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Participate in our Website Survey!
Thanks to everyone who filled out the PacIOOS website survey. If you have not yet participated, we would greatly appreciate 3 minutes of your time to complete this short survey. As a valued partner and user, we would love to get feedback on your specific website use cases, overall satisfaction, and how we can improve our web presence. We are grateful for your input and suggestions, which will help to enhance our services.
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Maunalua Bay, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Credit: TNC. |
Water Quality Monitoring at Maunalua Bay
As part of the PacIOOS Water Quality Sensor Partnership Program (WQSPP), Mālama Maunalua has been awarded a nearshore sensor for a period of one year to enhance water quality monitoring efforts in Maunalua Bay, Oʻahu. The sensor will be located on the west side of Maunalua Bay where it will collect critical parameters at a stream mouth and stormwater outlet to assess sediment loads and water input. The data will inform ongoing work at Pāiko Restoration Area, which is adversely impacted by invasive algae. The new sensor will complement the existing PacIOOS sensor on the eastern side of Maunalua Bay to improve the understanding of bay-wide, land-based inputs. Mālama Maunalua is a community-based, non-profit stewardship organization committed to conserving and restoring a healthy and productive Maunalua Bay.
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Ocean Sciences Meeting 2018
Researchers from PacIOOS and the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) flocked to the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon, to share the latest scientific findings and research projects. PacIOOS-related posters and presentations included ocean circulation model improvements, near-inertial surface current observations on Oʻahu's south shore, modeling of infragravity oscillations, and a study of the effect of storms on water quality in Pago Bay, Guam. The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) also hosted various townhall meetings at the conference. The Ocean Sciences Meeting is a biennial meeting that draws more than 5,000 experts from across the globe. OSM 2018 was co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), and The Oceanography Society (TOS).
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The SMART project establishes a monitoring and sampling network for the Ala Wai watershed. |
Partnering with the SMART Ala Wai Project
The Strategic Monitoring and Resilience Training (SMART) project, funded by the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Mānoa, is establishing a student-led monitoring and sampling network, as well as a data dissemination and outreach plan for the Ala Wai ahupuaʻa (watershed) on Oʻahu. The effort will help inform restoration and resilience efforts in the ahupuaʻa while providing first-hand undergraduate and graduate education and research experiences with meaningful, applied outcomes relevant to the local community. Led by the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), the project brings together faculty and students from across multiple units at UH Mānoa and over a dozen local organizations. PacIOOS' Nearshore Water Quality Monitoring Group will provide technical expertise with the deployment and maintenance of nearshore sensors and a mobile water sampling system to support the students' work.
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Wave run-up in Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Credit: Karl Fellenius. |
Understanding Flooding on Reef-lined Island Coastlines
More than 30 experts from the Pacific Islands, Australia, Europe, Asia, and the U.S. came together for a three-day workshop at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to better understand and forecast coastal flooding of island coasts. Participants assessed the current state of science, identified knowledge gaps, and explored ways to produce real-time flood forecasts and improve climate-change impact assessments. Organized by NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), and Deltares, the workshop's goal was to develop a consortium of experts and a pathway forward to provide forecasting tools for coastal hazard risk reduction. PacIOOS researchers participated in the workshop to learn about other ongoing efforts in the Pacific Islands region and to share PacIOOS' methodologies to provide 6-day high sea level forecasts and wave run-up forecasts.
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IOOS Strategic Plan Released
The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) released the U.S. IOOS Enterprise Strategic Plan (2018-22), which lays out Enterprise-wide objectives and priorities for the next five years and into the future. This plan is the first written that addresses the full scope of the U.S. IOOS Enterprise, bringing together the needs and goals of the entire ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes observing system, which is comprised of federal, regional, and international partners in both the public and private sectors. It focuses on cross-cutting goals and practical objectives to address IOOS core capabilities which include: sustained observations; data management and communication; modeling and analysis; user-driven products and tools; and stakeholder engagement, outreach, and education.
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Who's the BOSZ?
Volker Roeber joined the PacIOOS team in October 2017, as a Visiting Professional Colleague under the supervision of Professor Douglas Luther in the Department of Oceanography at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). Volker has specialized in numerical modeling of nearshore waves with applications to wave run-up forecasts and hazard risk reduction. For PacIOOS, he will evaluate several existing models and develop a numerical model-based wave run-up forecast for West Maui.
Volker is a coastal engineer with a Ph.D. from the Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. With an interest in natural disaster mitigation, he worked for several years at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) in Sendai, Japan. He developed numerical tools and conducted post-disaster field surveys to investigate complex storm wave and tsunami processes that led to devastating inundation scenarios. In an ongoing effort, Volker has been developing his own numerical wave model, called BOSZ (Boussinesq Ocean & Surf Zone model), which is used at academic institutions worldwide to compute major wave transformation processes in the nearshore zone, including wave run-up and sediment transport (see example). Volker has always been passionate about the ocean -- on glassy or windy days you will find him either surfing or windsurfing at Oʻahu's reef breaks.
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