Books in Geomorphology

Geomorphology of Central America

1st Edition
May 18, 2015
Jean Pierre Bergoeing
English
Paperback
9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 3 1 5 9 9
eBook
9 7 8 0 1 2 8 0 3 1 8 5 8

Geomorphology of Central America is authored by a scientist with more than 30 years of regional assessment research experience in Central American countries, arming scientists with a classic research method—a method most effective when applied to specific geographic regions globally. The scientific techniques used for assessing regional studies of an area reflect a level of expertise that has become more difficult to come by over the past three decades and underscores the importance of regional assessments of geomorphological features. Complemented with beautifully crafted and exacting maps that capture the region’s unique landscapes, Geomorphology of Central America introduces a global vision of the geomorphology and volcanic field of Central America from Guatemala to Panama, making it the first single source of geomorphological content for the region.

Geomorphological Fieldwork

1st Edition
Volume 18
December 1, 2014
Mary J Thornbush + 2 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 6 3 4 0 2 3
eBook
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 6 3 4 1 8 4

Geomorphological Fieldwork addresses a topic that always remains popular within the geosciences and environmental science. More specifically, the volume conveys a growing legacy of field-based learning for young geomorphologists that can be used as a student book for field-based university courses and postgraduate research requiring fieldwork or field schools. The editors have much experience of field-based learning within geomorphology and extend this to physical geography. The topics covered are relevant to basic geomorphology as well as applied approaches in environmental and cultural geomorphology. The book integrates a physical-human approach to geography, but focuses on physical geography and geomorphology from an integrated field-based geoscience perspective.

Treatise on Geomorphology

1st Edition
February 27, 2013
John F. Shroder
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 8 8 5 2 2 3

The changing focus and approach of geomorphic research suggests that the time is opportune for a summary of the state of discipline. The number of peer-reviewed papers published in geomorphic journals has grown steadily for more than two decades and, more importantly, the diversity of authors with respect to geographic location and disciplinary background (geography, geology, ecology, civil engineering, computer science, geographic information science, and others) has expanded dramatically. As more good minds are drawn to geomorphology, and the breadth of the peer-reviewed literature grows, an effective summary of contemporary geomorphic knowledge becomes increasingly difficult. The fourteen volumes of this Treatise on Geomorphology will provide an important reference for users from undergraduate students looking for term paper topics, to graduate students starting a literature review for their thesis work, and professionals seeking a concise summary of a particular topic. Information on the historical development of diverse topics within geomorphology provides context for ongoing research; discussion of research strategies, equipment, and field methods, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations reflect the multiple approaches to understanding Earth’s surfaces; and summaries of outstanding research questions highlight future challenges and suggest productive new avenues for research. Our future ability to adapt to geomorphic changes in the critical zone very much hinges upon how well landform scientists comprehend the dynamics of Earth’s diverse surfaces. This Treatise on Geomorphology provides a useful synthesis of the state of the discipline, as well as highlighting productive research directions, that Educators and students/researchers will find useful.

Geomorphological Mapping

1st Edition
Volume 15
October 22, 2011
Mike J. Smith + 1 more
Paolo Paron
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 4 4 6 0

Geomorphological Mapping: a professional handbook of techniques and applications is a new book targeted at academics and practitioners who use, or wish to utilise, geomorphological mapping within their work. Synthesising for the first time an historical perspective to geomorphological mapping, field based and digital tools and techniques for mapping and an extensive array of case studies from academics and professionals active in the area. Those active in geomorphology, engineering geology, reinsurance, Environmental Impact Assessors, and allied areas, will find the text of immense value.

The Western Alps, from Rift to Passive Margin to Orogenic Belt

1st Edition
Volume 14
October 6, 2010
Pierre-Charles de Graciansky + 2 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 7 2 4 9
eBook
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 7 2 5 6

The Western Alps, from Rift to Passive Margin to Orogenic Belt addresses the evolution of the Alpine fold belt for the first time in the English language. It builds on classical Alpine geological studies made since the start of the 19th century by combining that research with modern results obtained over the past 50 years using new marine geological and geophysical technologies. The book thus provides an integrated overview of the evolution of the Alps from rift to passive margin to the present fold belt over a significant time span.

The Changing Alpine Treeline

1st Edition
Volume 12
March 13, 2009
David R. Butler + 3 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 4 4 4 5 3 3 6 4 7
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 9 5 7 0 9 8

