This book is one of the outcomes of the international Ocean and Atmosphere,
Pacific (OAP 95) conference held in Adelaide, South Australia on 23-27
October 1995. The conference was organised by the National Tidal Facility
(NTF) of the Flinders University of South Australia, as part of the South
Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project, funded by AusAID. The
aim of me conference was to enhance interaction between local scientists in the
South Pacific region and to link regional understanding of climate variability
and sea level change to global developments.
Two themes dominated the conference. Firstly, many presentations were
concerned with the mathematical modelling of processes which occur in shallow
coastal seas and secondly, many papers focused on changes in sea level and
their associated effects. After the conference, so much interest was shown in
these two areas, that the NTF canvassed delegates who had given outstanding
papers, to determine whether they would be prepared to produce extended and
updated versions of their presentations for publication in reviewed books, the
cost to be borne by the NTF.