ABSTRACT
Environmental geology relates the science of the Earth to the activities of human beings. Before the upsurge in environmental awareness of the past two decades, most of the concerns of environmental geology were grouped as applied geology-a contrast with “pure geology” which was taken to have no direct practical value. Most of applied geology could in turn be termed economic geology-the science of finding subsurface materials such as minerals and fossil fuels. However, environmental geology is more than just a fresh name for these older endeavours. First, it is more concerned than before with the ways in which geological processes influence the human environment, both through slow processes such as the influence on landscape, and through hazardous events such as earthquakes or landslides. Secondly, environmental geology focuses not just on the inputs to society but on its outputs: wastes and environmental degradation.
