About
The International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards has its origins dating from the original International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in September 1986, sponsored by the Canadian Program for Energy Research and Development (PERD) and the Environmental Studies Research Fund.
The Workshop continued successfully in 1989, 1992 and 1995 in Vancouver, Montreal and Banff respectively. In 1998, the US Army Corps of Engineers emerged as a Workshop co-sponsor along with PERD, hosting in Melbourne, Florida. For the next 17 years the Waves Workshop continued to be co-sponsored by PERD, Environment Canada and the Corps of Engineers, roughly alternating hosting between Canada and the US.
The Waves Workshop was, for the first time, held outside North America, hosted by the National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool, UK, in September 2017. At the same time, in a continuing effort to further broaden the scope of the workshops to foster closer integration between the wave and ocean modeling communities, and provide an excellent opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas related to wave and storm surge prediction, the workshop was renamed as the International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards. The workshop continues to explicitly acknowledge the International Wave Workshop, so as not to lose the successful legacy of the previous workshops, including this workshop website.
The Workshop continues to grow, enabled by superb local hosts and sponsors. The Proceedings of all Workshops in the series are available online elsewhere on this website, as well as notices of the next Workshop in the series.
Further information on the long history of the International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting is described in detail by Swail et al. (2019, 2021) and Breivik et al. (2015, 2017) for the Workshop topical collections in Ocean Dynamics. The research tools and specific topics have changed over the years, but the primary objectives of the workshop series remain:
- Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to wind, wave and storm surge hindcasting and forecasting, including modeling, measurement, and past and future states of the climate
- Coordinate ongoing research and development initiatives
- Discuss priorities for future research and development
Over the past 40 years the Wave Workshop and its subsequent iterations have presented the results of many innovative and groundbreaking studies, introduced new national and international initiatives, and induced many collaborative research efforts on all aspects of waves, storm surge and coastal inundation–Including measurements, modelling, forecasting and validation, as well as wave and surge climate including historical trends and future projections.
On a popular note, the Waves Workshop is well described in Chapter 8 of the popular-science book “The Wave” by Susan Casey.
Swail, V.R., Alves J.H., Brown, J., Greenslade D., & Jensen, R.E. 2021. The International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards incorporating the International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting. Ocean Dynamics 71(9):957-961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-021-01476-7. [PDF]
Swail, V. R., J.H. Alves, Ø. Breivik, J. Brown and D. Greenslade, 2019. The 1st International Workshop on Waves, Storm Surges and Coastal Hazards incorporating the 15th International Workshop on Wave Hindcasting and Forecasting. Ocean Dynamics 69 (4) 513-517. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-019-01258-2. [PDF]
Breivik, Ø., Jose Henrique Alves, Diana Greenslade, Kevin Horsburgh and Val Swail, 2017. The 14th international workshop on wave hindcasting and forecasting and the 5th coastal hazards symposium. Ocean Dynamics 67 (3-4), 551-556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-017-1033-8. [PDF]
Breivik, Ø., V. Swail, A. Babanin, and K. Horsburgh, 2015. The international workshop on wave hindcasting and forecasting and the coastal hazards symposium. Ocean Dyn 65(5):761–771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-015-0827-9 , arXiv:1503.00847. [PDF]