Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

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Marine Geology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/margo

Numerical simulation of sedimentation and erosion caused by the 2011 T

Tohoku Tsunami in Oarai Port, Japan
Yoshiaki Kuriyamaa, , Yu Chidaa, Yoshiyuki Unob, Kazuhiko Hondac
⁎

a
Port and Airport Research Institute, Nagase 3-1-1, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-0826, Japan
b
ECOH Co., Ltd., Kita-Ueno 2-6-4, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0014, Japan
c
National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, Nagase 3-1-1, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-0826, Japan

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The 2011 Tohoku Tsunami induced sediment deposition of 334,000 m3 mainly in the basin and 9 m erosion at
Bathymetry change the tips of a breakwater and a groin in Oarai Port, Japan. The tsunami-induced bathymetry change was simu-
Vortex lated using a numerical model and the simulated bathymetry change was compared with the measured one. The
Suspended sediment transport comparison showed that the simulated bathymetry change quantitatively agreed with the measured one in-
Basin
cluding the sediment deposition and the erosion mentioned above although the erosion measured along the
Scour
Inundation height
breakwater was not well reproduced by the model. The time series of simulated bathymetry change, water level,
current and suspended sediment concentration showed that the sediment deposition in the center of the basin
was mostly induced by the sediments that moved into the basin through its entrance between the breakwater and
the groin and were redistributed by counterclockwise vortices. The severe erosion at the tip of the breakwater
was mainly induced by the strong southward currents.

1. Introduction
Over the last couple of decades, the topography and bathymetry of
some sandy beaches have been greatly altered by large tsunamis such as
the 1998 Papua New Guinea Tsunami (e.g., Gelfenboum and Jaffe,
2003), the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (e.g., Borrero, 2005; Umitsu
et al., 2007; Paris et al., 2009; Meilianda et al., 2010) and the 2011 off
the Pacific coast of Tohoku Tsunami (e.g., Tanaka et al., 2012; Tappin
et al., 2012; Udo et al., 2012; Adityawan et al., 2014). Following these
events, sandy beaches were heavily eroded and huge amounts of sedi-
ment were transported landward and seaward and deposited.
Ports and harbors constructed on sandy beaches have also been
affected by tsunamis in recent years. The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
induced an erosion of 3 m inside Kirinda Harbor in Sri Lanka, where the
tsunami height reached approximately 6 m (Goto et al., 2011). During
the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, the tsunami heights reached 4.5 to 6 m in
Hachinohe, Hitachi and Oarai Ports, leading scours of up to 7 to 10 m
developing at the gaps between breakwaters and at their tips
(Kuriyama, 2014). Further, around the centers of the Hitachi and Oarai
Port basins, sediment depositions of about 1 to 2 m were observed. The
2011 Tohoku Tsunami also induced scours of 2 to 4 m and depositions
of 1 to 4 m in Crescent City and Santa Cruz Harbors in California, USA,
where the tsunami heights were 2 to 2.5 m (Wilson et al., 2012).
The erosion of sandy beaches deteriorates their ability to prevent or
mitigate coastal disasters by dissipating wave energy. Sediment de-
positions on land can be obstacles to rescue and recovery efforts. The
bathymetry changes inside ports and harbors are also problematic.
Erosion and scour can be threats to the stability of breakwaters.
Sedimentation may interfere with vessel traffic and prevent the delivery
of relief supplies through ports and harbors. To investigate counter-
measures against such changes, being able to accurately predict tsu-
nami-induced morphological changes and understand their processes is
required. Numerical simulation models for sediment transport and
morphological change due to tsunami were developed and applied to
those caused by the 1960 Chilean Tsunami (e.g., Takahashi et al.,
2000), the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (e.g., Apotsos et al., 2011; Goto
et al., 2011; Gusman et al., 2012; Li et al., 2012; Ontowirjo et al., 2013)
and the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami (e.g., Sugawara and Takahashi, 2013;
Kuriyama et al., 2014; Sugawara et al., 2014a, 2014b; Yamashita et al.,
2016; Gusman et al., 2018; Sugawara, 2018).
Tsunami-induced bathymetry changes in and around ports and
harbors have also been simulated using numerical models. Kihara et al.
(2012) calculated the bathymetry change in and around a harbor with
two breakwaters at the laboratory scale using a three dimensional

