Extreme wave heights in the Kuwaiti territorial waters based on 12- and 15-year data

Estimation of extreme waves are essential for the safe and economic design of marine structures. The extreme significant wave heights were predicted for a return period of 100 years for 38 different locations in the territorial waters of Kuwait based on 12 and 15 years of wave data. The input wave data for the work was obtained by hindcasting of waves, using a WAM model. First, the wave data hindcasted for a total period of 12 years were used, and again the work was carried out with 15 years of data. The peak-over-threshold method, with a 1.0 m threshold wave height, was used for estimating the extreme waves. Weibull distribution is used for extreme wave analysis. It is found that the significant wave heights for a 100-year return period varies from 2.0 to 4.5 m. Increasing the input data from 12 to 15 years resulted in an average increase of 8.8% in the predicted 100 year significant wave height and a maximum increase of 20.8%. A large number of marine projects are in progress in the Kuwaiti territorial waters and many new projects are being planned for the future. The results presented in this paper will be useful for optimal design of such marine structures in these waters.