Water in Environmental Planning

Customer Reviews:

Cornell Instructor's Opinion.......2005-01-06

Despite its age and somewhat outdated nomenclatures, this book is still the best comprehensive introductory hydrology book in existence. There are better quantitative hydrology texts (e.g., Dingman), better engineering texts (e.g., Chow and prodigies), more cogent overviews of hydrology (e.g., Hornberger et al.), and more appropriate "handbooks" (e.g., Chow or Maidment). But, Dunne and Leopold is the only text I know of that provides a good balance among applied context, quantitative tools, and conceptual descriptions of basic and integrated processes while retaining its comprehensive character without copious mistakes and errors. I sincerely hope that a new, similarly good text emerges soon.

great guide for planners and environmental studies.......2001-09-13

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

great guide for planners and environmental studies.......2001-09-13

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

A good handbook for any planner.......2000-07-14

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.

The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany

Average customer rating:

It's a key component of any comprehensive collection on German issues and background.
Changing the Face of Germany
An excellent environmental history.

The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany
David Blackbourn
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Urban & Land Use Planning | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0393062120

Book Description

Majestic, lyrically written, and handsomely illustrated—one of the most original works of history in a generation.

This absorbing work traces the rise of the German nation through the development of water and landscape. David Blackbourn begins his morality tale in the mid-1700s, with the epic story of Frederick the Great, who attempted—by importing the great scientific minds of the West and by harnessing the power of his army—to transform the uninhabitable marshlands of his scattered kingdom into a modern state. Chronicling the great engineering projects that reshaped the mighty Rhine, the emergence of an ambitious German navy, and the development of hydroelectric power to fuel Germany's convulsive industrial growth before World War I, Blackbourn goes on to show how Nazi racial policies rested on German ideas of mastery of the natural world. Filled with striking reproductions of paintings, maps, and photographs, this grand work of modern history links culture, politics, and the environment in an exploration of the perils faced by nations that attempt to conquer nature. 70 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

It's a key component of any comprehensive collection on German issues and background........2007-10-06

THE CONQUEST OF NATURE: WATER, LANDSCAPE, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN GERMANY is a recommended pick for any library strong in modern Western history in general and German history and culture in particular. Both college-level and general-interest lending collections will appreciate the fine reproductions of paintings, maps and photos which go into a survey linking culture, politic and environmental issues in German history to modern times. It's a key component of any comprehensive collection on German issues and background.

Changing the Face of Germany.......2006-11-02

This is quite a book.

There are a number of books on how the he U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has modified rivers like the Mississippi in the United States (with more or less success, witness Katrina). This is the first one I've seen on what was done in Northern Europe. The projects in Germany were monumental in scale, taking some 250 years to accomplish. This is part of what made Germany into a nation.

It is quite interesting as it talks not only about what was done but about other aspects such as the health, econonic, cultural, and political aspects. The Nazi's for instance looked at the work done as proof of the natural superiority of the German people.

With all of the success of the projects, the book at the end turns to the problems the efforts have caused: flooding, fish habitat destroyed. In essence all of the problems we are having with these same areas in the United States.

An excellent environmental history........2006-10-13

There are many fine environmental histories of North America but seemingly very few of Europe. Following a brief description of how the end of the Ice Age produced the sodden, water-filled plains of central and northern Germany, this book explores how man created the modern German landscape by straightening the Rhine River and "reclaiming" the southern coast of the North Sea and other watery regions. The maps are useful. Great stuff, I wish there were more books on the transformation of the European environment over the past 12,000 years.

Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley

Average customer rating:

An inspired overview of the political cultural of California water politics
Battling the Inland Sea
Fascinating History of the Sacramento Valley
Essentially the same book as "Gold v. Grain"
Comprehensive but compelling

Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley
Robert Kelley
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Regional Planning | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural Disasters | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Rivers | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0520214285

Book Description

In its natural condition the Sacramento Valley was a flood-ravaged region where an inland sea a hundred miles long regularly formed during the rainy season, to drain slowly away by the summer months. Today the Valley is marvelously productive, with a great capital city at its center, but only after a seventy-year struggle to devise and build an intricate thousand miles of levees and drains. Robert Kelley sets that battle within the encompassing national political culture, which produced, through the Republican and Democratic parties, widely diverging ideas about how best to reclaim the Valley from flood. He draws on approaches developed in the field of policy analysis to examine the relationship between American political culture and environmental policy-making. We find that the prolonged controversy over the Sacramento Valley illuminates American decision-making, then and now.

