Assessing Scotland's Seas

Scotland’s Marine Assessment 2020

The Scottish Shelf Model (SSM) was used to describe physical characteristics of Scotland’s seas in this assessment, namely sea level and tides, and for a case study of Scotland’s tidal stream Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) resource.

Tidal and wave energy resource assessment

Tidal resource maps have been created from the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters (PFOW) sub-model and wider domain SSM output, including average annual tidal power, mean peak current speeds, mean tidal range. Wave resource maps have been created from the PFOW waves models, including wave parameters such as significant wave height and peak spectral wave period. Resource maps like these can be used as part of the marine planning process, enabling the identification of areas of search for future marine energy development. These mesoscale assessments are considerably higher-resolution than previously available products.

This information page is part of the theme:

The Scottish Shelf Model

Annual mean depth average peak current speed at spring tide around the Islands of Orkney and in the Pentland Firth. Results were obtained from the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters (PFOW) Scottish Shelf Model fine resolution sub-model.

Climatological model runs

The majoring of the models within the SSM framework have been forced using 1 year climatological forcing representing the 25 year period 1990-2014. The climatological forcing includes the boundary conditions at the open boundary (temperature, salinity, current speeds and water elevations), the atmospheric forcing over the whole model domain and the freshwater river input along the coastline. This means that the 1 year model output represents average present day conditions. This kind of output is incredibly useful to a number of stakeholders who are interested in decadal scale conditions rather than any one particular year. The wider SSM has also been run for a future climatology representing conditions averaged over 2023-2062, using predictions from an RCP8.5 climate change scenario. Such work has enabled us to consider how flow/transport around Scotland may change as a result of predicted climate change (see SSM applications section on MRE).

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 13:32