Under the support of the Highland Disciplines of Marine Sciences of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, “2017 FVCOM Workshop” was held at Shanghai Ocean University (SHOU) on March 24-26. 160 experts and representativesfrom more than 40 institutions attended the workshop, which includeU.S., Canada, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia as well as Ocean University of China, East China Normal University, Zhongshan University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, Hohai University, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, East China Sea Branch, North China Sea Branch and South China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration, National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, and South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The opening ceremony of workshop was hosted by Professor Chen Xinjun, Dean of SHOUCollege of Marine Sciences. Wu Jiamin, Secretary of SHOU CPC Committee, presented a speech. Han Guoqi, Research Scientist of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Chen Xue’en, Professor of Ocean University of Chinashared their experiences about model applicationrespectively. Yuan Shaohong, Secretary of Party Committee of East China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration (SOA), attended the conference and made expectations tothe contributions of marine forecast model system construction for government decision-making. Sha Wei, Director of the Forecast and Disaster Mitigation Office of East China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration and Shi Shaohua, Director of East China Sea Forecast Center, also attended the conference.

Yuan Shaohong, Secretary of the Party Committee of East China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administrationwas giving a speech

The unstructured-grid Finite Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) is one of the most widely-applied and important tools for oceanic multi-scale researches in the world.It has been used in the construction of model systems covering globe, polar regions, deep oceans, local regions, coastal waters, estuaries, harbors, rivers, lakes,etc. It also plays a significantrole in marine science research, marine resources development,environmental protection, marine management, marine disaster prevention and mitigation, business assurance, auxiliary decision-making services, etc. The workshop began with the official release of FVCOM4.0 by Professor Chen Changsheng, leaderof FVCOM model development team, Montgomery Charter Chair Professor of University of Massachusetts and Chief Scientist of the International Center for Marine Studies of SHOU (SHOU-ICMS).He also gave a keynote speech titled “Update and Improvement of FVCOM Model System”, comprehensively introduced the updated and latest functional modules of the new version and put forward his prospect for the future development of FVCOM model system. Professor Jörg-Olaf Wolfffrom Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg of Germany and research scientistHan Guoqi fromFisheries and Oceans Canada also introduced the applications of the model system in Germany and Canada. After that, other related users also presented their reports focusing on the progress of their model applications with a total of 20 sessions. During the workshop, sharing of typical application case, actual demand analysis and user training activities were also organized to help users to improve and expand their application capability of FVCOM model system.

Wu Jiamin, Secretary of SHOU CPC Committee, was giving a speech

The workshop provided a communication platform for model developers, users and marine management decision-makers, on which they can discuss frontier issues about marine model development and promote attendees to share their application experience tosolve actual application and research problems. The workshop also provided a learning and communication opportunity for the teachers and students and enhanced the disciplines impact of marine sciences in SHOU.

Chen Xinjun, Dean of the College of Marine Sciences of SHOU, was hosting the workshop

Chen Changsheng, principal of FVCOM model development team, was giving a keynote speech

FVCOM user training session

Members of FVCOM model development team were communicating with attendees

Group photo of guests and representatives