Corresponding author.
⁎

E-mail addresses: kuriyama@p.mpat.go.jp (Y. Kuriyama), chida-y@p.mpat.go.jp (Y. Chida), yoshiyuki_uno@ecoh.co.jp (Y. Uno),
honda-k852a@mlit.go.jp (K. Honda).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2020.106225
Received 1 February 2020; Received in revised form 6 May 2020; Accepted 8 May 2020
Available online 15 May 2020
0025-3227/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

hydrodynamic model and compared the calculated result with that

measured by Fujii et al. (2009). The model well reproduced the scour at
the harbor entrance and the deposition in the center of the basin.
Nishihata et al. (2006), Kihara and Matsuyama (2010) and Ranasinghe
et al. (2013) applied numerical models to the bathymetry change in
Kirinda Harbor mentioned above. Their models were slightly different,
but they successfully reproduced the relatively large erosion near the
central breakwater and the sediment deposition near the shoreline be-
tween the central and south breakwaters.
To investigate the accuracy of a numerical model for tsunami-in-
duced bathymetry change in a port with channels and basins at the
prototype scale, Kuriyama et al. (2015) conducted a numerical simu-
lation of the bathymetry change in Oarai Port induced by the 2011
Tohoku Tsunami mentioned above by using the model developed by
Kuriyama et al. (2014). The model underpredicted the bathymetry
change partially because the calculation period of 180 min was too
short. A second cause of the underestimation would be that the initial
sea level displacement generated by the tsunami source employed in
Kuriyama et al. (2015) might have been a little bit smaller than the
actual one. The calculated inundation heights were smaller than the
measured ones. Another cause of the discrepancy might be that the
model was one-way, not two-way. In a two-way model, the bathymetry
calculated at a time step is used in the tsunami propagation calculation
at the next step. Although the model developed by Kuriyama et al.
(2014) was two-way, the one used in Kuriyama et al. (2015) was one-
way.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanisms of
erosion and accretion in Oarai Port induced by the 2011 Tohoku
Tsunami using simulation results. First, we improve the simulation used Fig. 1. Location of study site.
in Kuriyama et al. (2015) by extending the calculation period, adjusting
the initial sea level displacement and using a two-way model. Then,
after confirming the accuracy of the model by comparing the simulated
and measured bathymetry changes, we discuss the processes of the
bathymetry changes including scours and sediment depositions in the
channel and the basin.

2. Study site

Oarai Port is located in eastern Japan facing the Pacific Ocean and
285 km south of the epicenter of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake (Fig. 1).
The tsunami height at Oarai was approximately 5 m. The bathymetry in
Oarai Port was measured in August 2010, seven months before the 2011
Tohoku Tsunami, and between 20 and 22 March 2011, approximately
ten days after the tsunami. Inside the port, scours were observed at the
tips of and along the South Breakwater and the West Groin (Fig. 2). The
maximum scour depth was 9 m. Sediment deposition took place inside
the port and at the area between the South Breakwater and the West
Groin. The erosion and the sedimentation volumes in the investigation
area were 1,037,000 m3 and 334,000 m3, respectively. The volume
change induced by the land subsidence due to the 2011 earthquake was
excluded from the values mentioned above. The amount of land sub-
sidence in the study site was assumed to be 0.25 m as it was 0.25 m at a
nearby city, Hitachinaka (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan,
2011).

