Simulation studies for storm winds, flow fields and wave climate in the Wadden Sea : WTI 2011

The motivation for this study is to assess the possibility of using wind, current and water level fields as simply as possible for the determination of the Hydraulic Boundary Conditions (HBC) in the Wadden Sea. Since storms are intrinsically unsteady processes, the purpose of this study is to investigate physically-based methodologies to simplify the wind fields that generate severe surges and use then as realistic forcing on the water in the Wadden Sea. An additional purpose is to perform a sensitivity analysis to various model settings for the determination of the wave conditions in the eastern Wadden Sea. Firstly, this was realized by performing a detailed analysis of the characteristics of historical storms generating severe surges in the Wadden Sea, with emphasis on the eastern part. The results show that high water levels were generated by rising wind speeds with directions approximately shifting from near-south to near-north.