Numerical and Experimental Study on the Effect of Coral Reef and Beach Vegetation on Reduction of Long Wave Run-Up

Numerical and experimental studies were carried out to examine the mitigating capabilities of coral reefs and vegetations on tsunami and storm surge inundation. For long waves propagating over variable depth such as that over a reef, the nonlinear and dispersive Boussinesq equations were applied. For run-up onto dry land where the nonlinear effect dominates, the nonlinear and nondispersive shallow water equations were used. Long waves with various amplitudes and wavelengths propagating over coral reefs of different length and height were investigated to quantify under which conditions a coral reef may be effective in reducing the wave impact. It was observed that a reef can make a long wave separate into several smaller waves and it can also cause wave breaking resulting in energy dissipation. Our data suggest that both wave separation and breaking induced by coral reefs are effective at mitigating long wave run-up, with the latter being noticeably more effective than the former. As expected, it was observed that the higher the coral reef height, the more the reduction in wave run-up especially when the reef height is greater than 50% of the water depth. For reefs to be effective as a barrier for long waves such as tsunamis and storm surges, it was found that the reefs must be sufficiently long in the wave propagation direction, for example, with its length to be at least of the same magnitude as the wavelength or longer. In this study, it was shown that an effective reef can reduce the long wave run-up by as much as 25% and 50% by wave separation and wave breaking, respectively. Three types of vegetation, namely, grass, shrub and coconut trees, were modeled and tested in a wave tank against various initial wave amplitude and beach slopes in the Hydraulics Lab at the University of Hawaii (UH) to examine each particular type’s effectiveness in reducing wave run-up and to determine its roughness coefficient for wave run-up through numerical simulation and experimental measurement. These roughness coefficients were shown to be higher than the traditional Manning’s coefficient values for vegetation in channel flows. Also, the coefficients were shown to be a function of the ratio of the initial wave amplitude over the vegetation height and are relatively independent of the beach slope. The vegetation spacing and tree diameters in the lab models were selected based on the typical spacing and tree diameter observed in the field through a reduced scale. All three types of vegetation were found to be effective in reducing wave run-up especially on mildly sloped beaches with a reduction rate ranging from 20% to more than 50%. A numerical simulation that incorporated the effects of coral reef and the combined vegetation types showed that on a 5 degree slope the reduction in run-up was 61% as compared to an unprotected scenario. A larger scale experimental study on coconut and bushes in the NSF-funded tsunami basin at the OSU also showed these vegetations are effective at reducing wave run-up. These results can be helpful in achieving a better understanding of the role that coral reefs and vegetation play in tsunami and storm surge mitigation.