In our mountainous country, characterized by an arid and semi-arid climate, torrents and avalanches occur frequently. Climate change scenarios predict an increase in heavy rainfall in the future, suggesting that torrent and avalanche control will become increasingly important on our agenda.

Professor Dr. Faik TAVŞANOĞLU, one of the founding fathers of the Faculty of Forestry at Istanbul University (later Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, IU-C), began teaching the course "Rehabilitation of Torrent Basins in Mountainous Areas" (now Torrent and Avalanche Control) in Turkey for the first time in 1940 at the Institute of Forestry Construction at Istanbul University (now the Department of Forest Construction and Transport). Later, in our department, Professor Dr. Orhan UZUNSOY and Professor Dr. Ertuğrul GÖRCELİOĞLU continued to develop the subject by teaching courses, publishing articles, and writing books. The course was given by me in the period of 2006-2023. The textbook deals with the technical (structural) and cultural (biological) measures used in torrent and avalanche control in mountainous watersheds.

I would like to express my gratitude to my wife Aynur ÇELİK for her understanding and contribution to the editing of the text during the preparation of the book.

I extend my thanks to Prof. Dr. Mesut HASDEMİR, a member of our Department of Forest Construction and Transport, Prof. Dr. Ömer KARAÖZ, a faculty member, as well as forest engineers Muzaffer ÇAVUŞOĞLU, Yaşar DİNÇSOY, İbrahim BİROĞLU, and Murat ÇAVUŞOĞLU from the State Hydraulic Works, Erosion, and Sediment Control Department. I am also grateful to Associate Professor Dr. Dilek Eren AKYÜZ from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at IU-C, and to Tuğba ARSLANCAN for their assistance in editing of the text. Special thanks to Austrian forest engineer Georg HOHL and Prof. Dr. Mukden UĞUR from the Faculty of Engineering at the Turkish-German University for their help in translating German texts. Additionally, I thank Ahmet R. ÇELİK, Dolgun DALGIÇOĞLU and Kaya ORAL for their contributions to editing the photographs.

I would like to thank Assistant Professor Dr. Anıl AKAY from our department for helping prepare the tables of the book and research assistant Hakan TOPATAN for meticulously drawing the figures and arranging the page layout.

I hope the book will be beneficial to students, colleagues, and those interested in the subject.

Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Emrullah ÇELİK