**Preface to "Advances in Applied Marine Sciences and Engineering"**

In recent years, marine development has become the strategy of maritime countries around the world. Deeper understanding of the development characteristics and trends of marine science and engineering will help us better develop marine resources and protect the marine environment. As such, applied marine sciences and engineering have become an important research field in the society and attracted the worldwide attention. Basic theoretical research and applied research on marine hydrology, meteorology, physics and geology are focused. In addition, new viewpoints, new developments, new theories, new methods, new applications and new experiences in the investigation, research and management in the fields of marine environment and big data, ocean and coastal engineering, marine/coastal disaster and risk assessment, river dynamics, marine ecological environment, marine instruments and equipment, etc. are also included.

The aim of this book is to present new insights to the readers in the field of advances in applied marine sciences and engineering and to bring together the state of the art in marine technology. The main attention was paid to such key aspects as solid–fluid interaction, image processing, meteorological tide, sediment transport and freak wave. An overview of the different research studies in this area was carried out by researchers from different countries and with different professional backgrounds. The reader can find examples of the use of ecofriendly solutions and new materials in marine technology and descriptions of interesting case studies regarding advanced monitoring systems. The book also includes a description of the various mathematical tools used to develop new solutions in applied marine sciences and engineering. The effectiveness of their use to simulate the behavior of real engineering structures is examined. The presented research results indicate growing awareness of the importance of ocean engineering in the professional community, both for researchers and engineers. There is no turning back from the possibility/necessity of seeking new solutions in line with this spirit. This, in turn, creates new challenges that must be met during the design and construction of new marine engineering structures. Such challenges will be easier to address if the knowledge about the currently used solutions in this area is more complete and congregated. That is what this book intends to achieve.

> **Enjin Zhao, Lin Mu, and Hao Qin** *Editors*
