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This book intends to identify and publicize the unique features of Austrian geomorphology. In a country which stretches from the core of the European Alps to the Hungarian plain, there is a huge variety of landforms and landscapes. This book reveals that variety.
Part 1 sets the context of the Austrian landscape as a whole.
Part 2 is the core of the volume and comprises a careful selection of the most outstanding landscapes in Austria. Each of the chapters results from detailed research conducted by an author over many years. Austria's landscapes are especially attractive because of the great variety of topographic slopes, geologic foundations and the special landscape legacy from the Quaternary period. Glacial and Karst landscapes dominate, but there are superb examples of granite weathering landscapes and geologically recent volcanism.
Part 3 is the editor's original and creative contribution. It emphasizes the importance of geomorphology as a natural resource. Tourism relies upon geomorphology and many national, aesthetic and cultural values are influenced by that geomorphology.
The book is lavishly illustrated with about 300 colour images and is securely based on scientific scholarship.
Christine Embleton-Hamann is a retired professor in the Department of Geography and Regional Research at the University of Vienna. Her main interest is in alpine environments. Within this field, she focuses on human-environment interactions with research topics like human impact on geomorphic processes, assessment of the scenic quality of landscapes, and geomorphological hazards. A second set of interests concerns the communication of geomorphological knowledge to a broader audience, in the pursuit of which objective she has written a well-received textbook on geomorphology. She is a former president of the Austrian Research Association on Geomorphology and served on the Executive Boards of the IAG and several IAG and IGU Working Groups.
