It was developed with the primary aim of assessing water level fluctuations and flow conditions in the vicinity of the Golden Gate (Elias and Hansen 2013). This web page provides a link to files that may be used to run a basic depth-averaged (2DH) Deltares Delft3D version 4.00.01 astronomic tide model for San Francisco Bay. While many scientific studies and management questions are intrinsically linked to in-Bay tidal currents and water levels, they are often limited by the need for tools to assess tidal influences at specific study sites. Due in large part to bathymetric and geographic variations, water level variations and tidal flow patterns are complex. The mixed semi-diurnal tide regime has a range of nearly 2 meters at the Golden Gate, the only inlet where ocean and estuarine water exchange occurs.

The Bay supports the largest extent of tidal marsh in California yet is highly urbanized and impacted by numerous anthropogenic activities such as channel dredging, freshwater diversions, watershed modifications, urban run-off, ship traffic, exotic species introductions, and land reclamation (Barnard et al. San Francisco Bay is one of the most geographically expansive estuaries on the U.S. Map shows a depiction of the five “domain decomposition” grids employed in the San Francisco Bay Basic Tide Model.

Tidal wave california