Milestone in the Development of the NEAMTWS: Four Tsunami Service Providers received Certificate of Accreditation at the 29th Session of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Assembly, 27 June 2017

At the 29^th Session of the IOC Assembly, the chair of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the North-eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICGNEAMTWS), Professor Ahmet Yalcine, and Professor Peter Haugan, the Chair of IOC presented certificates of accreditation to CENtre National d'Alerte aux Tsunamis (CENALT,France), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Centro Allerta Terremoti (CAT/INGV, Italy), National Observatory of Athens (NOA, Greece) and Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI,Turkey) for having successfully having become NEAMTWS four operational Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs).

 Certificate ceremony with Professor Peter Haugan (IOC Chairperson), Professor Ahmet Yalcine (ICG/NEAMTWS Chairperson), Dr Denis Chang Seng (ICG/NEAMTWS Technical Secretary) and representatives of TSPs

Mr. Hervé Tourmente and Mr François Schindele received the certificate as  representatives of the CENALT. Dr Gerassimos Papadopoulos received the certificate on behalf of NOA. Dr Luigi D’Angelo and Dr Alessandro Amato received the certificate as  representatives of CAT-INGV, while Professor Haluk Özener received the certificate as the Director of KOERI. Professor Özener said that ‘being a pioneer of earth observations in Turkey since its establishment in 1868, KOERI is proud to have been accredited as a NEAMTWS Tsunami Service Provider, delivering tsunami early warning in the Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas’. Dr Papadopoulos stressed ‘the accreditation of the HL-NTWC in September 2016 represents an important international recognition, but also signifies its increased commitments and responsibilities for the future”.

Mr Denis Chang Seng, the Technical Secretary for the ICG/NEAMTWS pointed out that ‘the accreditation of Tsunami Service Providers is unique among the four IOC coordinated tsunami warning systems (Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean)’. The ICG/NEAMTWS has adopted a procedure whereby TSPs must be accredited, indicating that they comply with a number of requirements agreed upon by ICG/NEAMTWS. Tsunami Service Providers are the primary source of tsunami advisories to member states that subscribe to them.

IOC has provided intergovernmental coordination for the development of the North-eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (NEAMTWS) since 2005 following the adoption of IOC Resolution XXIII-14. Since then there has been steady development of the system and in 2012 three candidate Tsunami Service Providers (in France, Greece and Turkey) started to operate while in 2014 a fourth candidate Tsunami Service Provider (in Italy) began to operate.

The Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the NEAMTWS had decided in 2012 that Candidate Tsunami Service Providers (CTSPs) should undergo an accreditation evaluation before they can formally be named a NEAMTWS Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs). The ICG/NEAMTWS at its twelfth session (16–18 November 2015, Dublin, Ireland) agreed on the process and the procedures for carrying out the ICG/NEAMTWS accreditation of a CTSP. The documentation procedures are based on the operational and organizational functions and requirements of Tsunami Service provider (TSP) adopted by the ICG NEAMTWS. An accreditation evaluation was carried out by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for NEAMTWS from June–September 2016.The reports of the accreditation evaluations were examined at the ICG/NEAMTWS XIII session (Bucharest, 26-28 September 2016).The ICG session approved the accreditation of the four Tsunami Service Providers.