Book excerpt: This comprehensive text focuses on the increasingly important issues of urban geochemical mapping with key coverage of the distribution and behaviour of chemicals and compounds in the urban environment. Clearly structured throughout, the first part of the book covers general aspects of urban chemical mapping with an overview of current practice and reviews of different aspects of the component methodologies. The second part includes case histories from different urban areas around Europe authored by those national or academic institutions tasked with investigating the chemical environments of their major urban centers.