Grand Isle, Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island, regularly battles the damage of coastal erosion.

Dane Dartez WAVCIS Video Download RealPlayer

LSU Technology Aids Emergency-Response Efforts

Hurricanes are some of the most dangerous natural disasters threatening Louisiana. With more than 70 percent of the state’s population living in the coastal zone, which accounts for approximately 40 percent of the state’s geographical make-up, the risk of being unprepared for an impending storm could be costly and deadly.

Measuring the severity of a strom and predicting the path of a hurricane are vital to making sound emergency-response decisions. Until just a few years ago, some 100,000 square miles off the Louisiana coast were completely devoid of ocean/atmospheric measuring devices.

To fill in the critical gaps, LSU professor Greg Stone and his colleagues in the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) launched a new program in 1998 to provide accurate sea-state information on a near real-time basis.

WAVCIS, or wave-current-surge information system, consists of stationary ocean-observing platforms designed to measure a wide range of oceanographic and meteorologic conditions, including storm surges and various wave parameters. Designed and created at LSU, the program is one of the most advanced of its kind in the nation.

Each station, which is located anywhere from near the shore to roughly 150 miles off the Louisiana coast, consists of measurement devices above and below the Gulf’s surface. Instruments extending in some cases more than 100 feet above the surface record wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, and air temperature, while the wave information is collected beneath the water’s surface through a device resting on the sea floor. The information is then relayed via satellite to a computer system located in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex on LSU's campus. From there, the data are posted to the WAVCIS website where they are updated every three hours.

The information collected through WAVCIS will not only provide accurate data needed to make emergency-response decisions, but will also have several other year-round applications. The data will assist in the handling of oil spills and will aid off-shore industries, commerce, and trade. The information will also help preserve the state’s fragile coastlines and allow scientists to develop a more complete understanding of ocean-wave physics and air-sea interaction during storm events.

Last updated September 2002

• WAVCIS
• Coastal Studies Institute
• School of the Coast and Environment
• Greg Stone's Homepage

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