Support for ICZM and MSP in the Adriatic Sea region

Delineated on three of its sides by the Italian coasts and the Balkans, the Adriatic Sea is a northwest-southeast, elongated, semi-enclosed basin, about 700 kilometers long and 200 kilometers wide, opening to the Mediterranean Sea through the Otranto Strait. It is characterized by Bora (from the northeast) and Sirocco (from the southeast) winds, which can cause high waves and littoral erosion, mostly in the northwest shallow coasts. An operational version of COAWST in the northern Adriatic basin, NA-COAWST, was set up in November 2011 at both at ARPA-SIMC and DISVA, including two-way, wave current interaction. The coupling between ROMS and SWAN models is performed though the modeling coupling toolkit. In the configuration adopted, the ocean model provides the wave model with currents and free surface elevation. AdriaROMS 4.0 and EMMA are now providing support to scientific, civil and environmental protection applications in a growing context of stakeholders at regional, national and international levels.