RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES VOL. 8, ES6004, doi:10.2205/2006ES000216, 2006

2. Formulation of the Problems of Computational Modeling of Tsunami

[25]  The formulation of the problem of computational modeling should include clear description of the objective of modeling (character of the problem to be solved), definition of the degree of accuracy of details, indication of the list of required functionals, form of presentation and volume of the results including those, which would be transmitted to the databases.

[26]  Taking into account the aforesaid division of applied problems into preliminary, operative, and subsequent ones, the customers, formulators of the problem, and users change correspondingly. The types of the problems and functions of each of them should be determined in the corresponding regulating documents.

[27]  Preliminary problems usually require preparing a list of protected basins and objects, tying of the corresponding input data, preparing digital charts (data arrays) satisfying the agreed standards, etc.

[28]  The problems should be solved by means of performing a technological series of operations, which includes, as the first stage, test calculations using different grids (with different resolution of bathymetry), mathematical models (to evaluate the importance of nonlinearity, dispersion, dissipation, account for the spheroid form of the Earth, its rotations, etc.) computational algorithms, programming systems because the peculiarities of realization of algorithms sometimes have strong influence on the results. Only after comparing and thorough analysis of the obtained information including the available field and historical data it is possible to choose a model (actual equations, algorithm, and programming code), which can be used at the further stage to obtain the results, which would be used in practice.

[29]  Local authorities could be the customers of preliminary problems (national, regional, or local), as well as extraordinary services of different agencies (including international or private), humanitarian organizations and individuals in the part related to their safety and property.

[30]  Formulator of the problem should be qualified at a level needed for clear understanding of the goals of the planned computational experiments, their capabilities and limitations, and should have an access to the data needed for correct formulations of these problems.

[31]  It is optimal that the functions of calculator would be performed by a specialist or organization, which has specialists in the field of computational modeling of wave hydrodynamics problems that participated in developing of at least one of the applied algorithms for the solution of a specific problem or in their programming realization. Frequently, this function is performed by a professional for adjacent fields (seismologists, geophysicists, employees of extraordinary services, etc.) but in any case it is extremely important to engage in the work (even as a consultant) a mathematician specializing in computational experiments.

[32]  The user of the problems (frequently this is the same person as the formulator of the problems) should be qualified enough for adequate interpretation of the modeling results, systematization of the obtained results, and recommendations for their use.

[33]  The operative problems are usually solved in the conditions of limited time resource by the specialists of "limited" qualification, thus their formulations of the problems should be determined in advance as much as possible, while the solution and processing of the results should be automated to the greatest degree. Approbated models, algorithms, and programming codes should be used for the problems of such class. The procedure of approbation is not discussed here as well as the other problems related to the preparation and admission of the regulating documents.

[34]  The characteristics of the subsequent problems are very similar to the characteristics of preliminary problems. Their specific features, to our opinion, are significant widening of the users by means of spreading of the results among the maximally possible number of applied specialists, investigators, and interested people.


RJES

Citation: Shokin, Yu. I., L. B. Chubarov, Z. I. Fedotova, S. A. Beizel, and S. V. Eletsky (2006), Principles of numerical modeling applied to the tsunami problem, Russ. J. Earth Sci., 8, ES6004, doi:10.2205/2006ES000216.

Copyright 2006 by the Russian Journal of Earth Sciences

Powered by TeXWeb (Win32, v.2.0).