Municipal committees for the prevention, mitigation and response in the coastal municipalities of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, received training on tsunamis. December 2015.

Representatives of the municipal committees for disaster prevention, mitigation and response (PMR) in the coastal towns of San Cristobal attended the first workshop on "Training and capacity building of and emergency care and response institutions in case of tsunamis" in order to improve the resilience of these communities in response to the seismic and tsunami vulnerability that has the coastal area of ​​the Dominican Republic.

The workshop was organized in separate sessions, from 8 to 10 December in the municiipalities of Sabana Grande de Palenque, Bajos de Haina and San Gregorio de Nigua, under the project "Actions that save lives: disaster preparedness and reduction of seismic and tsunami risk on the south coast ", led the consortium formed by UNDP, UNESCO and the Cooperation Assembly for Peace in Dominican Republic (CAPP), funded by the Disaster Preparedness Programme of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (DIPECHO, for its acronym in English) in the 2015-2016 Action Plan for the Caribbean. This project aims to strengthen prevention, mitigation and response capacities to improve the resilience of communities and institutions in the coastal municipalities of the province of San Cristobal for earthquakes and tsunamis, especially in the towns of Bajos de Haina, San Gregorio de Nigua and Sabana Grande de Palenque.

"Tsunamis are events that may occur in the Dominican Republic and cause loss of life, property damage and have a major impact on the country's economy, so it is necessary to raise public awareness of the institutions and the population in general, so they can respond appropriately to such events. Member institutions of municipal committees for the prevention, mitigation and response work locally to reduce vulnerabilities and on emergency response against all phenomenon that can affect the population, hence the importance of their training"explains workshop facilitator, Jennifer Larreynaga, UNESCO Consultant of the Tsunami Action Team and exercise 2016.

Regional Training Workshop on Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Enhanced Tsunami Products for ICG/CARIBE EWS

This four-day training workshop is being hosted by the Caribbean Tsunami Information Centre (CTIC) in association with UNESCO/IOC, the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC), Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), Caribbean Tsunami Warning Programme (CTWP) and the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU), Barbados. The training targets 40 participants from 20 countries as well as regional organisations such as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), CTWP and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN).

The workshop seeks to enable tsunami warning focal points (TWFPs), national tsunami warning centers (NTWC), and tsunami emergency responders (TERs) to effectively receive, analyse and take appropriate action in response to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) enhanced tsunami forecast products for the Caribbean and its adjacent regions. This training workshop covers tsunami warning operations and the use of the PTWC Enhanced Products for tsunami threat decision-making, with specific attention on the tsunami warning chain and their standard operating procedures (SOPs). Topics include warning and response SOPs and challenges, warning decision support tools, warning messages and alerting, evacuation concepts and planning, and awareness strategies.

Over the last 10+ years, with improvements in data quality, quantity, and real-time availability, PTWC’s response time has dropped significantly from an hour to 5-10 minutes for tsunami events. At the same time, with each great earthquake and tsunami since the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami helping to increase scientific understanding, better techniques have been developed to quickly characterize the earthquake and numerically model the tsunami.

In the Pacific, the PTWS adopted use of the PTWC enhanced products based on numerical forecast models on 1 October 2014. For the Caribbean and adjacent regions, the changeover to PTWC’s new enhanced forecast products was approved by the ICG/CARIBE-EWS VIII (2013), introduced in CARIBE WAVE 2013, and since October 26, 2015, are being issued in parallel with the existing products. The changeover to solely the new products is planned to take place on 1 March 2016.

Remembering the 1945 Makran Tsunami on its 70th Anniversary, 28 November 2015

A magnitude 8.1 earthquake on the morning of 28 November 1945 generated a devastating tsunami that resulted in a loss of life of up to 4,000 people in Pakistan. Archival research has revealed at least five tsunami events in the Makran coastal region from a variety of sources, including earthquakes and landslides. 

Recognising the hazard posed by the Makran subduction zone, the countries of the northwest Indian Ocean region, namely, India, Iran, Oman and Pakistan, are organising special events to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Makran Tsunami on 28 November 2015.                        Front Cover of the Daily Gazette, Karachi: Thursday, 29 November 1945

•  The Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is organising an exhibition event at their offices in Hyderabad, India.

