Science and technology -both have the potential to serve us well if we but use them appropriately. Landsat and its images of Earth are indeed fulfilling that promise, providing new tools for Earth scientists to decipher geologic processes, to better comprehend the evolution of surface features of nature. The new understandings obtained are more than mere satisfiers of scientific curiosity; they are the underpinnings of practical uses of space imagery, be it for determining the causes and extent of desertification, the impact of habitation on the environment, or the creation of an inventory of land use.

Impressive as the uses of space imagery are to date, we must point out that the potential is largely unmined. Too few Earth scientists are facile in the day-to-day working with this new tool. The challenge, then, has been to put within these chapters, authored by the pioneers, the "stuff" with which to awaken the latent interest, to stimulate by analysis and example, and to revitalize the discipline of geomorphology.

I hope that Geomorphology from Space serves more than the research community. Teachers of Earth science at all levels should find it an exciting adjunct to their customary texts. The lay person, too, can share the wonderment and beauty of the Earth as seen by our space eyes. To do so can but enhance one's sensitivity to the need to nurture our one and only Planet Earth.