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| | | Tsunami warning systems |
Maintained by IOC
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|  The swiftness with which the intensely destructive power of a tsunami can be visited upon geographically vulnerable coastal communities presents an awesome challenge to the national agencies and local authorities charged with emergency and natural disaster planning and operations. However, detecting and tracking a tsunami is a complicated task, one that requires the cooperation of the scientific community, as well as international cooperation between the states that are at risk. The tsunamis caused by earthquakes in 1960 (SE Pacific) and 1964 (NE Pacific) resulted in numerous human casualties and millions of dollars in damage to property and infrastructure in at least 4 countries. These disasters resulted in the establishment of the Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Pacific in 1965 under the leadership of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and hosted by the American's regional Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Honolulu, Hawai'i. The TWS is an international collaboration and has been designed to issue a confirmed tsunami warning less than an hour after the occurrence of a potentially tsunamogenic earthquake. The regional warning systems of Chile, France, Japan, the USA and the Russian Federation all contribute to the operations of the TWS. | | |  Although tsunamis are a relatively infrequently occurring natural disaster, and 85% of these events happen in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean tsunamis (26 December 2004) that hit 11 nations, caused billions of dollars in damage and claimed over 150,000 lives clearly demonstrated that a vigilant warning system is necessary not only for the Pacific region, but for all the vulnerable regions of the world's oceans, including: both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Black Seas and in the Indian Ocean. In some of these regions, efforts have already been launched for the establishment of warning systems in these areas. IOC/ITSU, who operate the TWS in the Pacific provides information and guidance, and shares knowledge and experience with the IOC Member States of these regions. NOAA has taken on the task of increased capabilities for rapid dissemination of warnings in the near term to a longer-term goal of designing and putting in place a global tsunami warning and mitigation system. | | Photo title: Tsunami buoy deployed by the research vessel Ronald H Brown | | Photo credit: NOAA | | | | The first element of a tsunami warning system is monitoring: seismic monitoring and corresponding sea level monitoring. Another necessary element of a warning system is accessible data on previous tsunamis that can be referenced against the results of the seismic and sea level monitoring. Accordingly, the Historical Tsunami Database for the Pacific has been established and is maintained by the Novosibirsk Tsunami Laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Finally, a coordinated routine of communication between monitoring stations, the warning centre and at-risk states must exist to ensure the efficient information delivery of a tsunami warning system. The products of a tsunami warning system are accurate assessments and timely warnings, and while these products are fundamental to any disaster mitigation planning, a warning system represents only the first step on the precipitous road to tsunami preparedness. However, the more reliable and detailed the data from the warning system is, the more confident and precise the civil authorities charged with drafting and implementing corresponding emergency measures can be.
See More... | | |  | | Photo title: Aceh, Indonesia following the tsunami | | Photo credit: NBC.com | | | | |
 | | | | | UNESCO To Announce Global Strategy for Establishment of Tsunami Early Warning System
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| | Editorial Contact: In Mauritius : Sue Williams - Press Relations Section - tel (mobile) : +33 6 07 84 26 76 - Email 10-01-2005 6:40 pm UNESCO Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura, will announce UNESCO’s Global Strategy for the Establishment of a Tsunami Early Warning System, including the one for the Indian Ocean, during the United Nations International Meeting on Small Island Developing States, which opened here today. “One of the many lessons we must learn from the Indian Ocean catastrophe is that tsunami can strike wherever there is a coastline”, said Mr Matsuura in Paris on the eve of his departure for Mauritius. “Minimizing their impact requires cooperation and collaboration between a range of partners that go beyond the borders of any one State. Any early warning system, to be truly effective, must therefore be global in scope.” UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) initiated the tsunami warning system for the Pacific in 1968, and has been arguing the need for an alert system for the Indian Ocean for several years. However, Member States did not consider the issue urgent, given the rarity of tsunami in the region (the last one was recorded over a century ago), the lack of resources in many countries, a long list of other priorities, and the fact that 85% of the world’s tsunami occur in the Pacific. Mr Matsuura welcomed the proposal from the meeting of ASEAN leaders in Jakarta last week envisaging the establishment of a tsunami warning system in the region, and the offers made by several countries to support such a project. But, he pointed out that there are many other regions at risk, including the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the South West Pacific. UNESCO stands ready, he said, to lend the experience and expertise gained in the Pacific over the past 40 years to the provision of a global warning system, and to ensure coordination amongst international partners to avoid duplication. Any such system goes far beyond the installation of seismic equipment to measure and pinpoint earthquakes. This equipment is already largely in place right around the globe, reminded Mr Matsuura. Experts as far away as Hawaii and Vienna knew that the earthquake had taken place off the coast of Sumatra on December 26, immediately after it had occurred. “What is missing are the communication networks, public awareness and national disaster planning that are essential to alert populations quickly, to teach people what they can do to help themselves, to rapidly evacuate threatened areas and to look after the immediate needs of the wounded or displaced,” said the Director-General. Each type of natural disaster also has its own particularities, said Mr Matsuura, and therefore requires a different response. In this regard, there cannot be a “one-size fits all” alert system, he said. “People need to know about all of the possible risks they face, and what they can do to save their lives and limit the damage when disaster strikes,” he added. “This means that governments must also understand different risks and be ready to respond to each situation.” The Mauritius International Meeting is organized by the United Nations and its agencies, including UNESCO, to review the implementation of a programme of action for the sustainable development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), agreed upon at a global conference in Barbados ten years ago. More than 2,000 delegates from at least 110 countries, including the world’s 51 Small Island Developing States, are attending the meeting, along with United Nations partners, donor agencies, non-governmental organizations and civil society groups. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source Press Release No.2005-04 Author(s) UNESCOPRESS |
| Jennifer Perce
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