Comparison of the SIMAR-WANA, ERA-5, and Waverys Databases for Maritime Climate Estimations and the Implications of Coastal Protection Structures

Abstract

Estimating maritime climate accurately is essential to ensure the safety of marine structures. The most reliable data are in situ measurements, but due to the lack of this kind of data in both time and space, other datasets, from reanalyses and wave models, have to be used. In this study, data from the three main databases of the Spanish Mediterranean Sea used for the design of maritime structures (ERA5, Waverys and SIMAR-WANA) were compared with buoy data from Valencia, Alicante, and Cabo de Palos. A statistical analysis, using Python, MATLAB, and the Ameva tool, was performed on both the entire historic record (20,362,032 data) and the most extreme data distribution (95th percentile). Then, further analysis was performed to assess the consequences of using these datasets in the design of coastal protection and their reliability. Waverys performed slightly better than the in situ measurements and SIMAR-WANA underestimated the extreme values of significant wave height the least. Regarding the consequences on the design of coastal protection structures, the estimation of extreme events proved to be of particular interest, with the databases typically underestimating the values of extreme events, which was determined to have the potential to lead to errors in the design of coastal protection structures by up to 60%.