man Jeffords say that preservation of agricultural land dwarfs the energy issue; that the world need for US food will increase, with benefits to the US balance of trade; and that unless the USA can feed itself ‘we will have lost 1 he real core of our economy, and our ability to have the lifestyle we have loday.’ (p 67) It is a salutary reproach lo British self-confidence in our poli- tical ingenuity to see criteria which one township developed for single- 1’amily housing in an agricultural zone (p 79). This represents real engage- ment with the facts and a will to consult public - and educated - opin-

ion. This is a kind of systematic effort

which is directly responsive to local Ieality and which assumes the matrix of ecodevelopment to be valid. The question is whether the developed countries can go along this path in an exemplary fashion and thus per-

suasively appeal to the developing world to follow, hand in hand.

M. R. Brett-Crowther

‘J.E. Lovelock, Gaia. ‘J. Black, The Dominion of Man: Search for Ecological Responsibility, Edinburgh University Press, 1970; R. Dubos, The Wooing of Earth, Althone, 1980. %mith and Spear, The Oxford History of India, Oxford University Press India, 1982, p 641. %lcTaggarl and McEachern, The City as a Centre of Change in Asia, Dwyer, 1972. ‘Senftleben, Geography and the Environ- ment in Southeast Asia, Hill and Bray, eds, 1978. ‘Deutsch, Ecosocial Systems and Ecopoli- tics, UNESCO, Unipup, 1977. 7Brown, Building a Sustainable Society, W.W. Norton, USA, 1982. ‘1. McHarg, Design with Nature, Natural Historv Press, 1969: J. Beraer. Johnson. Rose and Skaller, status 6haiacteristici and Social Interaction, Applied Science, 1977.

Nature and Norwav J

BASIS OF ACCOUNTS FOR NOR-

WAY’S NATURAL RESOURCES

edited by J. Lag

Universitetsfoclaget, Oslo, Norway, 7982, distributed in the UK by Global Book Resources, London

This book is a collection of 27 papers, presented at a symposium held in Oslo in April 1982 under the auspices of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Five of the papers deal with global resources and except for one paper on soil classification in Sweden, the remainder deal with the natural rzsources of Norway. The topics co- vered include forestry, pastures, fisheries, wildlife, land reclamation, oil and natural gas, coal, peat, hyd- roelectricity, new renewable energy sl,urces, metals and minerals. Indeed, the only notable omission is arable

land. As it is impossible to summarize the

contents of such a book in the space available, I shall confine myself to a few comments on the global papers and place some of the basic data on

LAND USE POLICY April 1984

the most important Norwegian re- sources in a global perspective.

Both R. Dudal and R.W. Simonson, in their respective papers, claim that the cultivable area of the world is over double the currently cultivated area of 1 450 million hectares (mha); Dudal cites a figure of 3 031 mha, Simonson 3 191 mha. Other estimates range from 2 500 mha to 3 400 mha. A considerable measure of scepticism is in order when considering such claims. The rate of increase of the arable area has been declining during the past three decades and is likely to decline further, mainly because of the loss of land from degradation and the en- croachments of housing and industry. The cost of bringing virgin soil into cultivation is much higher than that of increasing crop yields. In his introduc- tory paper, J. Lag mentions that the cost of creating new arable land in Norway by covering bare bedrock with soil obtained from a newly-laid road cut was 323 000 kroner (about f28 000) per hectare, and that ordin- ary land reclamation costs about one- tenth of this. Improved farming prac- tices, better seeds and increased use of

Book reviews

fertilizers and pesticides are cheaper than land reclamation; intensive cul- tivation of most of the present arable area would yield much more than extensive cultivation of a considerably augmented area.

K. Breirem’s paper on world agri- cultural production deals with the main factors which determine crop yields - climate, agricultural technolo- gy, chemical fertilizers and energy use. Using data cited, it can be calcu- lated that if the world arable area were cultivated using the same energy input per hectare as in the developed coun- tries in 1973, the energy input for cultivation would be the equivalent of over 800 million tons of oil per year, or 12% of world primary energy con- sumption in 1982. Plant cultivation in most countries, developing as well as developed, consumes 4-5% of the national energy supply; if this percen- tage cannot be exceeded, many de- veloping countries would have to in- crease their total energy consumption tenfold to reach the agricultural ener- gy input level of the developed coun- tries.

S. Nersten’s paper on world forest resources, cites statistics which are very approximate. The volume of standing timber in the closed forests of the world is estimated at 300 billion m3, and the roundwood cut in 1979 at 3 billion m3. The annual increment is unknown and the maximum sustain- able annual cut is uncertain. The paper by T. Lovseth on Norwegian forest resources gives data on area, age and type distribution, standing volume, increment and drain. Norwe- gian forests are in good shape; the stock has been increasing during the past half-century and was surveyed at 442 million m3 in 1964-76. The per capita stock is 107 m3, over 50% higher than the world average. The annual cut averages two thirds of the increment of 14.7 million m3; the per capita cut of over 2 m3 is about three times the world average.

