Monitoring of Tidal Datum Consistency

The role of horizontal and vertical controls in hydrographic surveying and ocean mapping; shoreline mapping; navigation; marine and offshore boundaries; estimation of sea level changes; coastal engineering; warnings and hazard mitigation; military; environmental applications such as restoration of wetland and provision of infrastructures can not be overemphasized. The horizontal controls (X Y) determine the position and size of features on the Earth surface while the vertical controls (Z) determine their heights/depths. Also all environmental and infrastructural development projects on Earth cannot stand alone; it must be connected to the existing controls in order to have proper orientation. Hence there is a need to understand how to establish them especially the vertical controls (Tidal Datums) in the marine environment and how significant is the monitoring of such datums over a period of time. “Monitoring of Tidal Datum Consistency” has been written with the above focus in mind. The adopted style aims at acquainting the reader with fundamentals of tides and tidal datums. The textbook aims at equipping anyone engaging in any form of field operations in the marine environment.