Hydrogeology: Principles and Practice

According to the National Science Foundation–funded Cutting Edge Project: Professional Development for Geology Faculty (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/index.html), a 2005 survey of 74 faculty respondents found that a majority, 59 percent, chose Applied Hydrogeology (Fetter, 2001) as their text for general hydrogeology; 19 percent used Fundamentals of Groundwater (Schwartz and Zhang, 2002); and the remaining respondents, 22 percent, assigned a scattering of other texts or a combination of texts. It would seem safe to assume that the above texts also enjoy a wide distribution among practicing professional hydrogeologists, although more experienced geoscientists may still favor previous texts, such as Domenico and Schwartz (1998) and the venerable Groundwater (Freeze and Cherry, 1979). Now entering the fray is a new text, Hydrogeology: Principles and Practice, by Kevin Hiscock (2005). The text is organized in a conventional manner, including introductory chapters on the hydrologic cycle and physical and chemical hydrogeology. The author appears to assume that readers have been exposed—or will be exposed elsewhere—to principles of surface hydrology, …