This book completes Robert G. Bailey's celebrated study of ecoregions, begun in the landmark Ecosystem Geography (1996) and further articulated in Ecoregions (1998). In this third installment, the author expands his system for defining large-scale ecological zones to encompass principles of land management, regional planning, and design. In an engaging, non-technical discussion, he shows how larger patterns and processes that characterize a region - its climate, topography, soils, vegetation, fauna, and human culture - provide essential keys to the sustainability of ecosystems. Ecoregion-Based Design for Sustainability will be welcomed by land and resource managers, landscape architects and urban planners, ecologists, students, and anyone interested in ecology-based design.
"Bob Bailey ÄisÜ the man behind the ecosystem mapping of the world."
*(Lingua Franca Reviews of Ecoregions)
"The book provides easy access to the geographic distribution, characteristics, and processes operating behind every major ecosystem in the world."
(Geoscience Canada)
"For schools and colleges Ecoregions offers an invaluable source of description, interpretation and analysis of global patterns of ecosystem distribution and successfully provides the reader with a means of making sense of these patterns."
(Geography)*
Robert G. Bailey is a geographer with the United States Forest Service in Fort Collins, Colorado, and leader of the agency's Ecosystem Management Analysis Center.

From the reviews:

** "The book moves well beyond classical ecology and links with environmental sustainability. The illustrations and examples Baily uses in this discussion are both persuasive and diverse. The appendices give useful information. Those not acquainted with the subject will benefit from these sections. Overall, the book is a 'good read', which even experienced professionals should enjoy because transdisciplinary communication, as well as communication with laypersons, can be vastly improved." (John Cairns, Jr., Environmental Conservation, Vol. 30 (4), 2003) "This richly illustrated book completes Robert G. Baily's celebrated study of ecoregions, begun in the landmark Ecosystem Geography (1996) and further articulated in Ecoregions (1998). This book will be welcomed by land and resource managers, landscape architects and urban planners, ecologists, students, and anyone interested in ecology-based design." (Ethology, Ecology & Evolution, Vol. 14 (4), 2002)

This text is the third in Bailey's explanation and exposition of the ecoregion concept. Overall, this is a very useful text. It describes ecoregions in ways in which they could be understood easily by the lay person. To assist this, the text is excellently illustrated using a wide variety of sources (postcards, photographs, maps etc.) which help to emphasise the utility of the ecoregion concept. It deserves the widest readership. (Teaching Ecology Newsletter, 2003)

Text includes a concise overview of Bailey's classification system . most useful for those who prefer a quick overview of the ecological rationale for the delineation of ecoregions. An extensive list of references is included for those interested in ecoregion concept. Its principle contribution to a landscape ecologist's library is the discussion of the panoply of uses to which the ecoregion maps have been put. most appropriate for students of landscape architecture or general ecology, as well as landscape ecologists . (Andrew Lister, Landscape Ecology, Vol. 18, 2003)

Autorentext

Robert G. Bailey, born in 1939, received his PhD in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1971. An ecological geographer with U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, he was leader of the agency's Ecosystem Management Analysis Center for many years. He has four decades of experience working with the theory and practice of ecosystem classification and mapping and its application to management. He is author of numerous publications on this and related subjects, including four books.

Zusammenfassung
A study of ecoregions that shows how larger patterns and processes that characterize a region - its climate, topography, soils, vegetation, fauna, and human culture - provide essential keys to the sustainability of ecosystems.

Inhalt
Nature's Geometry.- Regional-Scale Ecosystem Units, Ecoregions.- An Ecoregional Approach to Sustaining Ecosystems.- Significance to Ecosystem Management.- How Land-Management Agencies, Conservation Organizations, and Others Use Ecoregion Maps.- Summary and Conclusions.