We look into the problem of approximating the shallow water equations with Coriolis forces and topography. We model the system as an infinite-dimensional port-Hamiltonian system which is represented by a non-constant Stokes-Dirac structure. We here employ the idea of using different finite elements for the approximation of geometric variables (forms) describing a distributed parameter system, to spatially discretize the system and obtain a lumped parameter port-Hamiltonian system. The discretized model then captures the physical laws of its infinite-dimensional couterpart such as conservation of energy. We present some preliminary numerical results to justify our claims