Review of Waves in Oceanic and Coastal Waters by Leo H. HolthuijsenWaves in Oceanic and Coastal WatersCambridge University Press978–0521860284$90

Abstract

The recent publication of Waves in Oceanic and Coastal Waters by Cambridge University Press is certain to fill empty spaces on many desks, and deservedly so. Its author, Dr. Leo Holthuijsen of Delft University of Technology, has distilled his decades of experience into a clear description of water waves and their dynamics and prediction. The result will be useful as a reference for many practitioners and may also be used as an introductory text for graduate-level courses. Two aspects of this book stand out, the first being the clarity of presentation. Key concepts are given at the beginning of every chapter and serve both as an aid to reading and as a summary afterward. The book’s most important concepts are boxed and highlighted when introduced, making them impossible to miss. Even figures contain clarifications that no doubt arose after years of teaching my favorites being the probability density functions in Chapter 4 that read “this is not a spectrum!” directly on the figure . The difficulty level is somewhere in the middle of the range: more technical than might be found in a purely descriptive text, but with less formality than in more theoretical treatments of water waves. In some ways, this gives the best of both worlds: when new material is introduced, it is described clearly and in context before technical results are introduced or derived. Some fundamental but lengthier derivations and explanations are given in appendices rather than the body of the text. This aids understanding, making it one of the most readable texts I have seen. The second laudable aspect of this book is its scope, which contains useful information over almost the entire field of water waves. This may be seen from the chapter descriptions: After the first chapter’s short introduction, Chapter 2 gives a summary of wave observation techniques from buoys to synthetic aperture radar satellite measurements. Chapter 3 gives a description of ocean waves, starting with easy-to-understand definitions of wave height and period before moving on to the more complex but fundamental concept of the wave spectrum. Both unidirectional and directional spectra are covered, and even a short but welcome description of the spectral behavior of transfer functions is included. Chapter 4 gives an introduction to shortand long-term wave statistics, with results on everything from the maximum wave expected during a storm to a comprehensive description of