Paul M. Mather

Book Review: Quantitative remote sensing of land surfaces

ronmental issues that have been tackled with some success and therefore might suggest approaches that have the potential to be successful in other areas. There are a number of errors in the text that should have been picked up in the editing process. A quotation attributed to Sylva (1665), for example, contains reference to places that either did not exist in the midseventeenth century (Chicago, for example) or would most likely have been unknown to the writer (p. 8). The observations are reported at least third-hand in this volume apparently without proper verification of the author or the original source. Other factual lapses include the placing of the Bay of Fundy in Newfoundland rather than Nova Scotia (p. 175) and the inaccurate comparison of current and future carbon dioxide levels (p. 181), while in a number of places the presentation of information is unclear and may, in fact, be wrong. Are electricity distribution systems really only 2% efficient as implied on page 186, for example? Similarly the statement of the ‘precautionary principle’ in the introduction (p. 12) does not seem to match its use elsewhere (p. 39). Editing a volume such as this is no easy task and despite the concerns noted above the editor is to be congratulated for blending the issues in a format that recognizes their complexity and the controversy associated with them, and explains why it is not possible to provide simple solutions for the problems that have arisen, all of which contributes to the stated aim of the volume.

Book reviews: McGuire, D.J. 1989: Computers in geography. Harlow: Longman Scientific and Technical Publishers. xx + 248pp. £11.95 paper

their area by only about one quarter. However, management of other development schemes in Africa does not inspire confidence that, in practice, local needs would be properly considered in times of crisis. It is a great temptation to engineers, bankers and politicians to put in a canal and transform a wilderness. On reading this splendid book one wants to tell them to let the Sudd stay as it is for a few decades until the local people can decide for themselves how they want it used.