On the Connection Between Step Approximations and Depth-Averaged Models for Wave Scattering by Variable Bathymetry

Two popular and computationally inexpensive class of methods for approximating the propagation of surface waves over two-dimensional variable bathymetry are ‘step approximations’ and ‘depth-averaged models’. In the former, the bathymetry is discretised into short sections of constant depth connected by vertical steps. Scattering across the bathymetry is calculated from the product of $2 \times 2$ transfer matrices whose entries encode scattering properties at each vertical step taken in isolation from all others. In the latter, a separable depth dependence is assumed in the underlying velocity field and a vertical averaging process is implemented leading to a second-order ordinary differential equation (ODE). In this article, the step approximation is revisited and shown to be equivalent to an ODE describing a depth-averaged model in the limit of zero-step length. The ODE depends on how the solution to the canonical vertical step problem is approximated. If a shallow water approximation is used, then the well-known linear shallow water equation results. If a plane-wave variational approximation is used, then a new variant of the mild-slope equations is recovered.