Coupled Wave-Storm Surge Modeling for Fishery Harbor Under Extreme Typhoon: Toward Risk-Based Dynamic Zoning of Fishing Vessel Berths

Abstract

Under climate change, the increasing typhoon intensity poses a severe threat to fishery harbor safety through storm surges and extreme waves. Traditional empirical management approaches fail to capture the complex wave-surge coupling inside harbors, leading to risk blind spots in berth allocation. This study enhances the fishery harbor disaster resilience by employing high-resolution coupled wave-storm surge modeling, taking Xinying Central Fishing Harbor (Hainan, China) during Super Typhoon Yagi (September 2024) as a case study. A Holland typhoon model integrated with ERA5 reanalysis data was used to reconstruct the wind field, which subsequently drove a one-way coupled MIKE 21 FM–SW model to simulate regional tides and deep-water waves. A Boussinesq wave model was then applied to resolve nearshore shallow-water wave transformations inside the harbor. Model validation showed strong agreement with observations: correlation coefficients of 0.97 for tides in Xinying station and 0.95, 0.97, 0.93 for significant wave heights in three buoys around Hainan island, with root-mean-square errors of 0.19 m and 0.67, 0.69, 0.31 m, respectively. The Boussinesq wave simulations revealed detailed spatial distributions of wave heights inside the harbor during the typhoon. Based on these simulations, a dynamic berth zoning strategy was developed, mapping safety zones for different vessel sizes according to wave-height tolerance (e.g., ≤0.6 m for medium-sized trawlers). This framework can provide potential support for decision-making regarding fishing vessel refuge during typhoons, maximizing safe capacity while minimizing capsizing risks. Overall, this study demonstrates a feasible pathway from advanced numerical modeling to practical engineering management, supporting a transition from experience-based to data- and model-driven disaster prevention for coastal fishery harbors.

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