298 Book Reviews

Dictionary of Hydrology and Water Resources, by Gordon Stanger, Flinders Press,

South Australia, 1994, 228 pp., paperback, A$30.00, ISBN 064-620-7415.

It is a pleasure to welcome a dictionary with a difference, being almost pocket-sized

and specifically centred on hydrology in its broadest sense. The author provides just
over 2000 definitions and with many of them a brief interpretation.
The foreword explains that his objectives have been to be cheap and user-friendly,
noting that “Meaning of words vary in time and place, such that definitive entries are
often impossible”. Nevertheless, few readers will feel dissatisfied with his achievement.
A recent request across my desk was for a published definition of ‘hydrometry’; it
proved impossible with standard library references. However, Stanger neatly gives his
own “The science and practice of water measurement, especially of surface and pipe
flow”. It is not obvious whether all of his definitions are original, refined from others
or merely collated.
Instead of giving source references there is a general reading list of 200 books which
is grouped into 18 subsidiary subjects. This list could be improved, e.g. Chow’s 1964
Handbook of Applied Hydrology is listed rather than Maidment’s 1993 successor
Handbook of Hydrology for the same publisher. Nine pages are devoted to acronyms
but this is only touching the tip of the iceberg; while useful, the reader should not
expect it to reach the high standards of the dictionary.
By definition this is not an exciting book. Nevertheless, for a modest price this text
is well worth acquiring by any active professional with work tasks that may range
from aquifer development to river pollution. It comes with a list of 45 well-known
computer programs; this is tantalising as it does not say how any of them can be
tracked down to the code provider.
The author’s background is Australian after British beginnings. This is helpful in
giving access to a range of arid, temperate and even cold region terms. There are fewer
unnecessary words than might have been expected. The old faithfuls can be found but
who would have expected words with Scrabble value such as ‘coquina’, ‘micelle’ and
‘vrulje’.
Many a report requires a new glossary to be compiled. Perhaps the author will
consider a floppy disk version of this book to enable future glossary compilation by
others to be accelerated.

FRANK M. LAW
(Wallingford, UK)