SCHISM (Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model) is an open-source community-supported modeling system based on unstructured grids, designed for seamless simulation of 3D baroclinic circulation across creek-lake-river-estuary-shelf-ocean scales (Zhang et al., 2016; see http://ccrm.vims.edu/schismweb/). It uses a highly efficient and accurate semi-implicit finite-element/finite-volume method with an Eulerian-Lagrangian algorithm to solve the Navier-Stokes equations (in hydrostatic form), in order to address a wide range of physical and biological processes. The numerical algorithm judiciously mixes higher-order with lower-order methods, to obtain stable and accurate results in an efficient way. Mass conservation is enforced with the finite-volume transport algorithm. It also naturally incorporates wetting and drying of tidal flats.
The SCHISM modeling system includes, among other things, wave (WWM-III), sediment transport (CSTM; SED2D), water quality (CE-QUAL-ICM), ecology/biology (CoSINE; EcoSim2.0), and tidal marsh (TMM) submodels.
The SCHISM modeling system has been extensively tested against standard ocean/coastal benchmarks and applied to a number of regional seas/bays/estuaries around the world in the context of general circulation, tsunami and storm-surge inundation, water quality, oil spill, sediment transport, coastal ecology, and wave-current interaction.
The SCHISM modeling system is a derivative work from the original SELFE model (v3.1dc as of Dec. 13, 2014). SCHISM has been implemented by Dr. Joseph Zhang (College of William & Mary; see Featured Modeler) and other developers around the world, and licensed under Apache. SELFE was developed at the Oregon Health Sciences University. However, there are now significant differences between the two models.
Reference:
Zhang, Y., Ye, F., Stanev, E.V., Grashorn, S. (2016) Seamless cross-scale modeling with SCHISM, Ocean Modelling, 102, 64-81.