The title aims right at the core of the concerns of many within the ground engineering industry who are grappling with the problems of redevelopment and regeneration of urban areas in formerly industrialized regions. Unfortunately, the volume fails to focus on what many might consider to be the principle issues, including groundwater, contamination and the character of anthropogenic ground. Perhaps use of terms such as ‘applied geology’, ‘built environment’ or ‘mining legacy’ rather than ‘urban geology’ might have more successfully conveyed the concepts which this volume encompasses.

This book presents a compilation of 35 papers concerning a wide variety of projects, but there is little text to draw the threads together. Indeed, 20% of the papers are not strictly concerned with urban areas in Wales at all, such as mineral resources (e.g. Paper 31 on exploration for gold) and civil engineering in the country (e.g. Paper 15 on the maintenance of the Severn Tunnel). The balance of the book's content presumably reflects the contributions received for the seminar held on 14th September 2004 in Cardiff, which had the same name as the book's title. The editors are to be commended for publishing the deliberations so promptly, so permitting a wider readership to benefit without the delay experienced following so many conferences. However it is rather a shame that the opportunity has not been taken by delaying publication 6 months or so, which would have allowed the discussions on the day to have been incorporated along with a broader view of the topics pertinent to urban geoscience.

The contributions are arranged in four main sections, with a fifth encompassing the remainder, entitled ‘General Projects’.

The first section, entitled ‘Urban Areas’, presents accounts of the natural geology encountered in a number of urban centres, but not all. Cardiff, Bangor and Newtown are included, but Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Newport, and Rhondda are not. However, it is understood that a second volume is being planned, to be published in 2005, and so hopefully the other urban centres will be covered there. The Swansea-Llanelli region is discussed as an update to the mapping which took place ten years earlier, but unfortunately the maps which have been included are far too small for any details to be discerned; this is not helped by the lack of colour (which is a missed opportunity since the publication has been printed in two colours throughout, black for the text and blue for the headings). Whereas it is interesting to read accounts of the industrial history, there is disappointingly little indication of the extent or properties of the associated ground which has been produced by human activities. Knowledge of the previous landuse is an essential precursor to any ground investigation, but knowledge of the component materials, ground profiles and properties is equally important - what are these likely to be, where should the investigators look for guidance, and what are the potential hazards? The reader will have to look elsewhere.

The second section, ‘Construction’ looks at specific projects and the fourth, ‘Geoenvironmental issues’, focuses primarily on the mining legacy. The third section, entitled ‘Geohazards’, focuses primarily, quite reasonably, on mining-related issues. However, it is a shame that the various scales of landsliding are not addressed in more detail, or at least clear links provided with the extensive literature (especially the Museum's own excellent publications 18 and 22), and the paper on estuarine soils is astonishingly brief. The karstic solution that affected the M4 construction, problems of shrink-swell, and fault reactivation could all have been usefully included, and some discussion of seismicity would have been welcome, both natural and related to mining and mine-water recovery.

The integration of all the references in a single block at the end is to be commended, thereby avoiding repetition and facilitating the more detailed study of particular aspects of interest. There is no index. Notwithstanding the title, this volume represents excellent value for money as a compendium of recent applied geological studies in parts of Wales and it is most pleasing to see a publication appear so quickly after the papers have been submitted by the authors.

• © 2005 The Geological Society of London