Priorities for wind-waves research

The Australian Forum for Operational Oceanography (FOO), started in 2015, established a working group to focus on wind-waves. One of the aims of this working group was to identify the key priorities of wind-waves research. This undertaking has been driven by Australian needs, but Australia is just one part of the larger international waves community; results of this process are also relevant to other marine-focused nations. The process to identify research priorities engaged both researchers and stakeholders in a democratic, collaborative, and iterative process. The main steps were 1) soliciting possible research questions via an online survey, 2) reviewing and editing the questions at a face-to-face workshop, and 3) ranking the research questions. A total of 360 survey invitations were emailed to possible participants, with 69 respondents. Half of these were from research organizations, and the remainder from private industry, service providers, or government. The survey gathered a list of ideas that were consolidated to 155 suggestions, which were further reviewed by participants at a wind-waves research symposium and then ranked via a voting process. A second round of online voting was then undertaken that specifically targeted the industry and stakeholder community. The top five priorities were identified, and are referred to here as “tier 1” priorities. A further 10 priorities were identified, and are referred to here as “tier 2,” providing a total of 15 top-ranked priorities.