•  The Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS) is organising an exhibition event and meeting, inviting universities, research institutes and other organisations as well as the UNESCO Tehran Cluster office and Disaster Management Organisation.

•  The Directorate General of Meteorology (DGMET) of Oman is organising an exhibition event during the first week of December.

•  UNESCO Office Islamabad, Oxfam GB, NED University, UNDP, National Disaster Management Authority, and Pakistan Meteorological Department are organising an International Conference: “A Step towards Tsunami Resilience” -  Commemorating 70th Anniversary of 1945 Makran Tsunami and exhibition in Karachi. 

As the memory of the 1945 Makran tsunami fades with the passing of generations, these commemorative events are important to maintain public awareness of the risk of tsunamis in the region. IOC UNESCO has supported the raising of awareness of the Makran hazard through:

•  Conducting the project “Communicating the effects of the 1945 Makran tsunami to increase awareness and preparedness of tsunami hazards in the Makran region” with the support of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP). IOC UNESCO published a booklet on remembering the 1945 Makran Tsunami documenting stories of eye-witness accounts of the 1945 tsunami. The booklet is available in Farsi, Urdu, Arabic as well as English. Further information about the results of this project is available on the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC) website: iotic.ioc-unesco.org/1945makrantsunami/.

•  Developing and producing the 1945 Makran Tsunami Exhibition panels in Urdu, Farsi, Arabic and English languages with the support of the IOC UNESCO Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre (IOTIC).

•  Support UNESCO Islamabad Office in developing awareness rising video to remember the 1945 Makran Tsunami to be aired in Pakistan Televisions in relation to the 70th year commemoration of the 1945 Makran Tsunami.

Twelfth Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas (ICG/NEAMTWS-XII)

The Twelfth Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (ICG/NEAMTWS) was hosted by the Geological Survey of Ireland from 16–18 November 2015, Dublin.

Participants of the ICG NEAMTWS-XII, Dublin, Ireland, Source: IOC-UNESCO

While tsunamis are less frequent in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas than in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, the risk of loss of lives and economic disaster in the region is high due to strong population density and infrastructure development along its coasts. The ICG/NEAMTWS was established by Assembly of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) at its twenty-third session in 2005 by Resolution XXIII-14, with the mandate to coordinate the establishment of a tsunami early warning system for the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas.

Participants reviewed and affirmed the steady progress made in the implementation of the NEAMTWS since its initiation in 2005, particularly the progress achieved by the four Candidate Tsunami Service Providers (CTSPs) in France, Greece, Italy and Turkey. Greece informed ICG/NEAMTWS that its National Observatory of Athens (which acts as a Candidate Tsunami Service Provider) has applied for accreditation. The intention was expressed by France, Italy and Turkey for their respective CTSPs to also apply for accreditation in the next intersessional period.

The Group reviewed the NEAMWave 14 exercise which was conducted from 28-30 October 2014 and its contribution to the implementation of the tsunami warning system for the NEAM region by testing the system in both its up-stream, i.e. tsunami detection, and tsunami alert message delivery, and its down-stream, i.e. the reaction and response components. NEAMWave14, saw a significant increase in the participation of Civil Protection Authorities as compared to NEAMWave 12.

Following the success of the second tsunami exercise for the region, a full-scale exercise named NEAMWave17 is planned in 2017 to test the tsunami readiness of the system and of the Member States.

ICG/NEAMTWS also decided to start conducting quarterly Extended Communication Test Exercises based on a scenario event and encourages Member State Civil Protection Authorities to be involved.

ICG/NEAMTWS recognized the need to continue to exchange information with ICG of the Caribbean Tsunami Early Warning System (ICG/CARIBE-EWS).

The twelfth session of ICG/NEAMTWS was attended by 46 participants from 16 member states and one observer organisation. New officers of ICG/NEAMTWS were elected - Professor Ahmet Yalciner (Turkey) as chair and Dr Anna von Gyldenfeldt (Germany) and Dr Stefano Lorito (Italy) as vice chairs.

The Government of Romania through its National Institute for Earth Physics offered to host the thirteenth session of ICG/NEAMTWS in Bucharest from 26-28 September 2016.