Customer Reviews:

An inspired overview of the political cultural of California water politics.......2007-07-22

I was deeply influenced by Kelley's early works on hydraulic mining in the 1950s (his book Gold vs. Grain and his papers such as the Forgotten Giant: ...Hydraulic Mining...). I also heard strong praise for this book from many water professionals in the Sacramento Valley. As I eagerly read this book, therefore, I expected more of the same: a study of the massive impact that hydraulic mining sedimentation had on California rivers, flooding, and politics in the late nineteenth century.
Fortunately - I was surprised to learn - Battling the Inland Sea (BIS) goes well beyond the physical and political effects of historical sedimentation in several important ways. This book is much broader in its geographic extent and substantive scope than Kelley's earlier works. Geographically, mining sediment primarily impacted the lowermost Sacramento River (below Fremont Weir) and its Sierra Nevada tributaries (especially the Feather, Yuba, Bear, and American Rivers). BIS is more broadly concerned with flood control in the Sacramento Valley up into and beyond the extensive Colusa and Butte Basins which had relatively little impact from mining sediment. Moreover, the emphasis of the discussion in BIS is on the history of flood control efforts in the Valley and the surrounding political culture of flood control. Although these topics are inseparable from the mining sediment issue in some areas, it is a much broader topic involving a set of deeper issues. In fact, Kelley makes it clear from the outset that the Sacramento Valley was prone to extensive flooding and that the natural river channel was incapable of conveying but a small fraction of the flow during large floods; long before mining sediment arrived. This emphasis is key to understanding the importance of BIS to educating both professional river managers and the lay public to the actual flood risks in the Valley. The long history of flood control in the Sacramento Valley represents a fight against nature. Mining sedimentation is a complication that exacerbates an already intractable flood-prone situation, but it is not the primary cause of flood risk. Extensive low-lying basins are the inherent cause for concern.
The common ground between BIS and Kelley's earlier work is that he, again, presents an inspired historical overview of the political culture underlying California water politics. The complex developments of the period are put into a context of shifting ideologies of resource management, perception of nature, and the vagaries of politics and economics.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in these broader topics. It is, of course, a must-read for students of California flood-management history.
Allan James
Geography Department
University South Carolina

Battling the Inland Sea.......2006-03-26

This book clarifies man's failure to accept what the Natural Environment offers and man's limited knowledge of his ability to live with nature. Man's ineptness is exemplified by politics dictating his actions.

Fascinating History of the Sacramento Valley.......2002-02-28

If you've ever taken a guided factory tour, you know the difference between someone reciting memorized facts and someone who can call upon a deep reservoir of knowledge, accumulated over a lifetime, for information that will illuminate a particular subject. Mr. Kelley clearly belongs in the latter class. Reading his book, it is apparent that we are only scratching the surface of what this remarkable historian knows about the complex interplay of history, politics, personality and nature that conspired to produce the water system northern California has today.

The story of California water is fascinating, although perhaps only of real interest to Californians. Nevertheless, even if only for that audience, Mr. Kelley has written an entirely readable, yet simultaneously scholarly volume. Anyone interested in an introduction to the state of northern California's water situation should begin with this book.

In a general sense, however, this book is also about changing political and sociological trends in America beginning around 1850. The focus is on flooding in the Sacramento Valley, and its battles between gold miners and valley farmers, or between Republican engineers and Democratic populists, but parallels are probably found elsewhere in our country during the same period of history. I enjoyed this book tremendously.

Essentially the same book as "Gold v. Grain".......2000-10-24

I am a big California rivers environmental history buff, and I found this book to be too similar to his publication "Gold v. Grain" which debuted over 40 years ago. This book is essentially an extension of "Gold v. Grain" that covers the 1960s-1980s. Much of the earlier chapters are virtually cut and pasted verbatim from his previous book. Despite these criticisms, it remains (to my knowledge) the most comprehensive book written about the Sacramento River to date. Until a better book on the Sac comes along, this is probably the one to read for factual information, and for more conceptual/abstract stimulation, I recommend "Organic Machine" by Richard White.

Comprehensive but compelling.......1999-12-13

For a native of the flood-prone Sacramento Valley, Battling The Inland Sea is the bible. Nowhere else is the history of a fitful battle against the annual floodwaters unleashed on the Sacramento Valley by the powerful Sierra Nevada watersheds captured so comprehensively. Kelley, however, informs us in a style that is relevant and entertaining. The valley resident treasures it for its history of the Big Fight. Political scientists enjoy it for its history and the lively way Kelley uses the fight over flooding in Northern California as a study in California and national politics.

