Environmental Oceanography. An Introduction to the Behaviour of Coastal Waters

278 Pages·1983·5.309 MB·English

by  Tom Beer (Auth.)

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Environmental
Oceanography
An Introduction to the
Behaviour of Coastal Waters
by
TOM BEER
Natural Systems Research Pty. Ltd.,
(Environmental Consultants), Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD • NEW YORK • TORONTO • SYDNEY • PARIS • FRANKFURT
U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall,
Oxford 0X3 OBW, England
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AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 544,
Potts Point, N.S.W. 2011, Australia
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75240 Paris, Cedex 05, France
FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH, Hammerweg 6,
OF GERMANY D-6242 Kronberg-Taunus, Federal Republic of Germany
Copyright © 1983 T. Beer
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic,
magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
First edition 1983
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Beer, Tom.
Environmental oceanography.
(Pergamon international library of science, technology,
engineering, and social studies)
A project of the Australian Centre for Maritime Studies.
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Oceanography. 2. Coasts. I. Australian Centre for Maritime
Studies. II. Title. III. Series.
GC28.B44 1983 551.3'6 82-18099
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Beer, Tom
Environmental oceanography.
1. Oceanography
I. Title
551.46 GC11.2
ISBN 0-08-026291-0 Hardcover
ISBN 0-08-026290-2 Flexicover
This book was a project of the Australian Centre for Maritime
Studies, PO Box 20, Canberra ACT2600.
Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter.
Dedicated to
Jane, Dugald, Tansy and Kenn
Preface
The past decade has been characterised by sustained interest in, and concern for,
the environment. In response to this public demand many governments established
environmental regulatory agencies, and tertiary institutions were not far behind
in initiating courses to train the staff for these agencies. I have been involved with
two of these: the Graduate Diploma in Natural Resources at the Western Australian
Institute of Technology and the Master of Resource and Environmental Studies
at the Australian National University. Whilst lecturing to the students in these
programmes it became apparent that there was a lack of suitable textbooks about
the marine environment. There were two reasons for this. In the first place,
oceanography texts fall into two distinct groups - the highly technical intended
for those pursuing a career as a research oceanographer and the profusely illus-
trated general level texts aimed at introductory courses. There is poor catering
for the intelligent, interested graduate from a non-scientific background. In the
second place, environmental concern is primarily directed at coastal waters,
whereas most scientific interest, as reflected in the textbooks, is in the deep sea.
This book, then, is intended for environmental managers, environmental
administrators and for students destined for these roles. These people need to
be able to understand the technical reports submitted by their oceanographic
consultants and, if necessary, be able to mount their own environmental investi-
gation. It is intended as an introduction to the physical environment of coastal
waters, and thus may prove useful to students in engineering, physics and mathe-
matics before they commence more rigorous courses that provide the analytical
background to the phenomena described herein. To this extent I see this volume
as a companion to Professor Pickard's excellent text Descriptive Physical Oceano-
graphy.
The ordering of chapters is determined by the fact that the text is graded in
both mathematical and conceptual difficulty. The first few chapters have little
mathematics, but more is steadily introduced as one progresses. It is for this
reason that the chapter on coasts contains a simplified account of relevant wave
properties and precedes the detailed chapter on waves. Another consequence is
that some of the formulae in earlier chapters will look strange to the practising
physical oceanographer. I made a conscious decision to express variables in terms
of observables; wavelength (X) instead of wavenumber (k), inertial period (7/)
vii
viii PREFACE
instead of Coriolis parameter (/). Later, when the concepts are familiar, the
formulae revert to standard forms.
There is a list of further reading at the end of each chapter. These lists are not
exhaustive bibliographies but reflect a personal choice of works that I found useful
or interesting. Any student wishing to pursue a topic further should also check
the original source of any diagrams on that topic. These sources are given in the
acknowledgement section which comes after this preface.
Natural Systems Research Pty Ltd TOM BEER
(Environmental Consultants)
Melbourne, Victoria 3122
Acknowledgements
I would like to record my gratitude to Bob Houghton, John Penrose and Bob
Humphries who were responsible for initiating and sustaining my interest in
coastal water. Their companionship was invaluable. I am also obliged to the
many friends and colleagues who read parts of the manuscript and gave me
encouragement. Especial thanks must go to Phil Wilkinson, Bruce Hamon,
George Pickard, Mike Collins and Tony Bayes who made incisive comments on
the work as a whole. In addition I would, of course, like to thank the students
of my various classes who gave the contents of the book the acid test.
I wish to thank the following journals, publishers, organisations and individuals
for their permission to reproduce or adapt previously published material or for
providing illustrations.
