THE INFLUENCE OF LONG WAVES ON MACROTIDAL BEACH MORPHOLOGY

[摘要] The aim of the following paper is to demonstrate that standing long waves can generate intertidal morphological features in a dissipative macrotidal setting. In this environment the tidal excursion can exceed the length scales associated with long waves. This extends the work of Simmonds et al (1995) in which it was shown that monochromatic long waves could generate sediment convergence patterns that bore a good similarity to observed topographic features, namely ridges and runnels from a field site on the Belgian coast. The simulation is modified to include a band of long waves and it is found that a good correspondence with real topography can still be achieved on a tidally averaged basis by allowing for a degree of uncertainty in the breaking criterion. It is also argued why the observed scales are more likely to correspond with the shorter end of the long wave spectrum. The simulation helps to shed light on the conditions in which such features are known to form.

[学科分类] 建筑学

[关键词] beach morphology;macrotidal beach;long waves