Abstract
Estuaries are areas where river and sea waters meet. Therefore, the hydrodynamical, hydrochemical, and hydrobiological processes in the estuaries are typical for both environments. The most important processes, which play leading roles in estuaries include the dynamics of water flow, water quality, and the mixing of water of different biochemical characteristics. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first, basic hydrodynamical processes are described and analytical and numerical methods of evaluating them are presented. Part two illustrates these processes using experimental data and the results of mathematical modeling for some estuaries along the Polish Baltic coast.