The catalyst for this book was the Presidential Address delivered by Professor Andrew Goudie, Master of St Cross College, Oxford, to the Sixth International Conference on Geomorphology held in Zaragoza, Spain in September 2005. He identified the question of landform and landscape response to global environmental change as one of the five central challenges for geomorphology (the science of landform and landscape systems). He called for the establishment of an international Working Group to address this question and the chapters of this volume constitute the first product of that process. We applaud Professor Goudie's vision and trust that this first modest effort to respond to his call to arms will be reinforced by further research contributions on the topic. The book was written under the editorial guidance of Professor Olav Slaymaker (The University of British Columbia), Dr Thomas Spencer (University of Cambridge) and Professor Christine Embleton-Hamann (University of Vienna). The editors wish to pay tribute to three mentors, Clifford Embleton, Ian Douglas and Denys Brunsden, who, in different ways, have been instrumental in stimulating their enthusiasm for a global geomorphological perspective.

The editors and authors share a common professional interest in landforms, landform systems and terrestrial land-scapes. Love of landscape and anxiety over many of the contemporary changes that are being imposed on landscape by society are also driving emotions that unite the authors. All authors perceive a heightened awareness of the critical issue of global climate change in contemporary public debate, but at the same time see a worrying neglect of the role of landscape in that environmental problematique. The two topics (climate change and landscape change) are closely intertwined. This book certainly has no intention of downplaying the importance of climate change but it does attempt to counterbalance an overemphasis on climate as the single driver of environmental change.