Title: FITCOAST: FIne Tuning and validating the Malta hydrodynamic COASTal model
Start date: November 2017
End date: September 2018
Budget: €5,000
IPAS - 2017/013
Coordinator: Dr. Anthony Galea
FITCOAST was awarded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) through Internationalisation Partnership Awards Scheme (IPAS) 2017. This project was led by Dr Anthony Galea and Prof. Aldo Drago from the University of Malta (Malta) and Dr Georg Umgiesser from the Institute of Marine Sciences at the National Research Council (Italy).
An innovative, high resolution marine forecast model, ‘Rosario-SHYFEM’, was developed by the University of Malta’s Oceanography Malta Research Group for coastal and in-harbour waters around Malta. This model provides coastal data relevant to various stakeholders, with applications including:
Through the IPAs Project FITCOAST, we carried out further research on the Rosario-SHYFEM model. Fine tuning and validation were essential to ensure high quality and reliable performance of the model. FITCOAST provided further collaboration with ISMAR, who helped to develop this model, validate the model against observations and fine tune the computational aspect through sensitivity tests. Fine tuning of the model required it to be run under different parameter values. We then analysed the output data to extract essential information on the model’s stability and convergence, accuracy and code performance.
The validation process involved the comparison of the model data against observations. This was crucial to understand the weaknesses of the model and to identify any possible improvement in the code. Observation data included in-situ measurements at harbours, particularly from the Portomaso Meteo-Marine station. The Rosario-SHYFEM marine model output can be used by private and public entities that heavily depend on sea state forecasts.
