The effect of lagoons on Adriatic Sea tidal dynamics

- Tides were numerically investigated in the Adriatic Sea and in its major lagoons.
- New insights into the tidal dynamics of the Adriatic Sea are provided.
- Lagoons exert a significant back-effect on the adjacent sea tidal dynamics.
- Shallow lagoons enhance tidal range and currents over the North Adriatic Sea.
- The inclusion of lagoons in the computation improves modelling performance.

In this study the effects that lagoons exert on the barotropic tidal dynamics of a regional sea, the Adriatic Sea, were numerically explored. This semi-enclosed basin is one of the places with the highest tidal range in the Mediterranean Sea and is characterised by the presence of several lagoons in its northern part. The tidal dynamics of a system comprising the whole Adriatic Sea and the lagoons of Venice, Marano-Grado and Po Delta were investigated using an unstructured hydrodynamic model. Numerical experiments with and without lagoons reveal that even if the considered shallow water bodies represent only the 0.5 and 0.002% of the Adriatic Sea surface and volume, respectively, they significantly affect the entire Northern Adriatic Sea tidal dynamics by enhancing tidal range (by 5%) and currents (by 10%). The inclusion of lagoons in the computation improved the model performance by 25% in reproducing tidal constituents in the Adriatic Sea. The back-effect of the lagoons on the open-sea tide is due to the waves radiating from the co-oscillating lagoons into the adjacent sea. This is the first time these processes are shown to be relevant for the Adriatic Sea, thus enhancing the understanding of the tidal dynamics in this regional sea. These findings may also apply to other coastal seas with connections to lagoons, bays and estuaries.