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Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Morphological modelling procedure

In this chapter we attempt to define a sound morphological modelling procedure, based on the experience in
the model studies described in the previous chapters. Obviously, following the full procedure is not always
possible, given constraints of time and budget. In such cases explicit choices must be made to leave out
certain elements.

Data collection and analysis

Bathymetry data

The analysis of bathymetric data can comprise the following steps:

Conduct a literature review of the problem area.
Find historical maps and digitise key features and contours so they can be easily combined and displayed.
Interpolate digital depth data to one common grid. Make difference maps.
Determine relevant areas for which volume changes must be determined.
Compute volume changes for these areas.
Draw a number of cross-sections and analyse behaviour of cross-sections.
Select morphological units for an analysis of the growth or decay and migration rate of these units.
Make animations of evolution of bathymetry.

Wave and wind data

Analyse wave and wind climate; divide into sectors of 30 degrees, 0.5 s Tp, 0.5 m Hs. Plot wave roses.
Determine dominant wave directions.

Tidal data

Check availability of regional tidal models. Collect water level data from neighbouring stations. Analyse
current and discharge measurements. Select time periods for calibration of a tidal model.

Longshore current data

These are usually not available, since it takes major field campaigns to collect useful data. The only option is
to test your model against these datasets and hope that it will be applicable in the specific situation too.

Sediment transport data

Collect data on sediment properties. Analyse (if available) sediment concentration data and select data for
model calibration/validation. Estimate longshore transport rates from local accretion/erosion near structures.

Conceptual model

Analyse current patterns from regional model, current atlas or previous model studies. Analyse grain size
distribution over area. Estimate dominant wave-driven current patterns

Estimate transport paths and set up hypotheses about causes of bottom changes. Draw a picture of this
estimate, to be updated in the real study.

Setting up modelling strategy

Define the morphological elements that need to be resolved by the model. Estimate the grid sizes required to
represent them. Define model boundaries. Inside tidal inlets, choose boundaries over the tidal shoals as
natural boundaries. On the seaward side, choose boundaries perpendicular to or parallel with flow direction.
Put them as far away from the problem area as possible. Coarsen grid towards the boundaries.

Determine which wave directions will be included in the simulations and sketch wave grids. Estimate runtime
for wave run.

Estimate flow and morphological time steps. Estimate probable run times for a single tide and a single
morphological step. Estimate how long it will take to simulate the desired number of years and lower your
standards and expectations if necessary. Take into account that you'll need about five to ten runs in the
calibration and validation phase to arrive at a single run you can live with.

Define necessary sensitivity runs.

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Setting up model grid and bathymetry

Flow and morphology grid

Boundaries and grid resolutions have already been determined. Draw spline grid as a first sketch. In a
number of steps, refine grid, globally or locally, orthogonalise, repair local glitches, refine further. Check
orthogonality (< 0.05-0.10), smoothness (< 1.3), resolution (conform requirements).

Wave grids

Define one overall rectangular bottom grid for all coarse-grid wave computations. Try to ensure that the
nested wave grids are within the flow model domain, so they can use the bathymetry of the flow model,
which is updated in a morphological run. Select the nested grid in such a way that:
resolution is better than flow model in most areas
grid direction is close to local wave direction
the order of nested computations is such that disturbances at the boundaries are avoided

For each grid set-up, plot wave heights, dissipation rates and wave forces at least once for a relevant
condition.

Bathymetry

Interpolate digital data to grid. Use triangulation if data points are few, grid cell averaging if you have many
points per grid cell. Check important cross-sections. Produce clear and detailed figures of the interpolated
bathymetry.

Boundary conditions

Wave schematisation

Select number of wave conditions by which the full climate is represented.

Select criteria (longshore transport rate at some coast sections, stirring of sediment in deeper water at some
locations)

Group wave conditions. Determine average of the criteria per group. For each group, select the condition for
which most of the criteria match the average of the group. Try to avoid using a weight factor for a condition
that differs from the probability of occurrence of the group.

Make sure that you use the right parameters for input. Don't confuse Hs with Hrms, Tp with Tz,
Tm01 or Tm02. Use appropriate relations between these parameters.

Representative tide.

Select a month with an average spring/neap amplitude ratio. Run tidal model with time history output in a
number of representative locations. At each point, estimate the transport averaged over 59 tidal cycles.
Starting at each flow reversal, determine average transport over two consecutive tides, at each point. Select
the period for which the transport matches the monthly averaged transport most closely. Generate boundary
conditions for this period. Carry out a Fourier analysis over the two selected tidal periods for each of the
boundary support points. Take out the diurnal and odd components, in order to get a single representative
tide.
(Note: the reason for first selecting two consecutive tides and then removing the diurnal and odd components
is, that in this way we avoid the situation that the mean component is polluted by the diurnal component.)

Sediment transport

Usually, equilibrium transport is prescribed at the open boundaries, which is computed based on the local
flow and wave conditions.

Bottom change

For models of tidal inlets, where the boundaries should be chosen reasonably far from the area of interest,
the appropriate type of boundary condition is a fixed bed level.

