Wave energy saturation on a natural beach of variable slope

Time series of flow were measured across the inner surf zone during a storm. These data were used to quantify the dependence of wave height (transformed from measured flow) and velocity on local slope and depth. Similar to previous studies, as incident waves broke and propagated into the surf zone, wave energy became saturated, and wave height was strongly dependent on depth. However, the ratio of rms wave height to local depth (γ_rms) was found not to be constant but to vary between 0.29 and 0.55; γ_rms increased with local slope and was independent of deepwater wave steepness. Thus the surf zone similarity parameter (the ratio of slope to the square root of steepness) did not adequately parameterize γ_rms.