Average customer rating:

A case study on New York politics
a simple compound for a complex city
Water for Gotham Illustrates the Folly of Public Officials
Water For Gotham
A new book tells the epic tale of Old New York

Water for Gotham: A History.
Gerard T. Koeppel
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Water Supply | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Water Supply & Land Use | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0691011397

Amazon.com

"The chief disadvantage of New York," observed the Swedish botanist Peter Kalm in the mid-18th century, "is the want of good water." The Dutch farmers who settled on Manhattan in the 1600s found the island, which is fronted by a salty inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, to have only small quantities of surface water. Hampered by the hard rock that underlay the island, subsequent generations of Manhattanites had difficulty sinking wells, and many had to make do with polluted, dangerous sources of drinking water.

In Water for Gotham, Gerard T. Koeppel relates the complex history of how the metropolis came to acquire dependable sources of water for an ever-expanding population. Those sources lay far from the city, but engineering problems were much less difficult to overcome than was the political opposition to this reliance on the world beyond Manhattan Island. Even after a cholera outbreak killed scores of New Yorkers in 1832, some of the city's leading financiers insisted that the old wells would do just fine. Finally, Koeppel writes, through the efforts of DeWitt Clinton and other farsighted civic leaders, New York raised money to build a system of canals and aqueducts leading up the Hudson and Croton river valleys into the water-rich Catskill Mountains, getting the funds for the construction from European banks and private bondholders. Nearly a century later, all five boroughs were finally well served by pipes that brought in nearly 400 million gallons of fresh water a day--scarcely a third of the present metropolis's demands.

Water for Gotham is, well, dry at times, but it does a fine job overall of making sense of an overlooked aspect of New York's history. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Water for Gotham tells the spirited story of New York's evolution as a great city by examining its struggle for that vital and basic element--clean water. Drawing on primary sources, personal narratives, and anecdotes, Gerard Koeppel demonstrates how quickly the shallow wells of Dutch New Amsterdam were overwhelmed, leaving the English and American city beleaguered by filth, epidemics, and fires. This situation changed only when an outside water source was finally secured in 1842--the Croton Aqueduct, a model for urban water supplies in the United States.

As the fertile wilderness enjoyed by the first Europeans in Manhattan vanishes and the magnitude of New York's water problem grows, the reader is introduced to the plans of Christopher Colles, builder of the first American steam engine, and of Joseph Browne, the first to call for a mainland water source for this island-city. In this vividly written true-life fable of the "Fools of Gotham," the chief obstacle to the aqueduct is the Manhattan Company. Masterminded by Aaron Burr, with the complicity of Alexander Hamilton and other leading New Yorkers, the company was a ruse, serving as the charter for a bank--today's Chase Manhattan. The cholera epidemic of 1832 and the great fire three years later were instrumental in forcing the city's leaders to finally unite and regain New York's water rights.

Koeppel's account of the developments leading up to the Croton Aqueduct reveals it as a triumph not only of inspired technology but of political will. With over forty archival photographs and drawings, Water for Gotham demonstrates the deep interconnections between natural resource management, urban planning, and civic leadership. As New York today retakes its waterfront and boasts famous tap water, this book is a valuable reminder of how much vision and fortitude are required to make a great city function and thrive.

Customer Reviews:

A case study on New York politics.......2006-11-14

In "Water for Gotham," Gerard Koeppel tells in a compelling way what could have been--ahem--a dry story. Its focus is on the civic history of a nascent metropolis thirsty for water, the self-interested politicians who used that thirst for their own ends, and the few dedicated visionaries who labored against man and nature to bring cold, clean water to Manhattan. Koeppel paints a vivid picture of life in New York from colonial days through the early-1800s, when the Croton Aqueduct was opened.

One of the few significant criticisms I have about the book is that while it frequently discusses structures, equipment, and emerging technologies, little effort is made to clearly explain and describe them. While the book is not meant to be a technical or engineering review, better explanations (as opposed to cursory descriptions) of some of the methods of construction (e.g., dams, the aqueduct) would have been appreciated.

A second criticism is that the book ends too abruptly with the arrival of water through the Croton Aqueduct, with only passing mention of later developments to the City's extensive water supply system. An additional chapter on how the other reservoirs in the system were created--sometimes through contentious legal battles and property condemnation--and the disposition of some of the original Croton structures, would have been welcome.

