Slope morphology / Морфология склона

Slopes have been a favorite subject for research by geomorphologists for many years, but they have also been intensively studied by agricultural and civil engineers, and by soil conservationists. As a result an extremely diverse literature is available; papers range from the purely descriptive to highly theoretical, from the wholly academic to the rigorously practical. The editors, therefore, were faced with a vast range of many hundreds of publications dealing wholly or partly with slopes, from which 32 have been selected.
The study of hillslope form and evolution may, under ideal conditions, be a simple process, and this is the situation in rapidly evolving badlands. However, in most cases lithology, structure, and geologic history considerably complicate the interpretation of slopes. The effects of climatic change, especially during the Pelis-tocene and Holocene, and of tectonic movements have left their mark, but their precise influence on hillslope form is frequently unknown. More recently, man has become capable of affecting the operation of geomorphic processes by clearing wood and scrubland for agriculture and introducing grazing animals. It is extremely difficult to decide, without a thorough historical study, whether the vegetation presently found in an area is the natural climax vegetation, or whether it has been modified by man’s activities. If the present vegetation cover is substantially different from that in the past, then present rates of erosion and processes of slope evolution may also be very different. <...>