The alpine treeline ecotone (ATE) is an area of transition high on mountains where closed canopy forests from lower elevations give way to the open alpine tundra and rocky expanses above. Alpine tundra is an island biome and its ecotone with forest is subject to change, and like oceanic islands, alpine tundra is subject to invasion – or the upward advance of treeline. The invasion of tundra by trees will have consequences for the tundra biome as invasion does for other island flora and fauna. To examine the invasibility of tundra we take a plant’s-eye-view, wherein the local conditions become extremely important. Among these local conditions, we find geomorphology to be exceptionally important. We concentrate on aspects of microtopography (and microgeomorphology) and microclimate because these are the factors that matter: from the plant’s-eye-view, but we pay attention to multiple scales. At coarse scales, snow avalanches and debris flows are widespread and create “disturbance treelines” whose elevation is well below those controlled by climate. At medium scales, turf-banked terraces create tread-and-riser topography that is a difficult landscape for a tree seedling to survive upon because of exposure to wind, dryness, and impenetrable surfaces. At fine scales, turf exfoliation of the fronts of turf-banked risers, and boulders, offer microsites where tree seedlings may find shelter and are able to gain a foothold in the alpine tundra; conversely, however, surfaces of needle-ice pans and frost heaving associated with miniature patterned ground production are associated with sites inimical to seedling establishment or survival. We explicitly consider how local scale processes propagate across scales into landscape patterns. The objective of this book is to examine the controls on change at alpine treeline. All the papers are focused on work done in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Although any one place is limiting, we are able to examine the alpine treeline here in some detail – and an advantage is that the treeline ecotone in Glacier National Park is quite variable in itself due to the underlying variability in geomorphology at multiple scales. This book will provide insights into an important ecological phenomenon with a distinctly geomorphic perspective. The editors collectively have over 100 years of experience in working in geomorphology, biogeography, and ecology. They also have each worked on research in Glacier National Park for several decades. The book will be a reference for a variety of professionals and students, both graduate and undergraduate, with interests in Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Ecology, and Environmental Science. Because of the importance of the alpine treeline ecotone for recreation and aesthetic interests in mountain environments, wildland and park managers will also use this book.

Geomorphometry

1st Edition
Volume 33
September 25, 2008
Tomislav Hengl + 1 more
English
Hardback
9 7 8 0 1 2 3 7 4 3 4 5 9
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 9 2 1 8 8 4

Geomorphometry is the science of quantitative land-surface analysis. It draws upon mathematical, statistical, and image-processing techniques to quantify the shape of earth's topography at various spatial scales. The focus of geomorphometry is the calculation of surface-form measures (land-surface parameters) and features (objects), which may be used to improve the mapping and modelling of landforms to assist in the evaluation of soils, vegetation, land use, natural hazards, and other information. This book provides a practical guide to preparing Digital Elevation Models (DEM) for analysis and extracting land-surface parameters and objects from DEMs through a variety of software. It further offers detailed instructions on applying parameters and objects in soil, agricultural, environmental and earth sciences. This is a manual of state-of-the-art methods to serve the various researchers who use geomorphometry.Soil scientists will use this book to further learn the methods for classifying and measuring the chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils and gain a further understaing of the role of soil as a natural resource. Geologists will find value in the instruction this book provides for measuring the physical features of the soil such as elevation, porosity, and structure which geologists use to predict natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and flooding.

The Late Cenozoic of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

1st Edition
Volume 11
June 17, 2008
J. Rabassa
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 8 8 9 9

Written by highly qualified Argentine scientists and scholars, this book focuses on the uninterrupted geological and paleontological record of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego since the Miocene-Pliocene boundary to the arrival of man and modern times. This region is an outstanding area for research, with significant interest at the international level. It provides an updated overview of the scientific work in all related fields with a strong paleoclimatic approach. Patagonia has also been a sort of a "paleoclimatic bridge" between the Antarctic Peninsula and the more northerly land masses, since the final opening of the Drake Passage in the middle Miocene. Timely and comprehensive, The Late Cenozoic of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego is the only monograph book written in English.

The Great Sand Sea in Egypt

1st Edition
Volume 59
May 27, 2008
H. Besler
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 8 9 6 7

The Great Sand Sea in Egypt presents the history of one of the large sand seas in the Sahara, beginning with the sand supply by fluvial transport from partly distant areas and also by local sandstone weathering. It also details sand as carrier of information and shows the possibilities of sedimentary analysis in dealing with such a topic. Simple measurements may supply important information (e.g. salinity measurements). Well known methods can be developed further to answer special questions. A wealth of information can be drawn from especially adapted sedimentological investigations. In the end, bits of information from different analytical sources can be put together to reveal the history of a large sand sea.

Gravel Bed Rivers 6

1st Edition
Volume 11
October 19, 2007
H. Habersack + 2 more
English
eBook
9 7 8 0 0 8 0 5 5 3 5 9 7

Based on the interdisciplinary approaches between earth science, engineering, physical geography, ecology and management, this text focuses on the theoretical questions, case-studies, challenges, and constraints taken from river restoration. It is illustrated with reports of new ground-breaking research covering spatial and temporal scales of physical processes in river catchments, coupling catchment and fluvial processes, grain dynamics and fluvial forms and on geo-ecology and restoration in mountain gravel-bed river environments. Each chapter includes discussions and comments providing experience and feedback from the fundamental research. This book covers scales of analysis for gravel-bed rivers, physics and modeling of processes at local and point scales, sediment delivery and storage, eco-geography and eco-hydraulics, and channel management and restoration.

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