Types and Properties of Water in two volumes is a component of Encyclopedia of Water Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias.

These volumes deal with different parts of the hydrosphere and features of water as substance in its three phases. Natural water is one of the most important substances for the maintenance of life on our planet. The main part of the Earth's water is concentrated in the hydrosphere (oceans, lakes, streams, underground water), and in the cryosphere (all the snow and ice). The atmosphere and living organisms also contain water, but in minor quantities as compared to the whole hydrosphere. Several types of water are in the Nature: atmospheric water, water in oceans, seas, coastal zones, and estuaries; in rivers, reservoirs, lakes and wetlands; groundwater including soil waters; glaciers, icebergs, and ground ice (permafrost). This set of volumes is designed to be a very authoritative reference for state-of-the-art knowledge on the various aspects such as: Characteristics of Water and Water Bodies in the Natural Environment; Properties of Atmospheric Water; Properties of Oceans, Inland Seas, Coastal Zones, and Estuaries; Properties of Rivers, Streams, Lakes and Wetlands; Properties of Soil Water and Groundwater; Properties Of Glacial, Iceberg And Permafrost Water.

These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Editor(s) Biography

Academician Martin Gaykovich Khublaryan, born in Georgia on March 5 1935, has been Director of the Water Problems Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences since 1988. He has also served as Chief of the Laboratory of Theoretical Problems of Water Protection; Deputy Director, Chief of the Laboratory of Modeling Hydrophysical Processes; Chief of the laboratory at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Hydrotechniques and Reclamation; and Senior Scientist at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Natural Gas. He was elected a full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1994, and has been a member of the Working Group of the International Hydrological Program (from1989), the Russian National Committee for International Association of Hydraulic Research (since 1987), and the American Institute of Hydrology(President of its Russian section, 1991). He studied at the Armenian Agricultural Institute, Department of Hydrotechniques and Reclamation, and served as a scientist at the Institute for Power and Hydraulics of the Academy of Sciences of Armenian Republic, and as an engineer at the Erevanproekt Institute (Armenia). In 1964 he was a Candidate of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics), Institute of Mechanics, USSR Academy of Sciences, subsequently attaining a Doctorate in Engineering at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for Hydrotechniques and Reclamation in 1975. He was appointed Professor in 1992. Professor Khublaryan’s publications include Water Streams: Models of Flow and Quality Surface Water (Moscow, Nauka, 1991, Water Pollution and its Consequences in the Former USSR, Pollution Knows No Frontiers (New York, PWPA, 1992), Basic Problems in Protection of Natural Waters, and Water Management AND Protection (AIH, 1993). among more than 150 other publications.He is married with two daughters. His interests include painting, classical music, chess, and memoirs.