Guidance on Setup, Calibration, and Validation of Hydrodynamic, Wave, and Sediment Models for Shelf Seas and Estuaries

Table 5

Model performance statistics for flood studies in estuaries including storm surge elevation (h_surge), high water levels (h_max), predicted peak water levels, flow velocity (U), predicted fluvial inputs (Q), flood area predicted correctly for two or more historical floods (A), and predicted flood depth error (d_err) (A = design; B = appraisal; C = strategy; and U = unsatisfactory); from Defra/EA [3].

Type	RMSE for hsurge (m)	RMSE for hmax (m)	Predicted peak water level (mm)	RMSE for U (m/s)	Q (% of measured flows)	A (%)	derr (m)
A	<0.20	<0.20	±150	≤0.1	±5	>95	≤0.10
B	0.20 to 0.35	0.20 to 0.25	±250	≤0.2	±10	>90	≤0.20
C	0.35 to 0.50	<0.30	±350	≤0.3	±15	>80	≤0.30
U	>0.50	>0.30	>350	>0.3	>15	<80	>0.30