Improvement of the WAM wave model and its application to the Rhone river mouth area

In this paper the WAM model is improved by considering the radiation stress es due to wave-current interactions in the spectral transport equation. The improved wave model is applied to compute wind waves in the Rhone river mo uth area in the Southern France under various steady and homogeneous wind c onditions. The aim of this study is to determine the wave conditions involv ed in the long-term evolution of the shoreline. From the numerical computat ion results, we can conclude that even for obliquely offshore wind conditio ns, alongshore waves exist in nearshore area and that the current due to th e Rhone discharge has very little effect on the wave characteristics in rel atively deep water.