Revised Guidelines on Tsunami Risk Assessment and Mitigation for the Indian Ocean

The revised Guidelines on “Tsunami Risk Assessment and Mitigation for the Indian Ocean; knowing your tsunami risk – and what to do about it” have been published by IOC UNESCO.  The Guidelines are the 2nd edition of IOC Manuals and Guides No. 52, which was first published in 2009.  They have been compiled by an international group of tsunami experts with the benefit of new published and unpublished information. 

The Guidelines have been prepared as an activity of ICG/IOTMWS Working Group 1 on Tsunami Risk, Community Awareness and Preparedness as part of a project entitled: “Enhancing Tsunami Risk Assessment and Management, Strengthening Policy Support and Developing Guidelines for Tsunami Exercises in Indian Ocean Countries” for which IOC UNESCO secured funding from the UNESCAP Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster and Climate Preparedness in India Ocean and South East Asia Countries.  Reports from this project, including the revised Guidelines, are available for download at: http://www.ioc-tsunami.org/trate_reports.

New material includes a chapter reviewing the current and recent initiatives in institutional risk assessment and management with in a disaster risk reduction (DRR) framework and a chapter addressing the rationale and key steps to be followed in the sequence of risk assessment and risk reduction procedures.  There is a new chapter on case studies, which provides summary accounts of strengths and weaknesses in the delivery of early warning for the major tsunami events in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean regions since the beginning of 2004.   Additionally, there is a new chapter on tools and/or methods associated with tsunami propagation models, post-event surveys, integrating inundation models into land use planning, risk-based land use planning, and community-based disaster risk management.