The plan was formally approved by the Andalusian government in June 2023. But the story did not end there.

Since its approval, researchers from the EDANYA group at the University of Málaga have continued to work with Andalusia’s emergency-management authorities to update risk scenarios, refine operational procedures and support technical coordination. What began as a scientific effort to understand tsunami risk along the southern Spanish coast has evolved into an ongoing partnership between researchers and the institutions responsible for emergency preparedness.

From hazard modelling to emergency planning

Tsunamis are rare along Spain’s southern coast, but the risk is real – and when a tsunami does occur, the consequences can be severe. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami, which killed tens of thousands of people and devastated Lisbon, remains a powerful reminder of the region’s vulnerability. The Gulf of Cádiz and the Alboran Sea lie close to active fault systems capable of generating tsunamis that can reach the Andalusian coast in as little as a few minutes, while in other scenarios the first waves may take up to around an hour to arrive.

For decades, this risk was primarily the subject of scientific research. The work carried out by EDANYA, within the Centre of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (ChEESE-2), helped change that by providing high-resolution numerical simulations of how tsunami waves could propagate and inundate the entire Andalusian coastline.

These simulations underpinned the Plan de Emergencia ante el Riesgo de Maremotos en Andalucía, formally approved by the Andalusian government in 2023. The plan is Spain’s first regional tsunami emergency plan and provides a comprehensive framework for preparing for and responding to tsunami risk along the Andalusian coast.

The scientific work behind it was unprecedented in scale. Using high-performance computing resources provided by the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) and the Center for Supercomputing and Bioinformatics (SCBI) at the University of Málaga, researchers modelled tsunami inundation across approximately 1,000 kilometres of coastline, from Huelva in the west to Almería in the east, at a resolution of five metres.

No previous study had combined this geographical scope with such a high-resolution simulation of tsunami inundation along an entire coastline.

The resulting scenarios provided detailed information on how tsunami waves could propagate and inundate coastal areas, down to individual beaches, ports and urban areas. This allowed emergency planners to move beyond a general understanding that “a tsunami could happen” towards specific, actionable questions: which coastal sectors should be prioritised, how evacuation routes should be designed, and what warning and response procedures should be put in place.

For a hazard where authorities may have only minutes to respond, that level of detail can make a critical difference. “We spent years developing increasingly precise numerical models to simulate how a tsunami would behave along our coast. Seeing that work turn into public policy – into something that guides real evacuation and warning decisions – is exactly the kind of impact we were aiming for when we started,” says Jorge Macías Sánchez, ChEESE researcher, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Málaga (UMA) and member of the EDANYA research group.

A partnership that continued beyond the plan

The approval of the emergency plan could have marked the end of the research-policy journey. Instead, it became a new stage in the collaboration. EDANYA has continued working with the Agencia de Emergencias de Andalucía to update risk scenarios, improve operational procedures and contribute to technical coordination. This continued engagement has helped ensure that the scientific knowledge underpinning the plan can evolve alongside new data, advances in modelling capabilities and the changing needs of emergency-management authorities.

Alejandro García Hernández, Director General of Emergencies and Civil Protection for the Andalusian government, describes the collaboration as one that “extended well beyond the drafting stage”, with EDANYA supporting the updating of risk scenarios, improving operational procedures, participating in technical coordination activities and contributing scientific expertise to preparedness and response planning. In his written endorsement of the project, he describes the collaboration as “a model of evidence-informed policymaking with significant societal benefit.”

The Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), which operates Spain’s National Tsunami Warning Centre, has also highlighted EDANYA’s contribution. In a letter supporting the collaboration, the IGN notes that the group’s advanced numerical modelling capabilities, hazard assessments and scenario analyses have supported understanding of tsunami impacts along vulnerable coastal sectors of southern Spain. According to the IGN, this work has also strengthened institutional preparedness and the integration of scientific evidence into operational decision-making.

Making supercomputing useful beyond the research community

The Andalusian case illustrates a central challenge in computational science: producing more powerful simulations is only part of the equation. Their value ultimately depends on whether the knowledge they generate can be translated into information that people outside the research community can understand and use.

