Validation Of Swan Under Extreme Conditions In The Wadden Sea

This paper assesses the influence of different physical settings used to calibrate the spectral wave model: SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore). Even though the accuracy of SWAN has been assessed in various studies before, the applicability of SWAN to simulate extreme events has not been thoroughly evaluated. On 5th and 6th of December of 2013 a severe storm was successfully measured at a number of locations in the Wadden Sea, providing a rich dataset to compare SWAN results with measured data. Stationary simulations with different settings are carried out, focusing on the tidal inlet of Ameland and the eastern part of the Wadden Sea. It was found that the choice of whitecapping formulation and associated calibration parameters strongly influences the results of the SWAN model. Overall it is concluded that SWAN can accurately simulate waves during extreme events when the adequate combination of settings are used.