This volume arises from a symposium held in London in October 1991 which discussed recent advances in understanding of the environmental controls on aeolian sediment transport processes, dune morphodynamics, and dunefield evolution. The papers included here address a wide range of issues, ranging from short-term experimental studies of individual grain movement and grain-bed collisions during aeolian transport to long-term climatic, eustatic and tectonic controls on the development of sand seas.