Estuarine Shores : Evolution, Environments and Human Alterations

Examining the link between interrelated systems, this book deals with environments that intersect the shallow subtidal, intertidal and frequently flooded supratidal shoreline.

It defines the land-water contact along seagrass beds, intertidal flats, beaches, salt marshes, mangroves, plus a wide variety of human altered environments: reclaimed land; disposal areas; roads; building and shore protection structures.

These environments are becoming more fragmented through time as a result of human development, and the nature of the interaction between these environments is becoming more obscure. The book includes studies and case histories that describe and discuss the processes that create and shape the physical and biological environments on estuarine shorelines.

They also identify the state of knowledge and trends in research that may be applied to the solution of scientific and management problems.

The book combines process-orientated studies of shoreline dynamics with case studies examining spatial and temporal variability of shoreline change.