3. Numerical simulation for tsunami propagation and bathymetry

change
Fig. 2. Measured bathymetry change. Letters A to H indicate eight areas set for
further analysis.
3.1. Outline of the model

The numerical simulation model for the tsunami propagation and
bathymetry change used in this study is based on those developed by
Kuriyama et al. (2014, 2015). It is the two-way, one-layer hydrostatic
version of the Storm surge and Tsunami simulator in Oceans and
Coastal areas (STOC) (Tomita et al., 2006; Tomita and Honda, 2007),
which is a Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes model, coupled with a
submodel of sediment transport and bathymetry change.
The submodel predicts elevation changes from the difference be-
tween the amount of sediment settling from suspension and the amount
picked up, and the difference between incoming and outgoing bed se-
diment transport rates.

2
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

Zb 1 (Qb, v + Qb, a )
= ws Cb P+
t 1 x (1)

where zb is elevation, t is time, λ is porosity (= 0.4), ws is the set-

tling velocity of sediment, Cb is the suspended sediment concentration
at the bottom, P is the pick-up rate, which determines the amount of
sediments picked up from the bottom, and Qb,v and Qb,a are the bed
sediment transport rates due to velocity and acceleration, respectively.
The pick-up rate P was estimated by using Eq. (2), which is based on
Nielsen's formula (Nielsen, 1992):

P = c1 ws ( cr )
1.5 , = u 2/ sgd (2)

where c1 is a free parameter, θ is the Shields parameter, θcr is the cri-

tical Shields parameter, u⁎ is the friction velocity, s is the specific
gravity of sediment in water, g is the gravitational acceleration, and d is
the sediment particle diameter.
The rest of the details of the submodel of sediment transport and
bathymetry change including the bed sediment transport rates, the
suspended sediment concentration at the bottom and the friction ve-
locity is described in Appendix A. Fig. 3. Initial topography and bathymetry and locations of stations for mon-
The governing equations were solved by the finite difference itoring water level and current (solid circles) and inundation height (open
method; a staggered mesh in space and a leapfrog method in time were circles).
applied. The discretization of conservative terms was carried out with
the control volume method. The diffusion terms were discretized with
the second-order central scheme, while the advection terms were ex-
panded with the first-order upwind scheme. The elevations calculated
using Eq. (1) at a time step were used in the calculation of tsunami
propagation at the next step.
The simulations were conducted using a seven-stage nested grid
system, in which the grid size was changed in succession from 2592 m
to 864 m, 288 m, 96 m, 48 m, 12 m, and 4 m. The values of water
surface elevation, current velocity and suspended sediment concentra-
tion were exchanged on the boundaries between two nested grid re-
gions. At the open boundaries in the largest grid region, free trans-
mission of tsunami waves was assumed. The initial water level was
assumed to be the sum of the tidal level when the tsunami reached the
study site and the water level displacement induced by the earthquake.
The current velocities and suspended sediment concentrations were
initially assumed to be zero.

3.2. Setup of the model

The calculation period and the time interval were set at 720 min
(12h) and 0.1 s, respectively. The sediment size was determined to be
0.2 mm based on Nemoto et al. (2009), Yazawa et al. (2009) and
Hanzawa (2017). The critical Shields parameter was assumed to be
0.05. The parameter c1 was set at 0.00035, which is 1/10 of the value
used by Kuriyama et al. (2014). The difference will be discussed in 5.
Discussion. The morphological data used in the calculation (Fig. 3)
were provided by the Central Disaster Prevention Council of the Japa-
nese Government. Inside the port, the bathymetry measured in August
2010 was used. The topographical data in the finest and the second
finest grid regions were based on the survey data obtained by the
Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.
The tsunami propagation calculation used the initial sea level dis-
placement multiplied by a ratio of 1.2 obtained by Takagawa and
Tomita (2012), who applied a waveform inversion to offshore tsunami
records. This is because the comparisons between the inundation
heights measured at the study site (Mori et al., 2012) (see the locations
in Fig. 3) and those simulated using the initial sea level displacement
1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 times that of Takagawa and Tomita (2012) show that
the inundation heights calculated using Takagawa and Tomita's value
were smaller than the measured values and that those calculated using
the initial sea level displacement 1.2 times that of Takagawa and To-
mita agreed well with the measured values (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. Comparison between measured and simulated inundation heights.
Triangles and solid and open circles indicate the values simulated using the
initial sea level displacement 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 times that of Takagawa and
Tomita (2012), respectively.
4. Results
4.1. Water level and velocity
At around 18 min after the earthquake occurred, the water level at
Station 1 (Fig. 3) started to change due to the resulting tsunami
(Fig. 5(a)). The water level reached 3.27 m at 54 min and then dropped
to −3.47 m at 74 min. During the first 600 min, the port experienced
approximately ten subsequent waves. Inside the port, the water levels at
Stations 3 to 6 changed similarly to that at Station 1. However, the
water level changes at Stations 3 to 6 lagged 5 to 10 min behind that at
Station 1 and its amplitudes at Stations 3 to 6 were slightly larger than
that at Station 1.
Near the tip of the South Breakwater, at Station 2, strong eastward

