Revising Empirical Swash Formulae for the Highly Energetic Wave Environment in Central Chile

In this work we first describe the field campaign that we conducted in April 2014 in Reñaca beach located in Central Chile where wave data and run up measurements are obtained. The set of data that we present in this work is beyond the range previously reported for swash excursion, because of the characteristic high energy and long-period waves in Chile. We then estimate swash excursion using video recording and in-situ data to test remote sensing methods and their uncertainty in this particular wave-dominated and highly energetic beach. The observed data is then used to test semi-empirical formulae that produce swash estimations. We focus on the method published by Stockdon et al. (2006) which considers deep water wave climate to estimate swash, parameterized as a function of an Iribarren number. The applicability of this formula is evaluated during several days with different wave climates and mean cross-shore slopes. We finally re-calibrate Stockdon formula using the extended scope of data available from this campaign.