Most aquatic ecosystems have variable water levels. These water-level fluctuations (WLF) have multiple effects on the organisms above and below the waterline. Natural WLF patterns in lakes guarantee both productivity and biodiversity, while untimely floods and droughts may have negative effects. Human impacts on WLF have led to a stabilization of the water levels of many lakes by hydraulic regulation, untimely drawdown due to water use, or floods due to water release from hydropower plants in the catchments. This book provides a first review in this field. It presents selected papers on the ecological effects of WLF in lakes, resulting from a workshop at the University of Konstanz in winter 2005. Issues addressed here include the extent of WLF, and analyses of their effects on different groups of biota from microorganisms to vertebrates. Applied issues include recommendations for the hydrological management of regulated lakes to reduce negative impacts, and a conceptual framework is delivered by an extension of the floodpulse concept for lakes. Current impacts on water use, including increasing demands on drinking and irrigation water, hydropower etc., and climate change effects on WLF make this book an essential resource for aquatic ecologists, engineers, and decision-makers dealing with the management of lake ecosystems and their catchments.

Hard rock mines have significant effects on the territories where they operate, through both infrastructure construction as well as resource use. Due to their extractive activities, these mines store large quantities of wastes at the surface, which can be both physically and chemically unstable. Reclamation aims to return a mine site to a satisfactory state, meaning that the site should not threaten human health or security, should not generate in the long term any contaminant that could significantly affect the surrounding environment, and should be aesthetically acceptable to communities. This book focuses on the reclamation of waste storage areas, which constitute the main source of pollution during and after mine operations, and especially issues with acid mine drainage and neutral contaminated drainage. Features: Provides fundamental information and describes practical methods to reclaim mine-waste facilities Compares the different methods and illustrates their application at sites through case studies Identifies new reclamation issues and proposes solutions to address them Presents existing and new technologies to reclaim mine waste disposal areas from hard rock mines in different climatic conditions Integrates reclamation into mine operations and long term performance of techniques used through an interdisciplinary approach With mine site reclamation a young and still emerging science, the training needs for professionals and students working in this field are huge. This book is written from an engineering point of view and in it the authors identify new reclamation issues and propose well-tested as well as innovative approaches to addressing them. Students in graduate programs focused on mines and the environment as well as professionals already working in departments related to mine site reclamation will find this book to be a valuable and essential resource.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Water Science and Application Series, Volume 9. Groundwater recharge, the flux of water across the water table, is arguably the most difficult component of the hydrologic cycle to measure. In arid and semiarid regions the problem is exacerbated by extremely small recharge fluxes that are highly variable in space and time. --from the Preface Groundwater Recharge in a Desert Environment: The Southwestern United States speaks to these issues by presenting new interpretations and research after more than two decades of discipline-wide study. Discussions ondeveloping environmental tracers to fingerprint sources and amounts of groundwater at the basin scalethe critical role of vegetation in hydroecological processesnew geophysical methods in quantifying channel rechargeapplying Geographical Information System (GIS) models to land surface processescoupling process-based vadose zone to groundwater modeling, and more make this book a significant resource for hydmlogists, biogeoscientists, and geochemists concerned with water and water-related issues in arid and semiarid regions.

These proceedings are a continuation of the series of International Conferences in Germany entitled "Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils." The primary objective is to discuss and understand unsaturated soil behaviour such that engineered activities are made better with times in terms of judgment and quality. The proceedings contain recent research by leading experts in Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils.

President Carter's 1980 declaration of a state of emergency at Love Canal, New York, recognized that residents' health had been affected by nearby chemical waste sites. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, enacted in 1976, ushered in a new era of waste management disposal designed to protect the public from harm. It required that modern waste containment systems use "engineered" barriers designed to isolate hazardous and toxic wastes and prevent them from seeping into the environment. These containment systems are now employed at thousands of waste sites around the United States, and their effectiveness must be continually monitored. Assessment of the Performance of Engineered Waste Containment Barriers assesses the performance of waste containment barriers to date. Existing data suggest that waste containment systems with liners and covers, when constructed and maintained in accordance with current regulations, are performing well thus far. However, they have not been in existence long enough to assess long-term (postclosure) performance, which may extend for hundreds of years. The book makes recommendations on how to improve future assessments and increase confidence in predictions of barrier system performance which will be of interest to policy makers, environmental interest groups, industrial waste producers, and industrial waste management industry.