Home :: What We Do :: Education:: Coastal A-Z
Overview
Initiatives
Programs
Education
SF Scholarship Program
Coastal A-Z
Coastal Bibliography
Coastal Factoids
Top 40 Links
COASTAL A-Z

Table of Contents
 A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


'A'

  • Access: Coastal Access in California
  • Accretion: Deposition of sediment, usually sand, which is evident by the seaward advance of a shoreline indicator, such as the high water line, berm crest, or vegetation line. Accretion causes the beach to become wider. Opposite of erosion.
  • Aeolian Transport and deposition of sand by wind: the principal means by which sand dunes are formed.
  • Algal Blooms: "Red Tides" and Harmful Algal Blooms
  • Alongshore Current: see Longshore Current
  • Alternative Ocean Energy
  • Armoring: Placement of fixed engineering structures, typically rock, wood timbers, or concrete, on or along the shoreline to reduce coastal erosion. Armoring structures include seawalls, revetments, bulkheads and rip rap.
  • Army Corps of Engineers
  • Artificial Reefs
'B'
  • Backshore: Generally dry portion of the beach between the berm crest and the vegetation line that is submerged only during high water levels and eroded during storm events.
  • Backwash: The seaward return flow of swash on the beach face due to gravity.
  • Bacteria: Coliform, Fecal Coliform, & Enterococcus Bacteria
  • Bacterial Pollution, Tracking the Sources
  • Bar: Submerged mound of sand that generally runs parallel to the shore and causes waves to break before reaching the beach.
  • Barrier Beach: A low-lying, sandy island or spit that lies offshore and generally parallel to the mainland.
  • Beach: Accumulation of wave-deposited or stream-deposited loose sediment, usually sand, that extends from the outermost breakers to the landward limit of the wave and swash action.
  • Beach Fill: Sand artificially placed on the beach, usually by pumping sea bottom sediments onshore, to replace that being lost alongshore or offshore. Beach fill projects are usually large scale, spanning many miles of shoreline to rebuild eroded beaches. Also sometimes called beach nourishment, although the beach is not necessarily being nourished in an ecological sense.
  • Beach Grooming
  • "Beach Is Alive" campaign by the Surfrider Foundation. See the series of articles #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6. Also see the Beach Sand at the Base of the Food Chain article.
  • Beach Loss: Volumetric loss of sand, usually measured by a loss of dry beach width.
  • Beach Monitoring: Periodic collection of data, such as dry beach width, to study changes over time. Also sometimes used to refer to beach water quality monitoring.
  • Beach Narrowing: Decrease in usable (dry) beach width caused by episodic storm impact or long-term erosion.
  • Beach Profile: Measurement of the elevation or height of the beach surface taken along a line that runs from the dune to the water across the beach. Profiles taken at different dates can be compared to illustrate and quantify storm, seasonal, and longer-term changes in beach width, height, volume, and shape.
  • Berm: Feature usually located at mid-beach and characterized by a sharp break in slope, separating the flatter backshore from the seaward-sloping foreshore.
  • Low Impact Development and Bioretention
  • Blowout: Small, often circular or oval depression in sand dunes, caused by wind scouring where protective vegetation has been disturbed.
  • Bluff: High, steep bank or cliff along the mainland of non-coastal origin. Steepened bluffs are caused by wave undercutting of the cliff toe.
  • Breakwater: Structure built parallel to the shoreline and seaward of the beach designed to protect the beach and upland areas by causing waves to break and dissipate their energy before reaching the shore. Often used to construct small boat harbors.
  • Building Setback: State or locally required seaward limit of beachfront construction, usually for a house.
  • Bulkheads: Rigid structures with vertical walls built parallel to the shoreline to serve as barriers to wave attack and prevent storm surge flooding of upland areas; constructed out of treated wood, corrugated steel, PVC, or other materials.
'C'
'D'
'E'
  • Ebb Current: Tidal current moving away from the coast during a falling (ebbing) tide, often with high velocity flows through tidal inlets.
  • Ebb Tidal Delta: Sandy shoals formed by ebbing currents found on the seaward side of tidal inlets.
  • The Economic Impact of Beaches
  • Ecosystem-based Management
  • Environmental Impact Statement: Surfrider Guide to NEPA, CEQA, and EISs
  • Enterococcus: Coliform, Fecal Coliform, & Enterococcus Bacteria
  • Epidemiological Studies
  • Erosion: Physical removal of sand from the beach which is transported offshore, alongshore, or into bays and lagoons via inlets. Erosion results in shoreline recession—landward retreat of a shoreline indicator such as the high water line, vegetation line or dune line. Opposite of accretion.