3
Y. Kuriyama, et al.
Fig. 5. (a) Water level at Stations 1 (thin purple line) and 3 (thick red line). (b)
East-west (thick black line) and north-south (thin black line) velocities at
Station 2. East-west (c) and north-south (d) velocities at Stations 3 (red line)
and 5 (green line). East-west (e) and north-south (f) velocities at Stations 4
(orange line) and 6 (blue line). (For interpretation of the references to colour in
this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
and southward currents were developed (Fig. 5(b)) and the velocity
reached 8.43 m/s at 176 min. Inside the port, the current directions
showed frequent turnover (Fig. 5(c) and (d)). The currents tended to
develop northward at Station 3, but southward at Station 5. A similar
velocity pattern was also observed at Stations 4 and 6. Westward and
eastward currents developed at Stations 4 and 6, respectively (Fig. 5(e)
and (f)). These results indicate the generation of vortices, which is
partially supported by Fig. 6. The photo shown in Fig. 6, taken at
96 min, demonstrates that a counterclockwise vortex was generated in
the basin. This vortex was also reproduced by the simulation as shown
in Fig. 7. This result suggests the high accuracy of the model in pre-
dicting tsunami-induced currents. The vorticity ω estimated by Eq. (3)
shows that the counterclockwise vortices as shown in Figs. 6 and 7 as
well as in Kim et al. (2013) dominantly developed due to the 2011
tsunami (Fig. 8).
=
v3 v5 u4 u6
x3 x5 y4 y6 (3)
where x and y are the distances in the east-west and north-south di-
rections, respectively, and u and v are the east-west and north-south
4
Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225
velocities, respectively. The subscript numbers indicate the station
numbers shown in Fig. 3.
4.2. Bathymetry change
The comparison between the measured (Fig. 9a) and simulated
(Fig. 9b) bathymetry changes shows that the model well reproduced the
tsunami-caused bathymetry change including the sediment deposition
in the center of the basin and the erosion at the tips of the South
Breakwater and the West Groin. However, the erosion along the South
Breakwater was not well reproduced by the model.
For more detailed analyses, the area where the bathymetry data
were obtained was divided into eight areas according to the properties
of the measured elevation changes (Fig. 2). Areas D, E and G experi-
enced severe erosion and Area F had a relatively large sediment de-
position. The time series of the volume changes in the eight areas show
that the tsunami-induced bathymetry changes were almost complete by
500 min (Fig. 10).
The simulated volume changes in the eight areas quantitatively
agreed well with the measured ones (Fig. 11). The correlation coeffi-
cient r was 0.93. The linear regression coefficient a1 of the simulated
volume changes on the measured ones was 1.1. These results indicate
that the model predicted the tsunami-induced bathymetry change in
and around the port with high accuracy.
The mechanisms of the erosion in Area D and the sediment de-
position in Area F are now discussed. The time series of the volume
change rate in Area D showed that the erosion rate had seven peaks at
54, 62, 84, 118, 182, 208 and 306 min (Fig. 12) and that these peaks
seem to have been correlated with the current velocity averaged along
Line aa’. The relationship between the volume change rate in Area D
and the current velocity indicates that the erosion at the tip of the South
Breakwater was caused by strong currents (Fig. 13). The strong currents
moved mostly southward in particular when the current velocities were
larger than 4 m/s (Fig. 14).
To further investigate the mechanism of the erosion, we focused on
the seven peaks of the erosion in Area D and examined the volume
change rate in Area D, the water level and the current velocity and
direction during 14 min before and after the peaks. The water level and
the current velocity and direction were averaged along Line aa’. The
severe erosion mostly took place when the strong southward current
developed as mentioned above and the water level started to increase
from a trough (Fig. 15).
As an example of the spatial distributions of the current and the
depth-averaged suspended sediment concentration in and around Area
D, those at 84 min, when the erosion rate was maximum, are displayed
in Fig. 16. The current entered the port area over the northern tip of the
Offshore Breakwater. It then strongly developed southward over the tip
of the South Breakwater and large amounts of sediment were sus-
pended. Then, the current moved south-westward and subsequently
changed direction to move north-east and into the basin. This pattern
was also observed more or less at 54, 118, 182, 208 and 306 min. The
only exception is the erosion at 62 min, when the current developed
eastward as shown in Fig. 17.
The volume change rate in Area F had five peaks of deposition at 94,
124, 182, 218 and 310 min (Fig. 18). As in the analysis of the erosion in
Area D mentioned above, we investigated the volume change rate in
Area F, the water level, the current velocity, the suspended sediment
transport rate toward the basin and the vorticity ω defined by Eq. (3)
during 30 min before and after the peaks. The water level, the current
velocity and the suspended sediment transport rate were averaged
along Line bb’ located at the entrance of the basin. The results show that
sediments were deposited in Area F just after they moved into the basin
through the entrance when the water level was increasing from a
trough to a crest (Fig. 19). The timings of the sediment depositions
coincided with the development of vortices.
The correlations among the sediment deposition, the current and
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

