SO422 COURSE OBJECTIVES (11/4/98) 

Introduction    p.1-14
  1. Understand the main issues confronting man in the coastal environment.
  2. Understand the dynamic equilibrium at the coast, with air, water, and sediment constantly in motion.
  3. Understand the different positions of coastal engineers and geologists in the "shoreline debate".
  4. Know the role of the Shore Protection Manual (SPM) and why it is published by the Corps of Engineers. 
Coastal morphology & classification     p.16-43
  1. Differentiate the major erosional and accretional features of shorelines.
  2. Discuss the episodic nature of cliff erosion.
  3. Discuss the history and development of barrier islands.
  4. Describe coastal classification systems. 
Sediment compositions   p.45-53
  1. Discuss the different minerals present on beaches: quartz, calcite, heavy minerals, and volcanic fragments.
  2. Discuss the use of heavy minerals to trace sediment sources.
  3. Discuss the factors controlling the mean sediment size distribution on beaches
  4. Describe grain size sorting on beaches, both across the beach and in the longshore direction. 
Waves    p.139-151
  1. Understand the key variables for waves, including the wave climate (T, Ho ,ao), and the equivalence of the subscripts Ho and H¥.
  2. Discuss measurement of waves in the nearshore environment and offshore.
  3. Know the definitions of significant wave height and period. 
Cell circulation: Longshore and rip currents. p.336-354
  1. Discuss the flow of rip currents and cell circulation.
  2. Discuss the relations of edge waves, breaker heights, and rip current locations.
  3. Discuss the characteristics and reasons for formation of the longshore current.
  4. Understand the development of the Longuet-Higgins equation, and use it to predict longshore current velocity. 
Wave theories   p.160-176
  1. Discuss the variables in the wave climate (T, Ho ,ao).
  2. Discuss the differences in Airy and Stokes wave theories.
  3. Calculate wave length, celerity, and wave height for waves approaching the shore, using linear wave theory and a table of d/Lo.
  4. Understand how group velocity changes as a wave approaches the shore 
Wave shoaling   p.183-189
  1. Discuss the changes in wave shape, water orbitals, height, and wavelength as it approaches the shoreline.
  2. Relate these changes to the equations of Airy wave theory. 
Wave refraction p.189-196
  1. Calculate wave refraction for the simple case of straight coasts with parallel contours (Snell's Law).
  2. Discuss refraction in terms of either wave crests, or orthogonals/wave rays
  3. Discuss the differences in refraction at headlands and bays. 
Wave breaking   p.208-216;  p.231-232
  1. Classify wave breakers and the conditions responsible for them.
  2. Discuss the complications in determining where a wave will break.
  3. Discuss the formation and importance of the undertow. 
Sediment grain sizes    SPM handout
  1. Know the phi scale and be able to convert between phi units and mm.
  2. Know the limits of the sand size range.
  3. Know the variables that define the lognormal distribution: mean and standard deviation.
  4. Calculate mean, median, standard deviation, and skewness for sediments with lognormal distributions.
  5. Graph and interpret sediment size analyses, on both normal probability paper and typical graph paper.
  6. Discuss the changes in sediment (sorting, size, mineral diversity, and rounding) that take place during transport.
  7. Discuss the concepts of basal shear stress and critical basal shear stress, how they relate to fluid velocity and the initiation of sediment motion.
  8. Discuss how the asymmetry of wave shape in shallow water leads to differences in the basal shear stress under crests and troughs, and how this leads to sediment sorting. 
Sediment budgets        p.66-72
  1. Understand the major categories of a sediment budget, and why many workers add a third category (convecting process) to the sinks and sources.
  2. Explain the following sediment sources: rivers, shoreline erosion, transport from offshore, wind, carbonate productions, and beach replenishment.
  3. Explain the following sediment sinks: inlets and lagoons, overwash, dune storage, offshore slopes, submarine canyons, deflation, carbonate loss, and mining and dredging.
  4. Know the magnitude of annual sediment budgets. 
Tides in shallow water  p.87-88; 95-96
  1. Discuss the complexities of tides in shallow water, including tidal bores and tidal asymmetry.
  2. Discuss the causes and magnitudes of storm surges.
  3. Discuss the asymmetry of the storm surge on either side of the eye of a hurricane. 
Sea level rise  p.101-121
  1. Describe the problems with relative sea level, and the differences between isostatic and eustatic sea level rise.
  2. Discuss the changes in sea level over the past century.
  3. Discuss the changes in sea level during and after the last ice age.
  4. Discuss the estimates for future sea level, and the difficulty in making those predictions.
  5. Know the best estimates for the current rate of global sea level rise. 
Coastal response to sea level rise      p.121-129
  1. Describe the predictions of the Bruun rule.
  2. Describe other coastal responses to rising sea level, including rollover and overstepping. 
Beach morphology        p.276-291
  1. Discuss the importance of the closure depth, and the general shape of offshore beach profiles.
  2. Discuss the factors that contribute to the slope of the beach at the shore, particularly wave steepness and sediment size.
  3. Describe the formation of the berm and the controls on its height. 
Longshore bars  p.292-302
  1. Describe the morphology of longshore bars and the associated troughs, and their relation to the waves.
  2. Discuss the conditions leading to multiple bars and the absence of bars.

Last Update: 11/4/98