1.1 From D. L. Inman & B. M. Brush, Science, 181, 20-31, 1973.
1.2 Based on R. W. Galloway & M. E. Bahr, Australian Geographer, 14,
244-247, 1979, and B. B. Mandlebrot, Fractals, W. H. Freeman, 1977.
1.3 From A. S. Monin, V. M. Kamenkovich & V. G. Kort, Variability of the
Oceans, John Wiley, 1977.
1.4 Courtesy of Dr R. Legeckis, ESSA, NOAA.
1.5 From G. A. Riley, H. Stommel & D. Bumpus, Bull. Bingham Oceanog.
Coll. 12, 1-169, 1949.
1.6 Courtesy of Esso Australia Ltd, from Oil - The Vital Search.
1.7 From G. W. P. George (ed.), Australia's Offshore Resources: Implica-
tions of the 200-mile Zone, Australian Academy of Science, 1978
(p. 99).
2.5 From P. D. Komar, Beach Processes and Sedimentation, Prentice Hall,
1976, and from C. J. Galvin,/. Geophys. Res. 73, 3651-3659, 1968.
2.6 Based on data of C. J. Galvin in /. Geophys. Res. 73,3651-3659,1968,
and in R. E. Meyer (ed.), Waves on Beaches and Resulting Sediment
Transport, Academic Press, 1972 (pp. 413-455).
2.8 Based on F. Hjulstrom, Uppsala Univ. Geol. Inst. B. 25, 221-527,
1935, and updated by H. Postma in G. H. Lauff (ed.),Estuaries, American
ix
X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Assoc. Advancement Science, Washington 1967 (pp. 158—179). See
Chapter 7 of A. J. Raudkivi, Loose Boundary Hydraulics, Pergamon,
1967, or Chapter 9 of Komar, op. cit., for information about the
Shields curve.
2.9 From Komar, op. cit., after P. D. Komar & D. L. Inman, /. Geophys.
Res. 75, 5914-5927, 1970.
3.2 From B. Kinsman, Wind Waves, Prentice Hall, 1965.
3.5 From M. S. Longuet-Higgins, Proc. Roy. Soc. A352, 463-480, 1977.
3.6, 3.7, From W. J. Pierson, G. Neumann & R. W. James, Practical Methods for
Table Observing and Forecasting Ocean Waves by Means of Wave Spectra and
3.2 Statistics, U.S. Hydrographic Office Publication 603, 1955.
3.8 From New Scientist, 6 January 1977 (Vol. 73, No. 1033).
3.9 From D. L. Cutchin & R. L. Smith,/. Phys. Oceanog. 3, 73-82, 1973.
Table Equilibrium tidal amplitudes are from E. W. Schwiderski,7?ev. Geophys.
4.2 Space Phys. 18, 243-268, 1980. The Hook of Holland values are taken
from J. J. Yftovkzis, Advances in Hydroscience, 10, 145-230, 1975.
4.4 Based on C. L. Pekeris & Y. Accad, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A265,
413-436, 1969.
4.6 Courtesy of the French Embassy, Canberra.
4.7 From Australian National Tide Tables, courtesy of the Hydrographer,
R.A.N.
4.8. From D. G. Provis & R. Radok, Aust. J. Mar. Freshwater Res. 30,
295-301, 1979.
4.9 From C. D. Winant, Rev. Geophys. Space. Phys. 17, 89-98, 1979.
5.1,5.2 Based on data in Unesco, National Oceanographic Tables, National
Institute of Oceanography, Great Britain and Unesco, Paris, 1966.
Updated by W. Wilson & D. Bradley, Deep Sea Res. 15, 355-363, 1968
and R. G. Perkins & E. R. Walker, /. Geophys. Res. 11, 6618-6621,
1972.
Table Based on seawater data in J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow, Chemical Oceano-
5.1, graphy, Academic Press, 1965, and freshwater data in B. A. Whitton
Table (ed.), River Ecology, Blackwell, Oxford, 1975.
5.2
5.3 Based on R. W. Houghton,/. Phys. Oceanog. 6, 909-924, 1976.
Table From Cockburn Sound Environmental Study, 1976-1979, Report No.
5.3, 2, Dept. Conservation & Environment, Western Australia, 1979.
Table
5.4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
5.5 Based on data in H. W. Harvey: The Chemistry and Fertility of Sea-
water, Cambridge University Press, 1960.
6.5 Based on data of T. Gustafson & B. Kullenberg, Goteborgs K. Vet.
Vitt. - Samih. Handl. Femte Fljoden (Goteborgs Oceanog. Inst.), 3
(6), 1933.
6.7 Based on G. R. Cresswell, T. J. Golding & F. M. Boland, /. Phys.
Oceanog. 8, 315-320, 1978.