Fig. 6. Aerial photo taken at 96 min.

Fig. 7. Simulated velocity at 96 min. The arrow indicates the direction in which
Fig. 6 was taken.
the suspended sediment transport rate toward the basin were also seen
in the spatial distributions of the current and the depth-averaged sus-
pended sediment concentration at 178 and 182 min. At 178 min, when
the suspended sediment transport rate toward the basin at the entrance
had a peak, the current moved into the basin after coming over the tip
of the South Breakwater and turning direction over the tip of the West
Groin (Fig. 20). Large amounts of sediment were suspended and
transported into the basin through the entrance. Then, 4 min later at
182 min, when the deposition rate was at its maximum, the area of high
suspended sediment concentration moved northward in the basin with
the development of a counterclockwise vortex (Fig. 21).
Although most of the sediment depositions in Area F took place after
the transport of a large amount of sediment through the entrance as
mentioned above, even before such sediment influx to the basin, sedi-
ments were deposited in Area F from −22 min before the first peak
(Fig. 19). This sediment deposition was caused by sediments trans-
ported from a small vessel basin located north-west of Area F owing to a
clockwise vortex (Fig. 22), which developed when the water level al-
most reached the local minimum (Fig. 19). The development of this
clockwise vortex is also confirmed in Fig. 8.
The comparison between the sediment volumes deposited in Area F
and transported into the basin from the entrance through suspended
and bed loads during 30 min before and after the five peaks shows that,
except for the first peak, 56% to 89% of the transported sediments were
deposited in Area F (Table 1).
In the simulations, both the suspended and bed sediment transport
rates were calculated. However, the suspended load was vastly

Table 1
Volumes of sediments deposited in Area F during 30 min before and after the
five peaks, those transported into the basin through the entrance and the ratios
of the volumes deposited to those transported.
Peak 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

3
Volumes deposited (m ) 47,759 29,915 46,617 21,365 34,780
Fig. 8. Vorticity in the basin.
Volumes transported (m3) 25,520 41,744 52,510 30,863 61,831
Ratio (%) 187 72 89 69 56

5
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

Fig. 9. Bathymetry changes measured (a) and simulated (b). Letters A to H and symbols aa’ and bb’ indicate eight areas and two lines, respectively.

