Topography is at once a fundamental and a subtle environmental factor. It wields large and small influences over all other factors of the ecosphere -climate, water storage and movement, soils, animals and plants, and human activities. Several conspicuous topographic influences are well known. Most readers will be aware that a hike up a mountain is the climatic equivalent of a trek from a lower to a higher latitude. They will also be familiar with the stark climatic and botanical contrasts between northfacing and south-facing slopes in the European Alps. Subtle influences are not so well known but are equally significant.

Our purpose in writing this book is to examine time, one of the central themes of geomorphology, in an attempt to provide an overall framework within which to consider and compare old and new approaches to the subject. We include, therefore, in the discussion reviews of the qualitative model-building approach of the pre-1950s, the empirical, observation, process measurement and field measurement technique of the 1960s, and currently fashionable analytical modelling.

В монографии рассматриваются состояние и возможности применения морфологического анализа обломочных частиц, методика сбора материала и его обработки в условиях Забайкалья. На базе полученных связей между морфометрическими параметрами обломков и природными условиями проведено расчленение грубообломочных рыхлых толш.

This latest volume on Remote Sensing of Geomorphology edited by Paolo Tarolli and Simon Mudd gives a refreshing new look at a group of topics and processes that have greatly intrigued quite a number of scientists most interested in using new technologies to investigate the landforms of our home planet.

Геоморфологические исследования Лестера Кинга, профессора университета в Натале, уже давно приобрели известность. Этому в значительной степени способствовало то обстоятельство, что, начиная с первых своих работ, посвященных рассмотрению ряда геоморфологических явлений и процессов в различных странах южного полушария, Л. Кинг стремится к широким обобщениям при объяснении наблюдаемых им фактов. Не ограничиваясь данными, полученными в результате непосредственного изучения той или иной территории, он, как правило, привлекает большой материал о рельефе других районов, зачастую, на первый взгляд, совершенно несходных с районом полевых исследований.

A geomorphic hazard results from any landform change that adversely affects the geomorphic stability of a site (Schumm, 1988) and that intersects the human use system with adverse socioeconomic impacts (White, 1974).

This book is about the study of landforms, a science commonly called geomorphology or physiography, and it differs from almost all other books on the subject in the vast time-scale that is considered.