Saltmarshes: Morphodynamics, Conservation and Engineering Significance

In many countries, saltmarshes represent a diminishing resource that threatens both natural changes and human activities. Suggestions that the rate of sea-level rise may accelerate, combined with a possible increase in mid-latitude storms, have raised concerns that the rate of saltmarsh loss may also accelerate, and that existing sea defences may be placed under even greater pressure. Saltmarshes are of increasing interest to a wide range of environmental scientists, engineers, conservationists, and planners concerned with coastal zone management. They are especially keen to understand the basic physical and biological processes which govern the formation and development of saltmarshes. Coastal engineers need to predict the likely effects on adjacent saltmarshes of abandoned or set-back of sea walls, and the impact of development schemes such as tidal barrages and marinas. Seven leading scientists present an overview of the most important questions including geomorphology, ecology, conservation and engineering significance.

Professor Ken Pye is an internationally renowned geomorphologist and sedimentologist who is the author or co-author of numerous books and journal articles. In addition to his current role as Director of Kenneth Pye Associates Ltd he has held academic appointments at the universities of Cambridge, Reading and Royal Holloway, London. Currently he is also a Visiting Professor at the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Southampton. His books include Aeolian Dust and Dust Deposits (1987), Aeolian Sand and Sand Dunes (2009), Backscattered Electron Microscopy and Image Analysis of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and Sediment Transport and Depositional Processes (1994).