Using Local Scour Around Artificial Reefs to Prevent Illegal Fishing on the Northwestern Coast of South Korea

Abstract

Artificial reefs have been proven to be effective in preventing illegal fishing by unspecified and unapproved fishing vessels, and resulted in protecting Korean coastal fisheries resources, and improving the income of local fishermen. When artificial reefs are installed on real topography, however, local scour occurring near the reefs affects the structural stability of the reefs. Therefore, it is required to analyze flow characteristics and probable erosion around the reefs using appropriate methods such as numerical modeling and physical experiments before the installation. In this study, a series of hydraulic model tests were performed to identify the local scour characteristics of three-types of artificial reefs planning to be installed in the vicinity of Yeonpyeong-Do and Daecheong-Do located on the northwestern coast of South Korea. For the hydraulic model tests, a 3-dimensional design was conducted with a scale of 1:50, and the local scour occurring around the artificial reefs was observed under different irregular wave conditions in the wave flume. As a result, the characteristics of local scour for 50-year and 100-year design waves in Yeonpyeong-Do and Daecheong-Do were analyzed using the maximum scour depth that occurred around the different artificial reefs.