Wind effects in the parametrisation of physical characteristics for a nearshore wave model

Abstract

To properly assess the energy and waves at a region, it is vital to obtain suitable long term metocean conditions. Although, wave buoys are a significant source of information they are not able to provide a detailed and complete resource assessment, as they have inherent spatiotemporal and recording limitations. Therefore, numerical wave models are often used to estimate wave power and metocean conditions. A wave model can provide realistic representation of physical processes, but it should entail careful tuning of parameters, which are often based on empirical and semi-empirical configurations. The study presents calibration of a wave numerical model and examines its performance, for nearshore wave assessments. Parametrisations of wind growth and whitecapping
coefficients have direct effects on evolution of locally generated waves, swells, and can reduce uncertainty in the results of a hindcast. The results are used to explain the physical meaning of differences, and provide a detail comparison of metocean parameters with nearshore and shallow water buoys as in-situ benchmarkers. Inter-model comparisons also indicate differences in spatial wave generation and propagation, as affected by wind growth and dissipation rates. The “optimal” solution will result in a model that will be used to provide a long-term high resolution metocean and wave power assessment for the Netherlands, that so far has been lacking in wave energy resource characterisation.