Fluid Mechanics of Environmental Interfaces

About this book

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.

Contents

Preface 1. Environmental fluid mechanics: Current issues and future outlook Part one--Processes at atmospheric interfaces 2. Point source atmospheric diffusion 3. Air--sea interaction 4. Modelling of flux exchanges between heterogeneous surfaces and atmosphere 5. Desert dust uptake--transport and deposition mechanisms--impacts of dust on radiation, clouds and precipitation Part two--Processes at water interfaces 6. Gas-transfer at unsheared free surfaces 7. Advective diffusion of air bubbles in turbulent water flows Part three--Processes at interfaces of biotic systems 8. Transport processes in the soil-vegetation-lower atmosphere system 9. Turbulence within the forest canopy 10. Vegetated flow in open channels 11. Mass transport in aquatic environments

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Biography

Carlo Gualtieri is currently Assistant Professor in Environmental Hydraulics at the Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering Department G. Ippolito of the University of Napoli Federico II. He received a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at the University of Napoli Federico II. Prof. Gualtieri has published 85 peer-reviewed scientific papers: 15 in scientific journals; 40 in conference proceedings, and 26 other refereed publications in subjects related to environmental hydraulics and computational environmental fluid mechanics. He is co-author of 2 textbooks on Hydraulics and author of a textbook on Environmental Hydraulics. He is member of the Editorial Board of Environmental Modelling and Software (Elsevier), where he serves as Manuscript Editor for Environmental Fluid Mechanics area. He is a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the EU project RRP-CMEP, of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering & Research (IAHR). Dragutin T. Mihailovic is Professor of Meteorology and Biophysics at the Department of Vegetables 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. He teaches various theoretical and numerical meteorology courses to students in Physics and Agriculture. He received his M.Sc. in Dynamics Meteorology at the University of Belgrade and defended his Ph.D. Thesis in Dynamics Meteorology at the University of Belgrade. He is head of the Center for Meteorology and Environmental Modelling (CMEM) which is part of the Association of Centers for Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Studies (ACIMSI) of the University of Novi Sad where he has teaching activities. His main research interests are surface processes and boundary layer meteorology with application to air pollution modeling and agriculture.