In order to forecast both the short and the medium-term evolution of estuarine beaches, as the ones that exist in the Tagus Estuary, there is a need to both define the sea wave climate generated by local wind in those confined areas and to understand the mechanism that enables the wave propagation at the estuary up to wave breaking at the beach. In this paper, the SWAN model, [1], is applied to study wind generated waves at an area near Alfeite beach to characterize the wave conditions at the Tagus estuary considering the actual wind and tide conditions as observed on the 3rd of October, 2006. A comparison of SWAN numerical results with the wave elevation measurements collected at the site with resistive wave gauges and also with a pressure transducer, taking into account the influence of the ferries crossing the study area, is made and discussed.

This paper describes the experiments performed at the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) aiming at simulating, in a flume, the wave propagation along a constant slope bottom that ends on a sea wall coastal defence structure, a common structure employed in the Portuguese coast. The objective of these tests is to calibrate the parameters of FUNWAVE, a Boussinesq type model, for wave propagation in coastal regions. This is the first step in the validation of a methodology to combine numerical and physical models in the study of the interactions between beaches and structures. This work is performed in the framework of the Composite Modelling of the Interactions between Beaches and Structures (CoMIBBs) project, a joint research activity of the HYDRALAB III European project.