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Calibration

Calibration is the process of tuning all parts of the model system based on local data and common sense.
Typically, the following checks are carried out:

Calibration of flow model

Criterion Check Adjustments to make
Smooth flow fields Vector plots of velocity at some points in Type, values of boundary conditions
without boundary time, vector plot of tide-averaged velocity
disturbances
Smooth time series, Comparison of time series plots for Time step
small enough time step different time steps.
Periodic solution Time series plot Longer initialisation, use of restart file
Matching with overall Comparison of time series of water level Type of boundary conditions, location of
model in case of nesting and velocity in collocated points. support points
Water levels, flow Comparison of time series, determining Roughness, viscosity
velocity, total flow rates rms error and phase errors
match measurements
Wave-driven currents Vector plots showing at least five grid Grid resolution
represented well rows in surf zone

Calibration of wave model

Criterion Check Adjustments to make
No disturbances at grid Contour plot of wave heights, plot of Changes nested grids and order of
boundaries dissipation and wave forces nested computations
Water level and velocity Check disturbances at boundaries flow Change overall values of water level and
inside flow grid match grid in contour plot of wave heights on velocity per time point
overall values outside overall wave grid
flow grid.
Wave heights match Compare wave heights as function of Wave breaking parameters, bottom
measurements time for measurement locations friction.

Calibration of transport model

Criterion
Smooth time series, small
enough time step suspended
transport
Smooth, consistent transport
fields
Overall transports through
some cross-sections in
accordance with observations
or conceptual model
Check Adjustments to make
Time series of concentration and Time step, time interval, number of
transport at some locations; initial steps
comparison of different time steps
Vector plots at some points in the Remove errors in bathymetry or wave
tidal cycle and residual transport grids
Integral of residual transport Change coefficients in transport
through cross-sections formulation

Calibration of morphological model

Criterion
Sedimentation-erosion pattern
in agreement with
measurements
Volume changes over control
areas in accordance with
soundings or dredging figures
Cross-section shape
Check
Contour plots of measured and
computed sedimentation and
erosion
Area integrals of bed level
changes
Compare shape, migration and
area change of measured and
computed cross-sections
Adjustments to make
Transport coefficients or formulation,
wave climate, sediment parameters
As above
Side slope effect, (spiral flow), transport
formulation

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Plan view of morphology after Contour and isoline plots of All of the above
some years measured and computed
bathymetry

Validation

In the validation phase, no further adjustments are made to the model. First we look at the results at the end
of the calibration phase and assess how well the model is capable of simulating a number of morphological
processes
simultaneously

. Even in a model that has been calibrated to its limit, it is still very well possible that some features are not
represented well. The number of degrees of freedom in the morphological model is limited, and the
calibration parameters and coefficients are global parameters, which are not allowed to vary over the domain.

When such data is available, a more strict validation may consist of simulating a different time period in the
same area, preferably one in which different things happen. The criteria against which the model
performance is judged are the same as in the calibration phase of the morphological model.

Preparing scenarios

Once the model has been calibrated and validated to satisfaction, it can be applied to evaluate relative effects
of various scenarios, such as different port layouts, dredging scenarios, nourishment schemes or structures
aimed at mitigating coastal erosion or improving navigability. Since these schemes are usually yet to be built,
the starting bathymetry is usually the most recent one. In order to enable a clean evaluation of the effect of
the scheme, a so-called T0 or reference simulation must be carried out first: a simulation starting from the
latest bathymetry and covering the desired number of years.

Next, for each of the schemes the bathymetry must be adapted and if necessary structures have to be added
to the schematisation. The simulations are then carried out sing exactly the same settings as in the reference
computation.

Defining output

By this time, the amount of output can be reduced considerably and can be limited to outputs directly
relevant to the engineering questions, and to a minimum set of standard plots which allow the modeller to
ascertain that the process is running correctly.

It is important to realise at this point all the steps necessary to translate the model results to the design
criteria that are important to the client. He or she may not be interested at all in nice colour pictures, but
mainly in the effect of various layouts on the annual dredging volume. Make sure that you give that type of
information in a clear way, besides the necessary information to substantiate it.

Running and postprocessing

Since the running of various scenarios is vary similar to the reference simulation, it pays off to automate this
process by using shell scripts or batch files. Preferably, in these scripts everything is arranged from running
the scenarios to making graphs and doing volume computations and integration of transports along sections.
This is even useful if not too many scenarios are run, because very often errors are found at a late stage, and
sometimes all runs must be redone. When this has been well organised, it can be done quickly. Additionally,
these scripts offer a clear insight to the experienced user into how results were obtained. This is vital for
quality checking.

It is advised to use one machine and disk section for a morphological project, and to use separate directories
for separate activities, and for each run. The directory for each run can be further subdivided into input and
output directories per simulated condition.

Interpretation

The end results must be interpreted carefully, with the deficiencies encountered in the validation phase in
mind. Part of the interpretation consists of combining and reducing data, for instance from erosion and
sedimentation patterns to volume changes over control areas, and from transport vector fields to integrated
transports over a selection of cross-sections. A useful way of showing the effects of a certain scheme is by
plotting on one page the bathymetry, the bottom changes in the reference run, the bottom changes for the
scheme concerned, and the difference in bottom change between the reference run and the scheme
concerned.

At the end, the main findings related to the various schemes to be compared must be summarised in a few

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tables and / or figures showing the effect of the schemes in terms of parameters relevant to the client, such
as overall dredging volumes, nourishment needs depth of scour.

Reporting

Typically, the kind of reporting carried out in these studies falls into the following categories:
A background report or study report in which the full model set-up is given and an extensive description is
given of the whole modelling process, the choices made in schematisations and detailed explanations of the
results. Such a report should explain in enough detail how a model was built, so that the results may be
reproduced by someone else using the same model. It must explain why the inevitable choices were made.
An executive summary (sometimes written by the client) in which the main findings are given in layman’s
terms and only those figures are given that are necessary to illustrate the conclusions.
Sometimes a CD-ROM is provided with a large number of graphs and animations, which can be browsed
using an Internet browser.

Archiving

The contents of the project directory and all subdirectories can be stored on tape and on CD-ROM’s. The
latter is preferable since CD’s follow a very clear world standard, contrary to tape devices.

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