Small scale bedform types off the south-holland coast

Abstract

This study presents the small scale bedform states found off the South-Holland coast during a 31+ days field observation of seabed acoustic imagery and near the bed velocities. Six main bed states were encountered: current ripples (C), wave ripples (W), combined wave-current ripples (WC), current ripples with subordinate wave ripples (Cw), wave ripples with subordinate current ripples (Wc) and poorly developed ripples (P). Direct visual detection of the bed state from the images showed good agreement with a simple predictor based on the mobility number. The most frequent type of bedform was C which is governed by the tidal currents. Wave ripple prevailed only during a storm with waves higher than 2 m. The combined Cw, WC and Wc types comprised 22% of the occurrences. Poorly developed ripples were associated with the neap tide during fair weather conditions.