6.8,6.9 From C. D. Booth, Tom Beer and J. D. Penrose, Am. J. Phys. 46,
525-527,1978.
7.1 From E. B. Kraus (ed.), Modelling and Prediction of the Upper Layers
of the Ocean, Pergamon Press, 1977.
7.3 From T. J. Hart and R. I. Currie, "Discovery" Reports, 31, 123-298,
1960.
7.4 From H. U. Sverdrup, M. W. Johnson & R. H. Fleming, The Oceans:
Their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology, Prentice Hall, 1942.
7.5 From E. B. Kraus, 1977, op. cit.
7.6 From P. Petrusevics, Major factors in nearshore water movement,
M.App.Sci. thesis, Western Australian Institute of Technology, 1981.
8.1 From Tom Beer, Atmospheric Waves, Adam Hilger, 1974.
8.3 From B. R. Ruddick & J. S. Turner, Deep Sea Res. 26, 903-914,
1979.
8.6 From A. Okubo, Deep Sea Res. 18, 789, 1971.
8.7 From G. T. Csanady, Circulation in the coastal ocean, EOS, Trans-
actions of the American Geophysical Union, 62, 9-11, 1981.
8.8 From M. Bowman & W. Esaiais (eds.), Oceanic Fronts in Coastal
Processes, Springer Verlag, 1979.
8.9 From R. A. Kerr, Science, 28 October 1977, vol. 198, p. 387 (source:
P. L. Richardson).
8.10 From J. C. Andrews, Deep Sea Res. 24, 1133-1148, 1977.
Table From N. Bowditch, American Practical Navigator, U.S. Defence Mapping
9.1 Hydrographic Center, 1977.
9.2 Photograph courtesy of A. Scott.
Table Mainly based on data in The State of the Environment in OECD Member
9.2 Countries, OECD, Paris, 1979.
9.6 From Natural Systems Research Pty Ltd, Liquids Project Oil Spill
Trajectory Study, 1981.
9.7 From Report by Director of Meteorology on Cyclone Althea, Aust.
Govt. Publishing Service, Canberra, 1972. Reproduced by permission
of the Director of Meteorology.
xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
9.9 Based on D. P. Hoult (ed.), Oil on the Sea, Plenum Press, New York,
1969 (pp. 53-63).
9.10 From S. D. Gedzelman & W. L. Donn, Monthly Weather Rev. 107,
667—681. For a diagram of a coastal low see Q. J. Roy. Met. Soc.
103,432-433,1977.
10.1 From E. P. Hodgkin, P. B. Birch, R. E. Black & R. B. Humphries, The
10.2 Peel-Harvey Estuarine System Study (1976-1980), Report No. 9,
Department of Conservation & Environment, Western Australia, 1980.
Table All data except for the Fly river are based on J. N. Holeman, Water
10.1 Resources Res. 4, 737-741, 1968. His flow estimates tend to be high
when compared to more recent determinations of mean flow in major
rivers. The Fly river data are from Natural Systems Research Pty. Ltd.
Table From M. R. Gourlay and P. G. Flood, Proc. Conf. Environmental
10.2 Engineering, Townsville, pp. 159-163, Australian Inst. Engineers, 1981.
10.3 From G. L. Pickard, Descriptive Physical Oceanography (2nd edition),
Pergamon Press, 1975.
10.4 From D. I. Smith & P. Stopp, The River Basin, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 1978.
10.7 From E. C. F. Bird, Coasts (2nd edition), A.N.U. Press, Canberra, 1976.
10.8 From G. R. Cresswell & M. A. Greig, Aust. J. Mar. Freshwater Res. 29,
345-353,1978.
11.2, Courtesy of Dr. J. D. Penrose.
11.3
11.5 Based on data from R. J. List (ed.), Smithsonian Meteorological Tables
(6th edition), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1951.
11.6 Based on A. Defant, Physical Oceanography, Pergamon, 1961.
11.7 From Sverdrup etal., op. cit., 1942.
11.8 From N. G. Jerlov, Marine Optics, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1976.
11.9 Based on J. H. Steele, Limnology & Oceanography, 7, 137-150, 1962.
11.10 From D. E. Barrick, M. W. Evans & B. L. Weber, Science, 198, 138-
144, 1977 (courtesy of D. E. Barrick).
11.11 From T. Beer, Remote SensingEnv. 9, 65-85, 1980.
11.12 Courtesy of NO A A.
12.1, Courtesy of Natural Systems Research Pty Ltd.
12.4
12.2 Based on R. L. Falconer & D. J. Linforth, Winds and Waves in Bass
Strait, Meteorological Summary, Commonwealth of Australia Bureau
of Meteorology, Melbourne, 1972. Reproduced by permission of the
Director of Meteorology.