Publ. no. 259, (1999) ISBN 1-901502-06-6, 438 + x pages, price £59.00
The management and control of water quality within large urban catchments demands an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. Forecasting environmental risks and the design of mitigating measures to reduce them is, however, prone to much uncertainty due to factors such as extreme spatial variability of land use, land cover, the heterogeneity of the geological materials and difficulties associated with the description and parameterization of the coupled flow, transport and chemical transformation processes involved.
The 52 papers in this volume were selected for Symposium HS5 held during IUGG 99, the XXII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, at Birmingham, UK, in July 1999. The papers provide an international interdisciplinary perspective and illustrate that recourse to fundamental principles, common sense, and ecological awareness, as well as changes in attitudes to water resource exploitation and pollution are necessary if sustainable urban development is to be achieved. The objectives must be to avoid accumulation of non-degradable hazardous substances and to adapt the waste output to what natural processes can effectively and efficiently assimilate with water management integrated with management of other parts of the related urban system such as solid waste disposal, transportation systems etc.