National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes
The model has been developed at the University of Plymouth Coastal Processes Research Group (CPRG) as part of The South West Partnership for Environmental and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP) project that will help deliver economic and community benefits to the South West, whilst protecting and enhancing the area's natural resources.
About the Model: SWEEP OWWL is a forecasting system designed to predict waves, water levels, and wave overtopping hazard around the southwest coast of the UK. The model is updated once a day, and provides a three-day forecast. The system uses a 1-km resolution hydrodynamic (wave, currents, and water levels) Delft3D model, which is forced by a larger Met Office model, providing 2D spectral wave data, water levels, and currents along the four model boundaries, and the entire domain is forced with gridded wind and pressure data at 7-km resolution.
Wave and water level forecasts for the region are presented below via "Wave Forecast". For predictions of wave runup and overtopping please click on "Overtopping Forecast".
To view or sign up to receive Overtopping Forecast alerts please click on one of the links above.
Using the Forecast
By simply clicking on any one of the sites below, the forecasted wave conditions, water levels, and wind are shown for the next three days. At some locations, recently recorded wave and water level data are available from the Channel Coastal Observatory, and are shown alongside the SWEEP-OWWL data for the (hindcasted) first 12 hours, to provide ground-truthing of the model data.
For more information please contact;
Prof Gerd Masselink, Dr Kit Stokes or Dr Tim Poate
Using the Forecast
A regional overview of the Overtopping Forecast is shown below; this shows the maximum predicted hazard over the 3-day forecast period (shown daily via Twitter @Coastal_Hazards). The daily peak hazard is also shown for each forecast day.
More detailed daily forecasts of hour-by-hour wave overtopping hazard can also be viewed by signing up to receive the daily forecast, delivered automatically via email. You can select specific sub-regions in order to only receive detailed notifications for the areas you are interested in, or you can receive the detailed forecast for all sub-regions.
To generate the Overtopping Forecast, a suite of empirical models are used to transform the modelled nearshore wave conditions into predictions of wave runup and overtopping at a number of locations where coastal profile data are available. Different equations are used to predict runup and overtopping for sandy beaches, gravel beaches, and engineered sea defences. The flood hazard is then ranked from 1 to 4 depending on the predicted level of wave runup or overtopping discharge, based on the recommendations in the EurOtop (2016) overtopping manual.
The equations use the latest intertidal beach profile data, collected at least bi-annually by the Channel Coastal Observatory (Map Viewer and Catalogue), to predict the wave overtopping hazard. However, it should be noted that the beach profiles change over time, which introduces a degree of uncertainty in the hazard predictions.
Further detail on the model development and method is available here.
For more information please contact;
