F.S. Buonaiuto, N.C. Kraus / Coastal Engineering 48 (2003) 5165
63
Fig. 10. Linear regression between the depth over crest of an ebb shoal and the product of significant wave height and tidal prism as (HSP)1/4.
slopes along the ebb shoal, occurring on the seaward
As a final consideration, because Eq. (5) has a
periphery, are on the order of 4j. Wave-dominated
small intercept, a power law fit with the quantity HSP
was performed to yield:
environments sustain steeper slopes than tidally domi-
nated regimes.
hC 0:0424HSP0:254
MLLW
6
Almost equal predictive capability among the
equations involving wave height only, tidal prism
which had a relatively high R2 = 0.87, but with seven
only, and the product of wave height and tidal prism
may be an outcome of a data set that is predominantly
data points lying outside the 95% confidence limits.
composed of mixed energy inlets. For inlets that are
The exponent value of 0.254 in Eq. (6) indicates that
the intuitively developed parameter (HSP)1/4 having
mainly tide dominated, predictive power of the tidal
prism may be greater than wave height for estimating
units of length appears to possess physical signifi-
depth over the ebb crest. However, it is difficult to
cance that should be explored in future work.
define a unique ebb shoal crest for the complex
shoals, such as channel margin bars, associated with
tidally dominated inlets. For the analyzed data set, the
4. Concluding discussion
limiting depth over an ebb-tidal shoal measured with
Bathymetry data collected by the SHOALS system
respect to MLLW is best described by a quantity
formed of the incident wave height and tidal prism
comprise a highly accurate and valuable source of
as (HSP)1/4.
synoptic information on bottom slopes and geometry
The empirically obtained relationships found here
of inlet morphologic features. At inlet entrances,
describe basic macro-morphological properties of
steepest slopes are located along the shoreline, in
ebb-tidal shoals and entrance channels. In addition
scour holes, around the seaward margin of the ebb
to being of interest for characterizing morphological
shoal, and along the lateral walls of navigation chan-
properties, such relationships are also expected to
nels. Slopes recently dredged entrance channels
ranged from 6j to 8j, with stabilized inlets sustaining
guide simulation of the evolution of inlet morphology
by means of process-based numerical models.
greater slopes than unstabilized inlets. Maximum
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