert systems, application of radar rainfall data in flood-alert systems, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, national weather services, customized flood alert systems, European flood awareness systems, and inundation mapping.

Optimum hydrometric site selection is reported in Chapter 22, which discusses environmental aspects, ecological and environmental flows, political view, network density, specific characteristics of the station, GIS in hydrometric site selection, and station calibration and operation.

Chapter 23 discusses procedures for the selection of check dam sites for rainwater harvesting. It deals with data used and methodology, location of the study area, geology of the area, hydrogeomorphology, groundwater, role of remote sensing, electrical resistivity method, rainwater harvesting on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in New Delhi, India, land use, geology, structural geology by remote sensing, surface water management and rainwater harvesting, eco-conservation of JNU, and improvement in groundwater by rainwater harvesting.

Quality control and homogenization of climatological series are discussed in Chapter 24. Beginning with a discussion of quality control procedures, the chapter goes on to discuss causes and consequences of inhomogeneities, homogeneity test algorithms, homogenization computer packages, and applications.

Chapter 25 presents satellite-based systems for flood monitoring and warning. It includes satellite data for hydrological modeling, satellite-based precipitation estimation, review of operational precipitation retrieval algorithms, satellite-based short-term quantitative precipitation forecasting, review of operational precipitation nowcasting, and satellite data assimilation in hydrologic models.

Stochastic reservoir analysis is the subject of Chapter 26, which discusses reservoir simulation, standard reservoir, stochastic reservoir equation and its solution, and probabilistic approach. Chapter 27 discusses sustainability in urban water systems. It discusses urban water systems, sustainability debate on definition, sustainable urban water systems, sustainability indicators, sustainability assessment methods, sustainable water management improves tomorrow's cities health (SWITCH)-toward the city of the future, an Australian approach to integrated resources planning, Canadian experiences of soft paths for water, and sustainable water management.

Urban hydrology is dealt with in Chapter 28, which discusses statistical analysis of rainfall time series, overland flow, channel flow, infiltration, detention storage, surface water quality, detention pond, USEPA stormwater management model, and application to the Duke University, Durham, North Carolina watershed.

Wetland hydrology is discussed in Chapter 29, the last chapter. Beginning with a discussion of distribution of world wetlands, hydrologic balance of wetland ecosystems, wetland plant species, hydrologic modeling, phytoremediation effect, effect of vegetation in wetland flow, and a case study in Bangladesh, it presents results and discusses water quality in wetland regions, water and soil salinity in wetlands, degraded wetland ecosystem services, threats to wetland biodiversity, and approach to wetland sustainability and natural resource management.

The book covers a broad territory. The editor deserves to be complimented for assembling a broad array of chapters from around the world. The chapter authors are known for their contributions. The book will be a useful reference to a diverse community.