| Summary: | The research is aimed at reviewing two numerical methods for modeling the effect of coastal forest on tsunami run-up and to propose an alternative approach. Two methods for modeling the effect of coastal forest namely the Constant Roughness Model (CRM) and Equivalent Roughness Model (ERM) simulate the effect of the forest by using an artificial Manning roughness coefficient. An alternative approach that simulates each of the trees as a vertical square column is introduced. Simulations were carried out with variations of forest density and layout pattern of the trees. The numerical model was validated using an existing data series of tsunami run-up without forest protection. The study indicated that the alternative method is in good agreement with ERM method for low forest density. At higher density and when the trees were planted in a zigzag pattern, the ERM produced significantly higher run-up. For a zigzag pattern and at 50% forest densities which represents a water tight wall, both the ERM and CRM methods produced relatively high run-up which should not happen theoretically. The alternative method, on the other hand, reflected the entire tsunami. In reality, housing complex can be considered and simulated as forest with various size and layout of obstacles where the alternative approach is applicable. The alternative method is more accurate than the existing methods for simulating a coastal forest for tsunami mitigation but consumes considerably more computational time.
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