  • Erosion Hot Spots: Areas where erosion is occurring at a much higher rate than adjacent beach areas, which can threaten beachfront development or infrastructure. Typically the dry beach has narrowed considerably.
  • Erosion Watchspots: Areas where the coastal environment (natural or built) will soon be threatened if shore erosion trends continue.
  • Eustatic Sea-Level Rise: World-wide changes in sea level over decades to centuries caused by the addition of water from the melting of glacial ice and/or thermal expansion of sea water due to global warming.
'F'
  • Fetch: Distance of open water over which the wind blows in the development of waves. The fetch length can restrict wave development so that only relatively small waves occur in narrow bays and lagoons.
  • Fiscal: The Economic Impact of Beaches
  • Flood Current: Tidal current moving toward the shore, through a tidal inlet, or up a tidal river, estuary, or lagoon.
  • Flood Peak: The highest flow level or discharge in a flood event.
  • Floodplain: A level area near a river or stream channel, constructed by the river in the present climate, and overflowed during moderate and higher flow events.
  • Flood Tidal Delta: Sandy shoals formed on a rising (flooding) tide and found on the estuarine or lagoonward side of a tidal inlet.
  • Foreshore: Seaward sloping portion of the beach within the normal range of tides.
'G'
  • Geotextile Tubes: Elongated cloth bags or tubes made out of plastic material that can be stacked or arranged as a form of semi-hard coastal engineering.
  • Global Warming
  • Golf Courses: Friend or Foe?
  • Gradient: (of a stream or river) The rate of fall of a stream, typically expressed a number of feet of elevation change per mile.
  • Groins: Shore protection structures which extend from the beach backshore into the surf zone, perpendicular to the shoreline. A groin is intended to build up an eroded beach by trapping littoral drift or to retard the erosion of a stretch of beach. Often mis-identified as jetties.
  • Grooming (Beach Grooming)
  • Groundwater: Water stored and/or flowing beneath the ground surface, through the pore spaces of subsurface soils and rock.
  • Grunion -  California grunion are small silvery fish found only along the coast of southern California and northern Baja California. Unlike other fish, grunion come out of the water completely to lay their eggs in the wet sand of the beach. See the Grunion Study 2005 web page.
  • Gully: A steep sided, v-shaped erosional feature, usually associated with loosely consolidated, fine textured soils. Gullies often form due to runoff over areas where vegetation has been removed and on steep hillsides.
'H'
  • Hardening: see Armoring.
  • Hard Stabilization: Emplacement of treated wood, rocks, concrete, PVC, and/or steel in the form of breakwaters, bulkheads, groins, jetties, seawalls, etc.
  • Health Threats from Polluted Coastal Waters
  • High Water Line: The line or “wetted bound” separating wet from dry sand and formed by swash uprush on the beach face.
  • Hurricanes: Tropical cyclones with winds 75 mph or greater which spiral inward toward a core of low pressure and rotate in a counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere.
'I'
  • Impaired Water Bodies and TMDLs
  • Infiltration Capacity: The rate at which surface soils are able to absorb water from rainfall and runoff.
  • Inlet: see Tidal Inlet
  • Isostatic: Local or regional changes in the ground surface elevation, resulting in land subsidence or uplift.
'J'
  • Jet Skis and Personal Watercraft
  • Jetties: Shore-perpendicular structures built at the sides of an inlet to maintain navigable waterways. They stabilize an inlet by intercepting the longshore transport of sand that would otherwise fill it in or cause the channel to shift position. Jetties are often confused with groins, but are more substantial structures, usually built in pairs.
'L'
  • Lake: A body of water of considerable size, which is surrounded by land. A lake may be formed when a landslide blocks a stream, by volcanic or seismic activity, or by glaciations.
  • Levee : An embankment constructed along the banks of a river, wetland or irrigation channel to prevent high flows or tides from flowing out onto the adjacent area.
  • Littoral Budget: Sediment budget of the beach consisting of sources and sinks.
  • Littoral Drift: Sand and courser material moved in the breaker and swash zones by waves and longshore currents along the shoreline.
  • Littoral System: Are from the landward edge of the coastal upland (usually the dune) to the seaward edge of the nearshore zone.
  • LNG (Liquified Natural Gas)
  • Longshore Current: Current moving along (parallel to) the shore, generated by waves breaking at an angle to the shoreline.
  • Longshore Sediment Transport: Sediment transport along the beach (parallel to the shoreline) caused by longshore currents and/or waves approaching obliquely to the shoreline. See Littoral Drift.
  • Low Impact Development and Bioretention
'M'
'N'
  • Neap Tide: Small tide range, occurring at the first and third quarters of the of the moon, when the gravitational pull of the sun opposes that of the moon.
