Book review: Vita-Finzi, Claudio (Editor). 2012. River History. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A , 370: 2027-2263. ISSN 1364-503X

Authors

Avijit Gupta, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

97119

Publication Details

Gupta, A. (2014). Book review: Vita-Finzi, Claudio (Editor). 2012. River History. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A , 370: 2027-2263. ISSN 1364-503X. Geomorphology, 223 134-135.

Abstract

A collection of nine papers and an editorial introduction reviews the advances in fluvial geomorphology over the last 50 years in this special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The coverage started in 1964, when Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology by Leopold, Wolman and Miller was published. With its emphasis on the quantitative process-based approach, Fluvial Processes revolutionized river geomorphology and, in the words of Professor Vita-Finzi, demonstrated that regularities lurk beneath messy landscapes. This collection is a report on progress since then, but the emphasis here is on the development and time-based changes, hence the title. The editor has highlighted several among the many new approaches: the numerical dating of deposits and topographies, monitoring of surface change by measurements from space, and the benefits that geomorphology has accrued from advances in neighboring fields.