Page 13 - Soil and water contamination, 2nd edition

Preface to the second edition

It has been seven years since the first edition of this book, Soil and Water Contamination –
from molecular to catchment scale, was published. Although the fundamentals of contaminant
behaviour and transport have not changed much since then, considerable progress has been
made in understanding the catchment-scale processes controlling the spatial and temporal
patterns of contaminants. Therefore, the main changes in this second edition are in Chapters
16–18 (Part 4), which present case studies of spatial and temporal patterns of pollutants in
soil, groundwater, and surface water, respectively. Several new example studies that reflect the
new insights have been added to these chapters. In Part 2, new sections have been added
to cover additional contaminants and contaminant groups such as asbestos, nanomaterials,
selenium, and emerging substances of concern. Additionally, some figures have been updated
throughout the entire text to include more recent data where appropriate.

I am grateful to a number of people for their help, inspiration, and support during
the preparing of this second edition. First of all, I would like to thank my students who
provided helpful and constructive feedback. They identified and commented on minor
inconsistencies, errors, and typos in the previous edition and made suggestions for
improvements to the text. I would also like to re-thank my colleagues who helped me with
the first edition. In addition, I am grateful to Dr. Aaldrik Tiktak of the PBL Netherlands
Environmental Assessment Agency for supplying material used in this book. As with the first
edition, Dr. Joy Burrough-Boenisch (Unclogged English, Renkum, the Netherlands) advised
on the English, which I very much appreciate. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Drs. Ton
Markus, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University for drawing the new graphics in this
edition.

Marcel van der Perk
Utrecht, July 2013

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Soil and Water.indd XII
Soil and Water.indd XII 10/1/2013 6:44:03 PM