UBathy: a new approach for bathymetric inversion from video imagery

A new approach to infer the bathymetry from coastal video monitoring systems is presented. The methodology uses principal component analysis of the Hilbert transform of video images to obtain the components of the wave propagation field and their corresponding frequency and wavenumber. Incident and reflected constituents and subharmonics components are also found. Local water depth is then successfully estimated through wave dispersion relationship. The method is first applied to monochromatic and polychromatic synthetic wave trains propagated using linear wave theory over an alongshore uniform bathymetry in order to analyze the influence of different parameters on the results. To assess the ability of the approach to infer the bathymetry under more realistic conditions and to explore the influence of other parameters, nonlinear wave propagation is also performed using a fully nonlinear Boussinesq-type model over a complex bathymetry. In the synthetic cases, the relative root mean square error obtained in bathymetry recovery (for water depths 0.75m¿h¿8.0m) ranges from ~1% to ~3% for infinitesimal-amplitude wave cases (monochromatic or polychromatic) to ~15% in the most complex case (nonlinear polychromatic waves). Finally, the new methodology is satisfactorily validated through a real field site video.Postprint (published version

The land–sea coastal border: a quantitative definition by considering the wind and wave conditions in a wave-dominated, micro-tidal environment

A quantitative definition for the land–sea (coastal) transitional area is proposed here for wave-driven areas, based on the variability and isotropy of met-ocean processes. Wind velocity and significant wave height fields are examined for geostatistical anisotropy along four cross-shore transects on the Catalan coast (north-western Mediterranean), illustrating a case of significant changes along the shelf. The variation in the geostatistical anisotropy as a function of distance from the coast and water depth has been analysed through heat maps and scatter plots. The results show how the anisotropy of wind velocity and significant wave height decrease towards the offshore region, suggesting an objective definition for the coastal fringe width. The more viable estimator turns out to be the distance at which the significant wave height anisotropy is equal to the 90th percentile of variance in the anisotropies within a 100 km distance from the coast. Such a definition, when applied to the Spanish Mediterranean coast, determines a fringe width of 2–4 km. Regarding the probabilistic characterization, the inverse of wind velocity anisotropy can be fitted to a log-normal distribution function, while the significant wave height anisotropy can be fitted to a log-logistic distribution function. The joint probability structure of the two anisotropies can be best described by a Gaussian copula, where the dependence parameter denotes a mild to moderate dependence between both anisotropies, reflecting a certain decoupling between wind velocity and significant wave height near the coast. This wind–wave dependence remains stronger in the central baylike part of the study area, where the wave field is being more actively generated by the overlaying wind. Such a pattern controls the spatial variation in the coastal fringe width.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Developing a remote sensing system based on X-band radar technology for coastal morphodynamics study

New data processing techniques are proposed for the assessment of scopes and limitations from radar-derived sea state parameters, coastline evolution and water depth estimates. Most of the raised research is focused on Colombian Caribbean coast and the Western Mediterranean Sea. First, a novel procedure to mitigate shadowing in radar images is proposed. The method compensates distortions introduced by the radar acquisition process and the power decay of the radar signal along range applying image enhancement techniques through a couple of pre-processing steps based on filtering and interpolation. Results reveal that the proposed methodology reproduces with high accuracy the sea state parameters in nearshore areas. The improvement resulting from the proposed method is assessed in a coral reef barrier, introducing a completely novel use for X-Band radar in coastal environments. So far, wave energy dissipation on a coral reef barrier has been studied by a few in-situ sensors placed in a straight line, perpendicular to the coastline, but never been described using marine radars. In this context, marine radar images are used to describe prominent features of coral reefs, including the delineation of reef morphological structure, wave energy dissipation and wave transformation processes in the lagoon of San Andres Island barrier-reef system. Results show that reef attenuates incident waves by approximately 75% due to both frictional and wave breaking dissipation, with an equivalent bottom roughness of 0.20 m and a wave friction factor of 0.18. These parameters are comparable with estimates reported in other shallow coral reef lagoons as well as at meadow canopies, obtained using in-situ measurements of wave parameters.DoctoradoDoctor en Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónic

