Fluvial deposits represent the preserved record of one of the major nonmarine environ ments. They accumulate in large and small intermontane valleys, in the broad valleys of trunk rivers, in the wedges of alluvial fans flanking areas of uplift, in the outwash plains fronting melting glaciers, and in coastal plains. The nature of alluvial assemblages - their lithofacies composition, vertical stratigraphic record, and architecture - reflect an inter play of many processes, from the wandering of individual channels across a floodplain, to the long-term effects of uplift and subsidence. Fluvial deposits are a sensitive indicator of tectonic processes, and also carry subtle signatures of the climate at the time of deposition. They are the hosts for many petroleum and mineral deposits. This book is about all these subjects. The first part of the book, following a historical introduction, constructs the strati graphic framework of fluvial deposits, step by step, starting with lithofacies, combining these into architectural elements and other facies associations, and then showing how these, in turn, combine to represent distinctive fluvial styles. Next, the discussion turns to problems of correlation and the building of large-scale stratigraphic frameworks. These basin-scale constructions form the basis for a discussion of causes and processes, including autogenic processes of channel shifting and cyclicity, and the larger questions of allogenic (tectonic, eustatic, and climatic) sedimentary controls and the development of our ideas about nonmarine sequence stratigraphy.

Landforms created by running water dominate the land surface of earth. However, although the role of water is seen everywhere, it is seen at its best in those regions where the climates are wet enough to support a forest vegetation with a continuous canopy. The seasonal fluctuations in the character of precipitation with snow in winter and rain in summer which characterize cool temperate forest climates and the legacies of recent past cold periods in high latitudes means that the landforms of the humid tropics should be regarded as the "normal" or "type" features due to erosion by running water.This discussion of humid landforms, together with J. A. Mabbutt's volume "Desert Landforms" completes a series of seven volumes on systematic geomorphology. It attempts to break with traditional approaches and to discuss humid landforms from the standpoint of the humid tropics. In addition, it seeks to demonstrate that the processes creating and destroying landforms are also those that regulate biotic activity at the earth's surface. The approach followed in this book is to describe the processes affecting the evolution of landforms in terms of the circulations of energy, water and materials before introducing the complication of legacies of different ages from the past. Theories of landform evolution are briefly reviewed in the final chapter.

This book is the result of the project METROPOLE: An Integrated Framework to Analyse Local Decision Making and Adaptive Capacity to Large-Scale Environmental Change: Community Case Studies in Brazil, UK and the US, supported by the Belmont Forum-G8 Initiative Collaborative Research (Coastal Vulnerability, G8MUREFU3 2201-040). The Project METROPOLE was designed to address some important challenges of our time: on one hand, how to reduce the risks from climate change in coastal areas, in view of safeguarding life, assuring the safety of assets and the maintenance of rich ecosystems; and on the other hand, how to improve the interaction between scientists, decision makers and population for a common goal, to prevent alarming projections of sea level rise from being realized. This book focuses on the basis of the project which is anchored in the recognition of the importance of both dialogue and action on climate change involving different actors. Therefore, the participation of decision-makers, the population and representatives of civil and private organizations are key-elements in ensuring measures that might slow down, minimise or even restrict the perverse effects of climate change.