Environmental fluid mechanics: Current issues and future outlook

Abstract

© 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK. All rights reserved. All forms of life on earth are immersed in a fluid or another, either the air of the atmosphere or the water of a river, lake or ocean; even, soils are permeated with moisture. So, it is no exaggeration to say that life, including our own, is bathed in fluids. A slightly closer look at the situation further reveals that it is the mobility of fluids that actually makes them so useful to the maintenance of life, both internally and externally to living organisms. For example, it is the flow of air that our lungs that supplies oxygen to our blood stream. The forced air flow created by our respiration, however, is not sufficient; without atmospheric motion around us, we would choke sooner or later in our own exhaust of carbon dioxide. Likewise, most aquatic forms of life rely on the natural transport of water for their nutrients and oxygen. Our industrial systems, which release pollution on a continuing basis, would not be permissible in the absence of transport and dilution of nearly all emissions by ambient motions of air and water.