Coastal and estuarine sediment dynamics / Динамика прибрежных и эстуарийных отложений

There is a vast literature on the topic of sediment transport, and, generally, the contributions to it fall into three categories: descriptive marine geological, process-oriented oceanographic, and empirical engineering. I admit this is a rather sweeping generalization but so often the engineering literature starts with dimensional reasoning and then obtains results from experiments to produce empirical relationships with little apparent attempt to relate the results to the natural environment. Conversely, the geological literature establishes some very good physical concepts but fails to quantify them sufficiently to turn them into valid theories. The oceanographic approach is to consider the driving fluid processes in the absence of a satisfactory view of the sedimentary response. Of course there are very notable exceptions to the above statements.
This book is an attempt to bring together some elements of these three approaches: to establish an overall descriptive framework from the geologists; to put in experimental results and theory from the oceanographers, where possible; and to bridge the gaps with empirical results from the engineers where the theory is inadequate. Because of the complex interactions between the fluid, the bed, and the particles in the fluid and on the bed, it is very difficult to achieve a complete flowing logic through the book. It is impossible to avoid a certain amount of repetition, or dropping a topic at a certain point, to take it up again later in a slightly different context. Waves are almost ubiquitous, yet it is simpler to treat tidal currents and waves separately; in most cases of importance, of course, the two act together. Nevertheless without understanding them separately, there is little chance of understanding their interaction. Similarly cohesive and non-cohesive sediments are considered separately, even though there are large areas of the sea bed where the sediments are cohesive until they move, and are non-cohesive until they are deposited.
My objective was to provide a text book with the minimum of complex mathematics and derivations, but one which explains the concepts, which can then be carried forward by the reader to a further level of understanding by reference to the literature. The expert reader will probably note that some of their favourite references are missing. This is partly because I have had to choose in order not to produce an inordinately long and complex book, and partly because I defy any one person to have actually read and understood all the literature. Unfortunately, much of the engineering literature is not readily applicable to the sea and has been omitted as a consequence. <...>