User:Inwind/Coastal system

A coastal system

The study of coasts is highly interdisciplinary incorporating geology, physical and human geography, oceanography, climatology as well as economics, engineering and others. It is clear that coasts are not isolated environments, they receive energy and material, process these inputs, and subsequently may lose them as output. Variations in inputs cause changes in the physical environment, for example, an increase in wave energy may enhance coastal erosion, or a decrease in nutrients may limit biological productivity, so demonstrating that all natural coastal operations are interlinked in some way. This describes a system, and the study of coasts is well suited to a systems approach.