Abstract
A detailed analysis of how the wave climate gradually varies from the Atlantic coast to the Rio de la Plata (RDP) estuary coast of Uruguay is undertaken, exploiting a recently developed high-resolution wave hindcast. As a better knowledge and understanding of the wave climate along the coast is a valuable tool for coastal scientist and managers for analyzing and interpreting its dynamics, a comprehensive approach is taken in this work, exploring not only the behavior of integral wave parameters but also average wave spectra and wave systems obtained from spectra partitioning. Moreover, as the focus is made on coastal areas, the magnitude and direction of the wave energy flux are analyzed as well. It is found that the analysis of the wave climate sustains the division of the Uruguayan coast in three main regions, namely, Atlantic, Outer RDP, and Intermediate and Inner RDP. In the Atlantic coast, two swell systems and a wind sea system are identified, and spatial changes in the wave climate are driven mainly by changes on coastal orientation, where La Paloma was identified as a breaking point; in the RDP, swell systems strongly refracts and dissipates, resulting in a wave climate characterized by one to none swell systems and a wind sea system, with bathymetry and geometry of the estuary playing a major role in the spatial changes of the wave climate. The analysis allowed not only to identify several characteristics of each of the regions but also to better understand how different wave systems (sea and swells) explain these characteristics in the different regions.
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Funding
This work was partially funded by the Uruguayan Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) through its “Fondo María Viñas” program, contract number FMV_3_2016_1_125918, and by the United Nations Development Programme project “URU/18/002 Integración del enfoque de adaptación en ciudades, infraestructura y ordenamiento territorial”. Rodrigo Alonso acknowledges the financial support provided by ANII through the postgraduate scholarships program, grant number POS-NAC-2012-1-8936.
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Responsible Editor: Alejandro Orfila
This article is part of the Topical Collection on the International Conference of Marine Science ICMS2018, the 3rd Latin American Symposium on Water Waves (LatWaves 2018), Medellin, Colombia, 19-23 November 2018 and the XVIII National Seminar on Marine Sciences and Technologies (SENALMAR), Barranquilla, Colombia 22-25 October 2019
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Alonso, R., Solari, S. Comprehensive wave climate analysis of the Uruguayan coast. Ocean Dynamics 71, 823–850 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-021-01469-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-021-01469-6