Caribbean Landscapes: An Interpretive Atlas (review)

It is the rare book that combines beautiful, artistic images with informative text, but Caribbean Landscapes accomplishes just that. The combined use of satellite imagery, full-color photographs, and descriptive text, supplemented with appropriate maps and figures, set this atlas apart from and above the rest. A particular benefit of using satellite imagery in this atlas is the ability to show temporal changes in landscapes, which can result from both human and natural processes, at multiple scales. This work is the product of geographers who recognize the diversity of the Caribbean region and do not attempt to capture all landscapes, but rather interpret a representative set of landscapes across the island Caribbean (including the Bahamas) using a thematic approach. The authors, who draw on the literature and their own field experiences in the region, intentionally include case studies of areas that have received less attention in other texts, such as Cuba, Haiti, and a number of small islands.

The atlas is divided into two parts: Natural Landscapes and Human Landscapes. Each part is then sub-divided into thematic chapters that begin with a satellite image of the Caribbean, which serves as a chapter index and allows the reader to place the areas and topics highlighted within the chapter. A general descriptive overview of the chapter topic effectively sets the stage for specific case studies, which are highlighted with essays, photographs, satellite imagery, and in some cases, additional figures, such as a vegetation profile of a Cuban mountain range or a railroad network map. While the authors rarely include in-text citations, a complete reference list ends each chapter to direct the reader to supplemental information.

Part I, Natural Landscapes, introduces the reader to the physical geography of the Caribbean through three chapters: Terrain, Natural Communities, and Natural Hazards. In the Terrain chapter, landscape patterns resulting from karst, tectonic, and coastal processes across the region from Cuba to Barbados and the Bahamas to Aruba are highlighted. Local photographs of marine terraces, karst towers, escarpments, wave-cut features, and the volcanic peak of Nevis complement the broad-scale satellite imagery, effectively showing the impact of geologic processes at multiple scales. In Natural Communities, the authors describe diverse marine and terrestrial communities, ranging from reef and tidal flat communities in the Bahamas and Grand Cayman to montane forests on Hispaniola, Cuba, and Guadeloupe. In most case study essays, natural and human impacts on these communities are explained and viewed using satellite imagery. The Natural Landscapes portion of the book ends with a chapter devoted to natural hazards of the Caribbean. The authors discuss the impact of earthquakes and tsunami events at the regional scale, and at the local level, they examine volcanoes on Montserrat and Martinique, and tropical cyclones and flooding on Hispaniola and Cuba. In the case of flooding, the role of human activity (namely, deforestation) is outlined. The climate of the Caribbean receives little attention in the atlas, with the exception of this chapter's discussion of tropical cyclones.

Nearly two-thirds of the atlas is devoted to Part II, Human Landscapes, which comprises four chapters: Rural Landscapes, Political Landscapes, Industry and Tourism, and Urban Landscapes. As expected, the chapter addressing rural landscapes has a heavy emphasis on sugar cultivation, but other important crops of the Caribbean, such as coffee, tobacco, and bananas, along with ranching, receive attention as well. This chapter takes a historical perspective on agriculture and rural settlement patterns in the region, and considers changes that have occurred through time as the economic importance of agriculture declines with an increase in tourism development. The next logical chapter might continue the theme of economic activity, but instead the atlas turns to Political Landscapes. The main focus here is on recent or current conflict with case studies on Guantánamo Naval Base, Cuba; the Haitian-Dominican Republic border area; Vieques Island, Puerto Rico...