Anthropogenic Geomorphology A Guide to Man-Made Landforms
Today, human impact on the environment, and especially on the Earth’s surface, is obvious. We increasingly face the consequences of our interventions, and we must pay more attention to the wider impacts of our activities, which include everything from the
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József Szabó · Lóránt Dávid · Dénes Lóczy Editors
Anthropogenic Geomorphology A Guide to Man-Made Landforms
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Editors József Szabó Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics University of Debrecen Egyetem ter. 1 Debrecen 4010 Hungary [email protected]
Lóránt Dávid Department of Tourism and Regional Development Károly Róbert College Mátrai út 36 Gyöngyös 3200 Hungary [email protected]
Dénes Lóczy Department of Environmental Geography and Landscape Conservation Institute of Environmental Sciences University of Pécs Ifjúság útja 6 7624 Pécs Hungary [email protected]
This book is based on the monograph “Antropogén geomorfológia” published in Hungarian by the University of Debrecen, Hungary, in 2006. Translated by Zoltán Baros, Dénes Lóczy and Péter Rózsa Technical editor: Zoltán Baros
ISBN 978-90-481-3057-3 e-ISBN 978-90-481-3058-0 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3058-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920469 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
Anthropogenic geomorphology is the study of the role of humans in creating landforms and modifying the operation of geomorphological processes such as weathering, erosion, transport and deposition. As the human population rises, new lands and resources are exploited, and new technologies are adopted, the impact of humans grows ever greater. Some landforms are produced by direct anthropogenic actions. These tend to be relatively obvious in form and are frequently created deliberately and knowingly. They include landforms produced by construction (e.g. spoil tips from mines), excavation (e.g. mining and quarrying), hydrological interference (e.g. the building of dams), farming (including cultivation, grazing and horticulture) and military activities (e.g. craters). On the other hand, landforms produced by indirect anthropogenic actions are often more difficult to recognise, because they tend to involve the acceleration of natural processes rather than the operation of new ones. They result from environmental changes brought about inadvertently by human actions. By removing or modifying land cover – through cutting, bulldozing, burning and grazing – humans have accelerated rates of erosion and sedimentation. Sometimes the results of inadvertent actions are spectacular, as for example when major gully systems develop following deforestation, extreme floods are generated by impermeable urban surfaces, subsidence features open up when groundwater is mined, lakes become desiccated as a res
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