Sea-Level Science
Understanding Tides, Surges, Tsunamis and Mean Sea-Level Changes

This book explores sea-level change on timescales from hours to centuries, its processes and its measurement techniques, for graduate students, researchers and policy-makers.

David Pugh (Author), Philip Woodworth (Author)

9781107028197, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 April 2014

407 pages, 76 b/w illus. 178 colour illus. 35 tables
25.2 x 19.4 x 2 cm, 1.07 kg

'Sea-Level Science will immediately become a useful and practical reference for government and private-industry educators, academic researchers, and coastal scientists and engineers, whether or not they are directly involved in the field of oceanography. … It's not easy to hit the mark when attempting to cover a broad array of subjects and treat each one comprehensively. That mark has been hit in Sea-Level Science.' Stephen Gill, Physics Today

Understanding sea-level processes, such as ocean tides, storm surges, tsunamis, El Niño and rises caused by climate change, is key to planning effective coastal defence. Building on David Pugh's classic book Tides, Surges and Mean Sea-Level, this substantially expanded, full-colour book now incorporates major recent technological advances in the areas of satellite altimetry and other geodetic techniques (particularly GPS), tsunami science, measurement of mean sea level and analyses of extreme sea levels. The authors discuss how each surveying and measuring technique complements others in providing an understanding of present-day sea-level change and more reliable forecasts of future changes. Giving the how and the why of sea-level change on timescales from hours to centuries, this authoritative and exciting book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in oceanography, marine engineering, geodesy, marine geology, marine biology and climatology. It will also be of key interest to coastal engineers and governmental policy-makers.

Preface
List of acronyms
List of symbols
1. Introduction
2. Observations and data reduction
3. Tidal forces
4. Tidal analysis and prediction
5. Tidal dynamics
6. Shallow water and coastal tides
7. Storm surges, meteotsunamis and other meteorological effects on sea level
8. Tsunamis
9. Sea-level changes in space
10. Mean sea-level changes in time
11. Sea-level changes in time to do with the solid Earth
12. Sea-level applications
13. Sea level and life
Appendix A. The basic hydrostatic and hydrodynamic equations
Appendix B. Currents
Appendix C. High and low water times and heights
Appendix D. Theoretical tidal dynamics
Appendix E. Legal definitions in the coastal zone
Glossary
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Technology, engineering, agriculture [T], The environment [RN], Meteorology & climatology [RBP], Earth sciences [RB]