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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Watershed Physical Processes Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #232642
Title: Predicting wind-driven waves in small reservoirs

Author
item OZEREN, YAVUZ - UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
item Wren, Daniel

Submitted to: Transactions of the ASABE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/30/2009
Publication Date: 7/1/2009
Citation: Ozeren, Y., Wren, D.G. 2009. Predicting wind-driven waves in small reservoirs. Transactions of the ASABE. 52(4):1213-1221.

Interpretive Summary: The earthen levees commonly used for irrigation reservoirs are subjected to significant embankment erosion due to wind-generated waves. The design of bank protection measures relies on the ability to predict the size of waves that will impact the shoreline. Current approaches are based on data collected in coastal waters, so new information on wave sizes in an inland reservoir was collected and used to improve an existing, established method for predicting wave size. This approach is valuable for field practitioners who must be able to estimate wave size for the design of shore protection. In particular, the NRCS has a large investment in earth levees used to retain irrigation water. It is expected that this approach will directly aid the NRCS in their efforts as well as being broadly applicable to inland reservoirs with characteristics similar to those described in the manuscript.

Technical Abstract: The earthen levees commonly used for irrigation reservoirs are subjected to significant embankment erosion due to wind-generated waves. The design of bank protection measures relies on adequate prediction of wave characteristics based on wind conditions and fetch length. Current formulations are based on winds and waves in marine environments and do not provide an optimal fit to waves in smaller water bodies such as irrigation ponds. Based on wind and wave data collected in an irrigation reservoir near Carlisle, Arkansas, the coefficients used in the standard equation for wind wave prediction were improved for use in irrigation reservoirs. Details of the development of the new coefficients as well as data collection procedures will be presented here. It was found that the new relationship reduced the rms error for significant wave height by 67% and for peak wave period by 71%.