Describing Tsunami Inundation and Debris Motion using Optical Measurement Methods in a Large-Scale Wave Basin

This thesis consists of two papers in manuscript format. The first paper presents optical measurements of tsunami inundation through an urban waterfront in a laboratory wave basin. The physical model was constructed at 1:50 scale and was an idealization of the town of Seaside, Oregon. The paper presents an analysis of the optical measurements made with two overhead video cameras, focusing on tracking the leading edge of the tsunami inundation through the urban waterfront. The results show that the methodology provides high-resolution information in both time and space of the leading edge position, and that these data can be used to quantify the influence of large macro-roughness features on the tsunami inundation processes in laboratory settings. The second paper presents optical measurements of debris movement and tsunami inundation through an unobstructed beach in a laboratory wave basin. The debris consisted of rectangular boxes and was placed unconstrained on a raised flat section of basin floor with no still water on the raised section. Debris movement was measured using two overhead video cameras and a novel object tracking algorithm. The results demonstrate the ability of the video data analysis to quickly and reliably measure the locations and orientations of multiple debris specimens