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Historic storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe
CoastalEngineering, 19 (1993) 335-338 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam
335
Book reviews Tidal Hydrodynamics. B.B. Parker (Editor). Wiley, New York, NY, 1992, ISBN 0-471-51498-5, xv+883 pp. This book consists of refereed papers by the world's leading authorities on tidal hydrodynamics. Earlier versions of these papers were presented at the International Conference on Tidal Hydrodynamics, held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, from 15 to 18 November 1988. The forty-four papers in this book, including nine excellent review papers, are organized into seven parts, covering the whole scope of tidal hydrodynamics. The four papers in Part 1 deal with tides on a global scale. Part two is devoted to tidal phenomena on shelves and in embayments and estuaries. Part 3, perhaps the masterpiece of the volume with its well-documented review papers, deals with nonlinear interactions in shallow water. Part 4 concentrates on internal tides and baroclinic effects on tides in estuaries. Part 5 describes new approaches to the measurements of tides. Part 6 deals with tidal analysis and prediction techniques and Part 7 is devoted to tidal applications. Each of the papers in the volume was reviewed by at least three referees knowledgeable in the specific subject treated in that paper (the names of the referees are listed at the end of the book) and this explains why, despite the inevitable inhomogeneity of a book written by many different authors, the overall quality of the volume is excellent. All contributions are profound, upto-date and well presented. If you are interested in tidal dynamics, this is the kind of book to have in your library. If you are not interested yet, buy yourself a copy ... You will be. J.C.J. Nihoul Li6ge Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe. H.H. Lamb (in collaboration with K. Frydendahl). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991, ISBN 0-521-37522-3, xi+204 pp., £55.00/ US$95.00. Protecting the land against the threats of the sea during severe storms is an important topic in coastal engineering practice. In the present book review,
336
BOOK REVIEWS
coastal engineering practice is the main focus point. This, however, does absolutely not mean that the threats of the sea during severe storms would be not important to topics like the safety of sea-going navigation, the safety of offshore constructions or the safety of inland buildings and forests. The primary effects of a severe storm (e.g. strong winds) are not directly very important in coastal engineering practice; the secondary effects of a severe storm are considered to be more important. Often the mean water level at sea increases during a severe storm (storm surge); rather high waves are generated and additional currents may be generated at open sea and in adjacent waters. In designing coastal protection works (e.g. dikes, dunes, revetments, groins or seawalls), the design conditions are often directly related to the above mentioned "secondary" effects of severe storms (e.g. design water level; design wave height). The value of interests (safety of inhabitants; economical interests) protected by coastal protection works increases steadily in modern times. The design boundary conditions become heavier and heavier. Expressed in the frequencies of exceedance per year: this frequency has decreased to small values (sometimes very small values, e.g. in the Netherlands an order of magnitude of 10-4 per year for design conditions of primary sea defenses ). Reliable statistics of water levels available often cover only approximately 150 years at most; wave statistics cover an even shorter period, say 50 years. (This holds for measuring stations bordering the North Sea, the area under investigation in Lamb's book; for many other measuring stations the 150 and 50 years mentioned are far too optimistic estimations. ) Design conditions based on small frequencies ofexceedance call in fact for long observation periods. There is often a great difference between the observation period required (from a statistical point of view) and the real one. An observation period which is too short requires a lot of extrapolation in order to determine the wanted design frequencies of exceedance. Engineers "struggling" with this unruly matter are always faced with at least two oppressed questions, viz.: -Are the design conditions, determined with extrapolation, still physically possible? - In the observation period a certain set of conditions occurred; how sure can we be that in future this set of conditions will not change? Here is where books like Lamb's can, and should, play an important role. Lamb's book contains a comprehensive survey of historic storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe since the year 1500. In every detail it can be seen that Lamb has worked with great pleasure at this important task. The book consists out of two parts. Part 1 (30 pages) contains four general chapters. In order to rank the severity of storms, a Storm Severity Index is proposed in Chapter two.
