Definition and scope of coastal geomorphology

Coastal geomorphology is a branch of geomorphology in which the focus is on the area influenced by large bodies of water, including seas and oceans, and large lakes such as the Great Lakes in North America. It is perhaps best viewed as an applied science and overlaps with other applied sciences such as geology, meteorology, oceanography, coastal engineering and elements of biology.

Prior to 1950, coastal geomorphology was highly descriptive and much of it was influenced by concepts related to the Davisian Cycle of Erosion. Coastal classification and description paid considerable attention to the effects of sea level change and especially the role of the Holocene sea level rise in producing drowned coastal features such as fjords (drowned glaciated valleys) and rias (drowned river valleys). Waves and currents were seen to operate to straighten and simplify the coastline by trimming headlands and building barriers across bay mouths (Woodroffe, 2002). Coastal evolution was therefore directed towards a simple, relatively static equilibrium. One branch of coastal geomorphology also followed the paradigm of denudation chronology, which attempted to reconstruct the detailed geological evolution of coastal landscapes. Much of this was guided by concepts of erosion cycles and interpretation based primarily on landforms rather than stratigraphy. The advent of a range of methodologies for coring and geophysical remote sensing, combined with new methods for dating sediments, has transformed this branch of coastal geomorphology/sedimentology.