Fig. 10. Time-series of simulated volume changes in eight areas.

Fig. 12. (a) Volume change rate in Area D (see the location in Fig. 9). Water
level (b) and east-west (c, black line) and north-south (c, red line) velocities
averaged along Line aa’ (see the location in Fig. 9). The vertical broken lines
indicate the timings of the seven erosion rate peaks. (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

predominant in our calculations. The ratio of the suspended sediment

transport rate to the total sediment transport rate, which is the sum of
the suspended and bed transport rates, was over 95% in most of the
calculation domain.
Fig. 11. Comparison between volume changes measured and simulated in eight
5. Discussion
areas. The solid line indicates that the two values are equal.

Sediment depositions in Area F coincided with the development of

6
Y. Kuriyama, et al.
Fig. 13. Relationship between current velocity averaged along Line aa’ and
volume change rate in Area D.
Fig. 14. Relationship between current velocity and direction averaged along
Line aa’. The current direction was defined relative to the eastward direction
and positive counterclockwise.
vortices as shown in Figs. 19 and 21. Kihara and Matsuyama (2010) and
Kihara et al. (2012) conducted numerical simulations of bathymetry
changes in Kirinda Harbor and a harbor in a laboratory experiment
using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model and showed that se-
diment depositions inside the ports were induced by the near-bottom
secondary flows of vortices, which moved toward the centers of the
vortices. However, the influences of the vortices on the sediment de-
positions in this study and in Kihara and Matsuyama (2010) and Kihara
et al. (2012) are different. Our simulation was depth-averaged, not
three-dimensional, and thus, it is not able to reproduce the secondary
flow associated with a vortex. The role of the vortices simulated in this
study was to redistribute sediments circularly around the centers of the
vortices as shown in Fig. 21. When a three-dimensional simulation is
carried out for the bathymetry change in the study site, the sediment
depositions would be more concentrated in the centers of the vortices as
indicated by Kihara et al. (2012).
The parameter c1 in Eq. (2) for sediment suspension is one of the key
parameters for bathymetry changes as indicated by Sugawara et al.
(2014b) and Jaffe et al. (2016). The sensitivity test showed that when
the c1 value decreased from 0.00035, which was the value employed in
7
Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225
Fig. 15. Volume change rate in Area D (a), water level (b), current velocity (c)
and current direction (d) during 14 min before and after peaks of volume
change rate. Water level and current velocity and direction were averaged
along Line aa’. Black, red, blue, green, orange, purple and pink lines show the
values for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh peaks, re-
spectively. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
this study, to 0.000035, the linear regression coefficient a1 decreased
from 1.1 to 0.27 (Fig. 23). The a1 value is of the simulated volume
changes in the eight areas on the measured ones as mentioned in 4.2.
When the c1 value increased from 0.00035 to 0.0017 and 0.0035, the
coefficient a1 increased from 1.1 to 2.2 and 2.1, respectively. This result
indicates that although the amount of the bathymetry change simulated
by the model increased as the c1 value increased, the rate of increase
decreased. At around a c1 value of 0.0017, the amount of bathymetry
change seems to be saturated. As shown in Fig. 24, in Area D, the
erosion rate was larger with c1 = 0.0035 than with c1 = 0.0017 from
the start of the tsunami-induced bathymetry change to approximately
100 min. However, from 100 min onwards, the volume change with
c1 = 0.0035 almost reached an equilibrium state at approximately
200 min. The volume change with c1 = 0.0017 also reached an equi-
librium state but at approximately 500 min and both of the volume
changes with c1 = 0.0035 and with c1 = 0.0017 were almost the same
at the end of the simulation period. Similar bathymetry changes also
took place in Area F as shown in Fig. 24. As a result, the linear re-
gression coefficient a1 did not change much even as the c1 value in-
creased from 0.0017 to 0.0035.
Y. Kuriyama, et al.
Fig. 16. Velocity and suspended sediment concentration at 84 min.
