Application of a Morphodynamic Modelling System to an Idealized Inlet

A new modeling system for estuarine and coastal morphodynamic evolution, MORSYS2D, is under development at LNEC. The objective of the present work is to assess the behavior of MORSYS2D in a test case at a real scale, for short- and long-term simulations. For short-term simulations, MORSYS2D results are compared with the ones from another system. For long-term simulations, MORSYS2D results are compared with empirical ones. Comparison of the two systems forced by tides only was very encouraging, minor differences being mainly due to the different empirical formulae for sediment flux calculations. MORSYS2D simulations for the tide and fair weather wave were hampered by the lack of radiation stress forcing of the hydrodynamic model. Long-term simulations illustrated the good performance of the model, without any signs of oscillations in a 10-year simulation. Model results are consistent with empirical models and pointed out the dynamical equilibrium of the inlet throat.