ACTA CARSOLOGICA 37/1 – 2008 163 NEw BOOK ON MAIN HAZARDS IN KARST: COLLAPSE AND wATER POLLUTION REVIEw S AND REPORTS / POROč ILA At t�e end of 2007 The Geological Society Publish- ing House publis�ed its Special publication No. 279 “Natural and Anthropogenic Hazards in Karst areas: Recognition, Analysis and Mitigation”, edited by well known names in t�e sp�ere of karstologists, John Gunn and Mario Parise. European Geosciences Union �eld its general assemblies at Vienna and traditionally t�ere is a session dedicated to natural and ant�ropogenic �azards. In t�e present book t�e papers, presented at t�e Second General Assembly in Vienna (April 2005) are publis�ed. There are 15 papers publis�ed on 208 pages including 133 illustrations and 19 tables. It is difficult to decide, eit�er t�is work is a book or proceedings. There is an in- troduction, t�ere is an index, but t�ere are papers, not c�apters. But in any case it is wort� not just looking at it but reading it. As it is emp�asized in t�e introduction, t�e karst is precious resource of karst water representing about 25% of t�e drinkable supply in t�e world - and prediction of FAO are increasing it to 75% for t�e year 2025. Not only water, karst is t�e source of many ot�er raw materials as well as it is important regarding cultural and natural world �eritage and for t�e recreation. It is also extremely vulnerable and its values and importance are strongly counteracted by t�e ease wit� w�ic� �uman activities can negatively impact t�is precious part of t�e Eart�. There are many �uman activities t�at produce se- vere impacts in karst, often wit� irreparable damage. Very good example is t�e plateu Kras (Karst in sense strict) w�ere deforestation and overgrazing lead to extreme soil erosion and finally to t�e rocky desert. Re�abilitation was extremely difficult including very �ig� economic cost. On t�e ot�er �and t�e live and �uman activities are somew�ere subject to great �azard and risk provoked by karst processes as are subsidence, collapse or flood. In t�is publication t�ere are very well presented examples for t�e bot� sides: impact of man on a karst land and im- pact of karst upon man’s life and activities. according to t�is t�e book is divided into t�ree parts treating collapse and subsidence �azards, karst water �azards, and prob- lems of karst managing. In t�e first section t�ere are five papers dealing most- ly wit� dolines and sink�oles (in general t�e synonym for collapse doline) as a risk or a �azard for a man. For t�e w alt�am & Lu paper it can be said t�at it is little more t�eoretical talking about natural and ant�ropogenic rock collapse over open caves. Two papers are dealing wit� sink�oles and its distribution in Italy (Nisio et al.) and on Florida (Brinkmann et al.), t�e traditional sink�ole country. Ot�er two are more specialised, s�owing t�e met�ods �ow to assess cover-collapse sink�oles, example from Sardinia (Ardau et al.) and t�e met�od of magnetic ACTA CARSOLOGICA 37/1 – 2008 164 prospection for dolines filled by alluvium or ot�er un- consolidated material. Just t�e fift�s paper does not deal wit� dolines but wit� karst processes and slope instability in t�e Apennine Mountains of Campania (Santo et al.). The second section including six papers is dedicated entirely to �ydrological �azards. Five of t�em are treat- ing t�e problem of karst water pollution and protection from different aspects. J. Gunn s�ows t�e importance of area definition for groundwater source protection, pre- senting interesting examples from England, Ireland and as far as New Zealand. S. J. Alls�orn et al. s�ow �ow t�e rapid karstic bypass can play very important role in con- taminant transport from an example of yorks�ire c�alk aquifer. S. H. Botrell presents an example from far away, from Sic�uan in C�ina. It is a reconnaissance study of stable isotopes as tracers of natural and contaminant sul- p�ate sources. Intrinsic vulnerability is a question con- nected wit� very popular studies of vulnerability and �azards mapping. D. Ducci s�ows an example of suc� a study of t�e Alburni karst system in Sout�ern Italy. Ot�- er two papers connected to �ydrological �azards are of quite different orientation. The first one (A. Cossu et al.) is treating coastal geomorp�ic site at risk of t�e floods (an example from Sardinia) and t�e second one (Delle Rose et al.) is evaluating t�e impact of quarrying on karst aquifers of Salento in Sout�ern Italy. The last two papers (section Managing karst) are quite different. For M. Day’s paper it can be said t�at it is a regional and a general study on natural (droug�t and water supply, floods) and different ant�ropogenic �az- ards, deforestation emp�asized, in t�e karst of Jamaica. The paper presents some sorts of pollution and degrada- tion w�ic� are not so often treated in karstological litera- ture: agriculture as a factor of degradation, and bauxite mining including groundwater and surface water con- tamination and t�e displacement of t�ousands of local residents. The last paper is different from t�e ot�ers, writ- ten by a group of nine aut�ors from five institute from Grenoble, Lyon, and Paris: Biotic versus abiotic calcite formation on pre�istoric cave paintings: t�e Arcy-sur- Cure “Grande Grotte” (yonne, France) case. It is a sort of degradation, but t�e degradation of cultural �eritage. Due to t�e importance of cave paintings, a set of sop�is- ticated analyses and experiments �ave been carried on to find out t�e kind of t�e calcite, covering t�e paintings and to find out t�e reason of its deposition. w�ic � is also very important: due to t�is “multimet�od” approac� some of t�e deteriorated paintings were improved and t�e �ope is well grounded t�at t�ey will find appropriate conditions to conserve t�e paintings for t�e future. The book is available from t�e Geological Society Publis�ing House (�ttp://www.geolsoc.org.uk) or can be ordered t�roug� Online Books�op: www.geolsoc.org. uk/books�op. The price is 70/140 Britis� pounds (paper- back/�ardback), possible reduction for t�e members of some professional associations. Andrej Kranjc ANDREJ KRANJC