Tsunami runup in coastal regions

Abstract

In this study wave runup from tsunamis in coastal regions is investigated. The objective of this study is to develop a computational method to determine the runup of tsunami waves using the method of characteristics. This study limits itself to waves arriving at the coastline perpendicularly, and depth contours are assumed parallel to the shoreline. In the runup calculation for a bore-type tsunami energy losses due to bottom friction and to breaking are considered. The runup results obtained from the method of characteristics in which energy losses due to bottom friction are considered, compare favorably with those of Bretschneider and Wybro (1976) and with Amein's (1964) numerical results. When energy losses due to both friction and W6ve:breaking are considered the results of the calculations compare well with experimental results by Miller (1968). The runup calculations are applied to a few characteristic situations on Oahu, taking into consideration historical tsunami data.