Impact Forecasting Consultancy- Samoa-Tonga


Funding institution: World Bank Group


Period: 2020-2022

Description: GeoOcean and NIWA are working in this project funded by WB and managed by SPC (Fiji). The main objective is to develop a demonstration forecast system for Tonga and Samoa that accounts for different hazards, and temporal scales of influence, such as: swell driven inundation, tropical cyclone driven inundation and wind, earthquake-based tsunami driven inundation, and a seasonal inundation outlook (for swell and tropical cyclones). Secondary objectives arise with the development of a robust demonstration forecast system and its continued operation: Develop a real-time observation system to complement the operational hazard models; customize and test a platform to incorporate impact-based forecasts for national and local applications and provide in-country training on the use and operationalization of impact-based forecast models. Additional outputs are expected, such as the analysis of the actual coastal inundation risk for Tonga and Samoa, by the different hazards analyzed (swells, TCs and tsunamis), and the long-term oceanographic databases available for coastal assessments (wave and water level hindcasts, and synthetic scenarios of swells, TCs and tsunami events).