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Book reviews 817on the boundary between geomorphology and hydrogeology. Maybe the small scalesof hillslopes and soil profiles are under-represented here, but otherwise this is a helpfulcollection of material, no doubt to be followed by more specialized - but less varied- offerings as research on this theme continues,
Tim BurtUniversity of Oxford, UK
Changing River Channelsedited by Angela Gurnell & Geoffrey Pettspublished 1995 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Baffins Lane, Chichester, West SussexP019 1UD, UK, 442 + xviii pp; price 65; ISBN 0-471-95727-5.
This is the first of two companion edited books to mark the internationally recognizedcontribution of Professors K. J. Gregory and D. E. Walling,The book is a tribute tothe British fluvial and catchment geomorphologist Professor K. Gregory, written bycolleagues and former students. It represents a record of recent research on changingchannels by members of a geographical school of which Professor Gregory has beenthe leading influence. Although inevitably reflecting the interest and specializations ofthe individual authors, the book nevertheless achieves a balanced approach and maysurprise readers by the range of topics which now make up the theme of changingchannels. It opens with a background introduction by Professor G. Petts to thegeographical approach; this stresses field science and the application of classificationand description to establishing functional relationships between landforms, processesand other environmental variables over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Itthen divides into four parts. In Part I (Temporal and Spatial Dimensions), five chaptersdiscuss historical changes in Europe and the UK during the Holocene (post-glacialperiod), channel networks, planform change and meandering channels, and cross-sectional change. In Part II (Processes of Change), there are five chapters on suspendedsediment yields in a changing environment, bedload transport, catchment sedimentbudgets, the impact of large woody debris, and interactions between vegetation andhydrological and geomorphological processes along river corridors. Part III(Information for the Management of Change) contains five chapters on informationflow for channel management, the use of remotely sensed data, information fromtopographic survey, channel geometry-discharge relationships, and channelclassification for management. Part IV (Management for Change) presents threechapters on channel restoration, planning for a sustainable water environment, and theuse of geomorphology in environmental design.
Some of the chapters contain important new material, others are continuingexplorations of favourite areas of study. There is a natural bias towards Britishauthorship but many of the contributions are set in an international context. Althoughwritten largely from a geographical perspective, the book contains useful material forthose concerned with problems of channel engineering and management, for examplethe impacts of land use and climate change on channel change. Overall it shouldtherefore be of interest to research workers and to enquiring minds among those witha practical interest in channel change. The wide range of topics, the activedevelopments in these topics and the eminence achieved by the various authors in theirfields highlight the rich legacy of research which Professor Gregory has fostered influvial geomorphology. However, the range of topics is also such that few readers are
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818 Book reviewslikely to read the whole book; most will want to concentrate on those chapters closeto their ow n interests. They may similarly wish to balance their study w ith the findingsof research schools from other countries.
James C. Bathurs tWater Resource Systems Research UnitUniversity of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
S e d i m e n t a n d W a t e r Q u a l i t y i n R i v e rC a t c h m e n t sedited by Ian Foster, Angela Gurnell & Bruce Webbpublished 1995 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Baffins Lane, Chichester, West SussexP0 19 1UD, UK; 472 pp; pr ice 65; ISBN 0471-957275.
This is the second of two companion edited books to mark the internationallyrecognized contribution of Professors K. J. Gregory and D. E. Walling. This bookvery much reflects the hydrological and geomorphological interests pursued byProfessor D. E. Walling and inspired by him in others. All the contributors have beenassociated with him (students and academic collaborators) in Britain and overseas. Thevolume parallels Des Walling's career and academic contribution, and is arranged intosix sections.The first section (Quantity and Quality Dimensions) focuses attention on thequantity and the quality of river runoff, principally in southeast Devon. T. J. Browneprovides an excellent review of the role of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) inhydrology as a tool for more general modelling of solutes in drainage basins. H. Roddashows how a model of nitrogen cycling developed at the scale of individual grasslandplots can be extended to predict nitrate behaviour in catchments with pasture land use.B. Webb uses data from the Exe basin monitoring network to examine the impact overa 17-year period of river regulation on the downstream thermal regime and hydro-ecology.
The second section (Sediment Dynamics and Yields) highlights the complexityof the suspended sediment concentration-discharge relationship. K. Banasik discussesa conceptual model of the instantaneous unit sedimentgraph, (combing the instantaneousunit hydrograph with a dimensionless sediment concentration distribution). R. Currprovides a longer term perspective for a small catchment in the UK by correlating thepattern of particle size variations in sediments trapped in a lake. Finally, C. Clarkshows how storm-period sediment concentrations and loads are related to a range offactors in a multivariate manner, based on studies of small catchments in east Devon.The next section (Sediment Quality) illustrates the approaches to studies ofsediment quality with three contributions. The impact of mining activity on fluvialsediments is studied by J. Merefield (information on sediment mineralogy to trace themovement of sediment derived from mining activity) and by S. Bradley who focuseson sediment-associated metal content to investigate processes of sediment redistributionin a number of British catchments. The sediment properties of C and N contents arestudied by M. Peart: C-N ratios and loss on ignition may be used to identify sedimentsources in a Hong Kong catchment.
The fourth section (Sediment Sources and Sinks) gives some tools for theidentification of catchment sediment sources and quantifying their contribution to thesuspended sediment carried in river systems (R. J. Loughran and B. L. Campbell,
