This book is a must-have for your library if you will only have ONE book on freshwater hydrology. Leopold thoroughly explains the essential processes in a way that is clear and understandable. Also show ways to put this knowledge to work near your home. Reading this book is critical to your competent understanding of basic hydrologic processes, so you can be an intelligent consumer of the stuff put out by the mass media. Get it. Read it. Re-read it.

Excellent, and up to date,overview of rivers and the hows' and whys' of their existence. Great book for a college course or to keep around for professional reference. Loaded with diagrams, well organized, and very comprehensive. Covers; river channels, measurement, flow, distribution of discharge, floods, hydraulic geometry, drainage networks, river morphology, sediment load, etc, etc. Includes just enough equations that are light to moderate in complexity, about college sophomore level. Moderately easy to read, but not for casual reading. Overall a super book for those who are interested in the "nuts and bolts" of how and why a river works.

This is one of the best books about river systems that I have yet read. The author covers the basics of fluvial hydrology and geomorphology as he explains what he has learned about rivers over his many years of study. Written for the general public the author speaks to you as a mentor, not a professor lecturing his students. Chapters cover the following topics: The river channel; River measurement; Meanders and bars; Distribution of discharge in space and time; Rivers of the world; Flow variability and floods; Relationships between channel and discharge; Hydraulic geometry; Sediment load; The drainage network; Energy utilization; River morphology - the most probable state. Each chapter could be the topic of a college-level symposium or course. The references include many classic USGS Professional Papers. As a geologist I have gained a deeper appreciation for fluvial systems and their deposits because of the material contained in this book. Any fluvial stratigrapher, sedimentologist, hydrologist or geomorphologist should have a copy of this book. I recommend it for anyone whose livelihood depends upon rivers as well as those who just want to learn why rivers behave as they do. C. J. Donofrio

The DOE plans to build a nuclear/hazardous waste incinerator directly upwind of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. What do the authors think about this recent development?

Water, Rivers and Creeks by Luna Leopold. I still have my copy of Water - A Primer, Dr. Leopold's first update of his slim hydrology primer ($2.95 in 1974). Like Marie Morisawa's book on streams, "Water" has been loaned out many a time, and thankfully it has always made its way back home (if the person who has 'Streams' would please return it...). I wasn't 5 pages into "Water, Rivers and Creeks before I began deciding who should get to borrow the new one first. I was reassured to find that the clear explanations of hydrologic processes remain and that the updating of the text has not diluted its value as an excellent review of hydrology. The order of the topics has been revised to smooth transitions and as a result the book is even more readable than the original. Particularly significant is the fact that the author has thoroughly revised graphics and text to use international units, and broadened the discussion of water policy, especially regarding the impacts of irrigation and dam construction. Part I (Hydrology and Morphology) contains chapters on precipitation, infiltration, groundwater, surface water, channel formation and maintenance, and vegetation. Part II (The Water Resource and its Management) contains chapters on water supply, water use, water availability and quality, land management, water treament and sewage disposal. This useful volume appeals to me as a supplemental textbook university courses, for staff training, and as a reference volume for water policy makers - and even at today's price of $30.00 it represents a great value. - Dr. Jeanette H. Leete, General Secretary American Institute of Hydrology

Dunne & Leopold's "Water In Environmental Planning" is a great tool of reference for the planner of any type. It addresses key issues in the role of water during the planning process and also includes important formulas for solving water problems. If you can get past a boring first chapter, this book is well worth the money and makes a great reference for the urban, rural or environmental planner. 4 stars.

first chapter is dry but the rest of the book is a thorough compilation of techniques, history, design, purpose and review.

Wolman won a medal in 2000 from the American Geophysical Union, and in the citation they said, "although written 35 years ago, it remains one of the most cited works in geopmorphology and was recently republished by Dover, not as a historical artifact but as required reading for the newest generation of fluvial geomorphologists. Brimming with clarity and literacy... a good bedtime read." (well... at least for those who want to understand stream morphology.)

This book forms one of the foundations of the field of stream geomorphology from one of the founding fathers. I would recommend it as the basic text for someone serious about learning about fluvial geomorphology. Considerable work has been added to the field since Dr. Leopold's book was first published in 1964 but this forms a very good synthesis of a complex subject. As a civil engineer/geomorphologist, I have referred to this book many times over the past 25 years since I was one of his students at Berkeley. A great value in paperback.

I tend to throw all the naturalists/conservationists/environmentalists into one big group and think of them in similar terms. I temporarily forgot that Aldo Leopold came to the field with a hunting background. And even though he writes about being forever affected by the regretable dying fire in a she-wolf's eyes in _Sand County Almanac_, none of that feeling is conveyed here. There's a lot of hunting in this book. A lot. Part II is one camping trip after another, with a fair amount of innocent animals providing food along the way. If you're like me and would rather not witness the carnage, read just four or five of the selections: "A Man's Leisure Time," "Country," "Natural History," and all of Part III. You probably won't miss anything crucial by doing so, and you'll get the gist of Aldo Leopold's ideas about conservation and the land ethic. His philosophic musings make for worthwhile reading. It's too bad more of them don't appear here.

Leopold's essay, "Goose Music" is a classic must read. Too bad this chapter was left out of the anniversary edition of Leopold's Sand County Almanac.