Notwithstanding these minor quibbles, the book is enjoyable, informative and enlightening. Recommended.

a simple compound for a complex city.......2004-01-05

Gerard Koeppel has done a remarkable job of ferretng out material and documents which demonstrate how long it took, how much cash it took, how much politicking it took to get the simple compound H2O to complex NYC. I don't mean to be glib about this. As one reviewer has noted, Manhattan without fresh supplies of water would've been another unliveable coastal town.

Just like DeWitt Clinton's Erie Canal brought goods in and out of the city, the many visionaries (Burr[for politicial and banking reasons] and Colden [for practical reasons]) gave the city an enormous insurance policy for its future which is difficult to ignore.

This book is a compelling dedication to the people who saw the need for the reservoir system and made it a reality. Sometimes the book gets bogged down with details, but that's to be expected. What wasn't expected, by this reader, was the author's perserverance and dedication to this important matter, and for that he deserves the highest accolades.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS, and THE FIVE POINTS CONCLUDED, A Novel

Water for Gotham Illustrates the Folly of Public Officials.......2000-08-27

The book illustrates the folly of trusting our elected officials. How often did they use a public fear to enrich their own pockets? The sordid ancestory of the Chase Manahattan Bank is a case in point that Gerard Koepell, a person who I shared classrooms with when we were growing up, brings out particularly well. The point of history is for us to learn from our collective experiences and Gerard lays it all out for us. Gerard points out that at first no one knew about cholera and it's relationship to contaminated water. I had no idea that well into the 1800s people from New York had no running water or toilets and used the streets as their "trash" depositories. What else did the book teach me? Politicians in the past had no stomach for a long-term project or long-term thinking ... Politicians were/are corrupt and weak-minded and despite the huge legislative bodies, politicians are overwhelmed and the real laws and decisions are made by 1 or 2 people and everyone else is, at best, a yes-person. The status quo is often very comfortable. In old New York, beer was a relatively safe drink because of the brewing process (ie boiling) and New York had great economic incentive to keep people drinking beer instead of water. What are the present day unrecognized-evils? Air quality? I worry that the tremendous rise in urban asthma will eventually transform into an increased risk of lung cancer, even in the non-smokers. What interests are happy with the status quo of our air? Automobile manufacturers? Oil companies? The Advertising Industry? The Media? The Pharmaceutical Industry? Anyway the book is great food for thought. Gramatically some of the sentences, particularly in the early chapters are attention grabbing gems. And that is from someone who was hit with a tennis raquet by the author. Good work Gerard! END

Water For Gotham.......2000-06-08

It is about time that an in-depth book on the subject of New York's water supply was completed. The author has done a fabulous job of putting a highly readable work together that brings to life a period we rarely think about and a topic hardly considered in our hurried modern lives. Reality, however, is that New York without water would be just another coastal town. Those interested in a photographic history of the same topic should seek The Croton Dams and Aqueduct which will be publihsed by Arcadia Press in August of 2000.

A new book tells the epic tale of Old New York.......2000-03-27

When we turn on the tap we take it for granted that pure and wholesome water is supposed to come out. For Americans in the early 1800's, the supply of fresh water to New York City was an achievement on the order of the moon landing in our era -- carrying a river for 40 miles through hills and valleys and across rivers to a desperate island city.

The amazing story of New York's water supply has long been known to historians, infrastructure buffs and residents of the Westchester villages through which the beautiful Old Croton Aqueduct still passes. Gerard Koeppel's new book, Water for Gotham: a History, makes this story accessible to all.

Unlike previous works on the subject, which have emphasized the engineering accomplishments of the Croton Aqueduct, this book explores New York City's social and political history with a liveliness and wit that make the turbulent decades following the American Revolution come to life. Experience the terror of cholera and great fires, the antics of scoundrels and demagogues, and the heights of idealism, dedication and genius that are all intertwined in this epic tale.

Book Description

This book examines in detail the resource management problems and challenges posed by the intensification of the environmental change process in coastal areas around the globe. The analysis deployed is by and large buttressed by methods and techniques drawn from social science disciplines: economics, geography, and psychology. However, the overall approach adopted is multidisciplinary with additional contributions from the natural sciences and statistics. The key concept developed is that of ecosystem function value diversity and its management policy analogue, ecosystem integrity maintenance, and the consequent sustainable utilisation of coastal system assets. The functioning of healthy ecosystems generates a range of outputs which society values. The individual chapters analyse and evaluate a range of coastal and water resource functions across different temporal and spatial scales.

Average customer rating:

Would definitely buy again

Water Resources Planning (3rd Edition)
Andrew A. Dzurik
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books