The book addresses the questions: Is Australia's rapidly growing human population and economy environmentally sustainable for its estuaries and coasts? What is needed to enable sustainable development? To answer these questions, this book reports detailed studies of 20 iconic Australian estuaries and bays by leading Australian estuarine scientists. That knowledge is synthesised in time and space across Australia to suggest what Australian estuaries will look like in 2050 and beyond based on socio-economic decisions that are made now, and changes that are needed to ensure sustainability. The book also has a Prologue by Mr Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia, which bridges environmental science, population policy and sustainability.

Dr. Eric Wolanski is a coastal oceanographer and ecohydrologist. Eric has 360 publications; he is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Institution of Engineers Australia (ret.), and l'Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer. He was awarded an Australian Centenary medal for services in estuarine and coastal oceanography, a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the catholic University of Louvain, a Queensland Information Technology and Telecommunication award for excellence, and the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA) Lifetime Achievement Award. Eric is a member of the IGBP-IHDP Scientific Steering Committee of Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ), and a member of the Scientific Planning Committee of Japan's Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS). He is a chief editor of Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Wetlands Ecology and Management, and the Treatise of Estuarine and Coastal Science.