Environmental Geology: An Earth Systems Approach 2nd ed. 2014

This textbook uses an Earth systems science approach to explore how the Earth works, how human behavior affects the environment, how natural hazards develop, and how an understanding of environmental geology can improve people's lives. It integrates basic concepts of Earth systems science and environmental geoscience to discuss scientific and systems thinking; individual systems, such as soils, surface water, groundwater, atmosphere, oceans, and energy; and interpreting and predicting environmental change. This edition has more emphasis on human impact and sustainability, including a new chapter on humans and the whole Earth system; new coverage of public policies resulting from environmental geology studies; and information on recent and ongoing research projects on unresolved issues in environmental geology. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Emphasizing the interconnected nature of environmental geology and the multidimensional processes of the Earth, this highly anticipated new edition of Merritt's classic text provides a balanced approach to environmental issues and builds an informed student understanding with case studies, conceptual explanations, and relevant presentation of material. By far the most concise book for its course, it remains the only textbook to use an earth systems approach to exploring how the Earth works, the human impact on the environment, and the characteristics of different natural hazards.