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Glossary of Terms

A tropical cyclone with maximum winds less than 34 m/sec (75 mile per hour). Compare with hurricane or typhoon (winds greater than 34m/sec).

Hydrography

The description and study of seas, lakes, rivers and other waters; the science of locating aids and dangers to navigation; the description of physical properties of the waters of a region.

Bench Mark

A permanently fixed point of known elevation. A primary bench mark is one close to a tide station to which the tide staff and tidal datum originally are referenced.

Longshore Transport

Sediment transport down the beach (parallel to the shoreline) caused by longshore currents and/or waves approaching obliquely to the shoreline.

Shoreline Management

The development of strategic, long-term and sustainable coastal defence and land-use policy within a sediment cell.

Undertow

A current below water surface flowing seaward; the receding water below the surface from waves breaking on a shelving beach. Actually undertow is largely mythical. As the backwash of each wave flows down the beach, a current is formed which flows seaward. However, it is a periodic phenomenon. The most common phenomena expressed as "undertow" are actually rip currents.

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