Wave breaking is an important consideration in many maritime engineering design calculations. Over the past twenty years a wide variety of methods have been put forward for determining various features of breaking processes, ranging from simple empirically-determined expressions for the breaker wave height to computational models of the detailed structure of breaking waves. This report contains a literature review, concentrating on techniques for determining the wave height at breaking, and the subsequent energy losses as broken waves continue forwards. The emphasis is on methods suitable for hand calculations or inclusion in computational models of wave transformation in shallow water. Assessments of the techniques are made and recommendations given
