Urban geomorphology in drylands / Городская геоморфология в засушливых районах

In the winter of 1969 a series of storms in the ‘drylands’ of southern California caused serious soil erosion, numerous landslides, and widespread flooding. Over a hundred people were killed, thousands of homes and other buildings were ruined, the total estimated damage exceeded $200 million, the lives of several million people in the sprawling Los Angeles metropolis were disrupted, and the resources of the community had to be mobilized to cope with the emergency and rehabilitate the region at a cost of well over $8 million (US Corps of Engineers, 1969). The dominant environmental processes responsible for this crisis - erosion, slope failure, and flooding - are geomorphological problems, problems relating to the nature of the land surface and the forces that act upon it. <...>