Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Coastal Science pp 1–8Cite as

Wave Environments

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 68 Accesses

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Wave environments are those areas of the seas and oceans that have similar wave sources and climatologies. The environments are closely related to wave generating systems, namely, the global and regional wind and cyclonic regimes, and secondly to the shape and orientation of the oceans and their surrounding coastlines.

Introduction

Waves are the most characteristic surface feature of the globe, with a presence over 71% of the surface. They are also the most transitory feature as they continually form, travel, and ultimately, after a few minutes to days, dissipate their prodigious energy. As ephemeral as waves are, they are ever present, moving across the seas and great oceans and at the shoreline supplying on the order of 2.5 × 109 Kw energy each year (Inman and Brush 1973) to build, maintain, rearrange, and erode the coastal systems. This represents over half the energy in the coastal zone.

The seas, oceans, and water column play a passive role in the formation and movement of waves....

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Bibliography

  • Davies JL (1964) A morphogenic approach to world shorelines. Z Geomorphol 8:127–142. Mortensen Sonderheft

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies JL (1980) Geographical variation in coastal development, 2nd edn. Longman, London. 212 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Inman DL, Brush BM (1973) The coastal challenge. Science 181:20–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short AD (ed) (1999) Handbook of beach and shoreface morphodynamics. Wiley, Chichester. 379 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Short AD, Trenaman NL (1992) Wave climate of the Sydney region, an energetic and highly variable ocean wave regime. Aust J Mar Freshwat Res 43:765–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short AD, Woodroffe CD (2009) The coast of Australia. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne. 288 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Young IR, Holland GJ (1996) Atlas of the oceans, wind and wave climate. Elsevier, Oxford. 241 pp

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Andrew D. Short

Authors
  1. Andrew D. Short
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew D. Short .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Fletcher, North Carolina, USA

    Charles W. Finkl

  2. Coastal Education & Research Foundation , Coconut Creek, Florida, USA

    Christopher Makowski

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Short, A.D. (2017). Wave Environments. In: Finkl, C., Makowski, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Coastal Science . Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48657-4_345-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48657-4_345-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48657-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48657-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation