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Book review |
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This publication contains a number of papers presented at the International Conference on River and Catchment Dynamics: Natural Processes and Human Impacts held in Catalonia, Spain in May 2004. The conference was organized as a retirement tribute to Maria Sala, a well known academic figure with an extensive and pioneering scientific career. Her career appears to have concentrated on studying the Mediterranean region; therefore, the publication has a strong geographic bias towards the Mediterranean. The preface describes that the conference focussed on the linkages amongst basin and river dynamics and human impacts as a basis for environmental management. The book contains a total of 27 papers which are split into five sections: slope processes and impacts, catchment hydrology and water quality, suspended sediment transport and yield, bed load transport and river-channel processes and river dynamics and impacts. A curious paper considers the use of lichenometry as a means of dating flooding events; another study focuses on the water management aspect in Brazil by evaluating siltation rates in reservoirs with a view to forecasting reduction in their storage capacity; wildfire intensities are correlated with soil aggregate stability in a study centred on a river basin in NE Spain; anthropogenic phosphorous loading and transport is assessed in a river basin in Switzerland and detailed field observations in a Spanish river basin enable an assessment to be made of run off rates in relation to soil moisture deficit.
The majority of the papers originate from academia and therefore the publication would best suit
