Rip Currents

Rip Currents: Beach Safety, Physical Oceanography, and Wave Modeling is the culmination of research from over 100 coastal scientists, engineers, forecast meteorologists, lifeguard chiefs, and other practitioners from around the world who participated in the 1st International Rip Current Symposium. These experts identify advancements in research that will lead to a better understanding of the dynamics, mechanisms, and predictability of these dangerous currents, and lower the number of rip current drownings.

Edited by Stephen Leatherman and John Fletemeyer, the book covers:

• The full spectrum of rip current research and outreach initiatives on all four U.S. coasts (Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and Great Lakes) as well as the countries of Brazil, U.K., Japan, and Australia
• Scientific techniques used to study rip currents including field investigation and numerical modeling
• Field research involving the use of water-based sensors, video technology, and remote sensing
• The development of public education programs through various outreach programs and campaigns as well as an evaluation of their overall effectiveness

Rip Currents’ sixteen chapters run the gamut from technical aspects of rip currents to beach safety management strategies. Whether dealing with determining rip current occurrence, hydrodynamic processes, prediction, or mitigating rip current hazards to enhance beach safety, each chapter provides a vignette that is distinct in its own right but also linked to or integrated with other chapters in the book. This comprehensive treatment presents an integrated, international perspective on a coastal process that is only now becoming better understood by the scientific community, and which has great importance to public safety on the world's beaches.

Dr. Stephen Leatherman, Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, has authored/edited 16 books on coastal science, including one on beach safety published by Yale University Press in 2003. He holds his doctorate in coastal environmental sciences from the University of Virginia (1976).