Items related to Fluvial Processes in Dryland Rivers (Springer Series...
Synopsis
From this high promontory, the landforms of the Sonoran Des ert take on awesome proportions. The mesas, buttes, cinder cones, basalt flows, mountains, and valleys, all carved and modi fied by water in this dry place, must be measured in kilometers and millions of years. Even the colors are dazzling. The volcanic rocks, altered by ancient hydrothermal activity, glow a warm orange and yellow in the October sun. The bright, clear light illuminates each tiny crevice etched by weathering and erosion in the cliffs. Several hundred meters below and about a kilo meter away the river rolls, a brown silt-laden ribbon on the floor of the gorge. The water rustles so quietly that I can hear it only when the wind dies. In the distance, sharp mountain peaks rake the bottom of the ocean of air where streamers of clouds stretch over the horizon to the ocean of water. The field is a fitting place to write the preface for a book on geomorphology because of the importance of the field experi ence in the development of the science. Dramatic landforms and processes, especially in drylands, have excited the imagination and intellect of artists, writers, and scientists. Each observer has explored a different route to knowing and understanding this thin envelope that is the contact between sky and earth. De scriptions of these striking landscapes have appealed to cataclys mic forces, operation of machine-like processes, and even ran dom occurrences governed by happenstance.
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From the Publisher
Review: "Will Graf's Fluvial Processes in Dryland Rivers is a classic. It is well-conceived, comprehensive, theoretical, yet practical, and deals well with both form and process. Few environmental problems in drylands are independent of fluvial processes and climatic variations, agriculture, increasing urbanization, and water demands have all put new strains on streams. The unavailability of Graf's book over the past decade has been problematic to environmental analysts of all types, but especially to hydrologists and fluvial geomorphologists engaged not only in fluvial analysis , but also in fluvial restoration. Thus, the reprinting of this book at a modest price is especially welcome". (Dr. Stanley W. Trimble, Professor, Geography Department, UCLA)
Review: "This book is an excellent summary of semiarid and arid landforms and dryland river morphology. It will be of interest and value not only to geomorphologists, but also to anyone concerned with the dynamics of drylands." (Dr. Stan Schumm)
About the Author
William L. Graf is Educational Foundation University Professor and Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina. His specialties include fluvial geomorphology and policy for public land and water, with emphasis on river channel change, human impacts on river processes and morphology, contaminant transport and storage in river sediments, and the downstream impacts of large dams. Much of his work has focused on dryland rivers. He has served as an officer in the Geological Society of America, and is Past President of the Association of American Geographers. In the area of public policy he has emphasized the interaction of science and decision-making, and resolution of the conflict between economic development and environmental preservation. He has published 124 papers, articles, book chapters, and reports on geomorphology, riparian ecology, river management, and the interaction between science and public policy.
He is principle author of Dam Removal: Science and Decision Making (in press), and is presently working on Dam the Consequences: The Effects of Dams on America's Rivers. He is a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, and at the National Research Council he has been a member of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, Water and Science Technology Board, Committee on Glen Canyon Environmental Studies, and Committee on Rediscovering Geography. He has also chaired the NAS/NRC Committee on Innovative Watershed Management, the Workshop to Advise the President's Council on Sustainable Development, and a committee to advise the U.S. Geological Survey on research priorities.
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