BOOK REVIEWS
New Books Received
Crop Production in Saline Environments: Global and Inte-
grative Perspectives—Sham S. Goyal, Surinder K. Sharma,
and D. William Rains. The Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street,
Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. 2003. $69.95. Softcover. ISBN
1-56022-097-X.
Dictionary of Agricultural and Environmental Science—
Frederick R. Troeh and Roy L. Donahue. Iowa State Univ.
Press, 2121 S. State Ave., Ames, IA 50014. 2003. ISBN 0-8138-
0283-0.
Dioxins and Health, Second Edition—Arnold Schecter and
Thomas A. Gasiewicz. John Wiley & Sons, 111 River St.,
Hoboken, NJ 07030. 2003. Hardcover. ISBN 0-471-43355-1.
Environmental Chemistry: Asian Lessons—Vladimir N. Bash-
kin. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Dr., Norwell,
MA 02061. 2003. Hardcover. ISBN 1-4020-10036.
Environmental Engineering, 5th Edition—Joseph A. Salvato,
Nelson L. Nemerow, and Franklin J. Agardy. John Wiley &
Sons, Hoboken, NJ. 2003. $240.00. Hardcover. ISBN 0-471-
41813-7.
Geochemical and Hydrological Reactivity of Heavy Metals in
Soils—H. Magdi Selim and William L. Kingery. Lewis Publish-
ers, CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton,
FL 33431. 2003. Hardcover. ISBN 1-56670-623-8.
Sustainable Aquaculture: Global Perspectives—B.B. Jana and
Carl D. Webster. The Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street, Bing-
hamton, NY 13904-1580. 2003. $34.95. Softcover. ISBN
1-56022-104-6.
Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional
Conservation Strategies—Uromi Manage Goodale, Marc J.
Stern, Cheryl Margoluis, Ashley G. Lanfer, and Matthew Flade-
land. Food Products Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY
13904-1580. 2003. $49.95. Softcover. ISBN 1-56022-095-3.
VOC Emissions from Wastewater Treatment Plants: Charac-
terization, Control, and Compliance—Lewis Publishers, CRC
Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33431.
2003. Hardcover. ISBN 1-56676-820-9.
Handbook of Water Sensitive Planning and Design
Edited by Robert L. France, Lewis Publishers, CRC Press LLC,
2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33431. 2002. 699 p.
$139.95 hardcover. Web enhanced book: www.gsd.harvard.edu/
watercolors (password lentic-lotic). ISBN 1-56670-562-2.
Much of the historic and also recent water-related planning
and design are rather conventional. Instead of using natural
landforms to retain and filter excessive water, the focus on end-
of-pipe controls prevails, especially in urban stormwater manage-
ment. This same statement holds for the fields of wastewater
treatment, flood prevention, and loss of wetlands, to name a
409
few. There obviously exists a distinct need for a major paradigm
shift from a conveyance mentality to a dispersed, “start-at-the-
source” form of micromanagement based on infiltration. This
novel approach, taken across the spatial scale from suburban
parking lots to riparian zones, wetlands, and watersheds, is devel-
oped and explored in the handbook by renowned practitioners
of landscape and water management planning as a true interdisci-
plinary pioneering effort of water-sensitive planning and design.
France, being the editor of the handbook, acts as the “stage
director” throughout the whole presentation. He is also editor
of a new Lewis/CRC Press series Integrative Studies in Water
Management and Land Development which contains this book.
Right from the start he gives a very personal introduction to the
background and the fundamentals of his innovative thinking. As
a disciple of Thoreau he argues for ecopsychologically experienc-
ing water. Mainly arisen from a symposium convened at the
Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in Spring 2000,
the book is (somewhat artificially) divided into the two parts:
(i) water-sensitive design (water-related issues at the local, munic-
ipality scale: stormwater management, wetland park creation)
and (ii) water-sensitive planning (studies directed to the regional
scale: riparian buffer zones and corridors, management of entire
watersheds), each opened by an integrating overview. Also in-
cluded are valuable summaries from taped discussions focused
at (i) implementing innovative stormwater management tech-
niques, (ii) moving from single-purpose treatment wetlands to-
ward multifunction designed wetland parks, (iii) social and politi-
cal issues in managing riparian buffers and corridors, and (iv)
multiple objectives in watershed management through use of
GIS analysis. Each of the 34 papers is accompanied by a comment
(response) from the editor (or “director”), which underscores
the salient features and emphasizes cross-linking to related con-
tributions.
