PREDICTING WIND-DRIVEN WAVES IN SMALL RESERVOIRS
The earthen levees commonly used to form irrigation reservoirs are subjected to significant embankment erosion due to wind-generated waves. The design of bank protection measures relies on adequate prediction of wave characteristics based on wind conditions and fetch length. Current formulations are based primarily on winds and waves in large water bodies and do not provide an optimal fit to waves in small water bodies such as irrigation ponds. Based on wind and wave data collected in an irrigation reservoir near Carlisle, Arkansas, the coefficients in a commonly used equation for wind wave prediction were improved for use in irrigation reservoirs. Details of the development of the new coefficients as well as data collection procedures are presented here. With the new empirical coefficients, the RMS error is 0.01 m for energy-based significant wave height and 0.06 s for peak wave period.