Bücher der Reihe Springer Series in Physical Environment

Karst Systems deal with the question of how the subsurface drainage system, typical of Karst areas develops from its initial state to maturity.

This volume aims to demonstrate the significance of landforming processes from geological, geochemical and dynamic points of view. Evidence is provided for climatic influences on sandstone landforms, taking into account geochemical weathering processes and comparative studies.

This volume deals with the interaction between flowing waters in rivers and their environment. Based on the representation of basic flow parameters, the geometry, classification and historic development of rivers are treated.

Modelling of hydrological rainfall-runoff processes is facilitated by the application of the systemtheoretical approach to linear, nonlinear and stochastic models.

Starting with the description of meteorological variables in forest canopies and its parameter variations, a numerical three-dimentional model is developed. Its applicability is demonstrated, first, by wind sheltering effects of hedges and, second, by the effects of deforestation on local climate in complex terrain.

Can a continuous growth of agriculture be achieved in the sub-Sahara region without inducing irreversible damage to the ecosystem? Thirty years of investigation and a renewed comprehensive interpretation of research data on soil fertility show that a sustainable agriculture growth could be a practical possibility in a savannah region.

Karst is characterized particularly by special landforms and sub surface drainage. It is equally true that the first theories on water circulation in karst were developed according to ex periences in the Dinaric karst.

Proceeding from the loess environmental system, the climatic fluctuation sequence of different scales has been reconstructed, and the whole process of eolian loess accumulation and its relationship with modern silt dust, water and soil conservation, engineering geology, agricultural soil as well as local diseases are discussed.

Discussions of "systems" and the "systems approach" tend to fall into one of two categories: the panegyrical and the disparaging. This tilt at the systems approach is mild indeed compared with the com ments of an anonymous reviewer of a paper by myself concerned with the systems approach as applied to the soil.

This is the first study of the karst areas of China to be carried out by a Western geomorphologist, and almost all the sources are from Chinese works, as yet unpublished in the West.

The idea behind the title of this book is that the study of ice composition can shed some light on the various processes operating at the ice bedrock and ice-ocean interfaces and more generally on glacier dy namics.