## 4 Conclusions  
This work illustrates some recent results related to the energy propagation patterns in the western side of the Black Sea basin, especially focused on the Romanian nearshore. Thus, simulations with the SWAN spectral phase averaged wave model have been performed for the entire year 2017 and some of the corresponding results have been presented and analyzed. This modeling system was previously validated at various scales, and furthermore, some data assimilation schemes have been also implemented, so that its results can be considered both accurate and reliable. Four computational levels comprising eight different SWAN domains have been considered in the present work. Five of them were defined in spherical coordinates (Sph1-Sph5), while the other three in Cartesians (Cart1-Cart3). The emphasis was given to the high, but not extreme, wave energy conditions generated by distant storms. This means that the local wind has not very high values, the maximum wind speed being usually less than 10 m/s in the nearshore areas considered. The present study also takes into account the fact that, mainly due to the climate change, the configuration of the environmental matrix in the Black Sea is currently subjected to significant changes and such high wave energy conditions may occur now with an increased frequency. From the analysis of the results, some conclusions will be briefly drawn. In order to have references for comparisons, the results of some studies [16; 17] related to the wave energy conditions previously observed in the basin of the Black Sea have been also considered. Thus, it can be first noticed that the general patterns regarding the spatial distribution of the wave energy in the basin of the Black Sea do not substantially change. This means that the western side of the sea still remains its most energetic part. Furthermore, a general enhancement of the wave energy is noticed and it appears that this enhancement is relatively higher in the western side. Although the present study was focused on the high wave energy conditions, the results of the model simulations show that the incidence of the strong storms increases in the last year. At the same time, this feature enhances the incidence of the higher wave energy conditions (that were especially targeted in the present work) followed by the general enhancement of the wave energy, which was already mentioned. Another important observation coming from the analysis of the results coming from the present work, when compared with the previous studies, relates the relatively higher values of the wave power for similar values of the significant wave height. This indicates an enhancement in terms of the wave group velocity, which means that there is a tendency for the waves to travel faster along the Black Sea. Many previous studies, related to the wind energy potential [4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10], showed that the coastal environment of the Black Sea, and especially its northern and western side, is fully appropriate for the implementation of offshore wind projects. Furthermore, various studies have been also carried out related to the climate change impacts on wind energy potential in the Black Sea [49; 50]. According to these, it can be noticed a clear tendency of the wind power enhancement in the western side of the basin. This is expected to be reflected also in an enhancement of the wave power, which will be more significant in the western side of the Black Sea. Furthermore, this western part was also found in previous studies [16; 17] to be more energetic. At this point, it has to be also noticed that similar climate change effects are expected also in the Mediterranean Sea [12]. Even so, as regards the waves, it is obvious that the potential in the western side of the Black Sea is lower than in the ocean environment, the total average wave power values being usually lower than 6 kW/m in the western coastal environment of the Black Sea.