Applied Wave Modelling for Harbor Improvements: An Opportunity for Boussinesq Model Advancement

St. George Island is one of the Pribilof Islands of the State of Alaska located in the Bering Sea. The small island has a single harbor that provides the community’s primary opportunity for generating revenue through the thriving local fishery as well as the only mode of delivering critical supplies and fuel to the remote locale. However, large breaking waves at the harbor entrance and significant oscillations within the harbor create unsafe conditions for harbor users. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) and HDR Inc. (HDR) are designing improvements to provide a safer, more functional harbor. The small size of the harbor, extreme wave conditions, and high cost of construction in this remote and hazardous location present significant design challenges. BOUSSINESQ wave modeling using BOUSS-2D and FUNWAVE was employed to simulate waves approaching and entering the harbor, capturing wave shoaling and breaking, diffraction and refraction past the harbor structures, and infra-gravity waves within the harbor. These models were applied to analyze both the existing and proposed harbor configurations.