Collapsing engineering soils are a formidable hazard around the world. These difficult materials also include some of the world's most fertile agricultural soils, fostering dense human populations which are therefore increasingly at risk. Despite an impressive literature on the engineering aspects of collapsing soils, these materials are coming under increasing scrutiny by scientists in other fields. This is most evidently the case with soil scientists, stratigraphers and sedimentologists. Past earth surface conditions have a direct influence on the detailed behaviour of collapsible soils: as a complement, these materials also provide detailed data on changing global climates. The selected papers presented here highlight the common ground between three scientific groups with a vested interest in a better understanding of collapsible soils.

This book introduces geomorphological processes to higher education students and focuses on the nature of processes and upon their controls. It deals with the chronology of landscapes in the past and with applications of knowledge gained as a basis for understanding future tendencies of processes.

This book originated from a proposal by one author (J. R. H.) who was subsequently joined by a second (E. D.) and then by a third (K. J. G.). It has taken longer to produce than we expected because of the complications imposed by the distances which the authors have succeeded in putting between themselves during the past three years. The basic objective was to produce a short book which would introduce geomorphological processes to students in the first or second year of their higher education courses. We believed that there was a need for such a book reviewing a range of geomorphological processes which would offer a prelude to the symphonies which are available in books devoted to specific processes and their effects, many of which are sign posted in the lists of further reading at the end of each chapter. We are aware that the range of suitable preludes is wide, but we have endeavoured to compose one which expresses at least some of the recent achieve-ments in the study of geomorphological processes. Emphasis is placed on the nature of processes and upon their controls but the effects of processes in creating landforms are not reviewed in any detail. In addition to the selected references at the end of each chapter, we have collected a bibliography of works cited at the end of the book but this is not intended to be as exhaustive as the references collated in more advanced works.

The 11 chapters provide a wide ranging perspective on some of the problems under investigation and several of the systematic approaches currently in use by those concerned with refining the knowledge of the changing environments in the world's drylands during the latter part of the Quaternary. Dealing with a part of the globe that is highly sensitive to small changes of climate, or other stresses such as human impact, this book brings together a set of excellent reviews that will be of great value to students beginning to understand the subject and to paleoenvironmental scientists actively concerned with finding solutions to problems of the region. Additionally, it will be an invaluable archive of important references covering the subject of arid lands palaeoenvironmental research. This volume achieves the aspirations of the International Geological Correlation Programme.

Collapsing engineering soils are a formidable hazard around the world. These difficult materials also include some of the world's most fertile agricultural soils, fostering dense human populations which are therefore increasingly at risk. Despite an impressive literature on the engineering aspects of collapsing soils, these materials are coming under increasing scrutiny by scientists in other fields. This is most evidently the case with soil scientists, stratigraphers and sedimentologists. Past earth surface conditions have a direct influence on the detailed behaviour of collapsible soils: as a complement, these materials also provide detailed data on changing global climates. The selected papers presented here highlight the common ground between three scientific groups with a vested interest in a better understanding of collapsible soils.