Part I: The Lakes: Approaches and Records of their Past and Present -- Chapter 1. Basin of Mexico and its lakes: Approaches and Research questions -- Chapter 2. Resources for Reconstructing the Ancient Lakes -- Chapter 3. Geographic Context and the Modern Environment -- Chapter 4. Geological Evolution of the Lacustrine Basins -- Chapter 5. Recent Sediments and Landforms -- Chapter 6. Lacustrine Change in the Late Quaternary -- Part II The lakes: Geography and Environmental Dynamics -- Chapter 7. A Geographic Sketch of the Historic Lakes -- Chapter 8. Models of Lacustrine Dynamics and Environments -- Chapter 9. Cultural Features in the Lacustrine Realm -- Chapter 10. Models of Lacustrine Features and Settlement Development -- PART III Lacustrine Systems in the Evolution of Civilization -- Chapter 11. From the Upper Pleistocene to the Agricultural Beginnings -- Chapter 12. The Lakes during the Agricultural Era -- Chapter 13. Late Aztec Settlement, Hydraulic Management, and Environment -- Chapter 14. The Lakes after 1519: War, Floods, and Drainage -- Chapter 15. Lacustrine Systems and Societies in the Basin of Mexico.

This book is a review of research on the prehistoric and historic evolution of the Basin of Mexico's lacustrine systems since prehistoric times. Based on this review, the book presents a model of long and short-term natural lacustrine dynamics as the basis for understanding the processes of human adaptation and transformation of the lacustrine ecosystems of the Basin of Mexico. Although only remains of the former lakes exist, the book stresses the importance of the former lacustrine basins in areas of natural and cultural heritage. Many misconceptions and misinterpretations of the lakes exist due to little interdisciplinary work regarding the natural dynamics of the lakes and their control by human societies that affect our historical knowledge of the lacustrine systems that once existed in the Basin of Mexico. Therefore, the book attempts to not only feed into the local knowledge of the lakes, but also contribute to the worldwide knowledge of lacustrine dynamics and human populations that lived in and around them. The book will be of interest to geographers, geologists, archaeologists, natural historians and environmental scientists, and will be of further use to civil engineers who work on the problems of structural foundations and redesigning problems with flooding.