Coastal communities worldwide are uniting to bolster their resilience to ocean hazards. Convening at the sidelines of the 2024 Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona, Spain (10-12 April 2024), on 11 April, experts and policymakers underscored the need for proactive measures to fortify resilience against tsunamis, aligning with the Ocean Decade Challenge 6 aimed at enhancing community resilience for ocean hazards. 

Last week, The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) became the first country in the North Pacific to recognize communities under the UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme. On April 23, 2024, Weno Municipality of Chuuk State and on April 26, 2024, Kolonia Town, and the municipalities of Sokehs, Kitti, Madolenihmw, U, and Nett of Pohnpei Island, Pohnpei State, became the 55th and 56th communities globally. The recognitions were facilitated by the International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC), with support from USAID. The NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (NCTR) provided hazard assessments that each State used to develop evacuation zones and response plans, conduct exercises, and hold tsunami outreach to prepare their communities.

March 11 marked the somber anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, a day that forever changed the lives of thousands. Thirteen years have passed since the waves unleashed by the Great East Japan Earthquake claimed over 15,000 lives and left countless others grappling with injuries, displacement, and profound grief.

The Seventeenth Meeting of the Working Group on Tsunamis and Other Hazards related to Sea Level Warning and Mitigation Systems (TOWS-WG-XVII) concluded on February 23, 2024, in Sendai, Japan. Hosted at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, the meeting ran parallel to the Task Team on Disaster Management and Preparedness (TT-DMP) and the Inter-ICG Task Team on Tsunami Watch Operations (TT-TWO) meetings, sharing joint agenda items.

Over 40 national representatives, stakeholders and experts assembled at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris for a meeting of CoastWAVE, a Project implemented by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and funded by the European Commission's DG ECHO in the context of the UN Ocean Decade 2021-2030.

In a groundbreaking achievement, the Municipality of Cannes (France) has been officially recognized as the first UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready community in mainland France and the Mediterranean. The momentous event unfolded on January 19, 2024, at the Salon Marianne at City Hall, marking a pivotal milestone not only for Cannes but for the entire region.

On 3rd November 2023, the village of Sila and Navuevu in the District of Cuvu in Nadroga Province received their certificate of recognition as a Tsunami Ready community through the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme under the Ocean Decade Tsunami Programme (ODTP) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/IOC).

During the Official Handover Ceremony of the official certificate of recognition, the Fiji Government Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources, Mr Filimoni Vosaroga highlighted that “the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Programme is timely for us as Fiji Government intend to increase the knowledge and understanding of tsunami risks and warning arrangements, especially for the vulnerable people of Fiji under the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy 2018-2030.”

The UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Program is an integral component of Fiji’s Community Based Disaster Risk Management Handbook that will guide practitioners in government and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) when preparing communities for a tsunami threat.

In the pursuit of enhancing the tsunami preparedness of coastal communities, the IOC/UNESCO together with the Seismology Team at the Geological Survey Department of Cyprus, organized between 26-27 September, 2023 a workshop focused on developing tsunami evacuation maps for Larnaka, a coastal town that aspires to attain UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready status by mid-2024.

This essential workshop, a constituent of the IOC EU DG ECHO CoastWave project, facilitated constructive engagement with relevant stakeholders, including Cyprus Civil Defense. The event leveraged local expertise and experience, allowing stakeholders to validate the evacuation base map while also identifying potential challenges linked to the mapping of tsunami evacuation routes and assembly areas.

Participants of the workshop

     The Oceania Regional Seismic Network (ORSNET) member states completed an 8-days online Basic SeisComP Training from 26^th October to 4^th November 2020 delivered by gempa GmbH. ORSNET member states were last trained on SeisComP3 by gempa GmbH in 2013. This gap in capacity development was recognized at the 28^th Meeting of ICG/PTWS held in Nicaragua in April 2019 under the Working Group 2- Tsunami Detection, Warning and Dissemination through the Fifth Meeting of the Task Team Seismic Data Sharing in the Southwest Pacific and the Seventh Meeting of the Pacific Islands Countries and Territories Working Group on Tsunami Warning and Mitigation held on March 2019 in Noumea, New Caledonia.

5th World Tsunami Awareness

Day (5 November 2020)

5th November was designated as World Tsunami Awareness Day (WTAD) by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2015 through its Resolution A/RES/70/203. The resolution requested that the United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction, in collaboration with relevant organizations of the United Nations system, facilitate the observance of WTAD, starting in 2016.

The 2020 edition of the World Tsunami Awareness Day (WTAD) was jointly organized by UNDRR and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, in collaboration with other UN and external partners (i.e. UNDP), notably with the sponsorship of the Government of Japan.

The WTAD 2020 was structured as a 30-day “campaign” with three main events focused on Global Target (e) of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030i: 

Three key activities:

1) 13 October 2020: online live screening of the 52’ documentary “Tsunamis: Facing a Global Threat” (ZED productions) by French film maker Pascal Guérin showcasing field research activities facilitated by IOC-UNESCO in the aftermath of the 2018 tsunami in Palu, Indonesia. The live streaming was followed by a panel discussion with the film maker and top experts.

2) In November, a series of webinars were organized by the regional IOC teams in charge of coordinating regional tsunami early warning systems, in cooperation with UNDRR regional offices:

3 November – Caribe EWS 

4 November – Indian Ocean;

4 November – North Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea;

4 November – Pacific Island Countries

10 November – Central and South America Pacific Ocean.

This series of webinars focused on the need to connect state-of-the-art scientific expertise with local community preparedness to ensure science-based tsunami local plans are in place including through IOC-UNESCO led Tsunami Ready recognition processes.

3) 5 November: A virtual high-level event during the Third Tsunami Museum Conference showcased how museums contribute to keeping the memory of past disasters and lessons learned alive. The event featured recorded testimonials of tsunami survivors.