Extreme Runup Statistics on Natural Beaches.
Abstract
Wave runup data collected on a natural beach at the Coastal Engineering Research Center's Field Research Facility (FRF) are analyzed. The FRF data are supplemented by additional runup data collected on two beaches within San Francisco Bay, California. Analyses focused on developing a method to predict the upper limit of wave runup on natural beaches. It was found that beach runup at the FRF was strongly dependent on a surf similarity parameter based on beach face slope and incident wave conditions. However, correlation between the runup and surf parameter was quite sensitive to the location where wave conditions were measured. Runup predictions using wave information from a gage im 8 m of water were better than similar predictions using the local wave length was superior to scaling by the deep-water wave length. A statistical framework is developed for estimating the extreme wave runup during a storm. This framework is specifically applicable to the FRF, but analysis indicates that it is general enough to be used for the San Francisco Bay beaches and possibly for most natural sand beaches. For idealized, constant conditions, a simple procedure is presented for estimating the expected maximum runup elevation during a storm. Keywords: Beach erosion; Ocean waves; Oceanographics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA182709
Entities
People
- Donald T. Resio