The difference in wave environments between intertidal sand beaches and mud flats

Abstract

Kim, T.R and Lee, J.H., 2013. The difference in wave environments between intertidal sand beaches and mud flats.The characteristics of wave environments are studied and compared between an intertidal beach and a mud flat. The Mohang Beach is an intertidal sand beach, located on the southwest coast of Korea with tidal range of over 5 meters. Strikingly, it lies just next to the large intertidal mud flat. In order to find the wave energy difference between the intertidal sand beach and mud flat, a numerical wave model is performed with same boundary input conditions, and a wave directional spectrum is calculated at the entrance of each site. Unstructured grids for numerical wave model are used because the details of the shore orientation and topography are important to simulate wave propagation and shallow water effects in nature. It is found that the sand beach is more exposed to the wave forces than the mud flat in all wave directions. The field measurement also shows higher wave heights at the sand beach than the mud flat. The local difference of wave propagation and energy is the main factor maintaining the two adjacent environments with disparate sedimentological characteristics.