TEMPP Pilot

TEMPP process builds Tsunami Ready community, Cedeño, Honduras (PPT, 3.8 MB)

1. BACKGROUND
In July 2014, the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System Steering Committee (PTWS SC, 2014) approved Working Group 3’s (Disaster Management and Preparedness) that the next priority of the PTWS after the implementation of the PTWC New Products on October 1, 2014, should be on Preparedness. The International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) recommended a capacity building focus on evacuation and proposed a new course that was accepted by the PTWC SC. For the course, ITIC obtained NOAA and USAID funding, and collaborated with the IOC and Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program to conduct a pilot in Honduras and Central America from 2015-2017.

In April 2015 at the Twenty-sixth session of the ICG/PTWS, Member States affirmed the priority focus and established a Task Team on Evacuation Planning and Mapping, chaired by the ITIC Director and comprised of experts in Warning, Modeling, Disaster Management, Community Preparedness and Education and Outreach, to provide guidance to ITIC during the development of the Course. Following, the ICG/CARIBE-EWS-X (May 2015) also endorsed the new course and ITIC and CTWP are collaborating to develop the course piloting in Honduras and inviting Central America and Mexico to participate.

2. PTWS TASK TEAM ON EVACUATION PLANNING AND MAPPING
The PTWS Task Team on Evacuation Planning and Mapping was established by Recommendation ICG/PTWS-XXVI.1 (April, 2015) under Chair Dr Laura Kong (ITIC) and with Terms-of-Reference as follows:

1. Develop a new programme aimed at facilitating tsunami resilience through community preparedness, specifically through the preparation of tsunami evacuation maps and associated response plans for tsunami-vulnerable coastal communities. Programme globally applicable and utilizing standardized tools and methodologies where they exist.
2. Take advantage of existing resources, the new programme should link existing training workshops, such that modules cover
   • