Numerical investigation on wind set-up and wind waves in front of piazza San Marco, Venice (IT)

This paper studies, with a numerical approach, the wind waves that are expected at the quay in front of “Piazza S.Marco”, namely the main square of Venice (IT). Essential part of this applied research is focused on the mitigation of the flooding risk of the Piazza. Water level and waves in the lagoon are simulated, with the Advanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) and the STeady-state spectral WAVE (STWAVE) models, that are driven by a constant and spatially uniform meteorological forcing, taking into account different wind speed and directions. In short, the first model evaluates the set-up and the second model evaluates the waves propagating on such levels. It is found that the observed waves in front of the Piazza, that are generated by winds of 25 m/s, occurring approximately once every 10 years, are approximately 0.50 m.