The California coastal wave monitoring and prediction system

AbstractA decade-long effort to estimate nearshore (20m depth) wave conditions based on offshore buoy observations along the California coast is described. Offshore, deep water directional wave buoys are used to initialize a non-stationary, linear, spectral refraction wave model. Model hindcasts of spectral parameters commonly used in nearshore process studies and engineering design are validated against nearshore buoy observations seaward of the surfzone. The buoy-driven wave model shows significant skill at most validation sites, but prediction errors for individual swell or sea events can be large. Model skill is high in north San Diego County, and low in the Santa Barbara Channel and along the southern Monterey Bay coast. Overall, the buoy-driven model hindcasts have relatively low bias and therefore are best suited for quantifying mean (e.g. monthly or annual) nearshore wave climate conditions rather than extreme or individual wave events. Model error correlation with the incident offshore wave energy, and between neighboring validation sites, may be useful in identifying sources of regional modeling errors

Prediction of overwash in alongshore variable barrier islands [Previsão da ocorrência de galgamentos em ilhas barreira com variabilidade longilitoral]

Overwash prediction is very important for coastal zone management. This work intends to identify alongshore variations in storm impact and evaluate the role of sub-aerial and submerged morphologies in overwash occurrence. For this study, 24 cross-shore topo-bathymetric profiles were set on Barreta Island (Ria Formosa barrier island system, Portugal). Pre- and post-overwash surveys were made between August 2012 and April 2013. During overwash events, tidal levels and wave parameters at breaking were obtained. Overwash occurred under storm and non-storm conditions, the latter coincident with spring high-tide. Beach morphology was spatially variable, and changeable from one overwash episode to the next. Predictions of overwash occurrence were made using the Overwash Potential, defined as the difference between runup and barrier elevation. Several runup equations were tested, and the results compared to the actual observations. The selected predictor provided an accuracy of 88% for the identification of the locations where overwash occurred. This study proves that nearshore and foreshore morphologies have a major impact on the longshore distribution of overwash.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nearshore hydrodynamics and morphology derived from video imagery

