Modelling the alongshore variability of optimum rip current escape strategies on a multiple rip-channelled beach

Abstract

Rip currents are a leading cause of drowning on beaches worldwide. How bathers caught in a rip current should attempt to escape has been a subject of recent debate. A numerical model of human bathers escaping from a rip current flow field is applied to a 2-km-long section of the open beach of Biscarrosse, SW France. The study area comprises 4 rip channels that visually appear similar from the beach, but exhibit different morphologies. Simulations are run for 2 representative hazardous summer wave conditions. Results show that small changes in the bar/rip morphology have a large impact on the rip flow field, and in turn on the alongshore variability of the optimal rip current escape strategy. The overall flow regime (dominant surf-zone exits versus dominant recirculation), which is found to be influenced by the alongshore dimensions of the sand bars adjacent to the rip channel, is more important to rip current escape strategy than rip velocity. Flow regime was found to dictate the success of the ''stay afloat'' strategy, with greater success for recirculating flow. By comparison, the dominant longshore feeder current and rip-neck orientation determined the best direction to ''swim parallel'' towards. For obliquely incident waves, ''swim parallel'' downdrift then swim onshore with breaking waves was highly successful and can become a simple safety message for beach safety practitioners to communicate to the general public. However, in SW France where rip spacing is large ( $ 400 m), surf-zone eddies have large spatial scales of the order of 100? m, requiring a large distance (100? m) to swim to reach safety, therefore requiring good swimming & Bruno Castelle ability. This also shows that in addition to rip current intensity, rip flow regime and the depth of adjacent sand bars, rip spacing is important for defining rip current hazard and the best safety message. Our results also indicate that for normal to near-normal wave incidence, rip current hazard and best rip current escape strategy are highly variable alongshore due to subtle differences in bar/rip morphology from one rip system to another. These findings challenge the objective of developing a universal rip current escape strategy message on open rip-channelled beaches exposed to normal to near-normal wave incidence, even for seemingly similar rip channels.

Bathymetric Controls on Rotational Surfzone Currents

“…This model is intended for use in making broad assumptions about the type of flow that will occur over a given bathymetry, potentially with only visual observations. It is anticipated that a simplified version of this model may be of use to beach safety practitioners who deal with surfzone currents as a bathing hazard (e.g., Castelle, McCarroll, et al, ; McCarroll et al, ). Bathymetric controls are presented on two axes, bathymetric nonuniformity (horizontal) and channel angle (vertical), with idealized bathymetries illustrating typical flow behavior.…”

Public perceptions of a rip current hazard education program: “Break the Grip of the Rip!”

“…This decision was largely based on field tests of rip escape strategies Van Leeuwen et al, 2016), which clearly showed that natural variance in rip flow behavior influences effectiveness of different rip escape strategy strategies. This has also been illustrated by recent numerical modeling studies (McCarroll et al, 2015;Castelle et al, 2016a, b). However, communicating such a complex and mixed message is problematic.…”

“…The key problem is that rip forecasts tend to be generalized for a large region and time, whereas actual rip development and flow behavior is extremely variable over space and time (Castelle et al, 2016a). It is also difficult to predict the potential for rip development without an understanding of the pre-existing nearshore morphology, which itself is difficult to measure directly, remotely, or through numerical modeling.…”

Wave breaking patterns control rip current flow regimes and surfzone retention

“…In Australia, rips were a factor in 44 % of recorded beach drownings over a seven-year period (Brighton et al, 2013). Recent research has focussed on assessing the effectiveness of various escape strategies for people caught in rips (Miloshis and Stephenson, 2011;McCarroll et al, 2014aMcCarroll et al, , 2015Castelle et al, 2015;Van Leeuwen et al, 2015). The traditional promoted strategy was (and still is in many places) to swim parallel to the shore .…”