Abstract
The aim of the present work is to describe a computational platform (CSIAM-Computational System for Impact Assessment of the Marine energy farms) that can easily be implemented to identify the expected coastal impact of a particular marine energy farm. Several case studies are discussed in order to present the versatility of this tool, including coastal areas from Portugal (central part), Italy (Sardinia) or Romania (the Danube Delta), respectively. Various spatial configurations were considered, starting from individual wave energy converters, such as the Wave Dragon and ending with generic marine farms defined by particular absorption properties and distances from the shore. Furthermore , considering the ERA5 wave data (from 2012 to 2021), some extreme sea states were identified for each target area, the significant wave heights reaching maximum values of 8 m in the case of Iberian Peninsula. Based on these results, we can conclude that the CSIAM interface can be efficiently used in the early development of a particular project, being possible to identify the best correlation between the spatial layout and the far-fields effects.