The coastline

310 spheric sciences' for a readership of postgraduate and upper-year undergraduate students. This is an ambitious goal for a book of some 160 pages, particularly when it is claimed to be at a level beyond that of an introductory undergraduate text, and yet is largely non-mathematical in approach, The introductory chapter stresses the importance of treating oceans and atmosphere as an integrated system, although little indication is given of what the basic mechanisms of this system are. Instead several pages are spent on an historical review and a philosophical discussion of the integrated approach, interesting enough but an irrelevant luxury in so brief a book. The second chapter is largely devoted to oceanic circulations. As a text on descriprive physical oceanography, this chapter is clear and informative and to be recommended to students. It is much weaker in its explanation of mechanisms by which the currents are produced and interact with the wind system. The reader untrained in dynamical oceanography will find difficulty with concepts such as dynamic height, Coriolis force, and vorticity which are introduced merely with a footnote definition. Moreover, to describe vorticity as 'equivalent to angular velocity' could be very misleading, Chapter three explores the direct action of the wind on the sea in the generation of wind waves, the Ekman theory of wind driven currents and the production of storm surges. The section on waves takes the form of a highly condensed review of the literature which could well be confusing to the student reader, particularly if he has not the mathematical ability to follow up the references. Concepts such as wave spectra are introduced without even a diagram, and since no mention is made of dispersion or group velocity, a phrase such as 'waves spread with a phase speed ( c ) . . . ' could easily be misleading. The fourth chapter switches to those aspects of meteorology directly affected by transfer of heat and moisture from sea to

back between atmosphere and ocean may occur, and this is developed in the fifth chapter at the scale of climatic response to sea-surface temperatures and the identification of anomalies. Even here very little indication of actual feedback mechanisms is given. The reader is left with the impression that in fact the oceans and atmosphere are not yet very well understood as an integrated system, and it is appropriate that the final chapter should be a summary of the observational and numerical modelling programmes presently being conducted in a i r sea interaction. The authors would have been more realistic to describe their book as a collection of processes contributing to air-sea interaction, rather than a 'comprehensive integrated approach'. The style tends to be one of reporting the work (and indeed extensive passages of the words) of others, with little comment and sometimes little integration between different sources. Where the authors choose to describe physical processes in their own words, it is much more readable and illumihating. On the other hand, the wealth of references could make it a useful starting point for a study of the subject in depth. The book is well produced and laid out, with clear diagrams, and at a paperback price accessible to students. However, the lack of even an elementary exposition of the dynamics of atmosphere and oceans means that it can only be recommended to students in conjunction with other introductory texts of dynamical oceanography and meteorology. After all, to neglect dynamics is to neglect the essence of the air-sea interaction processes, and it would be misleading to encourage students to think that the subject could be approached non-mathematically at anything more than a superficial level.

air. This covers radiation patterns and the energy budget on a global scale, transfers in the turbulent boundary layer, the physics of sea, ice and fog formation, and cloud and storm production by convective processes. In the latter w e b e g i n t o s e e h o w s o m e feed-

R.S.K. Barnes (Editor), 1977. The Coast/ine. Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 356 pp., E 12.50, U.S. $ 34.50.

I.S. Robinson, Southampton

ECOLOGY

The Coastline includes fifteen chapters written by fourteen specialists in coastal

311 ecology and physiography. A conclusion is drawn in the last chapter where the knowledge displayed is used in discussion of coastline management and planning. The editor, Dr. Richard Barnes, is a lecturer in Aquatic Ecology in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology and Secretary of the Estuarine and Brackish-Water Science Association. The subject and aim of the book is expressed by Prof. J.A. Steers' words in Coasts and Beaches (1969): 'Those who know the coast will realize how good it is, and how fast some parts of it are being spoiled', Dr. Barnes in his preface says that The Coastline 'is an attempt to tell those responsible for the initiation and operation of coastal policies what the ecological factors of particular importance in the various coastal habitats are, and to provide an ecological basis against which management decisions aimed at minimizing pressures whilst permitting necessary utilization can be judged. It is thus written mainly for the professionally - concerned, but not necessarily e c o l o g i c a l l y - trained planner with coastal responsibility', Engineering works in the coastal environment present such a variety of problems that the engineer sometimes may feel 'schizophrenic'. When he protects the shore against erosion, whether this is caused by wind, waves, currents or any combination of these ingredients, he is a 'conservationist' in his own definition, but not necessarily in the eyes of environmentalists who may consider any interference with nature an offense against the environment. On the other hand the engineer usually is fully aware that dredging and/or filling in coastal waters present an attack upon the environment. As such it is important for him to evaluate to what extent his plans may be detrimental to the environment. Most engineers will then find themselves lost in the wilderness of an environment which they do not know. They are therefore unable to explain it for others in figures which will provide boundary criteria for objective engineering design. As an example: the passing of the socalled 'Bulkhead Law' by the Florida Legislation in 1957 was an absolute must aimed at regulating dredging, filling and bulk-

heading in the waste shallow-water coastal bays, lagoons, swamps and marshes in the State of Florida. Each county was to establish its own bulkline limiting the extent of fills for development purpose. Planning of "bulkhead lines' was assumed to consider engineering aspects like the influence of the project on tides, currents, waves, storm surges, erosion, deposition, navigation -- and finally all plant and biological life including what was generally termed 'the sexual life of the minnows'. The last item should soon prove to become the most important paragraph. It was even able to s t o p - by legislation--all coastal fills for developments in Florida for several years. Reading through the fourteen chapters of The Coastline one soon gets a pleasant feeling of scientific objectiveness in the description of multisubjects like sandy and shingle foreshores and formations, lagoons, muddy and rocky foreshores, salt-marshes, estuaries, sand-dunes, earth and rocky cliffs, reclaimed land, the submaritime fringes, etc. Any coastal engineer or planner is thereby given a chance to understand why engineering and ecology must work hand in hand learning from each other in order to achieve a practical result 'without spoliation which has frequently been brought about more by ignorance and thoughtlessness than by economic necessity'. (except cases where the goal solely was to make a fast buck by dredging, filling, selling). As expressed by Dr. Barnes: 'if this handbook can partly rectify the situation it will have achieved much'. 'Rectify' may be wishful thinking. However as the book appears to have beenauthored by competent practical scientists -- or by scientific practitioners -- it will undoubtedly be able to contribute to bridging of the gap between coastal engineering and coastal environmentalism -- leaving less space for operations by other groups which belong to neither one of these disciplines, merely playing political flutes without tuning the instrument to physics and facts. Per Bruun, Trondheim

V.L. Smith (Editor), 1977. Economics o f Natural and Environmental Resources. Gor-