Storm Wave Simulation in the Adriatic Sea

When strong winds are blowing over a long fetch, high waves with a lot of energy are generated. In the Adriatic Sea, the Scirocco storms are marked by a steady south-easterly wind, which lasts for a few days. In the northern part of the sea, this results in powerful swell waves. They are very important for morphological effects during such a storm. The WAM wave model is used to hindcast the wave field during one of the historical Scirocco storms in the Adriatic Sea. At the local sites of Ravenna, Rimini and Cesenatico, the wave characteristics are determined. These are used for the morphological study during the storm. At several points in the Northern Adriatic Sea, the wave field is computed in order to estimate the wave set-up, which is needed to estimate the extreme high water elevation. The Scirocco storm is chosen from a set of selected historical storms. Using its pattern, the 1, 10 and 100 year storms are estimated. Each of these storms is simulated for the bathymetry at present and in the year 2050 and 2100. The bathymetry changes due to subsidence and sea level rise. The extreme water level at the local site of Ravenna is used to determine the return period of the storm.