Water Quality: An Introduction - Tapa dura

Water quality is important to everyone, but professionals in many disciplines need an understanding of this subject. Although water quality is complex, its general aspects can be grasped readily and with little background - only introductory chemistry and biology and a little algebra are needed. Unfortunately, the teaching of water quality is not well organized. In most colleges and universities, water quality instruction is given in certain engineering curricula and in aquatic ecology or fisheries curricula. There also is brief attention to selected topics on water quality in numerous classes in other curricula. Water quality training in engineering is highly specialized and directed by necessity towards water supply and water treatment, while the focus in aquatic ecology and fisheries is on biological water quality and pollution. Few students venture into specialized classes outside of their curricula, and as a result, their formal training in water quality is greatly restricted. Self-education by reading texts and reference books on water quality is difficult. Authors of water quality books seem to be more interested in presenting a rigorous, detailed treatment than in focusing on simplicity and clarity. Chemical aspects of water quality often are presented at a level requiring fairly advanced mathematics and physical chemistry, and biological discussions may be quite advanced and theoretical. I have taught water quality to seniors and graduate students in agriculture, wildlife and fisheries, environmental sciences, economics, and similar disciplines for many years.

Water quality is essential to the welfare of humans and aquatic ecosystems. The study of water quality draws information from a variety of disciplines including chemistry, biology, mathematics, physics, engineering, and resource management. University training in water quality often is limited to specialized courses in engineering, ecology, and fisheries curricula. Therefore, many professionals who need a basic understanding of water quality are not formally trained in the subject. Water Quality: An Introduction provides an in-depth but relatively simple treatment of water quality, including a discussion of basic physical, chemical, and biological principles. Effort has been made to use physical and chemical principles to explain the factors controlling the quality of natural waters. Water Quality: An Introduction is an excellent text for a general course in water quality or as a guide for self-study.