Spain’s Efforts and Challenges in Developing a Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System

A tsunami information meeting was organized in Madrid, Spain from 25-26 September 2017 by the Protección Civil y Emergencias, the Instituto Español de Oceanografía and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in the context of the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (NEAMTWS).

The meeting was hosted at the National School of the Protección Civil y Emergencias. This was the first time that an national information meeting was organized by a Civil Protection Authority under the umbrella of the NEAMTWS.

The information meeting provided a status and overview of Spain’s effort and challenges in developing tsunami hazard assessments, and a National Tsunami Warning Centre. Participants were also informed about the current status of the North-eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected sea Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (NEAMTWS), the planned NEAMWave 17 Tsunami Exercise to be conducted between 31 October-3 November 2017, and the World Tsunami Awareness Day (5 November 2017).

Key recommendations highlighted the need to develop unified criteria and approaches for developing tsunami risk maps, and the importance of consolidation, integration, and management of tsunami risk information by all national actors involved.

The meeting was attended by more than 50 participants mainly from Spain and some visiting experts from Civil Protection Authorities in Italy and Greece. Agenda and presentations available at:http://www.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewEventRecord&eventID=2005