The swan wave model verified along the southern north sea coast

The third-generation wave model SWAN for small-scale, coastal regions with shallow water, (barrier) islands, tidal flats, local wind and ambient currents is verified in real field conditions by applying the model in stationary mode to eight cases at four different sites in the southern North Sea. The sites represent an increasing complexity in bathymetry. The simplest of the cases are quasi 1-dimensional whereas the more complex cases are two-dimensional: tidal gaps between barrier islands with channels, shoals, tidal currents and local wind. The agreement between computed and observed spectra in the quasi-1D cases is excellent. This supports (a) a spectral version of a well established model for depth-induced wave breaking and (b) a relatively new model for triad wave-wave interactions. In the rather more complicated 2-D cases of the tidal inlets, SWAN performs well in terms of significant wave height and mean wave period, the rms-error being about 10% of the incident values.