CONTENTS 



Page 

 CONVERSION FACTORS, U.S. CUSTOMARY TO METRIC (SI) 5 



SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS 6 



I INTRODUCTION 7 



II CALaJLATINC CHANGES IN WAVE HEIGHT DUE TO BOTTOM FRICTION AND 



SHOALING 7 



III COMPARISON WITH FIELD DATA 10 



IV EXAMPLE PROBLEM 10 



V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 14 



LITERATURE CITED 15 



TABLES 



1 Comparison of predicted and observed wave heights 11 



2 Average deviation of Bretschneider and Reid's theory from observed 



wave heights 12 



3 Illustration of the inapplicability of Bretschneider and Reid's 



theory in areas of irregular bottom topography 12 



FIGURES 



1 Graph used in determining the integral of the bottom dissipation 



function, (Ji^r, for waves passing over a constantly sloping bottom.... 8 



2 Friction factor diagrams 9 



3 Comparison of observed and predicted wave heights at the nearshore 



gage, Duck, North Carolina 12 



