A Method for the Separation of Wind Generated and Traveling Waves in Coastal Zones and its Use in Wave Height Prediction

The most widely used and accepted method of studying wind generated waves is an examination of the spectra at a single point. This approach is based mostly on the assumption that recorded time series of the surface elevation, pressure or velocities are the results of linear superposition of small amplitude oscillations regardless of their directions of propagation. In this work, the vertical and horizontal accelerations of a floating buoy have been used in order to calculate the directional wave spectra in coastal zones. The method used is a parametric one, which incorporates two waves propagating in different directions. The resulting splitting of the incoming waves into two main directions is used for 24-hours wave height prediction with an adaptive neural network. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)