ORCAS Consulting, decades of experience in coastal science and engineering. Specialising in coastal hazards, hydrodynamic numerical modeling, field data collection and analysis and developing strategies for coastal adaptation to any and all coastal hazards.
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Honoured to represent ORCAS Consulting Limited at COPRI - Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute #ICCE2026, in one of the most interesting parts of the world for coastal engineers: Galveston, Texas. Got the opportunity to present some of our modelling work, learn about local culture and history and meet like-minded people from all over the world.
A nice break down of the Raglan WSL swell forecast from ORCAS' Jose Borrero... https://lnkd.in/e67W58mm
Since the biggest thing happening in NZ this week (from a coastal point of view) is the World Surf League contest at Raglan, I thought I'd offer a breakdown of what we can expect for swell to finish off the contest waiting period. For this I am using maps from the RippleForecast.com website produce by colleagues here at ORCAS Consulting Limited. 1) Wednesday Afternoon: The GFS global wind model has three areas of wind aiming at NZ: a small low to the west, a broad area of winds to the SW and a large storm forming under south Australia. 2) Thursday Afternoon: The small low produce some waves headed towards Raglan while the area to the SW sets up more swell with the third area looking more developed. 3) By early Friday, three swell fronts have developed. The first will fill in Friday morning with the second and third on the way. The Friday swell will be more westerly and relatively short period. 4) Saturday Morning, Swell 1 is gone and Swell 2 is doing the work. The period is still short (12 sec) but size is up compared to Friday. 5) Swell 3 fills in on Sunday, with the longer periods showing from noon onwards. 6) Monday morning, the last day of the waiting period, Swell 3 is still going with more size and a nice 16 sec period. If you go to the site (RippleForecast.com) you can zoom in and see the forecast wave heights at Manu Bay from our bespoke, high resolution, local wave model that covers all of Aotearoa-New Zealand. I would have uploaded an animation, but LinkedIn won't let me post a mix of still and video. Enjoy and let's hope the surf cranks for the finals!
We have just launched a global tide forecast on Ripple providing tidal highs, lows, and sea level time series anywhere in the world. Explore it here: https://lnkd.in/eJcsbnjp More features coming soon… Huge thanks to Jinze Zhou for managing this project and to Gielo Joseph Fernandez for his hard work and innovative thinking putting this together as part of his internship. Amazing mahi.
Over the past year, we here at ORCAS Consulting have been working hard to make the Ripple Wave Forecast (RippleForecast.com) the best possible wave model for New Zealand waters. It is use full cor any coastal applications, boating, surfing, fishing etc. We have slowly and quietly been rolling out features and making tweaks to make is as useful as possible and still keep it free for everyone. Now that Cyclone Vaianu is bearing down upon us, we thought it was time to highlight the Ripple wave model against three of the more popular wave model services available on the web (Windy, Surfline and PredictWind). For all of the images shown here, the time stamp is for 12:00 NZ time Sunday, roughly the peak of the cyclone’s wave effects. For the zoomed out plots (the first four) all services are plotting the GFS wave model and as expected, all show essentially the same thing. Things change on the zoomed in view however. Notice how only the Ripple model (RippleForecast.com) shows realistic wave shadowing in the Auckland/Hauraki Gulf region. This is because the Ripple Forecast is the only one with a dedicated and fully custom, locally produced, New Zealand-focussed wave mode embedded in the system. We use the global standard SWAN wave model on a nested, variable resolution grid that covers all of New Zealand with increasing resolution over areas with complex bathymetry and coastline. The model is forced with wave data from the GFS global model at the boundary, then propagated across this higher resolution grid. This process is done automatically every 6 hours and uploaded to the web server. Our team has decades of experience modelling waves in New Zealand and around the world and we are putting this experience to use in providing timely and accurate wave forecasting for all of New Zealand coastal waters. RippleForecast.com powered by ORCAS Consulting
This is the predicted wave field from Tropical Cyclone Vaianu on Sunday evening from ORCAS Consulting’s Ripple Forecast (rippleforecast.com). The forecast predicts staggering 12 m Hs waves offshore of the east coast of Auckland and the Coromandel. The high-resolution detailed model also shows the penetration of wave energy through the gaps between the outer islands to the east Auckland coast. Keep an eye on developments here: https://rippleforecast.com Stay safe if you’re on the North Island east coast this weekend.