In this case, high-performance computing enabled researchers to simulate tsunami behaviour at a level of detail that would not have been practical using conventional approaches. But the impact came from connecting those simulations with the people responsible for emergency planning.

The result was not simply a scientific model, but a practical evidence base for decisions about evacuation, preparedness and response. This is precisely the type of science-to-policy pathway that European disaster-risk-reduction frameworks seek to promote- and one that lies at the heart of ChEESE Project’s mission.

The project has focused on developing and preparing advanced, open-source Earth-science codes for the era of exascale computing. Yet the value of these technologies is ultimately measured not by their computational power alone, but by what they enable scientists and society to do with them.

Among the most significant recognitions is the 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize, often described as the “Nobel Prize of Supercomputing”. The award recognised breakthrough research on a real-time digital twin for tsunami early warning, in which online Bayesian inversion and forecasting can be completed in about 0.2 seconds, representing a roughly ten-billion-fold speedup over direct computation. The work involved ChEESE researcher Alice-Agnes Gabriel and demonstrates how advances in extreme-scale computing can dramatically improve early warning systems for coastal communities exposed to earthquake and tsunami hazards.

The same research also received the 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award and the HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award for Best Use of HPC in Physical Sciences, highlighting its scientific excellence and real-world impact. At the same time, another team of ChEESE researchers at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) was honoured with the 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award for pioneering an urgent-computing workflow during Mexico’s National Earthquake Drill. Using the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, researchers transformed real-time seismic data into rapid hazard forecasts, demonstrating how HPC can directly support emergency preparedness and decision-making.

The impact and visibility of this work have extended beyond the awards themselves. During her visit to BSC, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum learned about the research carried out by the team, while the centre continues to collaborate with Mexico on the development of Coatlicue, the country’s upcoming flagship supercomputer, expected to become the most powerful in Latin America.

The ChEESE community was also recognised through the GANANA Award, acknowledging the collective contribution of ChEESE researchers to strengthening scientific collaboration between Europe and India. Through GANANA, ChEESE and other European HPC Centres of Excellence work with leading Indian institutions to promote knowledge exchange, capacity building and the development of long-term cooperation in high-performance computing.

Although these awards recognise different scientific achievements, they share a common message: high-performance computing is becoming an essential component of disaster preparedness. Whether simulating earthquakes, tsunamis or delivering urgent information to emergency managers, the technologies developed by researchers within the ChEESE community are helping bridge the gap between frontier computational science and operational decision-making.

The international recognition received by ChEESE researchers reflects not only scientific excellence, but also the project’s broader mission: ensuring that European supercomputing delivers tangible benefits for society by strengthening resilience, supporting authorities and ultimately helping protect lives.

Award-winning research across the ChEESE community

⬤ 2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize
Real-time tsunami forecasting
ChEESE Team Representative: Alice-Agnes Gabriel
Paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3712285.3771787

⬤ 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award
Mexican National Earthquake Drill
ChEESE Team Representatives: Marisol Monterrubio, Aerton Guimarães, Varvara Vedia-García, Rosa M. Badia, Fernando Vazquez, Georgina Diez Ventura, Josep de la Puente
Technical report: https://cheese2.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Technical-Report-Mexican-Trial-ChEESE-2P-Impact.pdf

⬤ 2025 HPC Innovation Excellence Award
Tsunami Digital Twin
ChEESE Team Representative: Alice-Agnes Gabriel
Paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3712285.3771787

⬤ 2025 HPCwire Readers’ Choice
Best Use of HPC in Physical Sciences
ChEESE Team Representative: Alice-Agnes Gabriel
Paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3712285.3771787

⬤ GANANA Award
To all ChEESE partners/researchers

With LaMEM, a high-performance simulation code developed within Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Exascale in Solid Earth – ChEESE, researchers can recreate these slow but powerful processes in three dimensions. In this interview, Boris Kaus, Professor at the University of Mainz and LaMEM lead in ChEESE, explains how the code helps scientists explore the Earth’s past, test possible futures and tackle applied geoscience questions.

“On long timescales, rocks and the Earth deform like a fluid, like a viscous fluid, like honey,” Kaus explains. “But on shorter timescales, they behave elastically. Or sometimes they break and rupture and make a fault.”

