We investigate the distribution of the wave power around the Alcatrazes island, a protected marine reserve in southeastern Brazil, located at 20 nautical miles from the coast of São Sebastião/SP. A 14-year wave time series (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018) extracted from the global WaveWatch III model, was used to obtain the offshore wave climate. Based on the wave climate, a wave propagation model (Delft3D) was applied in order to obtain nearshore information. The most frequent waves are from the east, southeast and south, with heights between 1.0 and 2.0 m and periods of 7 to 10 s. Due to dominant wave direction incidence, the wave power is higher at the more exposed eastern side of the island, with its lee side becoming shadowed from the main wave trains. Magnitudes vary seasonally, with winter and autumn presenting more energetic southerly waves and consequent higher wave power along the rocky island. The wave power distribution is a consequence of the incident wave characteristics and the geomorphology of the island. Our findings are the first assessment of the local wave climate and wave power distribution along the rocky shores of Alcatrazes island, providing important background information for understanding different aspects of its functioning and management.
The city of Santos is located in southeastern Brazil. It is a densely urbanized area with touristic and economic importance, including the largest harbor in Latin America. Such activities are related to the sea and they impact and are impacted by erosional processes of the city's beach. Here we assess the morphodynamics of Santos Beach as a response to energetic wave conditions. Since the Santos Bay coastline is facing south, it is exposed to storm waves generated by cold fronts. Therefore, our aim was to analyze Santos Beach morphologic data during the period of energetic conditions from April to August. Morphological surveys were conducted at approximately 20-days intervals. The wave data for the study period were extracted from the global wave generation model, WaveWatch III (NOAA) and used as boundary conditions for the wave propagation model Delft3D-WAVE. The results of the study show the direct relationship between the incidence of higher waves during a period of two or more days (associated with cold fronts) with the loss of beach sediment volume. The beach dynamics varies from east to west. Even with higher waves reaching the exposed western part of the beach, its volume varies less than the more protected eastern part of the beach. Areas with slightly steeper profi les and usually subjected to less energetic conditions (eastern portion) have higher morphological variability; therefore they are more unstable and susceptible to higher wave energy than the highly dissipative areas (western portion).
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