The mainland coast of China is about 18,000 km long and houses about 70% of China’s largest cities and 50% of its population. For the last few decades, the rapid growth of the Chinese economy has resulted in extensive development of the coastal infrastructure and property, large-scale expansion of coastal ports, excessive reclamation of coastal land, and a significant increase in the coastal population. Previous studies have indicated that tropical cyclones (TCs) have struck the coast of China at a higher frequency and intensity, and TC-induced coastal hazards have resulted in heavy human losses and huge losses to the Chinese coastal economy. In analyzing the long-term and most recent coastal hazard data collected on the coast of China, this study has found that TC-induced storm surges are responsible for 88% of the direct coastal economic losses, while TC-induced large coastal waves have caused heavy loss of human lives, and that the hazard-caused losses are shown to increase spatially from the north to south, peak in the southern coastal sector, and well correlate to storm wave energy flux. The frequency and intensity of coastal hazards on the coast of China are expected to increase in response to future changing TC conditions and rising sea levels. A simple two-parameter conceptual model is also presented for the assessment of coastal inundation and erosion hazards on the coast of China.

You, Z.J. and Yin, B.S., 2007. Direct measurement of bottom shear stress under waves. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 1132 – 1136. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 Wave-induced bottom shear stress is one of the most important parameters in modelling of wave hydrodynamics and coastal sediment transport. A new type of shear plate has been successfully developed to measure instantaneous wave bottom shear stress in a laboratory wave flume. The shear plate measures instantaneous horizontal force by applying the Wheatstone half bridge circuit to detect a tiny horizontal movement of the shear plate. There are about 280 individual test runs carried out over one smooth bed and two roughened beds, respectively. In each test run, instantaneous bottom shear stress was measured at a sampling rate of 10 Hz for about 10 minutes. The measured total horizontal force, which consists of wave-induced bottom shear stress and hydrodynamic pressure, is found linearly proportional to wave height in both laminar and turbulent flows. The wave friction factors measured on the smooth bed are shown to agree excellently with the theoretical values derived in laminar boundary layer flow, but those on the rough beds are affected by the bed roughness length estimated. An empirical formula is also proposed to compute the wave bottom shear stress.

You, Z.J., Yin, B.S., Ji, Z.Z., and Hu, C., 2016. Minimisation of Uncertainty in Estimation of Extreme Waves. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 1277 - 1281. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Accurate information on extreme wave conditions is often required for inshore and offshore structure designs, coastal inundation and erosion hazard studies, coastal construction planning, and coastal port operations. Estimates of extreme wave heights are commonly extrapolated from historical wave records based on extreme-value theory. Although a large number of studies have been undertaken to develop and improve methodologies in extreme wave analysis, there still exists much uncertainty in estimates of extreme waves. This study is to investigate main causes of this uncertainty based on historical wave buoy data collected off the N...