86 BOOK REVIEWS

such things) then it is clear that the target storage of 1-2 per cent of global precipitation in inland basins would only alleviate sea-level rise by less than 15 mm. Further- more, those authors who tackle head-on the reality of large-scale intra-continental water transfer to large in- land basins-in Australia, Israel and north Africa- document the vulnerability of such schemes to the dramatic environmental fluctuations defined earlier and report the largely unforeseen problems of water-table lowering, salinization and seawater intrusion into groundwater aquifers. The final conclusions, that small- scale schemes of surface runoff capture and groundwater

recovery might offer more appropriate solutions to wa- ter-deficiency, shifts the debate into questions of the economic development of drylands, questions dealt with more thoroughly, and more accessibly, elsewhere.

REFERENCE

Newman, W. S. and Fairbridge, R. W. 1986. ‘The management of sea level rise’, Nature 320, 319-321.

T. SPENCER Rethymno, Cre te

COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS by R. W. G. Carter, Aca- demic Press, London, 1989. No. of pages: xv + 617. Paperback price: f19.50. ISBN 0-12-161856-0.

With the notable exceptions of the contributions of Komar (1976) and Pethick (1984), the ‘small drainage basin’ dominated years of the 1970s and early 1980s were lean times for the coastal geomorphology text. However, recent years have seen a flurry of coastal books and compilations, due at least in part to the combination of increased human pressures on fragile coastal ecosystems and to a growing dissatisfaction with ‘hard‘ engineering solutions to coastal problems, all set against the back- drop of potential greenhouse gas-induced sea-level rise. Of these contributions, Carter’s ‘Coastal Environments’, first published in 1988 and now in paperback, must feature in the first rank.

The book’s subtitle, ‘An Introduction to the Physical, Ecological and Cultural Systems of Coastlines’, neatly defines the ambitious scope of the volume. Chapters 2 to 6 lead from discussions of wave and tidal processes through shoreline morphodynamics to the long-term development of coasts and the role of sea-level change. This nesting of scales is tackled seriously (this is certainly not ‘Beaches and Coasts’) and it is excellent to see the morphodynamics of coarse clastic beaches dealt with properly in a coastal textbook. Chapters 7 to 9 cover subtidal and beach ecosystems, coastal sand dunes and wetlands, dealing most thoroughly with dunes and more sketchily with the other two environments (where, for example, Mann’s (1982) text perhaps provides a more useful framework). Chapters 10 to 14 tackle the manage-

ment of coastal waters and their margins, ecosystems and hazards. This is emphatically not, as the author points out in his Preface, the typical management chapter after- thought of many textbooks.

At over 250 figures, 600 pages and 1500 references (understandably but annoyingly omitting the entry tit- les), the coverage of material-from the three-dimensio- nal imagery of edge waves to the ecological consequences of the Dutch Delta Plan-and localities-from Bora- Bora to Bournemouth-is impressively encyclopedic. Occasionally the balance between breadth of coverage versus depth of analysis is poorly struck, resulting in either such brief descriptions of landforms or processes that they might be simply omitted or a welter of detail which contrasts with the clarity of argument in Pethick’s Introduction. However, as a state-of-the-art review of the broadest possible spectrum of coastal science at the end of the 1980s, Carter’s text is an invaluable source book and a starting point for more detailed explorations of the literature; it should be on every coastal geomorpholo- gist’s bookshelf and reading list.

REFERENCES

Komar, P. D. 1976. Beach Processes and Sedimentation,

Mann. K. H. 1982. Ecology of Coastal Waters, Blackwell, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.

Oxford. Pethick. J. S. 1984. An Introduction to Coastal Geomorphology,

Edward Arnold, London.

