Marine Science & Oceanography

Both hurricanes and tsunamis are treated as the serious natural catastrophes which could potentially cause a great harm to the humans. That is why it is really important to try and find effective ways of prediction and description of the subject phenomena, and these methods would be of great interest not only to the professional meteorologist but actually to all people.

The present volume is dedicated to the new research on the math descriptions of the hurricanes and tsunamis. Ferdinand Cap, the author, has presented the material in a very easy-to-follow manner which has made this work very useful for all researchers who are working in the field of mathematical modeling as well as hydrodynamics. The theoretical part of the book is rich with detailed formulas, calculations and very informative data tables. The author has tried to cover the tools and various computer tools that have never been applied earlier.

In fact, the thorough knowledge of those code is not a pre-requisite for the use of this volume; however, it would definitely be help to have some basic understanding of the associated calculations and the readers might get some knowledge of the subject program. Four chapters of the book provide the introduction to the wave physics, and cover the basic flow equations, water waves, and hurricanes.

The present classic and quite rare volume is fully addressing the parabolic approximation to a problem of wave diffraction over a sea surface. While the established method of parabolic equation in propagation of the radio waves over the earth surface was first introduced by V. Fok nearly half a century ago, it has been observed that the popularity of subject method has grown quite drastically because of the ongoing development of the new computational methods, and this is done on the basis of the parabolic approximation.

This, in turn, resulted in the evolvement and further utilization of the several computational techniques applied to the analysis of propagation of the acoustic waves and radio waves in deterministic and random media. The publication is mainly concerned with the such important problem as the wave propagation over the sea surface in the atmospheric boundary layer and the analytical solution to this problem. The author has covered two basic math methods, depending mainly on the ease of getting the closed analytical solution.

However, the publication has not been intended to provide a complete step-by-step background to those mathematical methods; it is rather dedicated to the analysis and application of the different physical mechanisms directly associated with the diffraction, scattering and refraction, and their combined effect...

The Corps of Engineers of the United States Army can deservedly take pride in the invaluable contributions throughout the American history to the proper developments of the infrastructure of the waterways, together with the navigation and environment restoration, reduction of the flood damage and protection and development of the water resources.

And many projects were made possible owing to the dedication and creativity of outstanding engineers, builders and scientists. The Corps has always performed the review of the processes relating to the evaluation of the project planning, often focusing mainly on their technical aspects. However, in the past decades the consideration of such important factors as the economic evaluations, impacts on the environment, political pressure and others, have significantly increased, resulting in the rising criticism and even the concern that the Corps' studies lead to the recommendations and conclusions not adequately supported by the analyses and scientific assumptions used. The present document has been arranged in seven chapters.

The first chapter defines the purpose and scope of the report, and the second chapter provides some historical background of the planning studies; the other chapters of the book provide the considerations and principles of the review, alternative approaches, administrative group and recommendations, supplemented with numerous appendices with additional information.

The plastics and polymers, as well as various composite materials are in wide use throughout the shipping industry; therefore they are commonly get exposed to the sea water. The biological fouling of the marine waters inevitably leads to the different problems for the vessels and boats, namely in the form of progressing corrosion of the hull and reduced speed of the ship, which the industry would like to prevent.

Hundreds of thousand tones of plastic wastes discarded to the sea every year, reach the environment because of the various shipping activities and land run-off. Today, it is estimated that about one million of the marine animals are killer by choking on floating plastics or due to entanglement in the debris made by plastic wastes, and the main reason for that is the slow degradation of the plastic materials. The polymers applied in the shipping industry, shall not foul and shall be stable for the long periods of exposure to the marine environment.

The present volume is covering the polymers' interaction with the marine environment and associated problems to the ecology, as well as their biological degradation and fouling, together with the possible solutions. That is why it is recommended to the people with the interest in utilization of these materials in the maritime industry and environment protection. 

This publication was worked out by Patrick Prouzet in collaboration with Andre Monaco, with the ultimate intention to provide readers with a systemized professional view of the existing wide diversity of the impacts as well as pressures that are commonly produced by the changes in climate and by the actions by humans. The erosion of the biological diversity caused by changing of the chemistry of the ocean, ongoing intensification of the global changes are raising the serious problem of the adaptation of various living resources to the new used conditions.

The land uses are inducing the eco-imbalances that, in turn, lead to the asphyxiation of the true coastal ecological systems. There is a constant necessity for the marine environments and associated food webs to assimilate more than one billion tons of the solid wastes. In addition to that, the discharges of various radioactive materials that are emitting to the atmosphere or water, is also raising the serious question of their future. The book consists of five chapters addressing the continent-sea interface, tracers of the exchanges, eutrophication of the sea environment, marine pollution caused by the debris, and radioactivity having the anthropic origin. Some of the images are there at the end of the volume to supplement the text.

Significant serious efforts have already been applied by the environmental research community towards the proper evaluation and further development of the meaningful estuarine indicators, and the main reason for that is the today's inability to properly and objectively determine today's trends and status among the associated estuarine eco-systems. So, in order to reach this important goal, all involved scientists and researchers will face the real necessity to combine their efforts in a broader range of relevant disciplines.

The present volume provides all interested readers with the key technical concepts and basic principles of the indicators, together with the general info on theory use and practical application in all associated management/research practices. Based on the numerous reviews provided by the readers, the book may serve as an excellent reference source when used by students, scientists and researchers working in any field with estuarines and associated eco-systems involved.

The content of this book is accessible even to the novices not only to the professionals. The volume may be definitely treated as a comprehensive and really multi-disciplinary resource covering all most important topics, for example theoretical basics, methods and protocols, future directions and potentials, examples of effective/ineffective indicators etc.

The book opens with the introductory chapter providing some general information, followed by the chapters that have been dedicated to the movement of the sea water and plants forming the plankton. Then there are several chapters dealing with the seasons at sea, various animals of the plankton etc. Separate chapters have been included addressing the vertical migration, marine life in the sea depths, photophores, fisheries and other aspects.

Numerous plates are there at the end of the title, including both black-and-white and color, accompanied by the comprehensive glossary of terms that have been used throughout the document. The author, A. Hardy, has expressed his wish to draw the careful attention of the readers of this volume, especially of non-professionals and non-scientists, to the glossary, because of the simple, concise and easily understandable explanations of the specific terminology that the author had to use.

Talking about the zoologists, the author would like to emphasize that the book will be very useful due to the amount of the information that is very difficult to find in other publications. That is the reason why this volume is so popular among the people involved in the field of marine science and we recommend it to everyone.

The main content of this useful and interesting title dedicated to the modeling of marine systems has actually been emerged from the proceedings of one of the international conferences on this subject, arranged by the science committee of NATO within the formal framework of their efforts in promoting the progress of marine science by means of the international cooperation.

The decision to compile and release this book was made straight after subject conference had completed. The ultimate intention of this volume is not actually the reproduction of the informal volume of the conference, but rather the development and further introduction of the valuable and useful guidelines to the theoretical and experimental work, i.e. the professional survey, via the specially commissioned documents, of the present situation in modeling of these systems. The documents contributing to the subject survey, are in fact based on the relevant publications.

The final aim of the book is to duly assemble the different elements of a very first manual on modeling the marine systems. The book is arranged in two halves, first focusing on the technical concepts and applicable techniques of the modeling, and the second dealing with the state-of-the art of marine systems modeling, covering all technical aspects involved.​