Manual on wave overtopping of sea

defences and related structures

An overtopping manual largely based on European research,
but for worldwide application

Second Edition 2018

The Overtopping Manual incorporates new techniques to predict wave overtopping at seawalls, flood
embankments, breakwaters and other shoreline structures. The manual includes case studies and
example calculations. The manual is intended to assist coastal engineers analyse overtopping
performance of most types of sea defence found around the world. The methods in the manual can
be used for current performance assessments and for longer-term design calculations. The manual
defines types of structure, provides definitions for parameters, and gives guidance on how results
should be interpreted. A chapter on hazards gives guidance on tolerable discharges and overtopping
processes, including videos on overtopping discharges. Further discussion identifies the different
methods available for assessing overtopping, such as empirical, physical and numerical techniques.

With the first manual in 2007 an online Calculation Tool had been developed to assist the user
through a series of steps to establish overtopping predictions for: embankments and dikes; rubble
mound structures; and vertical structures. Unfortunately, no funds could be raised to update the
web-based Calculation Tool with the new formulae in the present manual. The old calculation tool
has therefore been removed from the website and is not available as a tool covering this new
manual.

In parallel with this manual an Artificial Neural Network, called the EurOtop ANN, is available to
predict mean overtopping discharge for all kind of structure geometries, given by a number of
hydraulic and geometrical parameters as input. It is based on the large EurOtop-database, extended
from the CLASH database, that contains more than 13,000 tests on wave overtopping. The ANN and
both databases are available for free and links are given on the website. In the future, other
predicting neural networks may also become available.

This website gives you:

 Downloads of the present and older versions of the EurOtop Manual;

 Access to databases and Artificial Neural Networks for prediction;
 Videos that show overtopping discharges and overtopping wave volumes for various wave
conditions to guide the user in estimation of allowable wave overtopping;
 Access to PC-Overtopping for prediction of overtopping for dike-type structures, although
based on EurOtop (2007);
 EurOtop Live, challenging researchers and practitioners to improve EurOtop.
The writing of EurOtop was supported and partly funded in the UK by the Joint FCERM Research
Programme and coordinated by the Environment Agency, in Germany by the German Coastal
Engineering Research Council (KFKI), in the Netherlands by Rijkswaterstaat, Netherlands Expertise
Network for Flood Protection.