Concerns about the quality and availability of water resources grow as urban and agricultural demand increases and the climate changes. In response this book advocates an inter-disciplinary approach that marries ecology and hydrology as ‘ecohydrology’ – a sub-discipline of hydrology dealing with ecological aspects of the water cycle.

The first chapter explains the background to ecohydrology and the structure of the book: Chapters 2–7 deal with hydrological and chemical drivers of aquatic systems; Chapters 8–10 concern ecological impacts of natural and modified flows; Chapters 11–14 present integrated ecohydrological analyses of catchments and river basins; and Chapters 14–16 address past, present and future challenges.

The 30 authors illustrate their chapters with conceptual diagrams, maps, figures and tables. Chapters are interspersed with models, which are also the subject of a chapter specifically addressing the risks and benefits of ecohydrological models. A 62-page compilation of up-to-date references completes the book.

On the whole the quality of the chapters is high; the chapter on ecohydrology driving a tropical savanna ecosystem merits special mention as a clear and succinct analysis of the interactions of hydrology and ecology in a defined area – the Serengeti National Park.

This book is a valuable resource for researchers in the fields of both hydrology and ecology and will play a key role in the evolution of inter-disciplinary approaches to water resource issues. Given the widespread human impacts on aquatic ecology and water flows, the next logical step should be the more explicit integration of human ecology into the disciplinary mix.