Further Reading
Coastal Wetlands
Chabreck, R.A., 1988, Coastal marshes; ecology and wildlife management: Minneapolis, Minn., University of Minnesota Press, 138 p.
Part of a series on wildlife habitats; this volume describes the coastal marshes of the United States with particular emphasis on the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline. Environmental influences, plant and animal communities, and the reasons for alteration and loss of marshes are clearly explained for the nontechnical reader; sections on marsh management and the future of marshes give the author's suggestions for minimizing damage to this ecologically valuable environment.
Crisis on Louisiana's coast...America's loss, published by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, in cooperation with the State of Louisiana, 12 p.
Explains the economic and ecological importance of Louisiana's wetlands, the causes of their loss, and the steps being taken by the State and six Federal agencies to address this critical problem, in an easy-to-read style.
Barrier Islands
Dolan, Robert, Lins, Harry, and Stewart, John, 1980, Geographical analysis of Fenwick Island, Maryland, a middle Atlantic coast barrier island: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1177-A, 24 p.
Dolan, Robert, and Lins, Harry, 1986, The Outer Banks of North Carolina: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1177-B, 47 p.
Highly urbanized Fenwick Island and the less developed islands of North Carolina are analyzed to demonstrate the processes and hazards associated with coastal barrier islands. The intended audience includes land-use planners, managers, and developers.
Leatherman, S.P., 1988, Barrier island handbook: College Park, Md., University of Maryland Coastal Publications Series, 92 p.
A thorough, nontechnical explanation of barrier island environments, their evolution, and the impact of recreation and construction on them.
Sea-Level Change and Coastal Erosion
Committee on Coastal Erosion Zone Management, 1990, Managing coastal erosion: Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 182 p.
This report was commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Federal Insurance Administration to provide options for implementation of a coastal erosion zone management program; it also explores some of the major questions about developing a national policy on coastal erosion.
Committee on Engineering Implications of Changes in Relative Mean Sea Level, 1987, Responding to changes in sea level-Engineering implications: Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 148 p.
The first half of this book examines the history and estimated future (over the next century) of sea level, including the effects of sea-level rise on the coastal zone; the second half gives general and specific engineering responses to sea-level rise. The committee concludes that, in most areas, acceleration in the rate of mean sea-level rise is likely enough that it will affect planning and design of coastal facilities. It recommends increases in the funding of research on coastal processes, to provide adequate scientific knowledge to support decisions about protecting or abandoning coastal facilities as sea level rises.
Committee on Options for Preserving Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 1988, Saving Cape Hatteras lighthouse from the sea - Options and policy implications: Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 135 p.
The Cape Hatteras lighthouse, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, is a symbol of the erosion problem on the southern Atlantic Coast. This report, commissioned by the National Park Service, documents the options the Park Service has to preserve the lighthouse and recommends that it be relocated rather than protected in place. The choices discussed also apply to many other National Parks, where historic buildings are subject to destruction by erosion.
Penland, Shea, Ramsey, K.E., McBride, R.A., Moslow, T.F., and Westphal, K.A., 1989, Relative sea level rise and subsidence in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico: Baton Rouge, La., Louisiana Geological Survey Coastal Geology Technical Report No. 3, 65 p.
Documents the rates of land loss in Louisiana and the northern Gulf of Mexico through the combined action of subsidence due to compaction and sea-level rise. Highest rates were found for the Mississippi River Delta plain; the authors extrapolate a relative sea-level rise of 1.5-2 meters over the next century.
Beach and Wave Mechanics
Bascom, Willard, 1980, Waves and beaches; the dynamics of the ocean surface (revised and updated): Garden City, N.Y., Anchor Press/Doubleday, 366 p.
A highly readable book that describes the theory of wave action and the considerable effects that waves can have on beaches, ships, and other engineered structures.
King, C.A.M., 1972, Beaches and coasts (2d ed.): New York, St. Martin's Press, 570 p.
Examines different types of beaches and coasts and the wave and wind processes that shape them. Many of the examples are from Great Britain.
Shore Development
Culliton, T.J., Warren, M.A., Goodspeed, T.R., Remer, D.G., Blackwell, C.M., and McDonough, J.J., III, 1990, 50 years of population change along the Nation's coasts, 1960-2010: Rockville, Md., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Trends Series, 2d report, 41 p.
Provides information on current and future population trends along the Nation's coastlines, which are grouped into five major regions: Northeast, Southeast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific. Size, distribution, and density projections are given for regions, States, and counties.
Kaufman, Wallace, and Pilkey, O.H., Jr., 1983, The beaches are moving; the drowning of America's shoreline (with a new epilogue): Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 336 p.
Originally published in 1979 and reprinted with a new epilogue in 1983 to accompany the series "Living with the Shore" (see below). The authors hold strong views against building structures near the coastline; this nontechnical book explains the natural coastal processes that form and change beaches and describes some of the problems that arise when we attempt to control these natural processes.
Morrison, H.R., and Lee, C.E., 1981, America's Atlantic Isles: Washington, D.C., National Geographic Society, 200 p.
Beautiful photographs and readable text describe the wide variety of islands found along the U.S. Atlantic shoreline from Maine to Florida, as well as the range of wildlife and human communities that inhabit this region.
Pilkey, O.H., and Neal, W.J., series editors, Living with the shore: Durham, N.C., Duke University Press.
This series currently contains 14 volumes, each of which examines the shoreline of an individual State (Florida has two volumes, for East and West Florida). The books are intended for a nontechnical audience; they review the geologic history, the history of development, the coastal processes affecting the shoreline, human intervention on the shore, government programs affecting coastal real estate, and safeguards to take when buying or building to prepare for storms and hurricanes. The books also contain a detailed analysis of the entire shoreline with recommendations of where and where not to buy shore property.
Yasso, W.E., and Hartman, E.M., Jr., 1976, Beach forms and coastal processes: MESA New York Bight Atlas Monograph 11, 50 p.
Presents findings on natural and manmade beaches, dunes, shoreline structures, beach growth and erosion, and storm effects along the New York Bight, the part of the Atlantic coastline from Long Island to New Jersey. This paper is one of a series of technical monographs providing decision makers with information on the complex coastal processes of the Bight and the human impact on these processes. The series was a cooperative effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the New York State Sea Grant Institute.
Conclusions . . . Federal Agencies
| Maintained by J.M. Watson | https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1075/reading.html | Last updated 9.22.97 |
