Browsing by Author "Houma, Fouzia"

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Assessment of storm events along the Algiers coast and their potential impacts
(Pergamon-Elsevier Science, 2020-08-15) Amarouche, Khalid; Çakmak, Recep Emre; Houma, Fouzia; İslam, Bachari Nour El; Akpınar, Adem; Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi/Mühendislik Fakültesi/İnşaat Mühendisliği.; 0000-0002-9042-6851; AAC-6763-2019; 23026855400
Knowledge of coastal storm regimes is essential to ensure an economic and sustainable development in the coastal area. In recent decades, wave storms have been responsible for several fatalities and economic losses along the Algiers coast. The aim of this paper is to present a detailed analysis on wave storm events during the past 40 years, including an assessment of the potential impacts of various storm events along the Algiers coasts according to their intensity and direction based on the different historical events. Thus, this paper gives an estimation of return periods of extreme significant wave heights and extreme storm events. For this purpose, the wave storm events occurring in the Algiers coasts, based on the storm power index (SPI) developed by Dolan and Davis (1992), were characterized and classified. Five storm categories were defined in terms of their power index, subdivided into 31 categories, taking into consideration their propagation directions. The temporal analysis shows a progressive increase in the number of storm events and their intensity during the last decade, which explains the increased damage recorded recently in the Algiers coastlines. A spatial analysis of these extreme and catastrophic storms being responsible in these damages has shown that the nature of coastal storm damages on the local scale depends on several factors, mainly power of these storms and their direction; in view of the complex morphology of the Algiers coastlines. These two factors were considered during the extreme value analysis, and allowed us to estimate the return period of the storm events already observed based on their SPI and direction. A return period of 59 years has been estimated for the catastrophic storm of 2015, which caused significant erosion resulting a loss of more than 15 000 m2 of coastal lands.
Evaluation of a high-resolution wave hindcast model SWAN for the West Mediterranean basin
(Elsevier Science, 2019-01-18) Amarouche, Khalid; Bachari, Nour El Islam; Houma, Fouzia; Akpınar, Adem; Çakmak, Recep Emre; Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi/Mühendislik Fakültesi/İnşaat Mühendisliği Bölümü.; 0000-0002-9042-6851; 0000-0003-0700-8622; AAC-6763-2019; AAG-8624-2021; 23026855400; 57675048100
This study aims to present an evaluation and implementation of a high-resolution SWAN wind wave hindcast model forced by the CFSR wind fields in the west Mediterranean basin, taking into account the recent developments in wave modelling as the new source terms package ST6. For this purpose, the SWAN model was calibrated based on one-year wave observations of Azeffoune buoy (Algerian coast) and validated against eleven wave buoys measurements through the West Mediterranean basin. For the calibration process, we focused on the whitecapping dissipation coefficient C-ds and on the exponential wind wave growth and whitecapping dissipation source terms. The statistical error analysis of the calibration results led to conclude that the SWAN model calibration corrected the underestimation of the significant wave height hindcasts in the default mode and improved its accuracy in the West Mediterranean basin. The exponential wind wave growth of Komen et al (1984) and the whitecapping dissipation source terms of Janssen (1991) with C-ds = 1.0 have been thus recommended for the western Mediterranean basin. The comparison of the simulation results obtained using this calibrated parameters against eleven measurement buoys showed a high performance of the calibrated SWAN model with an average scatter index of 30% for the significant wave heights and 19% for the mean wave period. This calibrated SWAN model will constitute a practical wave hindcast model with high spatial resolution ((similar to)3 km) and high accuracy in the Algerian basin, which will allow us to proceed to a finer mesh size using the SWAN nested grid system in this area.
Wave energy resource assessment along the Algerian coast based on 39-year wave hindcast
(Pergamon-Elsevier Science, 2020-02-11) Amarouche, Khalid; Houma, Fouzia; Bachari, Nour El Islam; Akpınar, Adem; Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi/Mühendislik Fakültesi/İnşaat Mühendisliği.; 0000-0002-9042-6851; ABE-8817-2020; 23026855400
This study investigates a long-term assessment of the wave energy resource propagated along the Algerian basin, based on a 39-year wave hindcast. The wave energy hindcast dataset was developed using the Simulating WAve Nearshore (SWAN) model, calibrated and validated [1] against wave measurements performed on the Algerian coast. A detailed spatial and local analysis was performed following the hindcast results. We have determined several parameters including; hourly, monthly, seasonal and annual variations of wave energy resources, the probability of occurrence distribution for different wave power ranges with different directions, the probability of calm sea states, the wave energy development index (WEDI) and the total annual wave energy and their distribution as a function of significant wave height and energy period. All these results enabled a very important benchmark for decision making regarding the future implementation and design of wave energy converters (WECs) and other offshore structures in the Algerian basin. Our findings have shown that the Algerian coasts are characterized by a considerable wave energy potential with a large hotspot area in the eastern coasts. Thus, we have recorded a significant variability in the wave energy characteristics available in each zone along the Algerian coast. The western zone was characterized by an average energy of ∼7.5 kW/m with a low monthly and seasonal variation (<1.2), the central zone was characterized by a significant total annual wave energy of 63 MWh/m/year and a considerable WEDI of 0.019, and the eastern Algerian coast was characterized by one of the highest energy potential in the Mediterranean basin with a total annual energy exceeding 100 MWh/m for less than 15 km from the coast and a calm sea state probability lower than 18%. Thus, it has been concluded that since 1995, wave energy resources have tended to increase further.