INFLUENCE OF THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN WAVES AND CURRENTS ON THE NAVIGATION AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE DANUBE DELTA

摘要

The Danube delta is a complex system that was subjected in the last decades to significant transformations. This is mainly due to the strong dynamics of the environmental matrix and it is correlated with the global changes of the climate that are inducing relevant evolutions in the coastal environment. On the other hand, the target area is very important from economical point of view since the Sulina channel represents the main entrance in the 7th pan-European transportation corridor defined by the system Rhine-Main-Danube, which is the most important inland water-way in Europe that links the Black Sea with the North Sea. The wave conditions are usually significant and strong currents induced there by the Danube river outflow lead to interactions between waves and currents. This process modifies both waves magnitude and direction affecting also the navigation. The objective of the present work is to develop a system with the capability to assess the wave propagation and the wave-current interactions, in the Black Sea at the entrance of the Danube delta. The SWAN model was principally considered to perform numerical simulations.