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Where the River Flows: Scientific Reflections on Earth's Waterways - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Where the River Flows: Scientific Reflections on Earth's Waterways

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The vital interconnections that rivers share with the land, the sky, and us

Rivers are essential to every aspect of civilization, from brewing beer to building computers, yet how many of us understand how they work? Where the River Flows takes you on a journey along our planet’s waterways, providing a scientist’s reflections on the profound interrelationships that rivers have with landscapes, ecosystems, and societies.

Drawing on examples ranging from backyard creeks to evocative rivers like the Mississippi, Yangtze, Thames, and Congo, Sean Fleming looks at rivers through the lens of physics, using abundant graphics and intuitive analogies to explore surprising connections between watershed hydrology and the world around us. He explains how river flows fluctuate like stock markets, what “digital rainbows” tell us about climate change and its effects on water, how building virtual watersheds in silicon may help avoid water wars, and more. Along the way, you’ll see what communications theory, fractals, artificial life, and other exciting scientific ideas reveal about the life of rivers.

ISBN-13: 9780691191829

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Publication Date: 08-06-2019

Pages: 216

Product Dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

Sean W. Fleming has two decades of international experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, ranging from oil exploration to operational river forecasting to glacier science. He operates a data science consultancy and holds faculty positions at the University of British Columbia and Oregon State University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“[Fleming] engenders a new appreciation for the waterways around us.”—Library Journal

“[A] deft primer.”—Barbara Kiser, Nature

“Fleming’s decades of experience shine through in this book. Abstract physics concepts feel more relevant when applied to concrete phenomena that readers can visualize.”—Laurel Hamers, Science News

“Where the River Flows offers a paradigm shift in understanding the rivers.”—Current Science

“Fleming’s style is colloquial and engages the reader quickly. . . . This small volume is a good buy for anyone with an enquiring mind about rivers or indeed about natural science in general.”—Colin Levings, Ormsby Review

“Extremely interesting and informative. Fleming makes difficult scientific concepts accessible to the layperson, and takes a very broad range of topics and shows how they are interconnected in so many ways.”—Karen C. Rice, University of Virginia

“Where the River Flows is distinctive and engaging. Fleming is skilled at explaining relatively complex ideas in simple and accessible language.”—Ellen Wohl, Colorado State University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Introduction 1

2 Why Rivers Are Where They Are 11

3 How Do Rivers Remember? 37

4 Clouds Talking to Fish: The Information Content of Rain 61

5 Searching for Buried Treasure 89

6 The Digital Rainbow 109

7 Landslides, Fractals, and Artificial Life 132

8 The Sky’s Not the Limit 149

9 The Hydrologist’s Final Exam: Watershed Modeling 168

10 Epilogue 183

Some References and Suggestions for Further Reading 189

Index 199