The conclusion of F. Lied’s paper on Norwegian oil and natural gas resources is that proved reserves amount to the equivalent of 2.5 billion tons of oil and that speculative re- sources may well be several times larger. The proved oil and gas reserves

173

Book reviews

exceed the equivalent of 600 tons of oil per capita; the world average is 36 tons. Norwegian oil and gas produc- tion in 1982 was 11 tons oil equivalent per capita, 12 times the world average.

From the resource viewpoint, the most striking feature of Norway is its abundant hydropower, which accounts for 99.9% of its electricity production. The 92 TWh produced in 1982 corresponds to 22 000 kWh per capita, easily the world’s highest. In his paper on Norwegian hydropower, K. Baalsrud states that the economi- cally feasible hydro potential is 172 TWh, of which 104 TWh has been developed or approved for develop- ment and 11.5 TWh is permanently protected against development; for the balance a ‘master plan’ is being worked out. A proposal to limit de- velopment to 125 TWh is under dis- cussion. The world hydro potential is approximately 10 000 TWh; the 1 800 TWh of hydropower produced in 1982 provided 22% of the world’s electric- ity.

New sources of renewable energy in Norway comprise windpower, wave- power, biomass and solar heating; they are discussed in the paper by E. Paaske, from which the following data are taken. The technically feasible potentials of windpower and wave- power for the year 2020 are each assessed at 24 TWh per year, but

The human factor PROGRESS IN URBAN GEOGRAPHY

edited by Michael Pacione

Croom Helm, Beckenham, UK, 1983, 28 1 pp, f 16.95 hardback

PROGRESS IN RURAL GEOGRAPHY

edited by Michael Pacione

Croom Helm, Beckenham, UK, 1983, 253 pp, f 16.95 hardback

During the post-war period urban geography has grown as a major re- search and teaching interest in geogra-

because of the wide fluctuations in the output of these sources, their com- bined contribution cannot exceed 25 TWh, even after strengthening the grid by increasing the hydroelectric generating capacity. Production costs estimated in 1981 exceed the esti- mated system benefit for the year 2020; unless the production cost of windpower can be reduced to about half the 1981 level, and that of wave- power to one-fifth of the 1981 level, it is very unlikely that these sources will be developed to any significant extent.

The technologically exploitable biomass potential for the year 2020 is estimated at the equivalent of 2 mil- lion tons of oil, of which forest pro- ducts would provide 1.5 million, straw 0.2 million and manure 0.3 million. The corresponding figure for solar heating is 0.15 million tons, or 0.25 million with seasonal storage. Current estimates of production costs are too uncertain to be of much use.

The book is a valuable and compre- hensive survey, and can be highly recommended to anyone interested in the methodology of resource assess- ment and the magnitudes of the re- sources themselves in a country mak-

ing the very most of its endowment.

Bernard Gilland Espergaerde

Denmark

phy. Much is no doubt due to the increasing proportion of the world’s population that lives in cities and towns, a development which has forced the recognition of a trend with all its manifest problems not only in human geography but also in the related fields of sociology, economics, politics and planning. Since geog- raphers are by nature holistic rural geography has also emerged as a balancing sub-discipline in the last two decades.

The appearance of these two ‘Prog- ress’ books both edited by Michaael Pacione will be welcomed by those concerned with the problems of land use in either sphere: there will be few in this field who will fail to find

something of special interest whatever their particular specialization. Both books contain 10 chapters, each writ- ten by an expert, on the major themes and recent developments in urban and rural geography. An effort has been made to provide keynote statements backed up with detailed references across a wide spread of professional journals and less accessible reports.

Dissimilarity

Although similar themes appear in both books the overlap is not great, extending only to three chapters. It is the dissimilarity of the problems that beset the urban and rural scene that is perhaps the more remarkable. The ‘Housing Problem’ features in both, D.A. Kirby in the urban sector traces the growth of interest in housing problems, investigates demand and supply, and identifies themes which require further research in a complex web of land use values. developers, landlords, financial institutions and government. A.W. Rogers analyses housing in the rural sector and reviews the contemporary situation in western societies. He emphasizes that con- trasts in housing quality are related to social and economic conditions; spa- tial aspects and problems of recreation

and planning are also discussed. ‘Population and employment’ is

another theme appearing in both books. P.J. Bull in the urban chapters describes the shifts in employment away from major cities that have been a feature of the last two decades. The substitution of capital for labour and the flight from the inner city are seen as major problems for the future. The correlative chapter in the rural book is by A.W. Gilg where the impact of overspill, expanded villages, new towns and a continued decline in agricultural employment has produced new trends in the distribution of rural population and many problems in the urban fringe. ‘Transport’ is the third common theme. This is the lifeblood of cities and in the urban book is analysed by P.R. White. Differences in travel behaviour and the change in movement patterns over time are dis- cussed in relation to public and private transport: little hope emerges of re-

174 LAND USE POLICY April 1984