Port Geographe Metocean Storminess Analysis

Summary

The original coastal rock structures at Port Geographe, Busselton were reconfigured in 2015 by the Department of Transport to alleviate seagrass accumulation, address beach erosion issues and improve environmental and amenity outcomes for the coast and community.

As the Department of Transport’s Coastal Engineering Advisor for the management of beaches, structures and waterways at Port Geographe, BMT undertook an analysis of recent wind and wave conditions at the site to evaluate the relative severity of winter storms and provide an indication of the metocean drivers behind wrack accumulation and removal.

The metocean variables investigated included wind speed and direction, wave height, period and direction, water level, run-up level, storm events identified based on various levels and time lags thresholds, estimated sediment transport rate and direction.

A range of plots were produced to illustrate the data, identify patterns and communicate our specialist interpretation of the results.

BMT Role

• Specialist advisor for coastal engineering
• Specialist data analysist for metocean and coastal processes
• Collaboration with the Department of Transport Port Geographe monitoring team. 

Services & Expertise Provided

• Metocean data collation, including QA/QC
• Storm event identification according to published statistical method (Li et al 2011)
• Estimation of run-up levels and sediment transport rate
• Data analysis including summary statistics, seasonal and interannual variability
• Data visualisation including storm count, joint distribution, box plot, rose plot.