Summary

The last five years have been marked by rapid technological and analytical developments in the study of shore processes and in the comprehension of shore deposits and forms, and shoreline change over time. These developments have generated a considerable body of literature in a wide range of professional journals, thus illustrating the cross-disciplinary nature of shore processes and the palaeo-environmental dimension of shore change. The justification of the book lies in bringing together these developments using an objective approach that synthesises current advances, technical progress in the analysis of shores and shore processes, contradictory interpretations, and potential advances using future-generation developments in techniques. The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art presentation of shore processes and deposits across ranges of wave energy and tide-range environments, sediment supply and textural conditions, sea-level change, exceptional events and longer-term climate change, based on the most recently published literature in the marine sciences. The book insists on the nested time and spatial scales through which are inter-linked shore processes and deposits, thus providing a better understanding of the way shores change over time. The approach is thus cross-disciplinary, and gap-bridging between processes and deposits, between analytical techniques, and between timescales. The audience is from graduate level upwards, and the book is intended as a comprehensive reference source for professionals in a wide range of coastal science fields (geologists, sedimentologists, geomorphologists, oceanographers, engineers, managers, archaeologists...).