A coupled wave, astronomical tide and storm-surge model has been developed and applied to the Mediterranean Sea on unstructured grid. The third-generation WWMII spectral wave model has been coupled with the 3-D hydrodynamic SHYFEM model. The method used here, and the numerical schemes employed in both models have been successfully tested and showed to be efficient in simulating tides, storm surges and waves along the Italian selleck inhibitor peninsula. This marine model uses, as atmospheric data input, forecast fields produced by a meteorological model chain, from global to local scale. The variable resolution of the method and the effect of the depth-varying loading factor lead the present model, at least

for the Italian coast and for period of test, to perform better than other tidal models. Tide-surge non-linear interaction turns out to improve significantly the tidal model performance. Moreover, it has been found that the use of a three-dimensional formulation enhances the results of the tide-surge model. Hindcast results showed that the hydrodynamic-wave model coupling slightly enhanced

the wave prediction, while wave effect on the water level could not be resolved properly since the resolution of the numerical mesh of this application is not enough to describe the surf zone along Selumetinib nmr the whole Italian coast. The modelling system described in this work, which includes meteorological and oceanographic components, represents a powerful short term water level forecasting system for the Italian region. The high spatial resolution of

the Kassandra system along the Italian peninsula, exploiting unprecedented high resolution meteorological model input, allows the detailed description of the sea water level and the wave field. The developed model gives a significant improvement in predicting the total water level along the Italian coastal area and represents a potentially useful tool in bathymetry and altimetry corrections. Even if the forecast skill for the surge signal depends strongly on the range of the forecast, the total water level is Methamphetamine less depended on it. The short term storm surge forecasts of the Kassandra system for the whole Mediterranean are available at http://www.ismar.cnr.it/kassandra. The operational model has been recently implemented also in the Black Sea. The implementation of the baroclinic version of the model and the investigation of different surface wind stress parameterizations will be the subject of future work. The authors thank the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) for providing water level and wave data. Finally, the authors would like to thank Dr. Luigi Cavaleri for the critical review of the manuscript. This research was partially funded by RITMARE Flagship Project, funded by MIUR under the NRP 2011-2013, approved by the CIPE Resolution 2/2011 of 23.03.2011.