Waves are generated on the scale of ocean basins or regions and the generation is driven by winds. These deepwater waves provide the offshore boundary conditions and climatology for beach, inlet, harbor, and channel projects. WIS Hindcast Data Generation Models solve the action balance equation for temporal and spatial change in directional wave spectra from deep water into arbitrary water depths.
Waves transform in transitional and shallow water depths due to interactions with the bottom.
These nearshore waves provide the longshore and cross-shore variation in wave parameters required for design and maintenance of beach, inlet, harbor, and channel projects. Transformation Models describe quantitatively the change in wave parameters between the offshore and nearshore. Local Scale Models numerically characterize wave prediction parameters of local scale regions.