Simulating Nearshore Environments

Book excerpt: Simulating Nearshore Environments provides computer procedures that realistically represent nearshore processes and supplement or replace trial and error methodology. The procedures simulate transport by waves and fluvial processes on beaches and deltas at various scales. They will aid coastal engineers, oceanographers and sedimentary geologists who focus on both modern and ancient nearshore deposits. How do you simulate nearshore processes using a computer? Can evolving deltaic and coastal environments be simulated realistically by mathematically representing the physical processes that create them? Once the physics and mathematical formulation are described, what are the techniques for transforming them into computer programs? The authors deal with all these aspects and take a "how to" approach in guiding the reader through the development of computer models for simulating sediment transport in coastal environments. In addition to describing the devised computer programs, the book provides a basis for those wishing to formulate their own mathematical models for simulating nearshore processes.