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A hydrodynamical modelling of the Black Sea is presented using the GHER 3-D primitive equation model. Results of a very high resolution model with 5 km grid size are analysed and the dominant features of general circulation in the Black Sea are highlighted. Compared with a coarse resolution model, forced with the same climatic monthly averaged atmospheric data, the high resolution model exhibits stronger variability, including frontal structures and coastal upwellings induced by baroclinic instabilities, in particular along the Turkish coast. A comparison of the shelf-open sea exchanges, with particular focus on the cold intermediate waters, shows that both models lead to a replenishment of the CIL in the basin interior by cold waters formed on the shelf. Due to the better representation of frontal structures, the high resolution model is an appropriate candidate for coupling with a biological model. Problems of calibration, interpretation and data availability typically arise from this kind of coupled 3-D model. In order to overcome such difficulties, the results of the 3-D hydrodynamical model are used to guide the development of an integrated 0-D box model capable of achieving the objectives of projects like EROS21, where the effect of changes in the Danube inflows on the shelf ecosystem is investigated. The 0-D model is thus designed to cover this region and is obtained through integration over an appropriate variable volume. The integration procedure shows where the weaknesses of an 0-D approach might lie. Diagnoses in the 3-D model of the integral quantities show the range of uncertainty one can expect in the exchange laws of the 0-D model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]