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Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
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Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology; 2005; v. 38; issue.4; p. 402;
DOI: 10.1144/1470-9236/04-112
© 2005 Geological Society of London

Book review

Soil Erosion and Conservation, 3rd edn by R.P.C. Morgan, Blackwells, 2005, 314 pp, £29.95 softback, ISBN1-4051-1781-8.

F.G. Bell

British Geological Survey, UK

The first 250 words of the full text of this article appear below. Images appear only in PDF or full-text views.

Professor Morgan is one of Britain's leading soil scientists with a lengthy experience of soil erosion and conservation around the world. This is the third edition of his book Soil Erosion and Conservation, a book that has become a standard text on the subject. Soil is one of the vital resources necessary for human existence. However, as the book indicates, soil erosion has been a problem for thousands of years and affects many regions of the world not just those with sensitive environments. Furthermore, soil erosion imposes a notable cost on those areas so affected, for example, in the United States the annual cost of soil erosion is somewhere between 30 and 44 billion dollars. Professor Morgan rightly points out that soil erosion is not just a problem on site but creates problems off site such as increased sedimentation and flooding. It therefore is an environmental problem that can affect large communities. As such soil erosion and conservation involve not just technical methods of control and soil management but also require socio-economic and political input. This aspect of the subject is by no means overlooked by Professor Morgan.

The first chapter sets the scene with a neat overview of the subject. Then, because any soil conservation strategy must develop from a detailed knowledge of soil erosion processes, Professor Morgan does just that. In other words, chapters 2 to 6 deal with the processes of erosion, the factors that influence erosion and the measurement and modelling of erosion. Chapters 7 to . . . [Full Text of this Article]