Abstract
This work is a review of recent developments in the Miles' theory of the growth of surface wind waves. In the linear regime, Miles' theory of wave amplification by wind is extended from deep water to the case of finite depth. A depth-dependent wave growth rate gamma is derived from the dispersion relation of the wind/water interface. For different values of the dimensionless water depth parameters δ and the wave-age parameter theta/U 1 (U1 a characteristic wind speed) a family of wave growth curves of gamma in function of theta and δ is plotted. The model provides a fair agreement with the data and empirical relationships obtained from the Lake George experiment, as well as with the data from the Australian Shallow Water Experiment.