Rating: 
Summary: Most complete book I've seen on this subject and very good
Review: I work for a consulting firm in New York and hold an M.S. degree in envirnomental engineering. I've had several classes in this field and currently own several books that are closely related to unsaturated zone hydrology and contaminant transport. These include five books by Daniel Hillel "Introduction To Soil Physics"; "Applications of Soil Physics"; and "Fundamentals of Soil Physics"; "Environmental Soil Physics"; "Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil"; Also, "Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media (J. Baer); "Soil Physics, 5th Edition" (Jury); "Soil Physics . . . by Don Scott, and a myriad of others.The "Introduction to Soil Physics by Hillel is a composite of his "Fundamentals- and "Applications-of Soil Physics" books. It appears that about half of each book was combined to comprise the "Introduction of Soil Physics" book, an easy way to write a book. While I enjoy Hillel's Environmental Soil Physics book, there is nothing new about it and it appears that this book, which is his newest, is the "Introduction to Soil Physics" book with additional text added from his "Out of the Earth ..." book. The problem sets are all the same and much of the text. My guess is he rewrote this book from two others as described above. To get to the point, of all the books that I own, the new book that I have purchased by Tindall and Kunkel, i.e., "Unsaturated Zone Hydrology ..." is my favorite. It is a complete reference, great for a student, and wonderful for teaching as well. It doesn't just assume that you are an expert in the field, but takes you step by step so that the new student can grasp the complexity of unsaturated zone hydrology and soil physics, and at the same time offers new methods and information for us that are already working in this area. This book is now about the only one I use. I have a copy on my desk and keep one in my truck for ready reference on the job site. I love it and would highly advise others to purchase it. It's the best.
Rating:
Summary: Good text on vadose zone hydrology.
Review: It is my impression as a soil physics professor that these authors have done an excellent job in presenting the concepts and principles necessary for assisting the reader or student in mastering the subject of soil physics. I teach in a traditional department and have found that for the past several years, my class is composed of more students from environmental study areas whose goal is to learn about methods for characterizing and studying unsaturated zone hydrology. Tindall and Kunkel have an obvious grasp on these changes as is evidenced by the title of their book and the manner in which the material is presented. This new text is environmental in approach and can be used by students and professionals in many fields of study. Rather than a simple reiteration of soil physics, Tindall and Kunkel have written their text using a new approach. The text includes new material and chapters not found in previous texts including hazardous waste site characterization and case studies, use of fractals in vadose zone science, bioremediation, discussion of LNAPLs and DNAPLs, as well as many other topics. Not only are these covered in detail, but questions are presented so that the reader is allowed to develop confidence in solving problems. Appendices are included which describe site characterization and monitoring devices as well as challenges associated with their selection and use. There is a math review for those students who come from non-traditional fields of study or those who are simply rusty in their math ability. A list of symbols and unit conversion tables are also included at the end of the text. In essence, the authors of this book have done an outstanding job covering the typical problems encountered in this field. Example problems are given in the text with answers at the end of each chapter along with additional questions. These additional questions are solved in an instructor's manual available to course instructors. Some problems may be too advanced for introductory students; however, the text can be easily adapted for an introductory or advanced course. I used this text during the Fall 1998 semester and have reordered it for the Fall 1999 semester. Not only did I enjoy the text, but my students enjoyed it as well. The book is complete, up-to-date, and well written. I heartily recommend this text to instructors of soil physics as well as professionals in the environmental industry who require a good reference text.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid Text
Review: Like calculus, unsaturated zone hydrology can only be made so easy. As a soils professor and instructor of this subject, I have waited for 20 years for a text of this sort to come along. It gives me the flexibility to teach both undergraduate and graduate classes. For the students there are many worked examples and for the instructors a great manual that you can order separately. I get the best of both worlds and the students have what is in my opinion, the finest text and reference in this field. Many kudos to the authors for a job well done!
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding book that is very well written.
Review: This book does an outstanding job of presenting the concepts and principles used in dealing with unsaturated zone transport problems. It uses an environmental approach of the problems found in this field of study and is ideally suited as both a teaching and reference text. I find this book superior to others such as "Soil Physics" by Jury, Gardner, Gardner; "Environmental Soil Physics" by Hillel (including the other 3 soil physics books by Hillel), "Vadose Zone Hydrology" by Stephens, and several others. Indeed, when compared to the books listed by Jury, et al., and Hillel, this book contains more information and is superior to both of them if combined together, i.e., "Soil Physics" and "Environmental Soil Physics." The text includes a wealth of information not found in other texts dealing with this subject. This includes hazardous waste site characterization, bioremediation of the vadose zone, LNAPL's and DNAPL's, an excellent treatment of modeling water, solute, and vapor movement in the unsaturated zone, use of fractals in unsaturated zone studies, and other topics. I enjoyed several major points of this text. First, in addition to a detailed coverage of the topics, questions are asked within various sections of each chapter, and answers to these questions are given at the end of the chapter to reinforce learning skills by the student. Second, in addition to the answered questions, more questions are given to which there are no answers. However, answers to these questions are given in a separate solutions manual available to the instructor. Third, rather than a theoretical text, the book has an excellent blend of both practical and theoretical information. Fourth, I really like the appendices that cover site characterization and monitoring devices, a mathematics review that has questions with answers given in the solutions manual, and one of the most complete set of conversion tables I have ever seen. Finally, this book should be considered as a pre-programed self-learning tool that will serve the student, instructor, and consultant very well. If you are an instructor and desire a book that has a logical topic progression of unsaturated zone hydrology, and if you want a book the students will love, that will not only promote learning, but will ease your teaching time commitment, this is the book for you. Whether you teach soil physics, unsaturated zone hydrology, or fracture flow, the information you need is here. If you are a consultant, practicing scientist, or an engineer that needs a complete reference for this field, this text is it! The preface even lists the author contact. This book is easy to use, reasonably priced, and extremely well written, I only wish I had access to this text when I studied unsaturated zone hydrology. I now use this book as a reference for unsaturated zone studies, and even though I obtained my copy in late 1998, it has been very useful. I commend the authors for such a fine work. Kenneth J. Lull, Hydrologist, United States Geological Survey
Rating: 
Summary: 4.5 stars? You have got to be kidding me.
Review: Without question, this book is useful to professional vadose zone scientists as a refrence. I'll even go so far as to say it's the least-bad unsaturated zone book on the market. It scores points for being comprehensive and thorough. The book also looks nice and has good diagrams. Many of us have it on our book shelves here at work. I find myself referring to it occasionally, years after I first studied the text in grad school.
BUT
After *extensive* study of this text, I hate it. It is very hard to follow for even the sharpest of grad students / hydrologists. For instance, the index of symbols has over 500 entries (thank god there is an index). I found the explanations to be "on a different level" from 95% of the audience of the book, which severely limits its usefulness. This is no "Freeze and Cherry" textbook. And no, I'm no dummy who got frustrated w/ the content and gave up on it - I took Dr. Tindall's unsaturated zone course, persevered, and recieved an A for my efforts. <It's a decent, and intense course BTW> Once again, the book is good for a refrence if you already know your unsaturated zone science, but forget trying to learn unsat zone hydrolgy from this text unless you have a great prof or 170 IQ. Looking at my book shelf, I have to put this text in the bottom 40%, 2 stars.
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