In order to support dredging and off-shore activities in Southeast Asia, hydrodynamic models are often used. As such, the availability of a tidal model of the entire South China Sea region is required to get a first impression of.the tide and wind driven flow in this region or, to generate accurate boundary conditions for local models. ;
The problems to be dealt with in modelling the tide in the South China Sea region is twofold: (i) the complicated bathymetry of the considered area that consists of a number of very deep basins (the South China Sea, the Sulu; Sea and the Celebes Sea) that are connected by the shallow areas and narrow passages of the Sulu and the Palawan archipelagos; (ii) the complexity of the interaction of the tide in the basins. The main objectives of the study are to get insight into the sensitivities of the current version of WL DELFT HYDUAULICS' SCS model and to improve the model performance.
In this study, a number of experiments are performed to analyse and substantiate conclusions with respect to the possible improvement of the performance of the SCS model. By means of sensitivity analysis, the sensitivity of the model performance is assessed for variations in the boundary forcings the bathymetry in the continental shelf areas and the level of detail in the description of the bathymetry of the shallow passages. Subsequently, the SCS model will be calibrated with respect to the items the SCS model has proven to be most sensitive for. These experiments will be performed by means of (i) comparison of the results of simulation with small differences in model specification, (ii) tidal analysis and (iii) data assimilation techniques based on adjoint modelling.
These experiments have resulted in an improved representation of the tidal dynamics by including the internally generated tide, the boundary forcing and the local depth in the continental shelf areas. Furthermore, it was found that, given the coarse grid of the model, the model performance is rather sensitive for variations in the geometrical dimensions (by adding or removing individual grid cells) of the narrow straits (for example Malacca Strait).
Based on the experience acquired in this study, recommendations will be made for further work with respect to model aspects that are not addressed in this study.
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