ABSTRACT
Depending on the circumstances, the water motions of waves, tides, storm surge, and nearshore currents combine and interact with the coastal land which in turn has considerable inherent variability. This chapter summarizes these several agents that play a role in coastal erosion. The longer-period waves have longer wave lengths, and this also permits them to achieve greater heights without breaking and thereby losing energy. The chapter discusses that methods employed for predicting the wave conditions that result from a certain combination of storm conditions. A timetable of the changes in sea level has been obtained by dating materials such as submerged peat beds, beach rock, and fossil intertidal animals, material that has a known narrow relationship to past stands of the sea. An analysis of the budget of littoral sediments is perhaps most useful in assessing possible impacts by man.
