Shallow water waves and a host of long wave phenomena are commonly investigated by various models of nonlinear evolution equations. Examples include the Korteweg-de Vries, the Camassa-Holm, and the Whitham-Broer-Kaup （WBK） equations. Here a generalized WBK system is studied via the multi-linear variable separation approach. A special class of wave profiles with discontinuous derivatives （＂peakons＂） is developed. Peakons of various features, e.g. periodic, pulsating or fractal, are investigated and interactions of such entities are studied.
Variable coefficient nonlinear systems, the Korteweg de Vries （KdV）, the modified KdV （mKdV） and the nonlinear Schrǒdinger （NLS） type equations, are derived from the nonlinear inviscid barotropic nondivergent vorticity equation in a beta-plane by means of the multi-scale expansion method in two different ways, with and without the so-called y-average trick. The non-auto-Bǎcklund transformations are found to transform the derived variable coefficient equations to the corresponding standard KdV, mKdV and NLS equations. Thus, many possible exact solutions can be obtained by taking advantage of the known solutions of these standard equations. Further, many approximate solutions of the original model are ready to be yielded which might be applied to explain some real atmospheric phenomena, such as atmospheric blocking episodes.
