The North Sea is a shallow sea that forms a complex physical system. The nonlinear interaction of the astronomical tides, varying wind fields and varying pressure systems requires appropriate approaches to be described accurately. An application based on the advanced numerical model Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) was newly developed by the authors, tailored to simulate these hydrodynamic processes in the North Sea and the Belgian Continental Shelf, which is the area of particular interest in the present study. The purpose of this work is to develop and validate a state-of-the-art three-dimensional numerical model to form the basis of a compound operational and forecasting tool for the Belgian coastal zone. The model was validated with respect to water levels and temperature. Validation for astronomical tides was accomplished through the comparison of the principal constituents between the model results and observations at a number of tidal gauges in Belgium and other countries. A statistical analysis of the results showed that the model behaves as expected throughout the North Sea. The model response to the varying meteorological conditions was also validated using hindcast data for 2011 as input. In this case, the comparison between observed and modelled water levels showed a good agreement with average RMSE in Belgium 9.5 cm. Overall, the added value of this work is the development of an independent model for validation and comparison with other models and which can be used as an efficient tool for operational and forecasting purposes.

中文翻译：

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基于ROMS的流体力学建模，重点是南北海的比利时部分

北海是形成复杂物理系统的浅海。天文潮汐，变化的风场和变化的压力系统之间的非线性相互作用需要正确描述适当的方法。作者最新开发了基于高级数值模型区域海洋建模系统（ROMS）的应用程序，旨在模拟北海和比利时大陆架中的这些水动力过程，这是本研究特别关注的领域。这项工作的目的是开发和验证最新的三维数值模型，从而为比利时沿海地区提供复合的操作和预测工具。关于水位和温度对模型进行了验证。通过比较模型结果与比利时和其他国家/地区许多潮汐仪的观测值之间的主要成分，完成了天文学潮汐的验证。结果的统计分析表明，该模型在整个北海的行为均符合预期。还使用2011年的后播数据作为输入，验证了模型对变化的气象条件的响应。在这种情况下，观察到的水位和模拟水位之间的比较表明，比利时的平均RMSE（9.5厘米）符合良好。总体而言，这项工作的附加价值是开发了一个独立的模型，用于与其他模型进行验证和比较，并且可以用作操作和预测目的的有效工具。