Rhodes W. Fairbridge – författare

Today''s greater public awareness of how climate affects our quality of life and environment has created an increasing demand for climatological information. Now this information is available in one convenient, accessible source, The Encyclopedia of Climatology. This comprehensive volume covers all the main subfields of climatology, supplies data on climates in major continental areas and explains what is known about the causes of climatic processes and changes. Contents include articles on bioclimatology, El Niño, climatic models, world regional climates, civilization and climate, climatic variations and the greenhouse effect.

The world’s growing population faces the challenge of meeting ever-larger demands for  fresh water, not only for drinking but also for agriculture, industry and recreation. Already some one billion people are at risk from over-use, water withdrawals and pollution of these water bodies So scientific knowledge of the lakes and reservoirs, which hold about 90% of the world''s surface fresh water, is increasingly critical to meeting the multiplicity of needs.

The Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs offers a comprehensive and authoritative review of physical, chemical and ecological characteristics of lakes and reservoirs, as well as describing their uses and environmental conditions and trends in all parts of the world.

More than 165 scientists from over 30 countries have contributed in both large and small ways to this authoritative volume. Superbly illustrated throughout, it includes some 200 entries in a wide range of topics, including acidification, artificialisation, biology, canals, climate change effects, chemicals, dams, dew ponds, drainage, ecological, eutrophication, evaporation, fisheries, geographical, geological, hydrological, hydro-electric power, nutrients, organic pollution, paleolimnology, reservoir capacities and depths, sedimentation, water resources.

These include many of the most current and most controversial environmental problems.

This volume in the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series appears as the first alphabetic, encyclopedic treatment of the science of Geomorphology -- the study of landscape and the geologic forces that produce it or, phrased another way, the dynamic geology of the face of the Earth. There are numerous definitions, but the book is far more than a glossary. There are 410 articles in all, and their authors include many specialists of international reputation. The hundreds of illustrations are an exceptional feature of the book.

While covering the usual scope of Geomorphology, this volume includes several features which are particularly noteworthy. One of these is an individual description of each of the world''s more important lakes emphasizing their geographic unity. Stress has also been placed on the stratigraphy and climate of the Holocene, or Recent Epoch, and of the Quaternary Period in general, on the grounds that a historical understanding of those periods explains the inheritance aspect of landforms. The editor has recognized the need for balancing the presentation between the more classical or descriptive methodology and the more recent quantitative and dynamic approach.

Also, the significance of the Langbein-Schumm Rule in erosion-fluvial and terrace studies is repeatedly brought out. While a general reader will need no more background than a high school course in physical geography, specialists such as civil engineers, photogrammetrists, military geologists, hydrologists, soil scientists, limnologists, and ecologists will all find abundant reference value in this book. Both teachers and students of geomorphology and physical geography will find this Encylopedia an indispensable aid in their research and studies.

The extensive cross-reference system, which will be of great value to the researcher, has five components which refer the reader to related disciplines in another volume; from the alphabetical listing to a specific article; from the body of an article to a subject taken up in detail elsewhere in the volume; to related articles, and the literature citations at the end of each article.