  The genus-1 KP-Whitham system is derived for both variants of the
Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation (namely, the KPI and KPII equations). The
basic properties of the KP-Whitham system, including symmetries, exact
reductions, and its possible complete integrability, together with the
appropriate generalization of the one-dimensional Riemann problem for the
Korteweg-deVries equation are discussed. Finally, the KP-Whitham system is used
to study the linear stability properties of the genus-1 solutions of the KPI
and KPII equations; it is shown that all genus-1 solutions of KPI are linearly
unstable while all genus-1 solutions of KPII {are linearly stable within the
context of Whitham theory.