  • NEPA: Surfrider Guide to NEPA, CEQA, and EISs
  • Nearshore: Underwater area close to the beach, often characterized by sand bars, where sediment is actively being moved by waves and currents.
  • Nodal Point: Location of longshore sediment transport divergence, where the littoral drift moves away in opposite directions along the coast. Normally areas of higher erosion rates.
  • Nor’easters: Extratropical storms affecting the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coasts of the United States, with winds that commonly blow from the northeast, occur during the winter, and can generate large waves and elevated beach tides, resulting in considerable beach and dune erosion.
  • NPDES: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
  • Non Point Source Pollution : What It Is
'O'
  • Oblique Wave Approach: Waves that approach the beach at an angle (e.g., not straight-on) and generate longshore currents.
  • Offshore: Area seaward of the nearshore zone where sediment transport is only initiated by large swell waves or coastal storms.
  • Overwash: Wave uprush overtopping the beach and dunes during storms; water and entrained sand that are moved landward of the dune. Also called an overwash surge during major events. See Washover.
'P'
  • Peat: Dark-brown to black, fibrous material produced by plants which grow in marshes or bogs. When exposed on the beach face, it indicates long-term erosion and landward barrier migration.
  • Perigean: Period of time (twice a year) when the moon is at its closest approach to the Earth, and the tidal range is larger than normal.
  • Perigean Spring Tides: Coincidence of perigean and spring tidal conditions resulting in the highest high and the lowest low tides. Coastal storms and waves can become more damaging when they occur during perigean spring high tides.
  • Period: see Wave Period.
  • Personal Watercraft
  • Pew Ocean Commission report
  • Plunge Pool: A depression in the bed of a river or stream , formed by scouring flows at the base of a waterfall.
  • Pulp Mills
'R'
  • Rapid Indicators for Beach Water Testing
  • Recession: Landward movement of the shoreline due to the loss of beach material and/or direct inundation of the land.
  • "Red Tide" and Harmful Algal Blooms article
  • Refraction: The bending of waves by bars and shoals that can cause the concentration of wave energy on a portion of the shoreline, resulting in accelerated beach erosion.
  • Relative Sea Level Rise: The gradual rise in water level relative to the land surface due to worldwide changes in the volume of seawater and/or local vertical movement of the land.
  • Revetment: Facing of stone, concrete or rubble built to protect an embankment or upland against erosion by wave action or currents.
  • Ridge: A longshore feature that may become exposed at low tide; often formed by a bar moving onshore as a form of post-storm beach activity.
  • Riffle: Stream habitat having a broken or choppy surface (white water), moderate or swift current and low depth. The comparable feature in a river would be called Rapids.
  • Rill: Small channels formed by water running over the surface of the ground. Water collecting in these small channels may then concentrate and join to form larger channels as they move down slope, which in turn meet to form still larger channels. The smallest channels, rills, meet to form creeks, runs or streams; then these features meet and grow until, at some undefined size, they are termed rivers.
  • Rip Currents: Strong, localized current flowing seaward from the shore; visible as an agitated band of water, which is the return movement of water piled up on the shore by incoming waves.
  • Riparian: Of or pertaining to the banks of a natural watercourse. This term is most of ten used to describe the transition zone between aquatic habitats in streams and upland areas. The particular habitat that is supported in this zone is extremely valuable as wild life nesting, forage, cover and migration corridors, provides favorable conditions within the adjacent aquatic habitat (shade for cool water temperatures and clear channels, cover, nutrients, woody debris), and stabilizes stream and river banks.
  • Riprap: Layer, facing or protective mound of stones randomly placed to prevent erosion of upland areas. Also the name of the stone so used.
  • River: A large, natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake or another water body, and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries.
  • Riverbank: The land bordering a river, sloping up from its bed to meet the adjacent land.
  • Riverbed: The lower portion of a river channel, between its banks, and ordinarily at least partially covered by water.
  • River Mouth: The outlet of a river, where it flows into the ocean or another body of water.
  • Runoff: Water from irrigation, snowmelt or rain that flows from the land surface into streams, creeks, wetlands or the ocean. Read much more on runoff.
'S'
  • Sand Bags: Sand-filled cloth or geotextile bags that can be stacked to provide semi-hard coastal protection and are designed to retain sand while allowing water to flow through.
  • Sand Waves: Much larger features than cusps that may migrate along the shoreline. Sand waves can locally cause accelerated erosion known as erosion “hot spots.” Also called shoreline meanders, sand humps, or giant beach cusps.
  • Scarp: Vertical drop-off of the dry beach caused by oblique wave attack during stormy conditions; beach scarps can be several inches to over six feet high and disappear by the return of sand onshore during berm accretions. Dunes can also be scarped, forming vertical, wave-cut faces.
