Aquatic Environmental Systems – an Interdisciplinary Approach for Scientists and Engineers

Book excerpt: Considering that environmental science draws students and practitioners with widely varied backgrounds, there is a need for materials that help readers to grow their knowledge of fundamental principles from chemistry, physics, and biology to understand, describe, and predict the ways in which constituents (sediment, nutrients, organic matter, etc.) interact and move in aquatic systems (rivers, lakes, groundwater, and the atmosphere). Aquatic Environmental Systems: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Scientists and Engineers focuses on developing a common vocabulary and a rigorous material balance-based approach to understanding these movements and interactions. It examines the key properties of water and the ways they impact the behavior of water in the environment, providing a focused enumeration of those aspects of water structure that have direct and profound impacts on aquatic environmental systems. Features: Provides open-ended exercises to allow students to tailor work to their personal local/regional interests. Focuses on conveying understanding of the underlying principles and assumptions/limitations which are frequently underemphasized or overlooked entirely in other books. Deemphasizes straight memorization while focusing on methods that can be applied to more broad-based problem solving. Accommodates a wide range of mathematics skills and backgrounds.