Bathymetric Monitoring Survey in Maori Bay, New Zealand
With the support of a research grant from Unitec, eCoast Marine Consulting and Research conducted two bathymetry surveys at Maori Bay.
Maori Bay is a popular surfing beach located on the West Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The surfing conditions benefit from a complex configuration of offshore bathymetry. Offshore obstructions to wave propagation change the incident wave conditions and because of the close relationship between wave climate and sediment dynamics, changes in the wave climate are often evident in the mobile substrate. With the support of a research grant from Unitec, eCoast Marine Consulting and Research conducted two bathymetry surveys at Maori Bay. This project was the first high resolution survey to be conducted in the area and the data set is a baseline for successive work. While the presence and absence of surfing waves has been used as the indicator for seabed configuration, sediment dynamics and coastal processes were the primary aim of this study. These data were collected to further our limited understanding of sediment transport and beach processes along the Auckland West Coast, and form the basis for analytical comparison with coincident metocean conditions, and the development of numerical models.
