• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.69-83
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• 2018

The South China Sea (SCS) is a typical marginal sea characterized with the deep basin, shelf break, shallow shelf, many straits, and complex bathymetry. This study investigated the tidal characteristics and propagation, and reproduced typhoon-induced storm surge in this region using the regional real-time tide-surge model, which was based on the unstructured grid, resolving in detail the region of interest and forced by tide at the open boundary and by wind and air pressure at the surface. Typhoon Haiyan, which occurred in 2013 and caused great damage in the Philippines, was chosen as a case study to simulate typhoon's impact. Amplitudes and phases of four major constituents were reproduced reasonably in general, and the tidal distributions of four constituents were similar to the previous studies. The modelled tide seemed to be within the acceptable levels, considering it was difficult to reproduce the tide in this region based on the previous studies. The free oscillation experiment results described well the feature of tide that the diurnal tide is prevailing in the SCS. The tidal residual current and total energy dissipation were discussed to understand the tidal and sedimentary environments. The storm-surge caused by typhoon Haiyan was reasonably simulated using this modeling system. This study established the regional real-time barotropic tide/water level prediction system for the South China Sea including the seas around the Philippines through the validation of the model and the understanding of tidal characteristics.