A review of modeling applications using ROMS model and COAWST system in the Adriatic sea region

TL;DR

This review details the evolution and diverse applications of ROMS and COAWST models in the Adriatic Sea, highlighting operational forecasts and research activities supporting environmental management and scientific understanding.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of ROMS and COAWST applications in the Adriatic Sea, including operational forecasting and research advancements across multiple environmental and coastal processes.

Findings

Operational models support daily hydrodynamic and sea level forecasts.

Models assist in civil protection activities like oil spill and storm surge prediction.

Research applications include sediment transport and hypoxic event analysis.

Abstract

From the first implementation in its purely hydrodynamic configuration, to the last configuration under the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) system, several specific modelling applications of the Regional Ocean Modelling Systems (ROMS, www.myroms.org) have been put forward within the Adriatic Sea (Italy) region. Covering now a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, they developed in a growing number of fields supporting Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) activities in this semi-enclosed sea of paramount importance including the Gulf of Venice. Presently, a ROMS operational implementation provides every day hydrodynamic and sea level 3-days forecasts, while a second one models the most relevant biogeochemical properties, and a third one (two-way coupled with the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model) deals with extreme waves forecast. Such operational models provide support to civil and environmental protection activities (e.g., driving sub-models for oil-spill dispersion, storm surge, coastal morphodynamic changes during storms, saline wedge intrusion along Po River), in a growing context of stake-holders at regional, national and international level. Besides, ROMS and COAWST research based activities are also carried out, mostly aiming at investigating sediment transport, eggs and larvae dispersion, hypoxic events in the basin; through successive nesting very high resolutions nearshore the Italian coast can be reached, allowing to simulate river mouth environments and artificial reefs. Resulting outputs, written in NetCDF CF compliant format, are delivered via THREDDS Data Server to a growing number of users around the world.