The National Institute of Ocean Technology - government institution on high-end ocean research - has published India’s first ‘Wave Atlas’ for the coast which will help design marine structure and serve as a major resource point to protect beaches and coastal environment in the country.
The atlas is a reference for basic wave related information like wave height, wave approach and period in the public domain, hitherto not readily available.
“It presents the statistics derived from past information using simulated wave data. The simulation domain covers major portion of the Indian Ocean including the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The wind field and resulting wave field over 15 years of duration have been analysed to produce yearly and long-term statistics for engineering use”, said a note of the ministry of earth science.
The Wave Atlas has been published by the ESSO-National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai under the aegis of the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) in the ministry of earth science.
Since activities like design of marine structures, beach protection and environmental protection require information on wave parameters, the Wave Atlas will help in site selection for industrial and other development purposes.
Being an unrestricted open access database, this will benefit entrepreneurs, researchers, students and practicing engineers in coastal projects as the first source of scientifically produced marine information.
The long-term estimate like probable maximum wave height at a user selected location in as much as 50 and 100 years in future are presented in the atlas for planning purpose.
“The simulation exercise will continue and more data will be assimilated with time to update the atlas on routine basis”, said the ministry’s spokesperson Sudhir Tiwari in Delhi.