T. SPENCER Universi ty of Cambridge

LOWLAND FLOODPLAIN RIVERS. GEOMORPHO- like that of atmospheric carbon levels from the Mauna LOGICAL PERSPECTIVES edited by P. A. Carling and G . Loa Observatory, may be enough to alert global human E. Petts, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1992. No. of concern, mushrooming scientific effort and intense pages xv + 302. Price: E55.00. ISBN 0-471-93119-5. political activity. But the work of most environmental

scientists, and indeed most environmental issues and problems, are in practice matters of detail and com-

global issues. Even a single set of relatively simple data, plexity, requiring multidisciplinary and many-sided Popular environmentalism often focuses on the big

BOOK REVIEWS 87

scientific work. From a management point of view, a range of perceptions is involved, together with different possible objectives and alternative strategies. This applies in particular to river environments, where the manage- ment problems and the topics on which scientists in reality work have a remarkable range of scale, timespan and type, It can be very difficult to obtain an up-to-date overall appreciation of such many-sided efforts.

In this context, the BGRG Symposium Series, starting in 1985, should be most helpful. This is the fifth volume in the series (previous ones have examined floods, soil erosion on agricultural land, vegetation and erosion, and the general theme of geomorphology in environmental planning), and it presents 13 chapters, each centred on some aspect of lowland rivers and their floodplains. There is only a brief five-page introduction; the range of approaches in individual chapters is enormously varied, and it does somewhat stretch credulity to package them simply as ‘geomorphological perspectives’, as in the subtitle. Biologists also figure strongly amongst the con- tributors, and this eclectic volume, enlightening for geo- morphologists rather than solely produced by them, does not appear to hold very strongly to any set of editorial guidance or indeed to any one disciplinary approach. The book is thus somewhat in contrast to other recent conference proceedings involving floodplains (Bracken- ridge and Hagedorn, 1992; Douglas and Hagedorn, 1992) which are more strictly geomorphological in content. They appear as special volumes of journals, where they will presumably reach a more limited and specialized audience.

There are clear advantages to having, in book form, a range of state-of-the-art research contributions arising from a scientific meeting. There are also some problems. The individual chapters in this volume are effectively quite independent in style and type. Some require more special- ist knowledge than others to make sense of them (the level of technical jargon used is varied and in places probably impenetrable to some potential readers). Some papers could easily appear unmodified as research papers in journals, whereas others introduce topics more broadly and gently to the general book reader for whom the research goals and contents of a particular chapter may initially seem quite esoteric. Another factor is that research topics often have something of a life-cycle in academic attention, starting with an innovative proposal, which is then subjected to increasing sophistication, analysis, elab- oration and criticism, until finally the topic is exhausted of academic interest4ither because solutions or conclu- sions are more or less agreed, or because, at least for the time being, there is impasse and they cannot be!

Some of the chapters in this volume are very much in the innovation phase (for example those by Howard on modelling floodplain development, or by Walling and others using 13’Cs deposition for assessing rates of flood- plain sedimentation). Others are on familiar topics and in the ‘sophistication’ phase (for instance, those by Clifford and Richards on riffle-pool sequences, or Beven and Carling on velocity, roughness and dispersion). There are

also numerous instances of new ideas or techniques (e.g. Lawler’s PEEP, or photoelectric erosion pin system, for measuring bank recession) or depth of information (e.g. Brown arid Keough’s unusually well-dated and spatially intensive work on the Holocene development of the Nene floodplain).

Whilst the first nine chapters in the book are largely physical, or in one case chemical, the last four are concerned with ecology and management. Their pur- poses and styles are different; in dealing with managed systems their aims are broadly to establish acceptable procedures and principles for assessment, modelling or management. For instance, the study by Petts and others of the middle Trent seeks to identify ecologically func- tioning sectors and their component units, using both geomorphological factors and information on human impacts. ‘Theirs is a multidisciplinary approach because ‘function’ also involves survey of water quality, fauna and vegetation to establish conservation values. Bullock and Gustard are concerned to establish ecologically based flow requirements in U.K. rivers, specifically by applying U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service computer models and procedures. Kern, in the final dhapter of the book, re- views principles and practice for restoring and rehabilit- ating regulated rivers in Germany.

As a HGRG publication, it might be expected that U.K. work would loom large, but in fact five of the 13 chapters are by non-U.K. contributors or are concerned with non-U.K. field sites. The volume does, however, concentrate on the developed world. The management and scientific problems perceived are those of a wealthy post-industrial world of advanced engineering and high capital investment. Third world problems involving the greatest lowland rivers of the world are hardly touched upon. It is interesting to read India’s Centre for Science and the Environment volume (1991) alongside this one to appreciate some of the literally vital concerns that a more global approach requires.

