Prévision des vagues dans l'estuaire du Saint-Laurent à l'aide d'un modèle bidimensionnel

Abstract

Until now, wave hindcasting in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence has been done with one-dimensional models. The objective of the present paper is to verify if the two-dimensional model WAWSP, developed to predict waves on the Great Lakes, could be used in the St. Lawrence estuary, a semi-open fetch limited region. Waves (significant wave heights, peak periods, and directions) hindcast by this 2D model are compared with wave data observed at two buoys in 1991, 1992, and 1993, as well as with the ones obtained with 1D models SPM-77 and SPM-84. As a whole, the 2D model gives better results than 1D models. Wave heights are well reproduced, as long as wind data are well represented. However, wave periods are much smaller than those measured, and wave directions are not accurate, mainly because of the presence of swell in the estuary. This study shows the need to obtain more wave data with better quality in order to validate wave hindcasting models.Key words: water waves, numerical modeling, wave hindcasting, 2D model, wave climate, wave height, wave period, wave direction, calculated versus measured waves.