Landscapes and Geomorphology: A Very Short Introduction pdf

Professor Andrew Shaw Goudie (born 1945) is a geographer at the University of Oxford specialising in desert geomorphology, dust storms, weathering, and climatic change in the tropics. He has also known for his teaching and best-selling textbooks on human impacts on the environment. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of thirty-nine books (many of which have appeared in numerous editions) and around two hundred papers published in learned journals. He combines research and some teaching with administrative roles. Goudie was born at Cheltenham on 21 August 1945. He was educated at Dean Close School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA first class with distinction 1967, MA, PhD 1972). In 2002 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Oxford. He has been working at the University of Oxford since 1970. In 1976 he was appointed Fellow of Hertford College. He was appointed Professor of Geography in 1984 and was head of the School of Geography from 1984 until 1994. From 1995 until 1997, he was President of the Oxford Development Programme and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university. He became Master of St Cross College in 2003 and left the post in 2011. In 1970, he was elected a Member of the Institute of British Geographers (of which he was later a member of Council) and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society from 1980 until 1988 and has been a Vice-President of the Society. In 1991 the Society awarded him its Founders' Medal. In the same year he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2002 he was honoured by The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium. He has been President of the Geographical Association and of the International Association of Geomorphologists. He has served as a Delegate to Oxford University Press.

Landscapes and Geomorphology: A Very Short Introduction pdf by Andrew Shaw Goudie

Landscapes are all around us, but most of us know very little about how they have developed, what goes on in them, and how they react to changing climates, tectonics, and human activities. Examining what landscape is, and how we use a range of ideas and techniques to study it, Andrew Goudie and Heather Viles demonstrate how scientists have built on classic methods--pioneered by the great researchers of the nineteenth century--to shed new light on our planet. Using examples from around the world, including New Zealand, the Tibetan Plateau, and the deserts of the Middle East, they examine some of the key controls on landscape today such as tectonics and climate, as well as humans and the living world. They also discuss some major landscape detectives from the past, including Charles Darwin, who did some important, but often overlooked, research on landscape. Concluding with the cultural importance of landscape, and exploring how this has led to the conservation of much earth heritage, they delve into the future and look at how we can predict the response of landscapes to the projected climate change.