BOOK REVIEWS
337
In Part 2 (approximately 160 pages) the selected storms have been described. The measure of detail depends of course on the historic sources available. Wherever possible, synoptic meteorological maps have been added to the descriptions of the various storms. Even with few really measured data (with the "first" measuring devices), Lamb was able to propose likely synoptic maps. From the rather long introduction of the present book review, it has become clear that a coastal engineer, dealing with the determination of design conditions for coastal protection works, is only interested in some very specific details. She or he will not find these specific details directly in Lamb's book. This is not intended as a disqualification of the book; providing these specific details was not the aim of the book. For such coastal engineers Lamb's book is, however, a "must", since a broad insight is given in the nature of historic storms, at least showing that the present day of life, with the present memory of the nature of severe storms, is only a restricted one. For interested outsiders, Lamb's book is also recommended, whole-heartedly, to enjoy the remarkable details. J. van de Graaff Delft Geomorphology of Rocky Coasts (Coastal Morphology and Research Series, Vol. 3). T. Sunamura. Wiley, Chichester, 1992, ISBN 0-471-91775-3, xii+ 302 pp., £55.00. Written by a professor of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, this book, after two chapters on nearshore waves and currents, tides and storm surges, deals with the strength of coastal materials, processes in cliff erosion, underwater bedrock erosion, shore platforms, particular erosional landforms, and the effects of human activity on rocky coasts. It deserves particular attention for the large bibliography which it provides. Beside the English, American, Australian, New Zealand and, of course, Japanese literature, it refers to an appreciable number of papers or books by German, French and Russian authors. For example, Appendix two, showing the rates of coastal cliff erosion, with reference to lithology, includes hundreds of local references from all over the world. The various estimations of wave base, p. 133, are treated in a similar manner. The whole book is thus derived generally from extensive information. An even more important point is its strongly mathematical approach and the quantification of facts and discussions by equations and diagrams. This is the most significant feature of the book, resulting from the intensive work and investigations of the author and his Japanese colleagues. It is particularly apparent in the discussions on the strength of coastal materials, processes in
335
Book reviews Tidal Hydrodynamics. B.B. Parker (Editor). Wiley, New York, NY, 1992, ISBN 0-471-51498-5, xv+883 pp. This book consists of refereed papers by the world's leading authorities on tidal hydrodynamics. Earlier versions of these papers were presented at the International Conference on Tidal Hydrodynamics, held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, from 15 to 18 November 1988. The forty-four papers in this book, including nine excellent review papers, are organized into seven parts, covering the whole scope of tidal hydrodynamics. The four papers in Part 1 deal with tides on a global scale. Part two is devoted to tidal phenomena on shelves and in embayments and estuaries. Part 3, perhaps the masterpiece of the volume with its well-documented review papers, deals with nonlinear interactions in shallow water. Part 4 concentrates on internal tides and baroclinic effects on tides in estuaries. Part 5 describes new approaches to the measurements of tides. Part 6 deals with tidal analysis and prediction techniques and Part 7 is devoted to tidal applications. Each of the papers in the volume was reviewed by at least three referees knowledgeable in the specific subject treated in that paper (the names of the referees are listed at the end of the book) and this explains why, despite the inevitable inhomogeneity of a book written by many different authors, the overall quality of the volume is excellent. All contributions are profound, upto-date and well presented. If you are interested in tidal dynamics, this is the kind of book to have in your library. If you are not interested yet, buy yourself a copy ... You will be. J.C.J. Nihoul Li6ge Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe. H.H. Lamb (in collaboration with K. Frydendahl). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991, ISBN 0-521-37522-3, xi+204 pp., £55.00/ US$95.00. Protecting the land against the threats of the sea during severe storms is an important topic in coastal engineering practice. In the present book review,
336
BOOK REVIEWS
