This paper provides a foreword to a special edition of Science of the Total Environment concerned with land-ocean interaction from a UK perspective as linked to processes, functioning and environmental management. The volume structure is presented together with an outline of the nature of the individual papers. The areas covered are: (1) freshwater chemistry, (2) riverine sedimentology, (3) tidal river, estuarine and coastal chemistry, (4) estuarine and coastal sediments and (5) shelf-sea-ocean linkages. The foreword provides as an introductory link to the broader perspectives of contemporary UK research in this area, which comes in a conclusions paper at the end of the volume.