Modeling Ocean Dynamics at Waikiki Beach

Acknowledgements I would like to thank Baylor Fox-Kemper for not only advising me on my thesis, but also providing valuable information about pursuing a career in physical oceanography. Also, I would like to thank Mark Merrifield, who got me involved in this project and provided all the data collected from Waikiki. Finally, I am greatly appreciative of Brad Marston, for providing me with the opportunity to pursue my interest in physical oceanography for my senior thesis and acting as my advisor in the Physics Department. Abstract This thesis evaluates the ability of the numerical model, XBeach, to reflect the ocean dynamics of Waikiki beaches using both one-dimensional and two-dimensional modeling. First, simple one-dimensional runs (no along-shore variations) were compared to determine if their results could be generalized across a large stretch of beach. Second, the one-dimensional results were compared to results from the two-dimensional model (along-shore variations) to determine if the one and two-dimensional models provided different results. Then, both the one and two-dimensional results were compared to field observations. Finally, the wave parameters were adjusted to optimize the two-dimensional model. It was concluded that the one-dimensional model was unable to fully capture the required physics to sufficiently model Waikiki beaches. The two-dimensional model was more accurate at modeling significant wave height of both wind/swell waves and infragravity waves. Further study of sediment transport parameters is required to determine XBeach's ability to model beach morphology due to a swell at Waikiki.