Effect of Water Depth and Swell Parameters on Wave Propagation in the Coastal Zone of Benin

Abstract

The coastal zone is studied as a morphodynamic system in the present work. A morphodynamic system comprises a geomorphological entity that adjusts its morphology in response to variations in a dynamic component. In recent years, particularly from 2015 to 2016, strong swells have been observed and have induced the destruction of coastal infrastructure and strong coastal erosion in the Gulf of Guinea, particularly Benin. Following this observation, our study is carried out to understand the origin of these strong events. Through this work, we tried to highlight the effect of water depth and swell parameters on wave propagation using experimental models from the literature. For this reason, MATLAB and Mathematica software were used for simulations. It can be said from the results obtained that the wave height has a considerable effect on the wave profile. The variation in water depth as a function of distance from the bed shows that it significantly affects the wave and its components.