This is the latest book from a prolific author already with 20 books to his name and with a wealth of experience to share. The subject areas of environmental and engineering geology are enormous and after studying the book one can understand why ‘basic’ was included in the title. To do justice to the full subject of environmental and engineering geology would have required a work of many volumes. To keep the book to a reasonable length (it has 352 pages) must have meant hard choices about what could be excluded safely.
The book has 11 chapters: basic geology; geology and planning; natural geohazards; water resources; soil and the environment; mining and the environment; waste, contamination and the environment; land evaluation and site assessment; engineering aspects of soils and rocks; geology and construction materials; geology and construction. At the end there is a substantial list of references to further reading for each of the chapters and a glossary.
This is a text which draws together engineering and environmental geology. It provides an integrated overview of the essentials. The sections on geology are well developed but some of the environmental aspects, for example contaminated land, receive limited attention. Furthermore, the references to further reading would benefit from some updating. For example the most recent work referenced in chapter 7, on waste, contamination and the environment, is dated from 2003 despite the welter of recent publications in this area.
The book is illustrated with a fine array of photographs and drawings, though sadly the reproduction of some of the photographs leaves them appearing rather faded.
The book is encyclopaedic in the range of topics covered but in line with an encyclopaedia the length of the ‘entries’ varies. Readers may find that once apprised of the ‘basics’ they have to look elsewhere for a fuller account of the more specialist topics.
