Poole Harbour is protected and recognised, nationally and internationally, for its ecological importance. However, it has also been classified as polluted and eutrophic. These twin designations – protected yet polluted – exemplify the condition of many estuaries, making Poole Harbour an ideal subject for elucidating the circumstances behind this apparent paradox. The outcome of a conference entitled ‘Spotlight on Poole Harbour: Environment & Economics’ organised by the Poole Harbour Study Group, this book comprises four main parts. Part I, ‘Background’, provides a broad introduction to the harbour in terms of its pre-historical and historical significance for human communities and gives a conceptual overview of its modern character and uses. Part II, ‘Ecology’, contains chapters ranging from plankton to marine mammals. The subsequent parts focus on industries dependent on the biological and chemical ‘ecological services’ of the estuary: Part III, ‘Fisheries’, covers recreational and commercial fishing and aquaculture, examining economic value and key shellfish species. Part IV, ‘Water Quality’, addresses those industries that require the harbour to remediate various effluents, as well as some of the environmental consequences and noteworthy efforts to reduce such impacts. Part V, ‘Conclusion’, by the editors examines certain general shortcomings of environmental legislation and regulation manifest in the case of Poole Harbour. A central concern throughout is the question of sustainable development in coastal and marine contexts, making this wide-ranging study relevant well beyond the bounds of its primary geographical focus.

Poole Harbour's unique combination of physical characteristics provide for a rich and productive ecological community recognised for its internationally significant bird populations and as a haven for the naturalisation of exotic species. But the Harbour is also exceptional in the extent to which it represents in microcosm the world-wide tensions between environment and development. The contrasts are sometimes startling: the narrow Harbour entrance separates an unspoilt natural environment of considerable importance from an urban landscape where property competes with Manhattan and Hong Kong Island in the world-wide table of real estate values. The Harbour serves as a port, fishing ground, a receiver of effluent and increasingly as a playground for the affluent. It also lies above Europe's largest on-shore oil-field.The Ecology of Poole Harbour brings together for the first time expert contributions in such a way as to provide a picture of the ecology of the Harbour system as a whole. It covers all the major habitats from reed beds and salt marshes to the extensive mudflats and unseen sub-tidal regions, while also examining in some detail a wide range of ecological phenomena and issues.* First expert overview of ecology of Poole Harbour as a whole

Here is a popular book with big set-piece descriptions accompanied by illustrations at its core, but with enough science to attract both the specialist reader and to educate the lay reader without scaring them off. Disaster books traditionally feed on hype, sensationalism and bad science. Eden redresses the balance. What then is the place of weather disasters in our climate? Are they freaks or a necessary part of the whole? How rare are meteorological event does it take to cause chaos in our day-to-day lives? Are we becoming more at risk and less capable of dealing with them? Or do we just complain more? These days we try and mitigate the effects of different hazards, by acquiring personal and property protection - individually, personally and politically. So what is the role of local and central government, the insurance industry, the media and the public? And how do we actually measure disaster? By rarity, insurance cost, death toll, recovery times or what? Can we merge all these so we can compare -say- the 1976 drought with the 1891 blizzard? Can we rank disasters? 15,000 died in the European heatwave of August 2003. Is this the shape of things to come? What will happen if the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift stops flowing? Here are just a few of Philip Eden's topics in a book which will be riveting to readers.

This is a historical study of great wind storms over the last 500-600 years, with meteorological maps and wind measurements.