Longshore Drift

Movement of (beach) sediments approximately parallel to the coastline.

Glossary of Terms

A point on the ground whose horizontal or vertical location is used as a basis for obtaining locations of other points.

Sea

A large body of salt water, second in rank to an ocean, more or less landlocked and generally part of, or connected with, an ocean or a larger sea. Examples: Mediterranean Sea; South China Sea.

Waves caused by wind at the place and time of observation.
State of the ocean surface, in regard to waves.

Climate

The characteristic weather of a region, particularly regarding temperature and precipitation, averaged over some significant internal of time (years).

Gabion

Steel wire-mesh basket to hold stones or crushed rock to protect a bank or bottom from erosion. Structures composed of masses of rocks, rubble or masonry held tightly together usually by wire mesh so as to form blocks or walls. Sometimes used (although not recommended) on heavy erosion coastal areas to retard wave action.

Photomosaic

An assemblage of photographs, each of which shows part of a region, put together in such a way that each point in the region appears once and only once in the assemblage, and scale variation is minimised.

Seawall

A structure, often concrete or stone, built along a portion of a coast to prevent erosion and other damage by wave action. Often it retains earth against its shoreward face.

A structure separating land and water areas to alleviate the risk of flooding by the sea. Generally shore-parallel, although some reclamation seawalls may include lenghts that are nromal or oblique to the (original) shoreline.
A vertical or near-vertical type of shoreline armouring characterised by a smooth surface.

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Longshore Drift