A field study of shore break characteristics on beaches of a fringing reef

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Field observations were carried out on beaches of a fringing reef in Okinawa Island, Japan to investigate the relationship between the shore break height (the height of final breaking waves near the shoreline), the reef width and wave height at the reef edge. A supplementary laboratory experiment was also conducted. The ratio of the shore break height to the wave height at the reef edge, Hb/H’, which denotes the degree of the reduction of wave height on a reef, was found to decrease with increasing reef width, W, and to decrease with decreasing water depth at the reef edge, h. Data analysis showed that Hb/ H’decreases with increasing W/h. This result indicates that the reduction of wave height on a reef is greatly controlled by morphological featuresof a fringing reef.