PTWS-XXVII - International Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, Twenty-seventh Session, Tahiti, French Polynesia, 28-31 March 2017

The Twenty-seventh Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS) was held in Tahiti, French Polynesia, from 28-31 March 2017, chaired by ICG/PTWS Chair, Filomena Nelson (Samoa).

The Twenty-seventh Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS-XXVII) took place from 27-31 March 2017 in Tahiti, French Polynesia, hosted by
France and locally by the “Centre Polynésien de Prévention des Tsunamis” (CPPT visited on 30 March). 66 partipants from 23 countries attended.  The ICG/PTWS was preceded by an International Tsunami Symposium “Recent tsunamis in the Pacific (2009-2016) - Improving tsunami response,” comprised of a science session on forecast and observations of the recent Pacific tsunami (2007-2016), and a disaster management session on improving tsunami response.  The ICG took actions to finalize the new PTWS Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Plans and Procedures (TEMPP) training course for worldwide availability, pilot the international Tsunami Ready program in the PTWS using the 2015 guidelines approved by the ICG/CARIBE-EWS, conduct the next Exercise Pacific Wave 2019 between September and November to align with the UN’s Disaster Reduction Day (October 13) and World Tsunami Awareness Day (November 5), establish competencies and guidelines for national tsunami

warning center staffing and guidance for responding to local tsunamis, develop an optimized detection strategy considering newly available sensor networks and analysis techniques, and review the PTWS Tsunami Service Model taking into account the planned new sub-regional Tsunami Service Providers (South China Sea Tsunami Advisory Center, Central America Tsunami Advisory Center). 
The Group welcomed the establishment of the Oceania Regional Seismic Network (ORSNET) under the leadership of France and Vanuatu, endorsed the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center’s plan to begin issuing in experimental mode its new enhanced products in 2018, and approved the ICG PTWS Framework for Goals and Performance Monitoring of Tsunami Warning & Mitigation Systems for use in performance monitoring for the next intercessional period. ICG PTWS Framework for Goals and Performance Monitoring of Tsunami Warning & Mitigation Systems for use in performance monitoring for the next intersessional period. Samoa’s Filomena Nelson was re-elected Chair, with Satoshi Harada (Japan) and Wilfried Strauch (Nicaragua) newly elected as Vice Chairs. The XXVIII session of the ICG/PTWS will be hosted by Nicaragua in 2019.

Left: France delegation (Jerome Aucan, New Caledonia, Dominique Reymond, CPPT, Francois Schindele, France). 
Right: NZ Ken Gledhill (former PTWS Chair), Bernardo Aliaga (PTWS Technical Secretary), Samoa Filomena Nelson
(PTWS Chair), Laura Kong (ITIC)

 Informational Documents