Soil and Water Contamination, 2nd Edition is the first textbook that treats soil and water pollution issues from a geographical/spatial perspective at point, local, regional, and catchment scales. It links up very well to recent environmental policy and legislation in the field of soil and water pollution, e.g. European Water Framework Directive. Treats environmental pollution from 3 perspectives: pollutant, transport processes, and spatial and temporal variability of occurrence, teaching the student how to assess the spatial dispersal of pollutants in the environment, taking into account the properties of the pollutant, environmental medium, and transport processes. Describes environmental behaviour of major contaminant groups, including nutrients, metals, radionuclides, and organic pollutants, which makes it a valuable reference for quick evaluation of the chemical behaviour of pollutants in the environment.


This textbook provides an overview of transport and fate processes of environmental contamination, in such a way that the reader can both understand and predict contaminant patterns in soil, groundwater, and surface water. In contrast to most existing texts, soil and water pollution are treated as integrated environmental matter from a geographical/spatial perspective at point, local, regional, and catchment scales. The spatial approach links up with recent developments and trends in environmental legislation and other integrated catchment management initiatives. The new edition contains several re-written parts, new material on pesticides and pharmaceutical contaminants and a greater number of exercises, case studies and examples.



It consists of four coherent parts: 1. Introduction to soil and water contamination; 2. Source, role, and behavior of substances in soil and water; 3. Transport and fate processes of substances in soil and water; and 4. Patterns of substances in soil and water.



Soil and Water Contamination, 2nd Edition is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in Earth and Environmental Sciences, who understand the fundamentals of chemistry, hydrology and soil science. It is a useful reference work for professionals.



Author: Marcel van der Perk is Assistant Professor of Physical Geography at Utrecht University, where he specialises in soil and water quality issues and spatio-temporal environmental modelling. He teaches courses on soil and water pollution and geographical information systems. His research focuses on measurement, analysis, and modelling of transport and fate of dissolved and sediment-associated contaminants (nutrients, heavy metals, and radionuclides) in soil and water from field to river basin scales.



Co-Published with CRC Press.