Glossary
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Permeable : Having openings large enough to permit free passage of appreciable
quantities of sand or water.
Permit : A document issued that expresses the assent of a government agency, so
far as concerns the public rights and the general public interest, for the
accomplishment of certain works (e.g., construction).
Pile : A long, heavy timber or section of concrete or metal that is driven or jetted
into the earth or bottom of a water body to serve as a structural support or
protection.
Pile, Sheet : Pile with a generally slender, flat cross section driven into the
ground or seabed and meshed or interlocked with like members to form a
diaphragm, wall, or bulkhead.
Piping : Fluidizing of backfill or an embankment to the extent that large
quantities of material are pumped by wave action through holes under or
through a bulkhead or revetment.
Plasticity : As applied mainly to clay, the relative ease with which the material
yields or deforms under pressure.
Plug : Core containing both plants and underlying soil, usually cut with a
cylindrical coring device and transplanted to a hole cut by the same device.
Polyvinyl Chloride 0PVC) : Plastic material (usually black) that forms a resilient
coating suitable for protecting metal from corrosion.
Profile, Beach : Intersection of the ground surface with a vertical plane that may
extend from the top of the dune line to tile seaward limit of sand movement.
PVC : (See POLYVINYL CHLORIDE)
Raveling : Progressive deterioration of a revetment under wave action.
Refraction (of water waves) : (1) Process by which direction of a wave moving
in shallow water at an angle to the contours is changed. Part of the wave
advancing in shallower water moves more slowly than the part still
advancing in deeper water, causing the wave crest to bend toward alignment
with the underwater contours. (2) Bending of wave crests by currents.
Revetment : A facing of stone, concrete, etc., placed on a bank or bluff of stone
to protect a slope, scarp, embamkment, or shore structure against erosion by
wave action or currents.
329
Permeable : Having openings large enough to permit free passage of appreciable
quantities of sand or water.
Permit : A document issued that expresses the assent of a government agency, so
far as concerns the public rights and the general public interest, for the
accomplishment of certain works (e.g., construction).
Pile : A long, heavy timber or section of concrete or metal that is driven or jetted
into the earth or bottom of a water body to serve as a structural support or
protection.
Pile, Sheet : Pile with a generally slender, flat cross section driven into the
ground or seabed and meshed or interlocked with like members to form a
diaphragm, wall, or bulkhead.
Piping : Fluidizing of backfill or an embankment to the extent that large
quantities of material are pumped by wave action through holes under or
through a bulkhead or revetment.
Plasticity : As applied mainly to clay, the relative ease with which the material
yields or deforms under pressure.
Plug : Core containing both plants and underlying soil, usually cut with a
cylindrical coring device and transplanted to a hole cut by the same device.
Polyvinyl Chloride 0PVC) : Plastic material (usually black) that forms a resilient
coating suitable for protecting metal from corrosion.
Profile, Beach : Intersection of the ground surface with a vertical plane that may
extend from the top of the dune line to tile seaward limit of sand movement.
PVC : (See POLYVINYL CHLORIDE)
Raveling : Progressive deterioration of a revetment under wave action.
Refraction (of water waves) : (1) Process by which direction of a wave moving
in shallow water at an angle to the contours is changed. Part of the wave
advancing in shallower water moves more slowly than the part still
advancing in deeper water, causing the wave crest to bend toward alignment
with the underwater contours. (2) Bending of wave crests by currents.
Revetment : A facing of stone, concrete, etc., placed on a bank or bluff of stone
to protect a slope, scarp, embamkment, or shore structure against erosion by
wave action or currents.