This changing behaviour makes the Earth a particularly complex system to model. LaMEM is designed to simulate these processes across a remarkable range of spatial and temporal scales.

Making advanced modelling more accessible

High-performance codes can be powerful, but they also need to be usable. The LaMEM team has worked to make the software easier to install and run, including through a interface that supports model setup, execution and visualisation of results.

“LaMEM is certainly, at the moment, one of the easiest software packages to install,” says Kaus. “You can just open your laptop, you say ‘add LaMEM’, and it will install everything and work in a few minutes on your machine.”

This accessibility has helped build a growing user community, particularly among university research groups studying geological processes at different scales.

Understanding mount Etna

Within ChEESE, LaMEM will be used to investigate the southeastern flank of mount Etna, which is moving gradually towards the Mediterranean sea by a few centimetres each year.

The movement does not indicate an immediate collapse risk, but it raises important scientific questions. Understanding why the flank is moving and which factors influence its behaviour can contribute to the bigger picture of volcanic dynamics.

“It would be good to better understand how it is happening and why this is happening,” Kaus says.

By bringing complex geological processes to Europe’s supercomputers, LaMEM helps researchers follow the Earth’s slowest transformations. Processes that may be imperceptible in a human lifetime but profoundly shape the planet over geological time.

Watch the full interview with Boris Kraus:

The training provided an accessible introduction to neurodiversity, exploring what it means to be neurodivergent and how neurodivergence can shape experiences in both professional and everyday contexts. Drawing on current research and personal insights, Dr Palmer discussed neurodiversity in academic and research environments and shared practical approaches for fostering more inclusive and supportive workplaces.

The presentation sparked a lively discussion, with participants actively contributing to an extended Q&A session that explored challenges, opportunities, and good practices for building more neuroinclusive research communities.

Dr Palmer recently completed a PhD in Chemistry Education at King’s College London and has been actively involved in inclusion and diversity initiatives since 2016. He currently serves on the Inclusion and Diversity Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is widely recognised for his work on inclusive teaching and learning.

Organised by the ChEESE Centre of Excellence Equality & Diversity Committee in collaboration with the European Centres of Excellence ESiWACE and MaX, the webinar reflects a shared commitment to advancing diversity, inclusion, and openness across the high-performance computing and research landscape.

If you were unable to attend or would like to revisit the discussion, the recording is now available on the ChEESE YouTube channel:

The conference brought together experts from around the world to discuss the latest advances in underwater acoustics, ranging from environmental monitoring and marine noise to wave propagation modelling and high-performance computing applications.

The ChEESE contributions showcased how advanced numerical methods and HPC can help address complex challenges in underwater and seismo-acoustic wave propagation. Maxence Ferrari, together with Vadim Monteiller, Paul Cristini, and Nathalie Favretto-Cristini, presented the work “Optimizing 3D Seismo-Acoustic Wave Propagation Modeling for Higher Frequencies: HPC Efficiency and Memory Gains”, focusing on strategies to improve computational performance and reduce memory requirements for large-scale simulations.

A second presentation by Nathalie Favretto-Cristini, Vadim Monteiller, Maxence Ferrari, and Paul Cristini, titled “Modeling Underwater Noise Pollution and Seabed Vibrations Using a 3D Full-Wave Method and HPC”, explored how high-fidelity numerical modelling can contribute to a better understanding of anthropogenic underwater noise and its interaction with the marine environment. Both sessions were attended by more than 100 people.

Both contributions highlight the role of high-performance computing in advancing wave propagation simulations across disciplines, from seismology to underwater acoustics. By improving computational efficiency while maintaining physical accuracy, this research supports the broader ChEESE mission of developing cutting-edge simulation capabilities for Earth and environmental sciences.

Hosted by the University of Strathclyde in the centre of Glasgow, ICUA 2026 provided an international forum for researchers, engineers, and industry experts to exchange ideas and discuss emerging challenges in underwater acoustics. The event continued the momentum of previous editions, reflecting the rapid developments taking place in the field and the growing importance of HPC-enabled modelling approaches.