Surfzone Wave Characteristics during Flood Tide on the Central West Coast of India

Abstract

Surfzone wave characteristics, measured using a wave and tide gauge (WTG) during a flood tide, were studied at three different beaches having different nearshore slopes. The spectral wave characteristics viz., wave-height and mean wave period were estimated considering different sample sizes. Inter-comparisons of wave climate between each of three beaches for a similar tide level are presented. The wave-height and mean wave period values obtained from the wave analysis for each of the record using waves by wave method show that surfzone wave-height increased with time during a flood tide and the mean wave period decreased with time up to mid tide and then increased during the rest of the measurement period at Keri and Miramar beaches. At Candolim, the reversing trend of mean wave period increase is observed to occur much before reaching the mid tide level. The surfzone waves during a flood tide indicated that the wave-heights increased with time while the mean wave period showed a decreasing trend in general. The variation of breaker index showed a decreasing trend from low tide to high tide ranging between 0.45 and 0.23. The surf similarity parameter estimated corroborates with the visual observations. © 2015 World Scientific Publishing Company.