In this book, Norbert Psuty and Douglas Ofiara incorporate perspectives from the areas of coastal sciences, economics, public policy, and land-use planning in creating a systematic plan for coastal management and protection. It has been more than two decades since New Jersey developed the nation's first state shore stabilization plan, and this volume provides a timely evaluation of its achievements and future challenges. This self-contained book provides key relevant theories, models, and examples so the reader will not need to refer to any other literature to gain an understanding of the issues and policies surrounding shore stabilization. It is the authoritative handbook for practitioners and policy makers in many fields, including coastal science and management and engineering, as well as public policy and economics.

Norbert P. Psuty is the director of the Sandy Hook Cooperative Research Programs, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University. Douglas D. Ofiara is an assistant professor of public policy and management at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, and is a visiting scholar with the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. He and others together with Psuty worked on the Coastal Hazard Management Report submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, out of which this book was developed.

• Offers a systematic approach to coastal management issues by combining the coastal sciences and engineering with economics and public policy to achieve a more holistic public policy design of coastal management.
• Contains a blend of principles of coastal processes and management with examples from New Jersey to demonstrate real world application of techniques to improve future design and approaches of coastal management and public policy.
• Shows the ability of the discipline of coastal sciences to address new problems and concerns that coastal management will face (e.g., sea-level rise, changing dynamics of coastal processes). This will involve the development of long-range planning approaches combined with short-term emergency tools to achieve a more consistent public policy design, i.e., research and policy capable of addressing management within a dynamic system.
• Challenges current thought on the exposure of coastal communities by integrating new information associated with management of coastal environments and resources.
• Addresses as broad an audience as possible to begin a dialogue between the various professions, policy makers, and the public to bridge the gap in knowledge and communication between coastal scientists, economists, practitioners, and the public and to foster much needed collaborative research on new issues in coastal management.