  • Scour: Removal of beach material by waves and currents such as at the base of a dune or toe of a shore structure.
  • Scarping: Erosion of a dune or berm, usually by oblique wave attack during a storm.
  • Sea: Short period, steep waves generated during a storm that cause beach erosion.
  • Sea Lions and Domoic Acid
  • Seawalls: Vertical or near vertical shore-parallel structures designed to prevent upland erosion and storm surge flooding. Seawalls are generally massive concrete structures emplaced along a considerable stretch of shoreline at urban beaches.
  • Sediment: Solid particles of organic or inorganic material that come from the weathering of rock and are carried and deposited by wind, water or ice.
  • Sediment, Contaminated
  • Sediment Load: Solid particles produced by weathering and transported through a channel by stream flow. The sediment load may be divided into two components: that which is suspended within the water column, suspended sediment, and that which is moved along the bed of a channel, bedload.
  • Semi-Hard Stabilization: Use of sand bags and/or geotextile tubes that can be stacked or arranged to provide protection to beachfront properties.
  • Sewer Systems and Sewage Treatment
  • Sewage Treatment Flow
  • Seawalls Harm the Beach and Reduce Beach Access
  • Shadow Effect: Stretch of sand-starved, eroded beach that is downdrift of a structure such as a jetty or groin and hence in the littoral drift “shadow” of that structure.
  • Sheetflow: Runoff that flows over the ground surface in a diffuse manner, not concentrated in a channel.
  • Shoal: A large deposit of sand, generally created by currents near inlets, that can be an obstruction to boats and can cause wave refraction.
  • Shoreline: Boundary between the land and the sea, which is often defined as the mean water line for mapping purposes.
  • Shoreline Structures web section which contains the pages:
  • Soft Stabilization: Artificial emplacement of sand via beach fill or through building and enhancement of sand dunes with sand fencing or vegetative plantings. Sand scraping of the beach to build up sand dunes is another means of “soft stabilization.”
  • Sort: Separation of particles into various size categories by moving water or wind.
  • Special Places and Marine Protected Areas
  • Spoil: Dredged sediment, usually from inlets or lagoons, that can be clean or contaminated.
  • Spring Tide: Larger than average tidal range that occurs twice monthly during the new and full moon times.
  • Storm Surge: Sudden, temporary rise of sea level primarily due to winds but also caused by atmospheric (barometric) pressure reduction, resulting in piled-up water against the coast, which is the primary cause of coastal flooding during a storm.
  • Stream: A feature formed by flowing water, concentrated in a channel or bed, as a brook, rivulet, or small river.
  • Stream Terrace: Remnant floodplain features adjacent to a stream or river, where the stream has changed in its course and/or elevation, and has created a new active floodplain.
  • Surfboards: Environmentally Friendly Surfboards
  • Swash: Sheet of water that flows up and down the beach foreshore caused by waves breaking and gravity, respectively. See Uprush and Backwash.
  • Swell: Long period waves that tend to widen the dry beach, usually in summer months or during fair weather.
'T'
  • Tidal Inlet: Channel through a barrier beach, which is characterized by swift currents that interrupt the littoral drift of sand.
  • Tidal Prism: Amount of water that flows in and out of a semi-enclosed bay or estuary between high and low tide.
  • Tidal Range: Difference in height between high and low tide.
  • TMDLs and Impaired Water Bodies
  • Tracking the Source of Bacterial Pollution
  • Transpiration: The process by which plants release water that has been taken up through their roots into the atmosphere. Transpiration occurs through the leaf pores of plants (Also called Evapotranspiration).
  • Tributary: A stream that flows into a larger stream, river or other body of water.
'U'
  • Undertow: General layman’s term used to describe coastal currents which may “suck” swimmers underwater. A more accurate description is backwash from large breaking waves or seaward-flowing rip currents.
  • Updrift: Direction opposite that of the predominant movement of the littoral drift. Opposite of downdrift.
  • Upland: Mainland or land behind the dunes; high ground that is above normal tidal flooding.
  • Uprush: The movement of water (swash) up the beach face when a wave breaks on the foreshore.
  • Urban Runoff
  • U.S. Oceans Commission
'V'
  • Valley: An elongated lowland between ranges of mountains, hills or other uplands, often having a river or stream running along its bottom.
'W'


- return to the top of page
Who We Are | What We Do | Take Action | Chapters | Store | Media Center | Water Quality

Join | Donate | Support SF
SURFRIDER and the SURFRIDER LOGO are registered service marks of Surfrider Foundation
Copyright © 2007 Surfrider Foundation, all rights reserved
Website by Zinc Solutions
Contact the Surfrider Foundation
See Surfrider's privacy policy
Home