Blue Bay Hurricane Assessment – Curaçao (Netherlands) – Blue Bay Golf & Beach Resort

For the design of a rubble mound breakwater at the Blue Bay Golf & Beach Resort Curaçao the design wave conditions are required. The extreme wave conditions in this area are predominately caused by hurricanes that struck the Caribbean sea and travelled northerly passed Curaçao. Although strong hurricane impact at the ABC-islands is relatively rare, there were quite some significant hurricanes in the past, with the most severe and close ones: IVAN (2004 ), EMILY (2005), FELIX (2007) and OMAR (2008).

The assessment was carried out as follows:

• Based on historical hurricane track data obtained from the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) from NOAA, the (theoretical) dynamic wind fields that occurred during the hurricanes were calculated.
• A non-stationary SWAN model has been setup to simulate the wave fields induced by the dynamic wind fields. A detailed bathymetry of the Caribbean sea and locally near Curacao were implemented.
• The local wave conditions, just at the toe of the breakwater, that are caused by the 4 major hurricane were derived to serve as design conditions for the breakwater and hence the breakwater is able to withstand similar hurricane impacts.
• A PowerPoint presentation with the results was presented to the Client, including spatial wind fields, spatial wave fields and time series of wave parameters at the toe.