A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON AUSTRALIAN HYDROLOGY

Hydrology - An Australian introduction
Dr Tony Ladson, Sinclair Knight Merz

2008, ISBN: 9780195553581, 326pp, $89.95

Lecturers at Australian universities have always found it difficult to recommend an appropriate textbook to support their introductory hydrology courses. Hydrology textbooks by overseas authors may provide good coverage of universally applicable hydrologic principles but they tend not to cater for the specific practical requirements of Australian students. Some texts use non-SI units and terminology not in current usage in Australia, while techniques and models commonly applied by Australian practitioners get little or no coverage. Also, there is little or no reference to important Australian literature and guidelines. Dr Anthony Ladson’s book finally fills this gap.

As implied by the title, the book has a clear focus on hydrology and hydrologic practice in the Australian context. It acknowledges that Australia’s unique hydrological, geographical and cultural setting has spawned a strong community of hydrologic researchers and practitioners and led to the development of approaches and techniques specifically suited to Australia. While the book draws on important sources of hydrological theory and practice from both the Australian and international hydrology literature, the examples that help illustrate concepts and applications relate to Australian catchments.

This book is clearly intended as an introductory text, and uses appropriate language, illustrations and examples to introduce students to key concepts, relationships and approaches that form the basis of the techniques applied by practising hydrologists and water engineers in Australia. As the coverage concentrates on hydrologic processes, data and methods related to surface water hydrology, with groundwater hydrology getting only marginal coverage, a more accurate title would be “Surface Water Hydrology – An Australian Introduction”.

The first four chapters deal with the water cycle and its major components in the Australian context. Given that evaporation and evapotranspiration in various forms account for about 90% of the precipitation inputs over the Australian continent, it is not surprising that this component receives very detailed coverage. In these introductory chapters, considerable emphasis is placed on the role of data collection, data analysis and on the sources of hydrological data for use by practitioners.

The next four chapters deal with various aspects of flood estimation, ranging from the basic elements required to apply different forms of the “Rational Method” in urban and rural catchments, to the fundamentals of flood frequency analysis and the concepts applied in runoff routing models, which are widely used in Australia. This coverage is closely tied to Australian Rainfall and Runoff – a guide to flood estimation in Australia, but makes allowance for the fact that information on more frequent runoff events is now routinely required for water sensitive urban design (WSUD).

The final two chapters relate to the estimation of water yield in catchments and in simple water resource systems – they provide a link to more extensive coverage of water resource topics in other recent books on Australian water resources and their management.

The selection of material and the emphasis in the treatment of the different topics covered by the book reflects the interests and experience of the author as a lecturer in a civil engineering department and a practising engineering hydrologist with a passion for improving the environmental condition of Australian rivers.

Throughout the book there are useful links to web sites with more detailed information on specific topics. Additional resources, such as data sets and Excel spreadsheets for procedures described in the book, reside on a password-protected website accessible to lecturers and students purchasing the book.

While the primary purpose of the book is to serve as an introduction to hydrology for undergraduate students, the book also provides a rich source of information for practitioners to update their knowledge with recent information. Each chapter is supplemented by some suggestions for further reading and by an extensive list of references.

Reviewed by Erwin Weinmann editor of the Australian Journal of Water Resources and honorary associate of the department of civil engineering, Monash University. First publsihed in Water Engineering Australia, vol. 2, no.2 April, 2008.