West Maui Wave Run-up Forecast Validation

The Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS), University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology Department of Oceanography, and Hawaii Sea Grant are developing a high-resolution, real-time wave run-up forecast and notification system for West Maui's coastline. In order to validate the site-specific, short-term forecasts and to determine meaningful thresholds associated with each forecast domain, citizen scientists contribute crowd-sourced photographs by documenting the shoreline of West Maui during predicted wave run-up events. Photos, observations, date, time, location, and other metadata are submitted online in this free, publicy-accessible dataset.

Site-specific, short- and long-term forecasts, will strengthen West Maui's coastal community and economy by enhancing preparedness and response operations, and by informing future land use planning. A combination of high water levels and large wave swells can result in significant coastal erosion, damage to infrastructure and properties, and land-based sedimentation that impairs coastal water quality. The State of Hawaii has experienced an increase in wave plus tide-driven flooding in recent years, and these events are expected to grow in numbers and duration due to sea level rise and changing wave energies.

When sharing these photographs, please cite this project with the following attribution:

(c) PacIOOS, (year of photo). Some rights reserved. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).