Landscapes and Geomorphology: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #240

by Andrew S. Goudie, Heather Viles

What were the landscapes of the past like? What will landscapes look like in the future?Landscapes are all around us, but most of us know very little about how they have developed, what goes on in them, and how they react to changing climates, tectonics and human activities. Examining what landscape is, and how we use a range of ideas and techniques to study it, Andrew Goudie and Heather Viles demonstrate how geomorphologists have built on classic methods pioneered by some great 19th century scientists to examine our Earth.Using examples from around the world, including New Zealand, the Tibetan Plateau, and the deserts of the Middle East, they examine some of the key controls on landscape today such as tectonics and climate, as well as humans and the living world. They also discuss some key 'landscape detectives' from the past, including Charles Darwin who did some important, but often overlooked, research on landscape.Concluding with the cultural importance of landscape, and exploring how this has led to the conservation of much 'earth heritage', they delve into the future and look at how we can predict the response of landscapes to climate change in the future.ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Science, Geography, Geology, Nonfiction, Reference, History, Nature

153 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 26, 2010

About the author

Professor Andrew Shaw Goudie (born 1945) is a geographer at the University of Oxford specialising in desert geomorphology, dust storms, weathering, and climatic change in the tropics. He has also known for his teaching and best-selling textbooks on human impacts on the environment. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of thirty-nine books (many of which have appeared in numerous editions) and around two hundred papers published in learned journals. He combines research and some teaching with administrative roles.

Goudie was born at Cheltenham on 21 August 1945. He was educated at Dean Close School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA first class with distinction 1967, MA, PhD 1972). In 2002 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Oxford.

He has been working at the University of Oxford since 1970. In 1976 he was appointed Fellow of Hertford College. He was appointed Professor of Geography in 1984 and was head of the School of Geography from 1984 until 1994. From 1995 until 1997, he was President of the Oxford Development Programme and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university. He became Master of St Cross College in 2003 and left the post in 2011.

In 1970, he was elected a Member of the Institute of British Geographers (of which he was later a member of Council) and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society from 1980 until 1988 and has been a Vice-President of the Society. In 1991 the Society awarded him its Founders' Medal. In the same year he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2002 he was honoured by The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium. He has been President of the Geographical Association and of the International Association of Geomorphologists. He has served as a Delegate to Oxford University Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_G...

Reviews

[Daniel Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chapter 1: The changing landscape
Chapter 2: The present is the key to the past
Chapter 3: Studying landscapes today
Chapter 4: Landscapes, tectonics, and climate
Chapter 5: Living landscapes
Chapter 6: Landscapes and us
Chapter 7: Landscapes of the future
Chapter 8: Landscapes, art, and culture
Chapter 9: Unseen landscapes

This book was written by two people and it shows. It is somewhat muddled and the register is quite impersonal. But it basically does what it says on the can.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent though a puzzling fondness for the word “whilst”.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating overview of the processes that make up the vistas of our world, and how they are studied...

[Katerina · Rating 5 out of 5]

OATH. This is good shit

[Kylie Gambrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intro to the topic. Note to self: read more about cultural geomorphology, anthropogeomorphology, planetary geomorphology, and climatic consequences…

[David Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read to research this post was Landscapes & Geomorphism A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Goudie et al which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. This book covers a wide variety of landscapes and events such as the dust bowl in America in the 30's to the glaciers in New Zealand to the coral reefs of the Pacific & even the low lying landscape of the hills around London. Darwin on his voyage on The Beagle became the world's leading authority on Landscapes and wrote much about it in addition to his work on evolution. His work on coral reefs still holds true despite many other's theories being superceded by the discovery of plate tectonics. One of the most interesting landscapes geologically is South Island in New Zealand where the Pacific Plate meets the Indian Plate and has resulted in the upheaval of the Southern Alps along with the huge glaciers due to the huge amount of rainfall. 1/4 of the world is permafrost including 50% of Canada & 85% of Alaska. One of the most massive upheavals is the Himalayas Kakoram Mountains where an area half the size of the United States is almost entirely above 4,000 metres and contains almost every mountain over 7,000 metres in the world. Much of the aging of rock is done by dating the radioactivity of the quartz found in it as due to its great age it generally difficult to date it by other means. I enjoyed reading this book which I'm sure you can see is very interesting.

[Div Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sort of ran into this book at my university's science library and picked it up on a whim. I was already primed on the field but I was intrigued to see how the Very Short Introduction (VSI) series would tackle it, as I have had a rather good track record with two of the books I had read from them previously, which were on fields that I had some tangential knowledge of, though nothing too deep. Having read this book, I can say that VSI has been three for three. The VSI on geomorphology covers a large breadth of topics, befitting the field it covers, ranging from the early pioneers of the field like Darwin and Gilbert, the interplay of tectonics and the climate with shaping landscapes, ecogeology, the cultural and religious significance of landscapes, submarine landforms, landforms on Mars and Titan, etc. Like most VSIs, the book stays surface level and doesn't delve into any technical mathematics, which makes it good for members of the general audience who may not necessarily have a background in STEM though may still be interested in learning more about the Earth System. I'd also recommend this book to anyone who was hoping to get their toes wet in geomorphology and test the waters before taking the deep dive into more technical literature if they find the field to be of interest.

[Matthew Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minimal scrape of the surface to a complex discipline.