Absent other information you can make the assumption that MSL (the average of continuous measurements or an inferred continuous curve) = MTL (the midpoint between MHHW and MLLW).

Therefore you can leave the MTL-NAVD88 parameter at zero.

Do pay attention to the vertical accuracy of your elevation data as that is an important consideration (is the data set precise enough to model the impacts of incremental changes in SLR?)

Good luck!

Thanks Jonathan, I will look to the materials.
The vertical datum is the mean sea level.

Regards

It has been a while since we have done any in-depth user training or tutorials.  Here is one done in Mexico in 2013.  These materials may be useful to you:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eozby193epijjyh/AACCxl1OzLaJow23J1kkiipea?dl=0

I believe that you are specifying a horizontal datum for your data.  What is the vertical datum of your elevations?  That is what must be converted to a MTL basis in some manner.

Best regards! -- Jonathan

Hi

I am new with this software. I want to setup a model for portugal. I have Lidar data for the baseline DEM, but I'm not certain about how to input this data into SLAMM . Could you provide a step by step overview?

My DEM is an ascii file (x,y,z) with a local coordinate system ETRS89:TM06 Portugal. I need to change this coordinate system to NAVD88? how to input coordinates in squared arranged grid? In the manual it  says that the "The model does not require NAVD88 data specifically, just that data be converted to an MTL basis. The user can either convert to a MTL basis prior to importing the data to SLAMM and set the "MTL-NAVD88" correction to zero, or use the other datum and interpret the "MTL-NAVD88" parameter to mean "MTL minus other datum." how to compute MTL-NAVD88 correction to zero?
Is there any tutorial to setup a model?

thanks a lot for your help!

Hello:

The scale on which SLAMM can be applied is an interesting question.

Early versions of the model (mid 1980s) were designed to be run with very large cell sizes (500m x 500m for example).  Within those cells there would be a classification of strips of wetlands and dry lands characterized as widths.  Each wetland and dry land would have an elevation and slope among other characteristics. 

Set up in this manner (this was pre-GIS, so from what I have heard inputs were entered by hand) an application to 20% of coastal US was prepared along with a report to congress:
http://risingsea.net/papers/federal_reports/rtc_park_wetlands.pdf

Newer version of the model have kept some of that architecture, but with the advent of GIS mapping, smaller cell sizes were desired.  In order to conserve memory the maximum number of classes per cell is now down to 3 in the latest version.  So that would not support larger cell sizes.  On the other hand, it exceeds the computational capacity and memory capacity of most machines to model the entire globe with cell sizes of 30 meters or less.  And that is likely an understatement.

So I guess it would be possible to perform such a run but the source code would need to revert back to an older version that supports larger cell sizes and the processing of data for model inputs would be quite tricky.

Hope this is useful.

A validation exercise was done for Louisiana in Glick et al.

https://www.lacoast.gov/crms2/crms_public_data/publications/Glick%20et%20al%202013.pdf

Some other validation attempts were made in the Gulf of Mexico through

See "Hindcast results" in these reports:

Great White Heron NWR, FL
Ten Thousand Islands NWR, FL
Lower Suawnnee, FL
MS Sandhill Crane NWR, MS
San Bernard and Big Boggy NWRs, TX

Validation is often confounded by -- lack of adequate historical SLR to cause impacts to wetlands, lack of high-quality historic land-cover and especially elevation datasets, and other anthropogenic changes to wetland cover (non-SLR losses)

Hello,

I recently applied SLAMM in Mexico along the Yucatan coast.  Can someone point me to validation examples from previous applications...perhaps in the US Gulf of Mexico?

Much appreciated,
Greg

Dear sir?
      In a study by my research group, it is necessary to predict the change of coastal wetland vegetation and the distribution of ground salinity in the future SLR scenario. We have successfully performed small area studies with SLAMM, and we do not know whether SLAMM is applicable to global scales.I remember the technical documentation mentioning that the coastal zone can be divided into subsites. Whether the global scale can divide multiple sub-areas according to the direction to the sea and set rough model parameters for research. If we want to carry on this research, do you have any good suggestions?
      Look forword to your reply.

Thank you for your detailed explanation. My problem has been solved. Thank you again.

With regards to Question 1:

Thank you for your question, I'm not sure this is adequately addressed in the technical documentation.

The way that the "include dikes" and "dike location raster" works is that the model uses the connectivity algorithm to see if there is a connection between the land behind the dike and a "salt water source."  Specifically, the categories "riverine tidal," "estuarine water," "tidal creek," and "open ocean." must not appear behind the dike.  Otherwise the dike location raster will not work and the results will be no different.

You may check the connectivity of your site using the connectivity map option when setting up your model.

With regards to Question 2:

The time-zero run is a very important step.  To the extent possible, it should not be any different than the model's initial conditions.  It tests that the conceptual model, the wetland coverage, the elevation data, and the tide range data are all consistent.  In the results the initial condition is shown as "0" and the "time zero" result is shown as the first date of the simulation.

From the tech doc: