Source reconstruction in a coastal evolution equation

A method is derived for the reconstruction of a source term in a linear par abolic equation, describing seabed evolution over fairly large time scales. The approach is based upon inversion of the formal solution for the direct problem and assumes that data are available on a regular grid at successiv e time steps. The method is applied first to simulated data, both with and without additional random noise, and gives close agreement with the exact s olution. It is then applied to measurements taken for a group of sandbanks near the East Coast of the United Kingdom, and preliminary results are pres ented. (C) 2000 Academic Press.