The international workshop on wave hindcasting and forecasting and the coastal hazards symposium

Abstract

Following the 13th International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting and 4th Coastal Hazards Symposium in October 2013 in Banff, Canada, a topical collection has appeared in recent issues of Ocean Dynamics. Here we give a brief overview of the history of the conference since its inception in 1986 and of the progress made in the fields of wind-generated ocean waves and the modelling of coastal hazards before we summarize the main results of the papers that have appeared in the topical collection.The period around the time of the initial workshop was a very exciting one for wave modelling, forecasting and hindcasting. The WAM model (Hasselmann et al., 1988) was in the process of becoming the first community wave model, arising out of the SWAMP program (SWAMP, 1985) and the plethora of wave models which existed in the early 1980s. The advent of these sophisticated third-generation models, and the rapidly increasing computing capabilities of numerical weather prediction centres, led to the increased use of numerical wave models in operational forecasting.With time more centres began using these models for their operational programs, and an international wave forecast comparison project was established, coordinated by The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), to evaluate forecast performance and identify areas of potential improvement (Bidlot et al., 2002). At the same time, hindcasting was becoming the accepted basis for developing wave climatology in general, and particularly for developing the basis for offshore design criteria. Due to the limitations of computing power and the lack of suitable historical wind fields, these early hindcasts covered only the most extreme storms in a limited area of the ocean. They were thus a far cry from today's decades-long, global wave hindcasts forced with atmospheric reanalyses. Yet at the time these hindcasts took a Herculean effort in terms of computing and through the meticulous preparation of suitable wind fields.An important alliance was formed in 2006, when the workshop was first co-sponsored by the WMO-IOC Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM). Subsequently, and following the very successful JCOMM Scientific and Technical Symposium on Storm Surges in October 2007 in South Korea, a symposium on hazard assessment in coastal areas was established, and later held jointly with the Wave Workshop. This has provided an excellent opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas between wave and storm surge prediction. While the primary focus of the workshop was, and remains, wave hindcasting and forecasting, what makes this workshop unique is the treatment of the end-to-end research issues associated with ocean waves, from the basic research on wave physics to the ultimate use of the products. The topics have thus ranged from research and operational aspects of wave and storm surge hindcasting and forecasting, regional hindcasts, storm surge climatology, data collection and instrumentation, data assimilation, wave-cur...

Implementation and validation of a new operational wave forecasting system of the Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecasting Centre in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

“…UK Met Office, the Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM), and several others) began to use state-of-the-art third-generation numerical wave models in operational forecasting. In addition, an international wave forecast inter-comparison project was established (Bidlot, 2007), coordinated by the ECMWF, to evaluate forecast quality and performance and identify areas of potential improvement (Breivik et al, 2015).…”

The 2nd international workshop on waves, storm surges and coastal hazards incorporating the 16th international workshop on wave hindcasting and forecasting

“…The long history of the International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting has been previously described by Breivik et al ( 2015 , 2017 ) for the topical collections following the 13 th and 14 th Workshops. Swail et al ( 2019a ) described the effort to broaden the scope of the workshops to foster closer integration between the wave and ocean modeling communities and the emerging priority of multi-hazard early warning systems, including the more inclusive naming to the International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards.…”

“…As described by Breivik et al ( 2015 ), the research tools and the topics have changed over the years, but the primary objectives of the first workshop, held in Canada in 1986, as noted below and extended to include similar themes for storm surge and coastal hazards, remain unchanged: Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to wind and wave hindcasting and forecasting, including modeling, measurement, and past and future states of the climate. Coordinate ongoing research and development initiatives.…”

Implementation and validation of a new operational wave forecasting system of the Mediterranean Monitoring and Forecasting Centre in the framework of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

“…UK Met Office, the Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine (SHOM) and several others) began to use state-of-the-art third generation numerical wave models in operational forecasting. In addition an international wave forecasts inter-comparison project was established (Bidlot et al, 2007), coordinated by the ECMWF, to evaluate forecasts quality and performance and identify areas of potential improvement (Breivik et al, 2015).…”