Tidal flow simulation in the lagoon of Venice

The lagoon of Venice is a complicated system of narrow deep channels and large flat areas which are partially drying out at ebb tide. The variation of the land-water boundaries with time is an important but difficult problem in the simulation of lagoons and estuaries. A two dimensional finite difference numerical model has been developed to simulate the tidal flow and propagation in these situations. The model solves the classical 2D depth integrated shallow water equations on a fully staggered grid using a falsified alternating direction implicit(FADI) scheme. The treatment of the flooding and drying out of shallow areas has been included in the flow simulation of the Lagoon of Venice. The recorded tidal levels at the inlets of the lagoon have been used as a driving force to simulate the tidal flows inside the lagoon. The computed results have been compared with some measured tidal events.