I read this book while in the process of taking a class called "Issuses in Aquatic Issues". I felt that the book is a detailed overview of problems that are with todays water quality. It was a book that delt with issues such as water quality management, land effects, pollution effects, ag./farm land usage, groundwater, hydrologic cycles and wetlands. (to mention just a few) The book was written to an easy readers level, but the chapters dragged with examples to prove points. I used this book as a textbook, yet this book would be ok to the average reader who is intersted in this field. Like i said, it is an overview of major issues in aqutic ecology. This book contains many many examples from reasearchs done in this field of study. Which i feel was the strong point of the book. The biggest weakness is that most of the issues encompass the same problems and yet it seems redunant at times. All in all i rated this book as a 4 because i enjoyed the book, it was easy to read and easy to understand without much experience in this field. But i found myself losing concentration at times, and being loss in the many examples. So it loss a point for that in my book