This book is written by the world's leading climatologists and environmental scientists. It addresses many of the issues raised in the debate on global change, providing a new point of view on climate which is being integrated into the space and time organization of societies. The volume contains three main parts: 1. Climatic Changes and Fluctuations; 2. Climates on a Regional Scale, including problems from tropical through temperate zones to polar regions; and 3. Man-Climate Relationships on a Local Scale. Global change is caused mainly by climatic variation and change and activities of human societies. This book aims to describe these facts from the various space scales - global, regional and local - and also different time scales - post-glacial, historical and recent periods. Since climate affects all kinds of human activities such as agriculture, forestry, architecture, civil engineering, transportation, tourism, health, etc., this book may contribute to the work of researchers, planners and policy makers in a wide variety of fields. For example, as indicated by the IPCC 1995 Report, adjustment of human societies is considered to be one of the most important features in the 21st Century. For consideration of these past, present and future problems, this book will provide, in a systematic way, numerous sources of up-to-date knowledge.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949there has been a rapid advance in climatology in China. The number of climatological stations has increased from less than 100 to more than of Chinese climatologists covers various 2,000, and the research work fields. The climate of China is no longer just a description of the average weather for an area or locality, but covers many fields such as the monsoon climate, the fluctuation of climate, the spatial and temporal variations of the climatic elements and physical and dynam ic climate. Four books on the climate of China, written in Chinese, have been published so far. There is, however, no excellent book written in English on the climate of China, although Volume 8 of the World Survey oj Climatology, dealing with the climates of northern and eastern Asia, edited by H. Arakawa in 1969, contains a chapter on the climate of China and Korea written by LE. M. Watts. The data sources for China are based mainly on observations from 1940-1952 and the climatological charts of China published by the Central Weather Bureau of China in 1953 and 1955. This monograph on The Climate ojChina by Prof. Dr. M. Dom ros and Prof. Peng Gongbing is the first comprehensive and advanced book in English on the climate of China."

The impact of climate on human activities and the effect of humans on cli mate are two of the most important areas of inquiry in climatology. These interactions conducted through physical, chemical and biological process es were described as early as Roman and Greek times. Marcus Vitruvius (75-25 B. C. ), a famous Roman engineer and architect, made the following observation about the climatic conditions necessary for founding a city: Land ideal for the health is slightly elevated and there should be neither fog nor frost. The direction of the slope and the distance to the swamps, lakes, and beaches must also be considered. The prevailing wind directions, observed by a wind tower at the center of the city, like Horologium at Athens, should be taken into consideration in city planning. The main and narrow streets should be placed in the middle angle of the two prevailing wind directions. Then the location of the Pantheons and squares should be decided. The influence of humans on climate was a major subject for discussion in the 19th century, inspired in part, by the rapid industrial growth and expanding deforestation of the time. D. L. Howard wrote brilliant pieces on the climate of London in the 1830s, while G . P. Marsh discussed the effects of forests on precipitation in the U. S . A. in the second half of the 19th century."