Page 12 - Soil and water contamination, 2nd edition

Preface to the first edition

This book is based on an undergraduate course-book written for students of the ‘Soil and
Water Pollution’ course at the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
These students, studying Earth Sciences or Environmental Sciences, are taught the concepts
of transport and fate processes of environmental contaminants, so that they understand, and
can predict, contaminant patterns in soil, groundwater, and surface water.
The book is in four parts: 1) An introduction to soil and water pollution; 2) Source, role,
and behaviour 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. Part 1 introduces the
fundamentals of environmental pollution, environmental chemistry, and the basic physical
and chemical properties of soil, groundwater, and surface water. Part 2 covers the natural
and anthropogenic sources of nutrients, heavy metals, radionuclides, and organic pollutants,
as well as their physico-chemical characteristics, behaviour, and toxicity in the natural
environment. Part 3 introduces the processes of transport, exchange, and transformation,
such as advection, dispersion, and kinetics of adsorption and biochemical decay. Particular
attention is paid to the mathematical description and modelling of these processes. Part 4
develops the information presented in Parts 1 and 2, by presenting practical applications:
spatial and temporal patterns of pollutants in soil, groundwater, and surface water are
described by means of a number of recent case studies. Each chapter concludes with a set of
exercises to consolidate the chapter content. It is assumed that readers already understand
the fundamentals of chemistry, soil science, and hydrology, although a brief review of basic
concepts is given and there is a list of recommended reading for those wishing to acquire
more background knowledge.

I am grateful to colleagues for their support during the writing of this text. In particular,
I would like to thank Dr. Pauline van Gaans and Professor Wladimir Bleuten of the
Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University for their ideas and suggestions and
for reviewing some of the chapters. I thank Professor Peter Burrough, Dr. Hans Middelkoop,
Dr. Job Spijker and Dr. Marc Vissers of the Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht
University; Dr. Paolo DeZorzi and Sabrina Barbizzi MSc. of the Agenzia per la Protezione
dell’Ambiente e per i servizi Technici, Rome; Dr. Cathy Ryan of the Department of Geology
and Geophysics, University of Calgary; and Prof. Gene Likens of the Institute of Ecosystem
Studies, Millbrook NY; who supplied data, figures or other materials used in this book.
Dr. Joy Burrough-Boenisch (Unclogged English, Goring-on-Thames) advised on the English.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Margriet Ganzeveld, Fred Trappenburg, Johan van
der Wal, Margot Stoete, and Rien Rabbers of GeoMedia, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht
University for assisting with the graphics and preparing the camera-ready copy.

Marcel van der Perk
Utrecht, April 2006

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