- Estimates of Eustatic Sea Level Rise - does not deal with process 

 description in a general way, but highlights a fundamental issue, namely 

 the quality of the data base that has been used to calculate past secular 

 trends in sea level change, and what needs to be done to improve this base. 

 Following this is the section Compaction Effects, which is directly 

 associated with problems in water level measurement. 



Sections 4 though 11 deal with coastal processes. In section 4 the 

 effect of sea level rise on tidal ranges is discussed, and section 5 deals 

 with non- astronomical factors including storm surge and waves. The next 

 two sections are concerned with shoreline response. While section 6 deals 

 with physical processes in shoreline response in broad categories, section 

 7 focusses on specific issues relative to the scope and limitations of the 

 well known Bruun Rule for estimating shoreline recession rate. Physical 

 considerations upon which this rule must be re-examined have been noted. 



Section 8 describes problems with saltwater intrusion in groundwater 

 as a result of sea level rise or analogous effects, while the same problem 

 in surface waters is highlighted in section 9. Sedimentation problems in 

 tidal entrances, estuarine mixing zone and wetlands is described in section 

 10. Finally, ecological changes, including research needed to quantify 

 these better, have been noted in section 11. 



Some overlap between the various sections is inevitable. This extends 

 to both the physical description and research needs. Also, by and large, 

 the coastal processes have been reviewed from an engineering perspective, 

 and evaluation of present day knowledge has been made from the viewpoint of 

 the availability of quantitative (as opposed to qualitative) criteria. 



In general it appears that with the possible exception of tidal 

 hydrodynamics and salinity intrusion, considerable further research is 

 required for assessing shoreline and shore environmental response in a 

 confident manner. Strides made during the past decade have been 

 impressive, but for example where sediment transport is a key factor, we 

 are significantly limited in long-term predictive capability. This is 

 partly due to the lack of good quality synoptic hydrodynamic/meteorologic 

 data. This problem in turn has an impact on ecological modeling, which is 

 contingent upon a knowledge of flows and sediment movement . 