Fig. 17. Velocity and suspended sediment concentration at 62 min.
The c1 value used in this study for the bathymetry change in a port,
0.00035, is 1/10 the value used by Kuriyama et al. (2014) for the beach
profile change on a natural sandy beach. Both this study and Kuriyama
et al. (2014) obtained quantitative agreements between the measured
and simulated morphological changes. When a c1 of 0.0035, as em-
ployed in Kuriyama et al. (2014), was applied in the study site, the
simulated volume changes in the eight areas were 2.1 times the mea-
sured values mentioned above (Fig. 23). In this study, the current ve-
locity reached 8.4 m/s, whereas it was 5.3 m/s at maximum in
Kuriyama et al. (2014). The difference in the velocity may influence the
c1 value appropriate for the bathymetry change. Further investigation
on the applicability of the sediment suspension formula under a wide
range of conditions is required as suggested by Apotsos et al. (2011).
The comparisons of the volume changes measured and simulated in
Areas D and E indicate that the current model well reproduced the
erosion at the tips of the breakwater and the groin. However, the
maximum amounts of erosion measured and simulated in Area D
8
Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225
Fig. 18. Volume change rate in Area F (see the location in Fig. 9). Water level
(b), east-west (c, black line) and north-south (c, red line) velocities and sus-
pended sediment transport rate toward the basin (d) averaged along Line bb’
(see the location in Fig. 9). The vertical broken lines indicate the timings of the
five deposition rate peaks. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
were −9.1 m and −15.3 m, respectively, and those in Area E
were −8.8 m and −6.2 m, respectively. When the threat of an erosion
to the stability of a port facility such as a breakwater or wharf is ex-
amined, a more accurate prediction may be required.
In this study, we used the two-way model instead of the one-way
one. The comparison between the volume changes in Areas A to H si-
mulated by the one- and two-way models shows that the amounts of
erosion and deposition are larger in the one-way model's simulation
(Fig. 25). The result is understandable because the sediment transport
rate becomes smaller as the morphology approaches to the equilibrium
state. However, in the one-way model, such process cannot be re-
produced.
6. Conclusions
We simulated the bathymetry change in Oarai Port induced by the
2011 Tohoku Tsunami using an improved two-way model and model
setup. The simulated bathymetry change quantitatively agreed with the
measured one. The sediment deposition in the basin and the erosion at
the tips of the breakwater and the groin were well reproduced, whereas
the erosion along the breakwater was not. The simulated volume
changes in the eight areas, which were set according to the properties of
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

Fig. 20. Velocity and suspended sediment concentration at 178 min.

Fig. 21. Velocity and suspended sediment concentration at 182 min.

Fig. 19. Volume change rate in Area F (a), water level (b), current velocity (c),
current direction (c), suspended sediment transport rate toward the basin (d)
and vorticity in the basin (f) during 30 min before and after peaks of volume
change rate. Water level, current velocity and direction and suspended sedi-
ment transport rate were averaged along Line bb’. Black, red, blue, green, and
orange lines show the values for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth peaks,
respectively. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

the measured elevation changes, were 1.1 times the measured ones, and
the correlation coefficient was 0.93.
The simulation results showed that the sediment deposition in the
center of the basin took place mostly when the counterclockwise vor-
tices redistributed sediments circularly around their centers; the sedi-
ments moved into the basin through the entrance between the break-
water and the groin before the developments of the vortices. The severe
erosion at the tip of the breakwater was mainly induced by strong
southward currents.
Once a large tsunami takes place, ports and harbors may be heavily
damaged by tsunami-induced morphological changes such as sediment Fig. 22. Velocity and suspended sediment concentration at 82 min.
depositions in basins. It is recommended that sediment depositions in
ports and harbors induced by expected tsunamis such as the Nankai

