Hindcast of the wave conditions along the west Iberian coast

This paper describes the development of a wave prediction system for the west Iberian coast. The implemented wave prediction system is based on two state-of-the-art spectral wave models, WAM for the ocean area and SWAN for the nearshore. However. because of its extended geographical space the SWAN model will include some generation effects in the coarse SWAN simulations, complemented by wave transformation effects near the coast. The system was validated by means of extended hindcast runs in various regions belonging to the continental Portuguese coastal environment, which were compared with buoy data, focusing on the extreme energetic events and both direct comparisons and statistical results are presented. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.