The handbook comes “web-enhanced,” which intends to pro-
vide additional information of 13 selected chapters by presenting
colored pictures and maps via the Internet. This idea is well
meant, but it is counteracted by the fact that it appears to be a
simple gimmick because of the poor resolution of most of the
images (rarely more than 500 by 500 pixels), especially where
detailed maps or plans are presented. Another drawback of the
handbook is the “consequent” use of nonmetric units, which,
for the international reader, necessitates tedious converting. But
irrespective of these insufficiencies, the presentation is very
sound and professional.
Just as water is an integrator across physical landscapes, it is
an integrator across professional disciplines. Thus, in addition
to landscape architecture, elements of civil engineering, urban
planning, environmental art, cultural geography, hydrology, soil
science, biology, sociology, and geology are all presented in this
handbook. Consequently, it is in no way an instruction manual,
but a compendium in the truest sense of the word and reflects
the necessary abandonment of disciplinary work in favor of true
interdisciplinary approaches to water management planning and
design.
The handbook is recommended to everyone who is involved
with water and landscape. A wide variety of case studies in water-
sensitive planning and design presents promising procedures as
well as limitations or constraints in this dynamic field. Both
graduate students and senior practitioners as well as practicing
scientists will find useful suggestions and thought-provoking im-
410 J. ENVIRON. QUAL., VOL. 33, JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2004
pulses for integrating the idea of sensitivity for water into their
upcoming attempts at water management planning.
RALF DANNOWSKI
Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape and
Land Use Research (ZALF)
Institute of Hydrology
Eberswalder Str. 84
D-15374 Muencheberg
Germany
(rdannowski@zalf.de)
Risk Management Planning Handbook
A. Roger Greenway, Government Institutes, 4 Research Place,
Suite 200, Rockville, MD 20850. 2002. 314 p. $105 paperback.
ISBN 0-86587-841-2.
Risk management within all industries has become increas-
ingly important in recent decades. No longer are accidents
resulting in human injury, death, or environmental degrada-
tion tolerated. There is increasing public pressure that de-
mands companies take all reasonable precaution to prevent
incidents that may jeopardize environmental or human well-
being. The development of risk management strategies has
become a complex science governed by an increasing level
of bureaucracy. The second edition of the Risk Management
Planning Handbook offers companies a practical guide to
governing legislation and assists them in developing and imple-
menting a risk management plan.
The preface of this text discusses the 1984 Bhopal disaster,
one of the most devastating industrial accidents ever. The
author creates a vivid image of a catastrophe that could have
been prevented if sound risk management procedures had
been in place. It is a powerful place to begin a text dealing
with the increasingly important issue of risk management
and prevention.
The handbook provides companies with a step by step pro-
cess so that they may evaluate need, develop prevention tac-
tics, outline standard operating procedures, identify employee
training requirements and provide effective training, under-
stand the importance of systems audits, develop an emergency
response plan, coordinate with other legislation, and use ana-
lytical tools, if appropriate, to manage risk.
These steps are outlined in a practical and effective manner
and brought to life by the use of examples throughout the
discussions. The use of examples assists the reader in visualiz-
ing application and use of the techniques and tools discussed.
A number of useful appendices accompany this text includ-
ing a list of extremely hazardous substances and a list of
chemicals subject to the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act. These lists provide Chemical Abstract
Service (CAS) numbers for these chemicals, which facilitates
the gathering of information surrounding hazardous sub-
stances.
If the reader knows nothing of risk management before
reading this text he or she will likely find answers to many of
his or her key questions addressed here. Similarly, for a reader
with more experience the handbook provides a great reference
for the process of risk identification and prevention and also
provides up to date information on legislation governing risk
management in the USA.
This book is clearly written and I would recommend it to
all managers responsible for risk management within their
company. It also has relevance as a text for teaching and could
become an effective textbook for undergraduate courses in
risk assessment and management. Although written specifi-
cally for industries involved in handling hazardous chemicals,
there are many lessons outlined in the text which are relevant
for other industries including sections on determining standard
operating procedures and staff training requirements.
The challenge for this informative handbook will be to
remain current. There are specific compliance costs specified
within the text along with reference to current legislation. If
this handbook is to continue to be a valuable and practical
tool for the management of risk it must be regularly revised
and updated.
