Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Calow P. 1999. Blackwell's Concise Encyclopaedia of Environmental Management. Blackwell Science. ISBN 0 632 04951 0. pp xii + 165. £14.95

Calow's original encyclopaedia was a massive tome whose contents tended to suffer from unevenness of treatment juxtaposing the highly complex with the extremely simple. It was always going to be a challenge to cover such ground in one text and this reviewer noted the need for smaller (and cheaper) versions tackling less material. These two volumes have now appeared and the change is positive. The volume on environmental management seems to be more focussed in its choice of ideas. The key words chosen for definition and explanation seem to cover the basics of the topic with no obvious omissions noted. There are some areas, e.g. state of environment reports, where one might have hoped for a more up-to-date selection but generally the reader is given a very good background. The ecology volume follows along similar lines but with a greater range of the terms from the common to the more obscure.

Explanations are clear and the texts brief enough to be read through as books as well as be consulted as reference texts. We are presented with enough changes to make these books useful additions to the library.