ORCAS Director Rhys McIntosh Presenting on cyclone modelling and coastal hazard mitigation at the LANRESC 2nd International Coastal Resilience Symposium, as well as some of the sights and people in Mérida. Director de ORCAS Rhys McIntosh realizando una presentacion sobre modelaje de ciclones y mitigación de riesgo costero en el LANRESC 2° Simposio Internacional de Resiliencia Costera. También compartimos unas fotos del paisaje y personas con las que pudo compartir en Mérida.
ORCAS Director Rhys McIntosh on the field trip to the beautiful Sisal Ciénaga, Yucatan, Mexico as part of the LANRESC 2nd International Coastal Resilience Symposium. The trip involved kayaking in a ciénaga full of flamingos, a dip in a water hole and a local tour. Director de ORCAS Rhys McIntosh en la salida a la hermosa Ciénaga de Sisal, Yucatan, México, parte del LANRESC 2° Simposio Internacional de Resiliencia Costera. La salida incluyó una salida en kayak en una ciénaga llena de flamencos, un baño en pozo y un tour local. Crédito a Camila Reyes, Luisa María Restrepo y Mark Besonen por las fotos!
Its always great to see a project firsthand. Thanks to Benica Pasaporte and Mitesh Kumar from WSP for showing me around the Resort World Sentosa works in Singapore. At ORCAS Consulting Limited we’ve been working alongside WSP to provide an ongoing forecast of suspended sediment from the construction activities using a high-resolution hydrodynamic modelling. The aim of the forecast is to help protect nearby sensitive habitats and infrastructure. It’s a really interesting site with a very unusual tidal regime, strong currents and a lot of surrounding infrastructure.
ORCAS Director Dougal Greer in Delft with the Deltares team checking out new ways of approaching overland and coastal flooding with SFINCS. Looking forward to putting it to work on upcoming projects.
**Another two inspiring days at the Delft3D User Days 2025 in Delft** Days 3 and 4 wrapped up an incredible week of innovation, collaboration, and exchange among the global software community. With a packed programme of high-quality presentations, interactive break-out sessions, and engaging discussions, these final days truly showcased how our collective work is driving forward the science and practice of integrated 1D2D water modelling using the Delft3D FM Suite 1D2D and our latest advancements in Super-Fast compound flood modelling using the SFINCS simulation kernel. From flood mapping in Taiwan, urban flood modelling in Alameda County, USA, early warning systems in Ghana, compound flood analyses in Mozambique and Timor-Leste and the UK Coastal Flooding Incident Guide, to advanced topics like 1D2D water quality modelling, DevOps automation, cloud-based computing, and GPU acceleration — the sessions highlighted how our software is supporting both research and operational needs worldwide. **Didn’t make it to Delft?** You can still join us online (Thursday, 20 November 2025, 16.00 - 17.00 GMT+1, Delft time) to discover how Deltares' fast flood model SFINCS can be effectively applied to simulate riverine flooding. Through case studies in the USA (Ferndale, WA and Asheville, NC), we will showcase how SFINCS performs when modelling complex hydrodynamic processes in riverine environments. For more information and registration: https://lnkd.in/epJc9F7g Thank you to everyone who joined us in Delft for making the Delft Software Days - Edition 2025 (DSD-INT 2025) an inspiring success! #DSDINT2025 #Deltares #TuDelft #IHE #Delft3D #Delft3DFM #Delft3DSF #Delft3DAI #Hydrodynamics #Hydrology #Waterquality #CoastalModelling #FloodModelling #DigitalTransformation
A short film I shot and edited whilst on a mission for The World Bank in Jaluit, Republic of Marshall Islands. While not delving too much into the technical aspects of my trip, I aimed merely to highlight the amazing natural beauty of the place and the incredible hospitality I experienced while I was there.
In July 2025, ORCAS Director Jose Borrero had a very special opportunity to visit Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands as part of a The World Bank funded project assessing the atoll's needs and opportunities for #coastalprotection and #adaptation to sea level rise. The locals were extremely helpful and eager to do anything they can to protect their home islands for future generations. Below is a short video that Jose shot and edited showing some of what he experienced there.