自从几位英国地理学家访问了中国、并报道中国自然地理研究概况以来已将近十年了。那时,虽获知中国科学家对海洋地质学、海岸地貌学和南海珊瑚礁工作的兴趣,但是都无法与欧洲、北美和澳大利亚已经完成的海岸与海面变化工作相类比。除了在Bird(1985)和Bird and Schwarfz(1985)的最近总结外,很少由中国科学家提出的有关于海岸和海面变化的论文在会议上宣读或公开发表。1986年10月7—14日在山东青岛和烟台举行的国际海面变化及应用学术讨论会则改变了这种情况。这次会议得到了联合国教 Almost a decade has passed since several British geographers visited China and reported on the general situation of China’s physical geography. At the time, knowing Chinese scientists’ interest in ocean geology, coastal geomorphology and coral reef work in the South China Sea was not comparable to what has already been done in Europe, North America and Australia for changes in the coast and sea. Except for the recent summary by Bird (1985) and Bird and Schwarfz (1985), few papers on coastal and sea surface changes proposed by Chinese scientists were read or published at the conference. This was changed by the International Symposium on Change and Application of the Sea Surface, held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and Yantai from October 7 to 14, 1986. This meeting got UN education