Fomin V. V., Lemeshko Е. М., Lazorenko D. I.
The flooding mechanism in the Kuban River Delta, caused by the rise of the level of the Sea of Azov due to atmospheric impact, was investigated with the use of the tightly-coupling numerical model ADCIRC+SWAN. The aforesaid model is implemented on an unstructured mesh with high spatial resolution, including the Kuban Delta, the Sea of Azov, and the Kerch Strait. As an atmospheric forcing, the following items were used – wind of different gradations of speed and direction, uniform in space; a single cyclone moving along a zonal trajectory through the center of the Azov Sea at different speeds. It is established that the flooding of the Kuban Delta has two characteristic features: the north-west wind is the most dangerous one for flooding the delta; the intensive delta flooding occurs only at a wind speed exceeding 20 m/s. The cyclone translation speed has a significant impact on the flooding area of the Kuban Delta. The slower cyclones cause more significant water level rise at the delta sea boundary, which leads to its more intensive flooding. At cyclone translation speeds of 7 m/s and less, more than a third of the delta area is flooded. It is shown that the floods in the Kuban Delta shall be caused by a stronger wind in comparison with the Don Delta.
