Human influence on the environment is now so strong that a new geological era has been proposed (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000), the Anthropocene, the Age of Man, the era shaped strongly, for the first time in human history, by humans. It is largely a destructive influence (Nielsen, 2005, 2006, 2007) threatening our own existence, the influence reflected in the human-mediated climate change, in the ...

In this new edition of the Geoscience of the Built Environment [1], we hope to continue our contribution to the development of Geosciences studies in the Anthropocene, considering classical issues that are at least as old as Charles Lyell’s major works [2,3], which can be considered the founding literary works of modern Geology. The Anthropocene is currently being discussed as a possible Unit i...