Near surface geophysics: Investigating the dynamic coastal environment-introduction

The coastal zone is a habitat for much of the world’s population, a key economic driver for fishing, shipping, recreation and tourism, and a critical wetlands ecology. However, the coastal zone is also a dynamic setting undergoing significant change at many different time scales. Large storms, for example, can restructure coastal morphology on the scale of hours or days. Rising sea level or changes in sediment supply will alter the coastline over decades to centuries and longer. These are human-relevant time scales, and such changes can have major impacts on coastal infrastructure, habitability, and ecology. Human activity also impacts the coast; e.g., hardening of coastlines and inlets, reduction in sediment supply due to damming, artificial beach replenishment, extraction of ground water for human consumption and agriculture, and the introduction of pollutants. Both land- and marine-based near-surface geophysical methods can play a significant role in understanding the many processes that impact …