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Book Review |
J. G. Maund & M. Eddleston (eds). Geological Society, London, Engineering Geology Special Publications, 15, 1998. £79/US$132 hardback; viii+448pp. ISBN 1-86239-012-6. GSL member's price £39/US$132.
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Another collection of papers on geohazards? How does this compare with other recent compilations? Firstly, the quality of papers is high. Secondly, presentation and editing meet the usual high standards of the series. A few photographs lack clarity, but understandably so given the circumstances in which these were taken. Figures are mostly well presented but a few demonstrate that some software does not yet match drawing office skills.
The 43 papers give coverage of a wide variety of geohazards: coastal and fluvial (8 papers); volcanic and seismic (4); slope stability (9); contaminated land (3); and mine and natural cavity subsidence (4). There are also papers on hazard mapping (5), urban geohazards in developing countries (4) and planning and geohazards (6). Organization under both types of hazards and generic themes places some related papers in different sections, but good indexing overcomes that. References are numerous and are a good lead into background reading. There is a bias towards the UK and Europe (19 papers), but the scope is extended by contributions on parts of the Americas (3), Africa (4), and Asia and the Indian Ocean (7). Only Australasia and the Pacific are barely mentioned—despite the impressive cover photograph which shows an active volcano in New Zealand.
Papers range from general reviews to discussions of regional and local
problems but even the latter are thoughtful additions to
knowledge\Mnone of the descriptions of ‘yet another landslide
investigation’ that pad out some proceedings. Some papers provide
interesting comparisons, thus three papers dealing with geohazards
