Coastal Wave Modeling
Oral
Jane Smith, PhD, PE, Dist.M.ASCE
Senior Research Scientist
Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory
Ali Abdolali, PhD
Senior Scientist
UCAR/NOAA/NWS/NCEP/EMC, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Unstructured WaveWatch3 is evaluated for nearshore wave generation and transformation using field data from the US Army Corps of Engineers, Field Research Facility in North Carolina. The evaluation focuses on four storms: Hurricane Irene (7m waves), a mixed sea/swell event (3m waves), Hurricane Sandy (7m waves), and an extratropical event with oblique 5m waves. The nearshore domain stretches from 26m depth to the shoreline, centered on a cross-shore array of wave gauges that are used for model evaluation. RMS wave height errors are 0.47m with a bias of 0.29m, and RMS wave period error of 0.9s and bias of -0.02s.