Alluvial fans are important sedimentary environments. They trapsediment delivered from mountain source areas, and exert animportant control on the delivery of sediment to downstreamenvironments, to axial drainages and to sedimentary basins.They preserve a sensitive record of environmental change withinthe mountain source areas. Alluvial fan geomorphology and sedimentologyreflect not only drainage basin size and geology, but changein response to tectonic, climatic and base-level controls. Oneof the challenges facing alluvial fan research is to resolvehow these gross controls are reflected in alluvial fan dynamicsand to apply the results of studies of modern fan processesand Quaternary fans to the understanding of sedimentary sequencesin the rock record. This volume includes papers based on up-to-dateresearch, and focuses on three themes: alluvial fan processes,dynamics of Quaternary alluvial fans and fan sedimentary sequences.Linking the papers is an emphasis on the controls of fan geomorphology,sedimentology and dynamics. This provides a basis for integrationbetween geomorphological and sedimentological approaches, andan understanding how fluvial systems respond to tectonic, climaticand base-level changes.
