Empirical relationship between inlet cross-sectional area and tidal prism: A re-evaluation

The well-known empirical relationship between the equilibrium cross-sectional area of tidal inlet entrances (A) and the tidal prism (P), first developed by O’Brien (1931), has been extensively reviewed. Our theoretical investigations indicate that a unique A-P relationship should only be expected for clusters of inlets that are phenomenological...

Review of empirical relationships between inlet cross-section and tidal prism

Although other engineers had considered the relationship between tidal prism and inlet crosssectional area before, it is O’Brien who is usually credited for deriving the familiar relationship A = aPm, where A is the cross-sectional area (relative to mean sea level) and P is the spring tidal prism. The coefficients a and m vary from entrance to...