Ocean information is critical for effective management of maritime activities, such as shipping, marine recreation, fisheries, and disaster preparedness in the islands and coastal regions

The Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) supports oceanic and seismic initiatives that are implemented across countries in the Indian Ocean, South Asia, and Southeast Asia through funding from the Government of India.

Most small island nations and least developed countries in the Indian Ocean, have access to only coarse resolution forecast products at global and regional scales- which are hard to interpret or integrate into decision-making by the user agencies in the countries.

RIMES, in collaboration with INCOIS in 2020, initiated Ocean State Forecast and Advisory System (OSFAS), which provides a continuous 3-day forecast on the wave, swell, current, wind direction, and speed for countries in the Indian Ocean region and generates localized advisories to guide planning activities. Ocean models developed by INCOIS are validated by using real-time observational data from tide gauges, buoys, satellites, and feedback from users.

With the evolving needs of the region, INCOIS-funded projects have been instrumental in building capacity for:

• application of customized ocean/marine forecast information. 
• improved tsunami risk assessment as per IOTWS Service Level 3 requirements using near-shore bathymetric, topographic, and exposure datasets
• development and implementation of user-relevant end-to-end flood forecast generation and application system