Western Water A to Z
392 pages, 6 x 9
216
Paperback
Release Date:20 Jan 2023
ISBN:9781646423279
Western Water A to Z
The History, Nature, and Culture of a Vanishing Resource
University Press of Colorado
Western Water A to Z is the first ever field guide to Western water. Reinventing this twentieth-century genre for a twenty-first-century audience, Robert R. Crifasi answers questions about rivers, water projects, the culture of water, the ecosystems water projects have created or destroyed, and the reliance of cities, farms, and industries on this critical resource.
Organized as a collection of terms, the book addresses the most salient water issues and provides helpful background information regarding their origins and implications. Photographs serve a vital role in the cultural dialogue on water and stand as an equal partner to the text. Each subject is covered in about one page and is accompanied by one or two striking images from famous photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Carleton E. Watkins, Arthur Rothstein, William Henry Jackson, and Dorothea Lang as well as Crifasi’s own work. Water often finds itself at the center of our cultural discourse in art, cinema, and literature, which play essential roles in shaping our understanding and experience of Western water. Crifasi also engages personalities that are nearly synonymous with Western water—John Wesley Powell, Elwood Mead, and Floyd Dominy, among others—to show how their lives intertwined with and often influenced the course of water development across the region.
Travelers, adventurers, students, and anyone interested in water will find Western Water A to Z a handy and entertaining reference guide.
Organized as a collection of terms, the book addresses the most salient water issues and provides helpful background information regarding their origins and implications. Photographs serve a vital role in the cultural dialogue on water and stand as an equal partner to the text. Each subject is covered in about one page and is accompanied by one or two striking images from famous photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Carleton E. Watkins, Arthur Rothstein, William Henry Jackson, and Dorothea Lang as well as Crifasi’s own work. Water often finds itself at the center of our cultural discourse in art, cinema, and literature, which play essential roles in shaping our understanding and experience of Western water. Crifasi also engages personalities that are nearly synonymous with Western water—John Wesley Powell, Elwood Mead, and Floyd Dominy, among others—to show how their lives intertwined with and often influenced the course of water development across the region.
Travelers, adventurers, students, and anyone interested in water will find Western Water A to Z a handy and entertaining reference guide.
A unique view of water resources in the West . . . enlightening and engaging.’
—Tom Cech, One World One Water Center for Urban Water Education and Sustainability at Metropolitan State University
‘Delightfully readable. . . diverse audiences from general readers to university students will find plenty to enjoy here.’
—CHOICE
'Crifasi writes to a general audience, especially members of the public who are interested in water and the American West. As an environmental scientist, he excels in writing clear explanations for concepts and technologies used in the field of water management.’
—Utah Historical Quarterly
Robert R. Crifasi works in water management and planning and is an environmental scientist with more than twenty-five years of experience. He has worked as an environmental planner with Denver Water; served as the water resources administrator for the City of Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks Department, where he was on the board of directors of eleven ditch companies; and was the president of several Boulder Valley ditches. He is an award-winning photographer and the author of A Land Made from Water.
