Rapid forecasting of tsunami runup using the shallow-water modeling of tsunami propagation in the East (Japan) Sea

Min, B.I., Kaistrenko, V.M., Pelinovsky, E.N. and Choi, B.H., 2011. Rapid forecast of tsunami runup using shallow-water modeling of tsunami propagation in East (Japan) Sea. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 64 (Proceedings of the 11th International Coastal Symposium), 1135 – 1139. Szczecin, Poland, ISSN 0749-0208 A rapid forecast method is suggested to predict tsunami wave characteristics at the shore. Extensive computer resources and time have been required to directly compare numerical simulations of tsunami wave propagation from the source to the shore; this new method matches two different fast numerical procedures. During the first stage, 2D nonlinear shallow-water equations were applied to compute tsunami wave propagation in the open sea up to the coastal zone at a depth of 10 m; this fast computing can be done on rough grids of 1 km resolution. In fact, numerical simulations were performed in the domain bounded by a vertical wall at the 10 m depth. During the second stage, the water wave oscillations on the wall were re-computed on the shore using 1D shallow-water equations. This 1D numerical procedure is also fast and does not require extensive computer resources. This procedure was applied here to estimate the runup wave heights during the 1983 tsunami event and some prognosticated events in the East (Japan) Sea.