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Book review |
ESI, UK
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The Water Framework Directive now forces hydrogeologists to think about rivers and wetlands as part of the hydrogeological system within a catchment, not just as convenient sources or sinks for aquifers. The publication of this volume therefore provides a timely opportunity to learn more about these diverse, complex and changeable systems. It comprises the peer-reviewed proceedings of the eponymous symposium in Foz do Iguaço, Brazil in April 2005. The papers focus on the geochemistry of wetlands, riparian zones and flood plains. These mostly comprise international case studies, which deal with river systems at many scales, from isolated Pennine peat bogs to the gigantic river systems of the Amazon and Paraná Basins.
As a hydrogeologist I found the papers on river-groundwater interactions most relevant, in particular those dealing with fate and transport of nutrients. To emphasize the concept of riparian buffer zones for nitrate attenuation, Gallardo and Tasi, and Tang and Sakura, demonstrate that denitrification of agricultural nitrates occurs in both shallow aquifers and wetlands. Moving up a scale, Wriedt et al. and Hattermann et al. demonstrate the utility of coupled soil-groundwater models for catchment scale modelling of the sources, fate and transport of nitrates: examples of what many of us may be doing in the near future to fully characterize river catchments for the Water Framework Directive.
Whilst many of the other papers are principally hydrological in nature, they make useful background reading. From them I have learnt much about the role and nature of rivers and their interactions with
