Waves are fundamentally important to the physical and biological functioning of estuaries. Understanding and predicting contaminant transport, development of sedimentary structures, geomorphological response to changes in external forcings such as rising sea level, and response of estuarine ecosystems to contaminant stressors require understanding of the relative roles of wave- and current-driven sediment transport. We review wave-driven sediment resuspension and transport in estuaries, including generation of bed shear stress by waves, initiation of sediment motion by waves, and the ways waves modulate, add to, and interact with sediment transport driven by currents. A key characteristic of the wave-induced force on the seabed is extreme spatial and temporal variations; simple analytical models are revealing of the way such patterns develop. Statistical methods have been widely applied to predict wave resuspension of intertidal-flat bed sediments, and physically based predictors of resuspension developed from open-coast studies appear to also apply to short-period estuarine waves. There is ample experimental evidence to conclude that over the long term, waves erode and tidal currents accrete intertidal flats. Waves indirectly add to the formation of fluid mud by adding to the estuarine pool of fine sediment, and waves may fluidize subtidal seabeds, changing bed erodibility. Models have been used to explore the dynamic balance between sediment transport by waves and by currents and have revealed the key control of waves on estuarine morphology. Estuarine intertidal flats are excellent natural laboratories that offer opportunities for working on a number of fundamental problems in sediment transport.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2013RG000437

Review of wave‐driven sediment resuspension and transport in estuaries

Data from a three-year long field study of fine sediment dynamics in Cleveland Bay show that wave-induced liquefaction of the fine sediment bed on the seafloor in shallow water was the main process causing bed erosion under small waves during tradewinds, and that shear-induced erosion prevailed during cyclonic conditions. These data were used to verify a model of fine sediment dynamics that calculates sediment resuspension by both excess shear stress and wave-induced liquefaction of the bed. For present land-use conditions, the amount of riverine sediments settling on the bay may exceed by 50–75% the amount of sediment exported from the bay. Sediment is thus accumulating in the bay on an annual basis, which in turn may degrade the fringing coral reefs. For those years when a tropical cyclone impacted the bay there may be a net sediment outflow from the bay. During the dry, tradewind season, fine sediment was progressively winnowed out of the shallow, reefal waters.

Importance of wave-induced bed liquefaction in the fine sediment budget of Cleveland Bay, Great Barrier Reef

On the recovery of surface wave by pressure transfer function

We derive an equation relating the pressure at the flat bed and the profile of an irrotational steady water wave, valid for all classical solutions of the governing equations for water waves. This permits the recovery of the surface wave from pressure measurements at the bed. Although we focus on periodic waves, the extension to solitary waves is straightforward. We illustrate the usefulness of the equation beyond the realm of linear theory by investigating the regime of shallow-water waves of small amplitude and by presenting a numerical example.

/pdf/recovery-of-steady-periodic-wave-profiles-from-pressure-4pzq1xzhbo.pdf

Recovery of steady periodic wave profiles from pressure measurements at the bed

A new method is proposed to recover the water-wave surface elevation from pressure data obtained at the bottom of the fluid. The new method requires the numerical solution of a nonlocal nonlinear equation relating the pressure and the surface elevation which is obtained from the Euler formulation of the water-wave problem without approximation. From this new equation, a variety of different asymptotic formulas are derived. The nonlocal equation and the asymptotic formulas are compared with both numerical data and physical experiments. The solvability properties of the nonlocal equation are rigorously analyzed using the implicit function theorem.

http://depts.washington.edu/bdecon/papers/pdfs/PressurePaper.pdf

Recovering the Water-Wave Profile from Pressure Measurements

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/2035/1/A1995QV55100011.pdf

Yung-Fang Chiu

Papers

Transfer function between wave height and wave pressure for progressive waves