An investigation of the link between beach morphology and wave climate at Duck, NC, USA

Abstract

Beaches can play an important role in flood defence by providing protection from the wave action. Understanding how beaches respond during storms and how beach profiles interact with waves and tides is very important in terms of the management of flood and erosion risks. In this paper we describe the application of canonical correlation analysis (CCA) to an historical data set of seabed elevations in Duck, NC, USA. The study site is a sandy beach located on the east coast of USA. The data set comprises detailed bathymetric surveys of beach profiles covering a period of over 24 years, and wave conditions measured over the same period, but at a different sampling rate. The structure of the data set and the data handling methods are described. The CCA method is applied using different assumptions about the distribution of wave heights. The results extend previous work by Larson et al. (2000), and demonstrate that the choice of how to describe the wave conditions can influence the quality of predictions made on the basis of the CCA results.

Linking regional wave conditions to local beach profile change

“…Larson and Kraus (1995) suggested such an approach, using a parametric form of pdf. However, more recent studies (Horrillo-Caraballo and Reeve, 2008;Rihouey, 2004) have suggested that better performance is obtained using an empirical distribution. The empirical distribution is a cumulative probability distribution function that concentrates probability 1/n at each of the n numbers in a sample.…”

“…Ró żyń ski (2003) used the CCA method to analyse the evolution patterns of multiple longshore bars and the interactions among them. HorrilloCaraballo and Reeve (2008) extended the study by Larson et al (2000) to investigate the sensitivity of the results on the choice of wave height distribution function.…”

An investigation of the performance of a data-driven model on sand and shingle beaches

“…A parametric form of pdf was proposed by Larson and Kraus (1995). However, more recent studies (Horrillo-Caraballo and Reeve, , 2008 have suggested that an empirical distribution gives better performance. The empirical pdfs of H s were calculated from wave heights between two consecutive beach profile measurements.…”

“…This method has also been used in the coastal field by Larson et al (2000), with data from the FRF (Field Research Facility in North Carolina, USA), in order to find patterns in the wave and profile data and to investigate the use of CCA to predict the profile response due to waves. Horrillo-Caraballo and Reeve (2008) extended this study to investigate the sensitivity of the quality of predictions on the choice of distribution function used to describe the wave heights. CCA has also been used to analyse the evolution patterns of multiple longshore bars and the interactions among them (Różyński, 2003).…”

Relationship between high-frequency sediment-level oscillations in the swash zone and inner surf zone wave characteristics under calm wave conditions

“…CCA, rst introduced by Hotelling (1935) [37], have been used by coastal researchers to nd patterns in wave and pro le data and to predict the beach pro le response due to waves (e.g. Larson et al [14];Horrillo-Caraballo and Reeve [38]). CCA has also been used to analyze the evolutionary patterns of multiple longshore bars and the interactions between them [39].…”