Abstract This contribution is part of the Gulf Regional Sediment Management Master Plan and serves as a broad overview of the general setting, geologic history, coastal processes, hydrodynamics, and sediment sources for the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The GOM is approximately 1,500,000 km2. The five U.S. states bordering the Gulf comprise over 75,000 km of coastline. Gulf circulation is dominated by the Loop Current and gyres. The general trend of longshore sediment transport is in the westward direction west of the Mississippi River and in the eastward direction east of the Mississippi River, and is driven primarily by the wave and tidal energy. The GOM is a shallow basin and its climate is strongly dependent on precipitation and temperature averages. The general coastal climate is subtropical with warm to hot summers and cool winters with precipitation and high relative humidity throughout the year. The GOM coast is predominantly microtidal (<2-m range) with coastal processes and associated morphodynamics str...