T.M. MILLS
HortResearch
Private Bag 11030
Palmerston North
New Zealand
(tmills@hortresearch.co.nz)
Scaling Methods in Soil Physics
Edited by Yakov Pachepsky, David E. Radcliffe, and H. Magdi
Selim, CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca
Raton, FL 33431. 2003. 456 p. $119.95. ISBN 0-8493-1374-0.
This is a well-written, documented, and researched volume
covering multiple approaches to the topic. It is highly recom-
mended to researchers and practitioners alike.
Scaling denotes the action of attempting to relate measure-
ments obtained at one scale to predictions at a different scale.
It is organized along the size paradigm, beginning with the
pore scale, and progressing through plot and field, to regional
considerations. The editors provide a summary of the topics
discussed. Scaling is approached primarily via the use of a
physical model. Except for a few instances, time is not consid-
ered as a necessary and viable scaling dimension, and preferen-
tial flow in soils is not taken into account. Scaling approaches
in soil surveys, mapping, and GIS are not discussed despite
their wide use and practical significance. Probability of occur-
rence and associated risk and extent of uncertainty are gener-
ally not considered. However, a number of new and innovative
approaches (wavelet transforms, Kalman filtering, and neural
networks) are discussed, which may hold promise in the future.
The first three chapters are based on a similarity concept.
The next three deal with theoretical and experimental model-
ing of flow dispersion in porous media. Monte Carlo simula-
tions show how scale dependence of flow dispersion is not
necessarily related to the scale of structure but may rather
depend on the type and extent of pore connectivity (Ch. 4).
Time considerations, experimental measurements, statistical
and geostatistical tools, as well as terrain analysis and some
remote sensing and changes over the landscape are used to
evaluate soil moisture in Ch. 8. The chapter is well-conceived
and documented; however, the simulated distributions of soil
moisture do not appear to reflect the observed. An excellent
discussion of practical interpolation methods, in particular
geostatistical methods and approaches to characterize a con-
taminant plume, is provided in Ch. 9. Water holding capacity
interpreted from yield measurements is well-predicted from
topography evaluated at different scales (Ch. 13). There is
some mix up of east and west directions here, and the interpo-
lation of photogrametric points is carried out for nonstandard
intervals and approach. A precision agricultural landscape
modeling system is used (Ch. 14) to compare predicted and
observed yields based on data obtained at several different
scales. The chapter provides realistic estimates of sampling
required and compromises needed in data acquisition for suffi-
cient accuracy of prediction at a field scale. Chapter 16 reviews
literature on plant response to mechanical impedance and
discusses how such information is currently transferred from
one scale to another. An interesting point, brought out with
 BOOK REVIEWS 411

respect to personal bias in scaling, is that researchers’ sampling
patterns often reflect their perception of field variability.
Chapter 17 models nitrogen losses at several scales and illus-
trates how different kinds of data need to be used at each
scale. The need for simultaneous time-scaling is recognized,
but not incorporated into simulations. Excellent analysis of
problems associated with the use of remote sensing data in
scaling is provided in Ch. 18. Such data display information
referring to some past instant of time; the pixel scale is gener-
ally larger than what is needed for modeling; the data do not
directly measure parameters of interest; and the accuracy of
the registration may be on the order of few pixels. This creates
problems with verifying the accuracy of predictions on the
ground. In contrast to the previous chapter (Ch. 17), upscaling
of point information together with remote sensing of vegeta-
tion are used to model distribution of soil water at a watershed
scale. Flow processes and scaling applications in fractured rock
are to be found in the last chapter (Ch. 20). This is a singularly
important, very well documented presentation of scaling prob-
lems due to fracture distribution, geometry, and preferential
flow likely to exist also at a somewhat different scale in soils.
Measurements and modeling at a hierarchy of scales are rec-
ommended, using distributions of expected values to predict
incidence of smaller-scale processes at a larger scale.
A.S. ROGOWSKI
Department of Crops and Soil Science
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
(asr2@psu.edu)

ERRATA

Potential Nitrification and Denitrification

on Different Surfaces in a Constructed
Treatment Wetland
Sofia Kallner Bastviken, Peder G. Eriksson, Irene
Martins, João M. Neto, Lars Leonardson, and Karin
Tonderski; J. Environ. Qual. 32:2414–2420 (2003).
On page 2419, several of the values in Fig. 4 were
incorrect. Here is the figure with corrected values: