Soil erosion and sediment redistribution in river catchments: Measurement, modelling and management, edited by P. N. Owens and A. J. Collins. CABI, Wallingford, UK, 2006. ISBN 978 0 85199 050 7, xiv+328 pp.

✍ Scribed by Dave Favis-Mortlock

• Book ID: 102453577
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 31 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1085-3278
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.872

✦ Synopsis

You say yes, I say no. You say stop, I say go, go, go...' Just as the people in the Lennon/McCartney song are pulling in different directions, so too there are tensions and oppositions aplenty in science. And that includes environmental science.

As we read on page 5 of Soil Erosion and Sediment Redistribution in River Catchments: 'In . . . measurement, modelling and management' of catchments-the three main themes of this book-'the appropriate mantra is integration'. Holistic catchment management is indeed a worthy aim. Yet measurement, modelling and management of catchments is carried out by fluvial geomorphologists, hydrologists, erosion scientists, pedologists, agricultural engineers, land-use planners and so on; all of whom have different disciplinary perspectives, and all of whom are likely to have different approaches and assumptions. 'You say yes, I say no' indeed! This book brings together two of the specialisms concerned with the management of water, soils and sediments in catchments (watersheds, in US parlance). Experts in soil erosion, and experts in sediment transport and deposition, have contributed the 28 peer-reviewed chapters which make up this book. Most of these were presented at a conference held in September 2003 at the National Soil Resources Institute (NSRI) on the Silsoe Campus of Cranfield University (UK).

There are three main sections ('Measurement', 'Modelling' and Management'), flanked by 'Introduction' and 'Summary and outlook' chapters. 'Measurement' is the largest section, at 11 chapters, and 'Management' the shortest, at 7. There are over 60 contributing authors, drawn from around 15 countries. The chapters consider scales from plots to whole countries; and catchments on the continents of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and Central America. Such diversity could have resulted in a lack of focus, however, the editors are to be praised for successfully pulling together these wide-ranging contributions to make a coherent and convincing whole.

The introductory chapter (by the editors) usefully discusses catchment management in several contexts: histor-