Meandering History, Future Potentials, and Picturing It All ydrology studies the movement and composition of surface water and groundwater in the environment. Naturally, studies concerning this broad-reaching discipline are housed in Environmental Science & Technology, including consideration of anthropogenic manipulation of water’s coursing. This is perhaps the oldest of infrastructural technologies, as the very subdiscipline of engineering most concerned with hydrology ensconces civilization in its name: ancient civil engineers aided the exponential rise in human population thanks to settlement along the banks of the Indus and the Ganges, the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Yangtze, and so many other ample sources of fertile and potable freshwater. The ebb and flow of waters drove development of the calendar, the ability to navigate and map, and the means to support and spread a global-spanning culture. Water is our most precious resource due to humanity’s historical, present, and future resourcefulness. Many modern tools have been developed to document water’s placement, composition, and intricate paths. When it comes to hydrological mapping and civil engineering, it is essential to know where water used to reside, lest diversion of water results in a catastrophic flood as a natural waterway returns to its druthers. Since such a preference is due to timespans long eclipsing human lifetimes, let alone modern investigatory methods, historical records of photography, sketches, almanacs, municipal documents, and even diaries can become vital sources of hydrological data. In another illustration of environmental technology’s multidisciplinarity, this means historians, archeologists, anthropologists, and other specialists of the past are valuable contributors to amassing hydrological studies. This issue’s cover Feature by Pastore et al. concerns efforts for the historical hydrology of Colonial America (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es102672c). Looking ever forward, ES&T has examples of how water is used, managed, and conceived of for modern times and future scenarios. Examples in this issue include the following: Grant and Sanders on devising a beach boundary layer model to facilitate understanding coastal processes and microbial blooms (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es101732m); Mahbub et al. on the urban hydrology issue of heavy metal runoff from roadways (Environ.
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10.1021/es103647z
2010 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 11/29/2010
Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es1012565); Zhao et al. on a model to calculate water footprints in a scenario involving trade of “virtual water” (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es100886r); and Veerman et al. on a new type of electricity generation by mixing different salinitiesshydropower via chemical, not gravitational, potential (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es1009345). At the noting of Zhao et al., the water footprint matter can be found in many biofuels articles in ES&T. To highlight this important topic, we have cocreated an online-only “Virtual Issue” on Biofuels with ACS sister journals Energy & Fuels and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found at http://pubs.acs.org/page/vi/ 2010/biofuels.html, also featuring a special Comment by Editor Schnoor (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es103446k). In closing, readers will note that the captivating cover imagery of an 18th century lithograph (housed in the John Carter Brown Library), illustrating Pastore et al.’s colonial hydrology, (http://pubs.acs.org/ toc/esthag/44/23) is visible in its full form in the issue’s electronic Table of Contents (TOC). Such TOC art will become mandatory for research Articles, Policy Analysis, and Critical Reviews, starting with submissions after January 1, 2011sit had been optional through 2010. In advance of our updated Instructions to Authors, please see more information on this change via (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es103646v). As noted there, TOC art is a perfect way to deliver your captivating imagery regardless of whether it makes its way to the journal’s “highlights box” or even a cover: Articles, Policy Analysis, and Critical Reviews have the capacity to display TOC art with the abstract in addition to the electronic TOC, and we are working on bringing that to online Features in addition to pdf versions. TOC art thus illustrates your high quality and high impact research to reach an audience beyond who you meet via slide presentations and poster sessions.
Darcy J. Gentleman Managing Editor*
[email protected].
December 1, 2010 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 8793