9
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

Fig. 23. Relationship between parameter c1 and linear regression coefficient

a1 .
Fig. 25. Comparison between the volume changes in Areas A to H simulated by
the one- and two-way models.

with the depositions including the arrangement of dredging vessels are

discussed.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial

interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

Fig. 24. Time series of volume changes in Area D (green liens) and F (orange
lines) simulated with c1 = 0.00035 (thin lines), c1 = 0.0017 (thick broken
lines) and c1 = 0.0035 (thick solid lines). (For interpretation of the references
to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this
article.)
The authors would like to thank Professor Edward Anthony, the
Editor-in-Chief, and two anonymous reviewers for their useful, in-
formative and constructive comments to improve the original manu-
script. We also appreciate the advice and assistance of Kenya Takahashi
in conducting numerical simulations.

Trough tsunami are predicted in advance and response plan to deal

Appendix A. Appendix

A.1. Submodel of sediment transport and beach profile change

The bed sediment transport rates Qb,v and Qb,a are as a function of the velocity u (Eq. (A.1)) and acceleration a (Eq. (A.2)), respectively:
Qb, v = c2 u3 (A.1)

Qb, a = c3 (a acr ) (A.2)

where c2 and c3 are free parameters, which were set at 2.78 × 10−4 (s2/m) and 9.84 × 10−4 (m s), respectively, as in Kuriyama et al. (2014). The
parameter of acr is a threshold value, which was set at 0.2 m/s2 as Hoefel and Elgar (2003) and Kuriyama (2012).
The friction velocity was estimated using Eq. (A.3), which assumes a logarithmic vertical distribution of velocity:
h Zs
u = Us
h (ln(h/ Zs ) 1) + Zs (A.3)
where h is water depth, zs is the roughness height, κ is the van Karman constant (= 0.4) and U is the depth-averaged velocity. The zs value was
assumed to be 0.0033 m, which was estimated using the relationship zs = ks/30 (ks is the bed roughness) and substituting the apparent bed
roughness of 0.10 m obtained based on the longshore current velocities at Hasaki, Japan and Duck, North Carolina, USA (Kuriyama, 2010) for ks.
The suspended sediment concentration at the bottom was estimated by using Eq. (A.4) under the assumption that the vertical distribution of
suspended sediment concentration is exponential:

10
Y. Kuriyama, et al. Marine Geology 427 (2020) 106225

ws hC
Cb = , = c0 u h
( ))
s
s 1 exp ( ws
s
h
(A.4)
where C is the depth-averaged suspended sediment concentration, εs is the sediment diffusivity coefficient and c0 is a constant (assumed to be 0.2 as
in Fujii et al. (2009)).
The depth-averaged suspended sediment concentration was obtained from the advection equation (Eq. (A.5)). The term for horizontal diffusion
was omitted from the equation as in Kuriyama et al. (2014) because horizontal diffusion was assumed to have little influence on the suspended
sediment concentration.
C (Cuh)
= +P ws Cb
t x (A.5)
The saturated suspended sediment concentration Cb,max was determined by the following equation proposed by Engelund and Fredsoe (1976) and
Soulsby (1997).
Cb, max = Cs/(1 + 1/ 3
b, max )

( cr ) µ p
6 d
b, max = 1
0.013s (A.6)

4 1/4
µ
6 d
p= 1+
cr

where cs is the maximum concentration (= 0.65) and α1 is a constant value, which was set at 2.0 as in Soulsby (1997). The variable μd represents the
dynamic friction and was assumed to be 0.5 as in Soulsby (1997). When the suspended sediment concentration at the bottom became larger than
Cb,max, no sediment suspension was assumed.

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