Tese de doutoramento, Geologia (Geodinâmica Externa), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2018The coastal zone is the dynamic interface between the land and the ocean. Natural processes, including wave action, flooding and coastal erosion, often endanger human occupation and the use of the littoral. It is therefore essential to improve our understanding of the physical processes occurring at the coast, particularly those related with coastal morphodynamics. Due to the complexity of the coastal environment, littoral studies should be as comprehensive as possible, covering both hydrodynamic forcing and morphological response. However, conventional in-situ survey methods involve the use of instrumentation which, due to the logistical commitments, do not provide the required time-space scales. Remote sensing methods emerge in this context as an interesting alternative solution to yield simultaneous high temporal frequency and high spatial resolution observations of the nearshore processes. Among others, shore-based video remote sensing systems have been proved, over the last three decades, as a cost-efficient and high-quality tool to support coastal scientists and managers. Video monitoring installations offer excellent spatio-temporal resolutions, in combination with cost-efficient long-term data acquisition. This dissertation aims to present new conceptual models and video imagery tools to assess nearshore morphodynamics. This objective was accomplished through the development of a set of efficient computational tools to extract synoptic hydrodynamic and morphology information from video images. Data used in this work were acquired at five different study sites located worldwide. At three sites, video data were collected from dedicated video systems installed for scientific purpose. Two more additional video data sets were derived from the acquisition of online-streaming surfcams, which are camera infrastructures installed at the coast to provide remote visual information of sea state to surf users. A stand-alone set of algorithm was built to process and to geo-reference the acquired video sequence using already existing software. In addition, the automated processing is set to produce special images, namely Timex Variance and Timestack. A first video-based technique exploited the pixel intensity variation of Timestack images to characterize nearshore hydrodynamics. The standard deviation of pixel intensity was successfully related to the spatial distribution of wave transformation domains. Therefore, shoaling, surf and swash zones could be clearly identified in the nearshore profile covered by the image. This technique provides a new tool to study the nearshore dynamics, as the extent of wave domains can be related with distinctive morphodynamic behaviour. The method can be also directly applied to Variance images, hence it offers the possibility of extending such studies to the alongshore dimension. A second methodology developed in the scope of the present work exploited the use of pixel intensity average of Timestack images to estimate wave breaking height. Breakpoint locations and pixel intensity profiles were used to define the cross-shore breaking pattern length visible on a time-averaged image, here defined as the parameter. A first approach coupled to the available bathymetry to solve a simple conceptual model for finding breaker height. Wave breaking height estimates yield a Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) of 14% when compared to numerical model results, for offshore wave heights ranging from 1.6 m to 3.5 m. A second approach proposed the relationship /24 to replace water depth parameter on the simplest wave height calculation formula, which multiplies water depth by the breaker index. The technique can be directly applied on Timex, therefore images from four different sites were used to test its validity, obtaining an NRMSE of about 22% for a wide range of wave heights. A third methodology aimed to investigate the possibility of combining two shorebased remote sensing techniques, 2D terrestrial LiDAR and video imagery to perform detailed beach intertidal topography. 2D LiDAR provided precise shoreline elevation along a cross-shore beach transect, while shoreline contour was detected on Timex images in the alongshore dimension. The dataset from both instruments were complemented to perform 3D beach intertidal topography mapping with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of approximately 0.12 m. Finally, a method to assess nearshore bathymetry was developed. The method is based on a depth inversion technique, where wave celerity was estimated using wave trajectories visible on Timestacks. The procedure differentiates the waves in the shoaling and breaking zones and then estimates local depth from shallow or intermediate water equations. In the test case, bathymetry was mapped till a depth of 11 m with relative short time observations (5 hours), registering a RMSE of about 0.46 m when compared to ground truth data. The techniques herein developed allow to extract from video images some of the key drivers of nearshore morphodynamics, such as wave breaking height and wave period, as well as the main morphological features, namely subtidal bathymetry and intertidal beach topography. The combination of the methodologies presented in this thesis provides a comprehensive coverage of nearshore processes, enabling a synoptic representation of hydrodynamics and morphology. These methodologies may foster the implementation of new video-based operational systems and support the quasi-real time determination of coastal indicators and early warning systems for coastal hazards.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), SFRH/BD/52558/201

The International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting and the Coastal Hazards Symposium

Following the 13th International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting and 4th Coastal Hazards Symposium in October 2013 in Banff, Canada, a topical collection has appeared in recent issues of Ocean Dynamics. Here we give a brief overview of the history of the conference since its inception in 1986 and of the progress made in the fields of wind-generated ocean waves and the modelling of coastal hazards before we summarize the main results of the papers that have appeared in the topical collection

Short course on principles and applications of beach nourishment

Covers the engineering aspects of beach nourishment. (Document is 192 pages

A 3D unstructured grid nearshore hydrodynamic model based on the vortex force formalism

Acknowledgments This work was partly supported by joint Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) UK and Technology Foundation STW Netherlands funded SINBAD (EP/J005541/1) project. P. Zheng was supported by the China Scholarship Council during his four-year PhD study at the University of Liverpool. We would like to thank Prof. C.S. Chen of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for providing the source code of FVCOM and also the SWAN developers for developing and providing this open source code. We would also like to thank the staff and personnel involved in collecting and maintaining the DUCK’94 experiment dataset and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. Computational support was provided by the Chadwick High Performance Computer at University of Liverpool and also the facilities of N8 HPC Centre of Excellence, provided and funded by the N8 consortium and EPSRC (EP/K000225/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD