Rip Current Prediction System for Swimmer Safety

Leo Sembiring (1980, Kabanjahe, Indonesia) studied Civil Engineering at the Department of Bandung, Institute of Technology (ITB), West Java. He obtained his B.Sc in 2004 after writing a thesis on developing peak ground acceleration map due to tectonic earthquake for Sulawesi Island. In 2008, he started his graduate program in Coastal Engineering and Port Development program in UNESCO-IHE, Delft. He obtained his M.Sc degree in 2010 (with distinction). He carried out his master research at Deltares, working on the validation of wave and hydrodynamic model for The Dutch Coast (SWAN and DELFT3D) and application of data assimilation model Beach Wizard-dissipation maps in updating nearshore bathymetry. In June 2011, he started his PhD work on developing an operational forecasting system of rip currents for Egmond aan Zee beach. During this period, he spent most of his time at Deltares and occasionally at UNESCO-IHE. During his research, he was involved in SEAREX field campaign at Egmond aan Zee (August 2011), and responsible to organize and conduct his own field campaign on June 2013, during which he was assisted by MSc students from UNESCO-IHE.

1. Introduction. 2. Literature review on rip currents and rip current prediction systems. 3. Coastal operational model – CoSMoS – system set up and validation. 4. Dynamic modelling of rip currents for swimmer safety on a wind-sea meso-tidal beach. 5. Beach bathymetry from video imagery. 6. Predicting rip currents: Combination of CoSMoS and bathymetry from video. 7. Summary and Outlook