The major quality of this volume, and the reason in particular for recommending library purchase, lies in its encompassing range and the good quality of its indi- vidual chapters. Several should be on undergraduate reading lists in geomorphology. For example, Howard’s chapter (the longest in the book) is recommended as exemplifying a forward-looking approach to floodplain geomorphology. He uses quantitative models of flow, sediment transport, bank erosion and deposition to simulate floodplain development-and then compares his simulations fully with a comprehensive assessment of presently available empirical evidence. The volume should, in addition, give scientists and floodplain man- agers with a wide range of backgrounds a good feel for geomorphological and related research concerns and achievements of the present day. But, to return to an earlier point, ‘perspectives’ will have to emerge from readers’ {own collected impressions, for this is funda- mentally a set of conference papers-interesting, up-to- date, generally well presented, but not an easy book to digest mentally overall.

88

REFERENCES

BOOK REVIEWS

Douglas, I. and Hagedorn, J. (Eds) 1992. Zeitschriftfir Ceo- morphologie Suppl. 85 ‘Fluuial geomorphology’

Brackenridge, G. R. and Hagedorn, J. (Eds) 1992. Geomorphol- ogy, 4(6) Special issue on ‘Floodplain evolution’

Centre for Science and Environment 1991.: Floods, Jloodplains and environmental myths, Centre for Science and Environ- ment, Delhi.

JOHN LEWIN Aberystwyth

Universi ty of Wales

THE SOIL by B. Davis, N. Walker, D. Ball, and A. Fitter, The New Naturalist Series, Harper Collins, London, 1992. No. of pages: 192. Price: L12.99. ISBN 0-002-19- 904- 1.

‘The Soil’ is part of The N e w Naturalist Series which aims, in the words of the editors, ‘to interest the general reader in the wildlife of Britain by recapturing the en- quiring spirit of the old naturalists’ while ‘maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of ex- position in presenting the results of modern scientific research’. The book is therefore designed for the non- specialist and its emphasis is predominantly biological.

Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to soil consti- tuents and basic properties, looking at organic and min- eral material, pores, the soil atmosphere and soil water. The next chapter examines the range of British soils from a pedological viewpoint, first by considering the environ- mental factors responsible for this range, then by a brief systematic description of soil types classified according to a simple system developed for use in this book based on existing, more complex schemes. The next four chapters are concerned with the nature and functions of various soil biological components. The first of these considers roots in terms of their growth and structure, and the microorganisms associated with them. Two chapters then examine soil fauna, the first focusing on arthropods and the second on ‘other animals’ (earthworms, nemato- des, snails and slugs, and moles), and the final chapter in this group examines soil microorganisms.

Chapter 7 provides a brief consideration of natural habitats under the headings of woodlands, moorland and hill, and grassland, discussing interactions between soil fauna, profiles and vegetation, particularly those relating to bioturbation and organic matter decomposition. The final three chapters consider soils with respect to land use. The first looks at soil productivity and management by examining cultivation methods, the use of fertilizers, field drainage, irrigation and straw disposal. The second discusses the problems that can occur on agricultural soils as a result of cultivation, pesticide use, nitrate leaching and soil erosion, and finishes with a brief discus- sion of organic farming. The final chapter examines soil reclamation and restoration following quarrying and mining, using a number of case studies to highlight the principles and problems of the various methods avail- able. The book ends with a short reference list and index.

This publication does not pretend to offer more than a flavour of soils within a biological context, and its value therefore lies in its breadth rather than depth. It generally succeeds in its aims by providing a useful synthesis of theoretical background and field examples at an in- troductory level, and although concerned ostensibly with Britain, much of the content is relevant to temperate environments in general. However, because of its level of coverage and biological emphasis, it provides little for the serious geomorphologist, hydrologist, pedologist or palaeoenvironmentalist.

S . ELLIS University of Hull