coastal engineering practice is the main focus point. This, however, does absolutely not mean that the threats of the sea during severe storms would be not important to topics like the safety of sea-going navigation, the safety of offshore constructions or the safety of inland buildings and forests. The primary effects of a severe storm (e.g. strong winds) are not directly very important in coastal engineering practice; the secondary effects of a severe storm are considered to be more important. Often the mean water level at sea increases during a severe storm (storm surge); rather high waves are generated and additional currents may be generated at open sea and in adjacent waters. In designing coastal protection works (e.g. dikes, dunes, revetments, groins or seawalls), the design conditions are often directly related to the above mentioned "secondary" effects of severe storms (e.g. design water level; design wave height). The value of interests (safety of inhabitants; economical interests) protected by coastal protection works increases steadily in modern times. The design boundary conditions become heavier and heavier. Expressed in the frequencies of exceedance per year: this frequency has decreased to small values (sometimes very small values, e.g. in the Netherlands an order of magnitude of 10-4 per year for design conditions of primary sea defenses ). Reliable statistics of water levels available often cover only approximately 150 years at most; wave statistics cover an even shorter period, say 50 years. (This holds for measuring stations bordering the North Sea, the area under investigation in Lamb's book; for many other measuring stations the 150 and 50 years mentioned are far too optimistic estimations. ) Design conditions based on small frequencies ofexceedance call in fact for long observation periods. There is often a great difference between the observation period required (from a statistical point of view) and the real one. An observation period which is too short requires a lot of extrapolation in order to determine the wanted design frequencies of exceedance. Engineers "struggling" with this unruly matter are always faced with at least two oppressed questions, viz.: -Are the design conditions, determined with extrapolation, still physically possible? - In the observation period a certain set of conditions occurred; how sure can we be that in future this set of conditions will not change? Here is where books like Lamb's can, and should, play an important role. Lamb's book contains a comprehensive survey of historic storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe since the year 1500. In every detail it can be seen that Lamb has worked with great pleasure at this important task. The book consists out of two parts. Part 1 (30 pages) contains four general chapters. In order to rank the severity of storms, a Storm Severity Index is proposed in Chapter two.
BOOK REVIEWS
337
In Part 2 (approximately 160 pages) the selected storms have been described. The measure of detail depends of course on the historic sources available. Wherever possible, synoptic meteorological maps have been added to the descriptions of the various storms. Even with few really measured data (with the "first" measuring devices), Lamb was able to propose likely synoptic maps. From the rather long introduction of the present book review, it has become clear that a coastal engineer, dealing with the determination of design conditions for coastal protection works, is only interested in some very specific details. She or he will not find these specific details directly in Lamb's book. This is not intended as a disqualification of the book; providing these specific details was not the aim of the book. For such coastal engineers Lamb's book is, however, a "must", since a broad insight is given in the nature of historic storms, at least showing that the present day of life, with the present memory of the nature of severe storms, is only a restricted one. For interested outsiders, Lamb's book is also recommended, whole-heartedly, to enjoy the remarkable details. J. van de Graaff Delft Geomorphology of Rocky Coasts (Coastal Morphology and Research Series, Vol. 3). T. Sunamura. Wiley, Chichester, 1992, ISBN 0-471-91775-3, xii+ 302 pp., £55.00. Written by a professor of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, this book, after two chapters on nearshore waves and currents, tides and storm surges, deals with the strength of coastal materials, processes in cliff erosion, underwater bedrock erosion, shore platforms, particular erosional landforms, and the effects of human activity on rocky coasts. It deserves particular attention for the large bibliography which it provides. Beside the English, American, Australian, New Zealand and, of course, Japanese literature, it refers to an appreciable number of papers or books by German, French and Russian authors. For example, Appendix two, showing the rates of coastal cliff erosion, with reference to lithology, includes hundreds of local references from all over the world. The various estimations of wave base, p. 133, are treated in a similar manner. The whole book is thus derived generally from extensive information. An even more important point is its strongly mathematical approach and the quantification of facts and discussions by equations and diagrams. This is the most significant feature of the book, resulting from the intensive work and investigations of the author and his Japanese colleagues. It is particularly apparent in the discussions on the strength of coastal materials, processes in