Coastal and estuarine forecast systems. A multi-purpose infrastructure for the Columbia River

Natural and man-made hazards have long been a testament to the complex challenges inherent to sustainable coastal development. Managing these hazards requires anticipatory and predictive capabilities that must be in place where and when they become necessary, regardless of the specific hazard and the associated time and space scales. We believe that such capabilities are within the reach of coastal and estuarine forecasting systems. We defined CEFS as a multidimensional integration of environmental data, simulation models, information and control technology, and human interactions, within and across a network of physical sites.