Numerical modeling tools applied to estuarine and coastal hydrodynamics: a user perspective

Estuarine and coastal areas have been intensively studied given their complexity, ecological, and societal value and the importance of their ecosystem services. Estuarine and coastal management must be based on a sound characterization of these areas, which is achievable complementing the comprehensive field measurements with numerical models solutions. Based on a detailed comparison between two close-by, but extremely different, Portuguese estuaries (the Douro and Minho estuaries), this chapter intends to discuss how accurately numerical modeling tools can provide relevant information for a variety of coastal zones. They can be very useful for various applications in the planning and management fields, such as coastal and infrastructures protection, harbor activities, fisheries, tourism, and coastal population safety, thus supporting an effective and integrated estuarine and coastal management, which must consider both the safety of the populations and the sustainability of the marine ecosystems and services. In particular, the capacity of the numerical models to give a detailed characterization of morpho-hydrodynamic processes, as well as assess and predict the effects of anthropogenic interventions, extreme events and climate change effects, are presented.This research was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/ 04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This contribution has also been funded by project EsCo-Ensembles (PTDC/ECI-EGC/30877/2017), co-funded by NORTE2020, Portugal 2020, and the European Union through the ERDF, and by FCT through national funds