Fluid Mechanics of Environmental Interfaces

The second edition of this successful textbook still focusses on the concept of "environmental interface". An environmental interface is defined as a surface between two abiotic or biotic systems, in relative motion and exchanging mass, heat and momentum through biophysical and/or chemical processes. These processes fluctuate temporally and spatially. The book first treats exchange processes occurring at the interfaces between atmosphere and the surface of the sea, and atmosphere and land surface. These exchanges include the effect of vegetation, transport of dust and dispersion of passive substances within the atmosphere. Processes at the environmental interfaces of freshwater, such as gas-transfer at free-surfaces of rivers, advective diffusion of air bubbles in turbulent water flows and boundary-layers phenomena in vegetated open channels are also described. Finally, the book deals with the phenomena that affect transport of material to and from the surface of an organism, including molecular and turbulent diffusion. The relevant issues related to mass transfer to and from benthic plants and animals are further considered in detail.

In this second edition, chapters are updated and five new chapters have been added to make the coverage of the subject area complete. The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in environmental sciences, civil engineering and environmental engineering, (geo)physics, atmospheric science, meteorology, limnology, oceanography, and applied mathematics.

Carlo Gualtieri is currently Assistant Professor in Environmental Hydraulics at the Hydraulic, Geotechnical and Environmental Engineering Department (DIGA) of the University of Napoli Federico II. He received a B.Sc. in Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Napoli Federico II, where he also received a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering. Prof. Gualtieri published 102 peer reviewed scientific papers, including 25 publications in scientific journals, 53 papers in conference proceedings, and 24 other refereed publications in subjects related to environmental hydraulics and computational environmental fluid mechanics, with over 80 papers, experimental investigations of two-phase flows, water supply networks management and environmental risk. He is co-author of 2 textbooks on Hydraulics and author of a textbook on Environmental Hydraulics. He co-edited the books Fluid Mechanics of Environmental Interfaces (Taylor & Francis, 2008) and Advances in Environmental Fluid Mechanics (World Scientific, 2010). Since 2006 he is a member of the Editorial Board of Environmental Modelling and Software (Elsevier) and since 2008 of Environmental Fluid Mechanics (Springer). He contributed as reviewer to several scientific journals (e.g. Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Environmental Modeling and Software, Journal of Environmental Engineering ASCE, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering ASCE, Journal of Hydraulic Research, Experiments in Fluids, Advances in Water Resources, Water Resources Research, etc.) and as external examiner for Ph.D. thesis in foreign countries. He is co-organizer of the Environmental Fluid Mechanics session at the International Environmental Modelling & Software Society (iEMSs) biennial conferences since 2004. He is also active as expert reviewer for research funding agencies in several countries. He is member of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) and of the iEMSs.

Dragutin T. Mihailovic is Professor of Meteorology and Biophysics at the Department of Vegetable and Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. He is also Professor of Modelling Physical Processes at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences at the same university and Visiting Professor at the State University of New York at Albany, NY (USA). He teaches various theoretical and numerical meteorology courses to Physics and Agriculture students. He received a B.Sc. in Physics at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, his M.Sc. in Dynamic Meteorology at the University of Belgrade and defended his Ph.D. Thesis in Dynamic Meteorology at the University of Belgrade. He is head of the Center for Meteorology and Environmental Modelling (CMEM) which is the part of the Association of Centers for Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Studies (ACIMSI) of the University of Novi Sad where he has teaching activities. He is also head of the Center for Meteorology and Environmental Predictions, Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. His main research interests are the surface processes and boundary layer meteorology with application to air pollution modelling and agriculture. Recently, he has developed an interest for (i) analysis of occurrence of the deterministic chaos at environmental interfaces and (ii) modeling the complex biophysical systems using the category theory and nonlinear dynamics. He has over 60 articles in international peer-reviewed journals; 405 citations in SCI journals; edited 4 books (Taylor & Francis, World Scientific, Nova Science Publishers); 15 invited lectures in worldwide institutions and universities and 4 plenary talks.