Marine Science & Oceanography

This interesting title prepared by John Woods in collaboration with Nadia Pinardi provides the conceptual basis and major applications of the ocean forecasting. The publication was specifically released to provide readers with a consistent and exceptionally comprehensive overview on various methods and popular applications of the ocean forecasting worldwide.

Subject sector of marine technology and science is development very fast owing to the constantly increasing demand for the reliable and multi-disciplinary info related to the marine systems that would allow the sustainable utilization of the coastal resources as well as mitigation of potential global change effects. Some of the chapters of this book have been dedicated solely to the theoretical and conceptual basis of the ocean forecasting, that range from the design of the observational and modeling systems, established techniques of data assimilation, and modeling of numerical ecosystem.

The volume is also covering numerous live examples of the forecasting and modeling systems that are either in use or being established. The publication is expected to be practical and also useful for both students and scientists in all relevant disciplines, since it will enable all of them to gain proper understanding of the current level of technical knowledge/performance of the forecasting systems existing today.​

The ocean waves generated by the wind are considered one of the most prominent features of the ocean surface. We know that the ocean covers a huge part of our planet, and the ocean waves cover all oceans. In fact, the wind-generated ocean surface wind is maybe the only object in the science of oceanography which does not require any general introduction.

The present publication prepared by Alexander Babanin, is outlining the current situation in the research related to the wave breaking and is also presenting the most important outstanding problems of today. The influence of the effects of non-breaking dissipation on the atmospheric boundary level have also been covered in the book, together with the extreme weather conditions and upper-ocean mixing.

As a result, we can consider this book to be a very valuable source of information aimed at any person with the interest in the topic, including engineers and forecasters, modelers and researchers, scientists and students in the fields of ocean engineering, oceanography and meteorology. Among the topics covered within this book there are detection of wave breaking and its measurements, probability and severity of the wave-breaking, energy dissipation, analytical theories, and so many other important topics.

Nowadays, we may observe a constantly growing concern about the state of the oceans. The significant and very rapid growth of population in coastal areas has eventually led to the increased dependence of the people on the existing marine resources. Some of the beneficial features relating to the life style and food supply require to be duly balanced against the hazards that are commonly presented by the chemical pollutants, various microbial pathogens and other sources.

This book provides a good professional review of the several key aspects of the marine environment in its relation to the human health - the content of the book has been compiled on the basis of the very valuable contributions by a group of recognized experts from a wide range of backgrounds. In the initial overview, the need for the integration of a range of various relevant disciplines, including marine biology, epidemiology, physical oceanography and molecular biology is explained.

The authors hope that such approach will play a good role in predicting the possible consequences of the changes to environment and exploitation of the existing resources upon the coastal eco-systems and, eventually, on the human health. The chapters of the book are providing the analysis in several specialized topics that will for sure be found very useful by the specialists in the field.  

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.