New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
M99019Received 7 April 1999; accepted 22 March 2000
Wind wave characteristics at Lake Dunstan, South Island, New Zealand
JONATHAN C. ALLAN*
ROBERT M. KIRK
Department of Geography
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: r.kirk@regy.canterbury.ac.nz
*Present address: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral
Industries, Coastal Field Office, 313 SW 2nd, Suite D, Newport, OR 97365,
United States. email: jonathan.allan@dogami.state.or.us
Abstract Information on wave statistics, seasonal
characteristics, and their distribution about lacustrine shorelines is
virtually non-existent. The absence of such data limits the effective
management of lake shores where issues of shoreline erosion are no less
significant than on open ocean coasts. Results from instrumentally measured
waves during seven storm events in 1995 are presented for the Clutha Arm of
Lake Dunstan, South Island, New Zealand. The significant wave height ranged
from 0.07 to 0.57 m with a mean of 0.28 m, whereas the maximum wave
reached 1.05 m. Peak spectral wave periods ranged from 1.7 to 3.6 s with a
mean of 2.46 s. The largest and most destructive waves are observed along the
southern shore of the Clutha arm where fetch lengths are at their maximum.
These waves exhibit the longest and widest range of periods and are generally
the steepest waves, making them highly erosional at the shore. Correlations of
waves with those predicted by NARFET, a deepwater wave-hindcasting computer
model, revealed reasonable predictions of the wave height (R =
0.77-0.81), particularly for sites exposed to longer fetches, while the
correlations with the wave period were lower (R = 0.56-0.69). Wave
hindcasting indicates that the wave regime in the Clutha Arm is bi-directional,
with most waves arriving from the north or south. Findings from Lake Dunstan
have important implications for larger lakes located throughout New Zealand,
where considerably larger waves can be expected to occur during severe storm
events.
Keywords Lake Dunstan; high-frequency waves; wave
measurements; wave statistics; wave climate; hindcasting
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2000, Vol. 34:
593-595
0028-8330/00/3404-0593 $7.00 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
2000
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1510K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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