The Characteristics of Storm Wave Behavior and Its Effect on Cage Culture Using the ADCIRC+SWAN Model in Houshui Bay, China

The current storm wave hazard assessment tends to rely on a statistical method using wave models and fewer historical data which do not consider the effects of tidal and storm surge. In this paper, the wave-current coupled model ADCIRC+SWAN was used to hindcast storm events in the last 30 years. We simulated storm wave on the basis of a large set of historical storms in the North-West Pacific Basin between 1985 and 2015 in Houshui Bay using the wave-current coupled model ADCIRC+SWAN to obtain the storm wave level maps. The results were used for the statistical analysis of the maximum significant wave heights in Houshui Bay and the behavior of wave associated with storm track. Comparisons made between observations and simulated results during typhoon Rammasun(2014) indicate agreement. In addition, results demonstrate that significant wave height in Houshui Bay is dominated by the storm wind velocity and the storm track. Two groups of synthetic storm tracks were designed to further investigate the worst case of typhoon scenarios. The storm wave analysis method developed for the Houshui Bay is significant in assisting government’s decision-making in rational planning of deep sea net-cage culture. The method can be applied to other bays in the Hainan Island as well.