Wind‐wave development across a large shallow intertidal estuary: A case study of Manukau Harbour, New Zealand

Abstract Locally generated wind‐waves in estuaries play an important role in the sediment dynamics and the transport of biota. Wave growth in estuaries is complicated by tidally varying depth, fetch, and currents. Wave development was studied at six sites along a transect across Manukau Harbour, New Zealand, which is a large intertidal estuary with a tidal range of up to 4 m. Three meteorological masts were also deployed across the measurement transect to measure wave forcing by the wind. A spatial variation in wind speed by up to a factor of 2 was observed which has a significant effect on wave development at short fetches. The wind variation can be explained by the extreme change in surface roughness at the upwind land‐water boundary. The tidally varying depth results in non‐stationary wave development. At the long fetch sites wave development is dictated by the tidally varying depth with peak frequencies continuing to decrease after high water, whereas wave height is attenuated by bottom friction. The ...