Landforms in Africa is the first book to cover the major features of Africa's landforms.

This book presents a beautifully illustrated overview of the most prominent landscapes of South Africa and the distinctive landforms associated with them. It describes the processes, origins and the environmental significance of those landscapes, including their relationships to human activity of the past and present. The sites described in this book include, amongst others, the Blyde River Canyon, Augrabies Falls, Kruger National Park, Kalahari desert landscapes, the Great Escarpment, Sterkfontein caves and karst system, Table Mountain, Cape winelands, coastal dunes, rocky coasts, Boer War battlefield sites, and Vredefort impact structure. Landscapes and Landforms of South Africa provides a new perspective on South Africa’s scenic landscapes by considering their diversity, long and short term histories, and importance for geoconservation and geotourism. This book will be relevant to those interested in the geology, physical geography and history of South Africa, climate change and landscape tourism.

This book describes the Central Sahara region, bringing together an unprecedented combination of diverse and often historic research published in different languages in order to describe its varied landscapes and landforms. The Central Sahara region consists of Libya, Algeria, Mali, Niger and Chad, countries that share similar landscape histories and common landscape traits, including massifs, sand seas, paleowater features and large depressions. Furthermore, human settlement of this region goes hand-in-hand with climate and environmental changes and landscape evolution during the Holocene and earlier; hence, Central Saharan landscapes and landforms provide valuable insights into landscape–human relationships over long timescales. The book offers a comprehensive yet accessible reference source, drawing on both past and present interdisciplinary research and gathering the insights of authors from many different countries to explore a region that has largely been overlooked in available literature.

This book focuses on regions for which until now the geomorphology was very poorly studied and relatively unknown. Nevertheless, the landforms and landscapes of the Horn of Africa are highly attractive, diverse and in a few cases unique, since they span very different environments, from highland plateaus and mountains to lowlands (even below sea level) and coastlines with a high degree of diversity and from monsoon to arid climate conditions. The main topics addressed in the book include the links between the geological evolution and the current large scale geomorphology of the Horn of Africa; the large differences between the highlands and lowlands climate, river hydrology and their variation through time within a climate change perspective. This part of the world was home of the very first hominids. The landscape in which they lived and evolved throughout the Pleistocene is described in comparison with the arid and inhospitable, though immensely scenic, environment of today. Perennial and ephemeral rivers with very different morphology, processes, and hydrology drain the area, and, in combination with the past and recent uplift, substantially contributed to provide the region with peculiar landscapes and landforms. Long lasting weathering and erosion processes result in a typical inselberg landscape such as the Bur region, or the currently exposed flatland of old peneplain surfaces. Their changes through time, induced by both natural and anthropogenic factors, are addressed by a couple of case studies. Though the region has few inhabitants, they had to struggle to find their livelihood in a land that offers poor resources. This resulted in landscape change and land degradation. Examples of human impact on the landscape are presented at different scales. This book provides readers interested in geography and geomorphology with essential scientific and educational information on the Landscapes and Landforms of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia through simple, though scientifically, rigorous texts illustrated with several color maps and photos. One main prerogative of this book is therefore to give an insight into a region of the world where, for geographical and historical constraints, geomorphological investigation was very limited, thus enriching its intrinsic informative value.

This book provides a succinct but comprehensive presentation of key geomorphological locations and topics including information about geomorphological heritage and maps to visit the most important sites. Apart from often being remarkably scenic, landscapes reveal stories that often can be traced back in time tens of million years and include unique events. This is particularly true for Ethiopia where spectacular examples of different landforms are present. Its geomorphology varies from highlands, marked by high volcanoes and incised by deep river gorges, to the rift valley lakes endorheic systems and the below sea level lowlands with characteristic landscapes which are unique in the world. Landscapes and Landforms of Ethiopia highlights all these topics including essential information about geology and tectonic framework, past and present climate, hydrology, geographical regions and long-term geomorphological history. It is a highly informative book, providing insight for readers with an interest in geography and geomorphology.

Landscape studies provide a crucial perspective into the interaction between humans and their environment, shedding insight on social, cultural, and economic topics. The research explores both the way that natural processes have affected the development of culture and society, as well as the ways that natural landscapes themselves are the product of historical and cultural processes. Most previous studies of the landscape selectively focused on either the natural sciences or the social sciences, but the research presented in African Landscapes bridges that gap. This work is unique in its interdisciplinary scope. Over the past twelve years, the contributors to this volume have participated in the collaborative research center ACACIA (Arid Climate Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa), which deals with the relationship between cultural processes and ecological dynamics in Africa’s arid areas. The case studies presented here come from mainly Sahara/Sahel and southwestern Africa, and are all linked to broader discussions on the concept of landscape, and themes of cultural, anthropological, geographical, botanical, sociological, and archaeological interest. The contributions in this work are enhanced by full color photographs that put the discussion in context visually.

The landscapes of Namibia are of world-class quality in beauty, diversity and interest. This book provides the first ever overview of the most important of these landscapes, explains why they look as they do, and evaluates why they are of note. Writing from a geomorphological perspective, the authors introduce the key processes and controls which influence landscape and landform development in Namibia. Geological and tectonic background, climate now and in the past, vegetation and animals (including humans) are all identified as crucial factors influencing the landscape of Namibia today. The book presents twenty one richly-illustrated case studies of the most significant landscapes of Namibia, ranging from the iconic Etosha Pan at the heart of the biggest wildlife conservation area in the north, to the famous dunes and ephemeral river at Sossus Vlei in the heart of the Namib desert. Each case study also contains a full list of the key references to the scientific work on that landscape. The authors provide an assessment of the current state of conservation of these landscapes, and their importance to tourism. The book is recommended reading for anyone with a professional or amateur interest in the spectacular and intriguing landscapes of this part of southern Africa. It provides a useful handbook for those travelling around Namibia, and an invaluable reference guide for those interested in how landscapes develop and change.