Early Warning System for Tsunamis and other Natural Hazards in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia

The devastating impact of the December 26th tsunami event impelled countries in the Indian Ocean region to take concerted action in addressing tsunami threats. Subsequently a number of regional, inter-governmental, international and ministerial level meetings were held to discuss the establishment of a regional early warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Emerging from the discussions at the different forums, was a consensus to establish an early warning system comprising of a network of national or sub-regional arrangements, connected to a regional coordination center within a common platform, and linked to future global early warning arrangements. At the Ministerial Meeting on Regional Cooperation on Tsunami Early Warning Arrangements on 29 January 2005 in Phuket, H.E. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra proposed that ADPC be a regional center for a multi-nodal tsunami early warning arrangement in the region, under the coordination of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The Meeting also recognized ADPC’s readiness to take on this role, and was supported by several countries in the region. At the meeting ADPC presented its vision of the regional center, which would:

• coordinate with the international warning system, regional centers in other oceans, and national warning centers; provide early warning information on distant tsunamis to national centers;

• build capacities of national warning centers on the end-to-end multi-hazard early warning system;

• provide back-up support to national warning centers;

• act as a resource center and clearinghouse for tsunami preparedness and mitigation activities; and

• integrate tsunami early warning into existing national warning systems for other natural hazards to ensure sustainability.

In establishing the end-to-end early warning system in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, ADPC is working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, in Thailand. Support is also being extended to develop Thailand’s national tsunami early warning capacities. A consultative process involving all the stakeholder countries in the region was adopted. Two consultative meetings of experts from countries in the region have been held so far, to assess needs as well as to design the system. The meetings confirmed agreement and support of all the participating countries for an organizational and functional partnership among the countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with the assistance of China and the Philippines. The second experts’ consultation meeting held on 20-21 April 2005 was conclusive in that the members:

• accepted the minimum required number of observation stations for the Southeast Asian system as consisting of: 30 strong-motion accelerographs; 15 broadband seismographs; 6 deep-ocean buoys; and 20 sea level gauges;

• agreed that efforts to establish the require observation system should be in coordination with: national plans; and global systems; and

• drew the implementation plan, which details activities for implementation in the immediate, and within 3 months, 6 months – 1 year, and 2-3 years, covering the seismic, deep-ocean, and sea-level sub-systems, prediction, information and communication, including personnel requirements.

Following this, the implementation of establishing an end-to-end multi-hazard early warning system in Southeast Asia, with initial focus on tsunami warning, has been initiated. The progress made so far includes, agreements by IOC/GLOSS to install 2 sea level stations in Thailand (at Koh Miang, Koh Taprao Noi) by end of June; and 3 others (at Yung Tao, Vietnam; Myanmar; the Philippines) by end of August. Arrangements for training ADPC personnel at Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, is also underway.

For more details contact Mr Subbiah, Director and Team Leader, Climate Risk Management Team at subbiah@adpc.net  or Ms Lolita Bildan, Project Manager, Climate Risk Management Team at lolita@adpc.net