Salt marshes: habitat suitability and flood hazard reduction effectiveness

In recent years, nature-based solutions have gained recognition for their capacity to reduce flood hazard on coastal communities. These coastal threats range from waves and tides, to future storm variability and predicted sea level rise. Vegetated foreshores are one of the measures that fall under this palette of solutions, and are the focus of...

The influence of the wave height distribution on the stability of single layer concrete armour units

The dimensions of single layer concrete armour units (interlocking armour units) are calculated with a similar stability relation as the stability relation for quarry stone. In these design formulas an 'average/significant' wave load is used (Hs). Since quarry stone gains its stability only from gravity, this type of armour unit is constructed...

Wave height from pressure measurements

For this project, Environment Mapping & Surveying (EMS) from South Africa has provided two pressure meters for wave measuring. These pressure meters give a value for the pressure, which must be converted to pressure and after that to a Rayleigh distribution and a wave spectrum. Therefore is the purpose of this report to test the pressure meter...

Validation of extreme wave and crest height distribution: Using laboratory simulation and field measurement data

This thesis has focussed on the validation of extreme wave and crest height distribution. The empirical distribution was simulated based on laboratory and field measurement water elevation data. Both sets of data indicated the presence of abnormal wave ensuring the extreme condition aimed at in this study. The literature review was performed to...

On the statistics of wind waves in the northern North Sea

On January 1st 1992 one of the most severe storms passed by the Northern North Sea. The Shell/Esso Tem platform is located in that area, north east of the Shetland Islands and has monitoring equipment installed. Time series data for surface elevation and velocity are analysed to obtain estimates for surface and velocity spectral densities and...

Application of the random storm method tot the air-gap problem

This is a study of the statistics of the ocean surface. The extreme surface elevation arising from waves, tides and storm surge is calculated by a novel approach that appears to eliminate many of the shortcomings of the convential practice. The proposed method works with the statistics of storms rather than three hour periods. A storm may be...

A probablistic approach of the hydraulic and structural damage of the Dolos-Layer from the southern breakwater in Richards Bay

From the ten breakwaters we selected, on the amount of reliable information available, one breakwater in Richards Bay, South Africa. The preliminary check, made in the first phase, showed the design of this breakwater was rather conservative. From surveys done on the breakwater although, it appeared that the armor-layer was damaged in storms...