CLASSIFICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF 

 COASTAL ZONES OF THE WORLD 



William C. Putnam 

 University of California, Los Angeles 



Contract Nonr-233(06) 

 Task NR 388-013 



Throughout the day we have listened to descriptions and studies of detailed areas of spe- 

 cific regions, of things that one might say are concerned more, I hope, with fact than with fancy. 

 I find myself now in the predicament of attempting to describe and classify all the coasts of the 

 world. This is indeed a problem of great complexity because we are dealing not only with an 

 aspect of the entire earth but with all the variation of climates and processes that operate upon 

 it, as well as with one of the most dynamic interfaces on its surface— the boundary between land 

 and sea. 



This study was taken on as an applied project, one which would be of direct and pertinent 

 significance to the military. As I envisage the project and the goal we are attempting to 

 achieve, it has become one of primarily establishing communication: the development of a 

 common language between groups of people of diverse backgrounds and interests. 



Communications have always been one of the more difficult problems in military affairs. 

 The anecdote I treasure in this regard is one that appeared in a recent issue of the "American 

 Scientist," which dealt with the life of Lord Rumford, a leading British scientist of the period 

 of the American Revolution. I had not known that he was of American birth, and had quite a 

 career and variety of interests in the United States. As a Loyalist, he refused to take up arms 

 against his king, went to England, and was quickly depressed by the deplorable state of commu- 

 nications then existing in the Royal Navy. One of the less publicized episodes, I am sure, had to 

 do with a time when the British Fleet sighted the French on the horizon. The admiral hoisted a 

 signal, probably some spirited remark, such as "Engage the enemy and they are ours," where- 

 upon to his dismay the fleet lowered its sails, broke out the small boats in a hurry and these 

 rowed furiously toward the flagship, under the impression that the signal read, "Today is payday." 



Difficult as communications may be within the military frame of reference, the problem 

 becomes even more acute when we attempt to communicate from one field to another. In science, 

 it seems to me, the basis of communication is classification— and from this the development of 

 a working nomenclature. K there was any hallmark of 19th Century science, perhaps as con- 

 trasted to what we think of science today, it was its overwhelming concern with setting up clas- 

 sifications of birds, rocks, insects, people, etc., etc. The prevailing belief then was that if you 

 had classified something, you had answered all the basic problems in considerable measure. 



Today I think we have gone on in many fields to attempt to find the answer to the more 

 fundamental question of "why," rather than simply "what." Although coasts have been classified 

 in one fashion or another for quite some period of time, perhaps as much as a century, most 

 geologic classifications are based on the geologist's primary concern with genesis. The chief 

 question he seeks to answer is how did this thing happen, a concern of little interest to the 

 practical person, who instead wants to know what is going to happen when he makes changes in 

 the natural environment. He is not concerned whether the rocks on which he is building, for 

 example, are 2,000,000 years or 2 years old. 



The classification of shorelines now used in almost all textbooks is the one promulgated 

 by the late Professor Douglas Johnson, who placed major emphasis on emergence and 



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