SOON: The Saemangeum Operational Oceanography Networks

Abstract

We have developed a suite of Saemangeum operational oceanography network (SOON) system that consists of modeling and GIS modules. The modeling part comprises of atmospheric and hydrodynamic models coupled with three-dimensional hydrodynamics, wave, sediment transport and water quality modules. The hydrodynamic variables are forecasted in the 72-hours base. The predicted results are exported to the web-GIS system for real-time dissemination to the public. The SOON system has been developed exclusively for the Saemangeum tidal lake and coastal waters where 33km-long sea dyke has been constructed in the southwestern coast of Korea. The water of landward lake separated by the dyke takes the area of 40,100 ha that is planned for new land development by reclamation in next 10 years. The huge man-made engineering development requires the environmental and ocean state data under any circumstances for safety and environment-friendly development. The SOON is one of such tools that provide the existing and future state of environmental condition. It is based on community models such as WRF for meteorological surface forcing, ROMS for hydrodynamics and SWAN for waves. We use the ArcGIS of ESRI for the GIS engine. Each model has been calibrated with observed data and verified with process-based features in the Saemangeum waters. We focus on the development of the SOON and observation-based calibration/verification by applying to Saemangeum tidal lake and coastal waters where long-term monitoring data is available. In this study, we present the results of operational practice of the SOON for the Saemangeum coastal waters that are under the engineering project.