Coastal engineering

Coastal engineering

A branch of civil engineering that applies engineering principles specifically to projects within the coastal zone including areas nearshore, estuary, marine, and shoreline.

Industry: Engineering

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Coastal engineering

Probability

Engineering; Coastal engineering

The chance that a prescribed event will occur, represented by a number (p) in the range 0 - 1. It can be estimated empirically from the relative frequency (i.e. the number of times the particular ...

The process by which water rises from a deeper to a shallower depth, usually as a result of offshore surface water flow. It is most prominent where persistent wind blows parallel to a coastline so ...

Managed retreat

Engineering; Coastal engineering

The deliberate setting back (moving landward) of the existing line of sea defence in order to obtain engineering or environmental advantages - also referred to as managed landward realignment. ...

Ordinary tide

Engineering; Coastal engineering

This expression is not used in a technical sense by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, but the word "ordinary" when applied to tides, may be taken as the equivalent of the word "mean". Thus ...

Wave amplitude

Engineering; Coastal engineering

(1) The magnitude of the displacement of a wave from a mean value. An ocean wave has an amplitude equal to the vertical distance from still-water level to wave crest. For a sinusoidal wave, the ...

Tide staff

Engineering; Coastal engineering

A tide gauge consisting of a vertical graduated staff from which the height of the tide can be read directly. It is called a fixed staff when it is secured in place so that it cannot be easily ...

Waterline

Engineering; Coastal engineering

A juncture of land and sea. This line migrates, changing with the tide or other fluctuation in the water level. Where waves are present on the beach, this line is also known as the limit of backrush ...