The maximum wave rising height is one important factor in the calculation of top level in the design of open high-pile wharf.Aiming at the selection of calculation theory for the wave rising height,we expound the theory of second-order Stokes wave and cnoidal wave.Combining with one project in West Africa,we use different theories to calculate the wave parameter of every control point.The results show that the relative water depth should be calculated before the calculation of wave rising height in the long period wave area.When d is smaller than 0.125L,the result based on the second-order Stoles wave theory has large error,but the result based on the cnoidal wave theory is more in line with the actual situation.