Introduction to Environmental Geology

This text focuses on helping non-science majors develop an understanding of how geology and humanity interact. Ed Keller—the author who first defined the environmental geology curriculum—focuses on five fundamental concepts of environmental geology: Human Population Growth, Sustainability, Earth as a System, Hazardous Earth Processes, and Scientific Knowledge and Values. These concepts are introduced at the outset of the text, integrated throughout the text, and revisited at the end of each chapter. The Fifth Edition emphasizes currency, which is essential to this dynamic subject, and strengthens Keller’s hallmark “Fundamental Concepts of Environmental Geology,” unifying the text’s diverse topics while applying the concepts to real-world examples.

Edward A. Keller is a professor, researcher, writer, and most importantly, mentor and teacher to undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, Dr. Keller's students are working on earthquake hazards, how waves of sediment move through a river system following disturbance, and geologic controld on habitat to endangered southern steelhead trout. He was born and raised in California (Bachelor’s degree in Geology and Mathematics from California State University at Fresno, Master’s degree in Geology from University of California at Davis), it was while pursuing his Ph.D. in Geology from Purdue University in 1973 that Ed wrote the first edition of Environmental Geology, the text that became the foundation of the environmental geology curriculum. Ed joined the faculty of the University of California Santa Barbara in 1976 and has been there since, serving multiple times as the chair of both the Environmental Studies and Hydrologic Science programs. In that time he has been the author on over 100 articles, including seminal works on fluvial processes and tectonic geomorphology. Ed’s academic honors include the Don J. Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award, Geological Society of America (2004), Quatercentenary Fellowship from Cambridge University, England (2000), two Outstanding Alumnus Awards from Purdue University (1994, 1996), A Distinguished Alumnus Award from California State University at Fresno (1998), the Outstanding Outreach Award from Southern California Earthquake Center (1999).