Coalbed gas has been considered a hazard since the early 19th century when the first mine gas explosions occurred in the United States in 1810 and France in 1845. In eastern Australia methane-related mine disasters occurred late in the 19th century with hundreds of lives lost in New South Wales, and as recently as 1995 in Queensland's Bowen Basin.

Interest in sediment dynamics is generated by the need to understand and predict: (i) morphodynamic and morphological changes, e.g. beach erosion, shifts in navigation channels, changes associated with resource development; (ii) the fate of contaminants in estuarine, coastal and shelf environment (sediments may act as sources

and sinks for toxic contaminants, depending upon the surrounding physico-chemical conditions); (iii) interactions with biota; and (iv) of particular relevance to the present Volume, interpretations of the stratigraphic record. Within this

context of the latter interest, coastal and shelf sediment may be regarded as a non-renewable resource; as such, their dynamics are of extreme importance. Over the years, various approaches and techniques have been applied to the determination of sediment transport pathways and the derivation of erosion, transport, and deposition rates. Such wide-ranging approaches include the refinement and application of numerical modelling; and the development of new and more efficient field equipment, e.g. video systems (coastal/ inshore) and multibeam. <...>

Here is the first complete manual on Coastal Geology. A book that gathers the knowledge of more than a century of research on different geological aspects of the coast: dynamics of geological processes, geomorphology, sedimentology and stratigraphy. They are also reflected from the applications of these sciences to the social problems and challenges of the communities occupying coastal areas. This manual collects many of my research experiences on different shores of the world, but almost everything written in this book I learned in other books.

The COASTAL SEDIMENTS '07 conference was organized as a technical specialty conference devoted to the physical aspects of sediment processes and morphology change in the coastal and inlet environment. Following previous conferences in the Coastal Sediments series that were held in 1977, 1987, 1991, 1999, and 2003, COASTAL SEDIMENTS'07 celebrated 30 years of the Coastal Sediments series and promoted exchange of information and views among specialists in the fields of coastal engineering, geology, oceanography, and related disciplines. The theme of COASTAL SEDIMENTS