Book excerpt: This volume contains the lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute that took place at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, July 18-27, 1982. The purpose of this Institute was to provide an international forum for exchange of ideas and dissemination of knowledge on some selected topics in Mechanics of Fluids in Porous Media. Processes of transport of such extensive quantities as mass of a phase, mass of a component of a phase, momentum and/or heat occur in diversified fields, such as petroleum reservoir engineer ing, groundwater hydraulics, soil mechanics, industrial filtration, water purification, wastewater treatment, soil drainage and irri gation, and geothermal energy production. In all these areas, scientists, engineers and planners make use of mathematical models that describe the relevant transport processes that occur within porous medium domains, and enable the forecasting of the future state of the latter in response to planned activities. The mathe matical models, in turn, are based on the understanding of phenomena, often within the void space, and on theories that re late these phenomena to measurable quantities. Because of the pressing needs in areas of practical interest, such as the develop ment of groundwater resources, the control and abatement of groundwater contamination, underground energy storage and geo thermal energy production, a vast amount of research efforts in all these fields has contributed, especially in the last t~o decades, to our understanding and ability to describe transport phenomena.