Coastal Management in the Face of Climate Change

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Coastal management in the face of climate change is about methods that are increasingly required by Government Agencies for sea defence design, monitoring and management. This book highlights major concepts developed in the last 20 years or so for assessing the performance of coastal defences. It begins with an introduction to the key concepts of coastal management and the idea that most decisions have to be made using information which is neither complete nor certain. This lays the foundation for the second chapter which explains how a risk-based approach can help decision-makers constrain and to some extent quantify uncertainties. The following chapters comprehensively cover practical aspects of beach monitoring, estimating the nearshore wave conditions, quantifying the littoral drift environment, predicting changes in beach configuration, integrating the various components into a coherent management framework. Several examples of applications of the methods are given to illustrate the advantages and limitations of the different techniques, together with a case study from the south coast of the UK. The book is aimed at practicing coastal managers and engineers; to provide some practical guide to using the results of research efforts over the last decade. The material is also suitable for final year undergraduates and MSc students. It brings together in one book material that is currently dispersed across many sources which are not easy for the non-expert to access.