Recently, it has been widely recognized that water-front and coastal vegetations may have great value in supporting fisheries, protecting from wave attack, stabilizing the sea bed and maintaining good scenery. Hydrodynamic factors playa major role in the functions of water quality and ecosystems. However, the studies on numerical and analytical process of wave propagation are few and far behind compared to those on the hydrodynamic roles of water-front vegetations. In this study, in order to express wave attenuation into
water-front vegetation, a numerical model based on the unsteady mild slope equation is developed. This result is compared with an analytical model for describing the wave attenuation by assumed simple long wave condition. Based on both the analytical and numerical results, the physical properties of the wave attenuation are examined under various wave, geometric and vegetation conditions. Through comparisons between the analytical and numerical results, the effects of the vegetation properties, wave properties and model parameters such as the momentum exchange coefficient have been clarified. |