Wave overtopping analysis and early warning forecast system

Abstract

Structures and zones of interest in coastal areas are exposed to wave overtopping events. The consequences associated with those events have a significant impact on human safety, the environment and affected business areas. This paper presents the overtopping forecast, warning and data analysis component of the HIDRALERTA system. The goal of this system is to provide a platform for warning dissemination, while managing the information generated by the risk forecast methodology. Alongside the warning dissemination, the system is concerned with the analysis of previous forecasts and it is designed to account for variability between different zones of interest. Our discussion includes an analysis on the variability expected by the system, a data model for sensor and interpolation data, and the system's user interface, which includes a geo-referenced time-series data analysis tool. We present a case study for Praia da Vitória port, Azores, Portugal. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.