Praise for the book ...This text would make a valuable reference book for anyone working with soils in an environment context. The undertaking of this book by the author greatly serves a new age of environmental soil scientist. Environmental awareness is at its highest level ever and it is nice to have a leading scientist in his field cater to pertinent issues. This is a fine example of traditional subject matter being modernized to address current and relevant global issues. --Guy Prettyman, Ohio State University, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, 11-12/99 GENERAL DESCRIPTION Written by an eminent scientist known for his seminal contributions to the field and for his definitive publications, Environmental Soil Physics is a comprehensive, fundamental, and accessible guide to the physical principles and processes governing the behavior of soil and its vital role in both natural and managed ecosystems. Based on sound theory and practical field experience, the book describes the soil as a central link in the continuous chain that constitutes the terrestrial environment: a medium that generates and sustains life, while serving to recycle waste products. It reveals how the functioning of the soil can be affected--for better or worse--by human action. Environmental Soil Phyics defines and describes the dynamic cycles of energy, water, solids, solutes, mineral, gases, and living organisms in the soil. It is self-contained and self-explanatory, with numerous illustrations and sample problems, up-to-date references, and relevance to real-world conditions. KEY FEATURES Updates and expands the scope of Hillel's prior works, Fundamentals of Soil Physics (1980) and Applications of Soil Physics (1980) Explores the wide range of interactions among the phases in the soil and the dynamic interconnections of the soil with the subterranean and atmospheric domains Draws attention to historical and contemporary issues concerning the human management of soil and water resources Directs readers toward solution of practical problems in terrestrial ecology, field-scale hydrology, agronomy, and civil engineering Includes contributions by leading scientists in the areas of soil remediation, spatial variability, and the inclusion of land-surface processes in global climate models CONTENTS: Part I: Basic Relationships. Part II: The Solid Phase. Part III: The Liquid Phase. Part IV: The Gaseous Phase. Part V: Composite Phenomena. Part VI: The Field Water Cycle. Part VII: Soil-Plant-Water Relations. Part VIII: Appendices. Bibliography. Index.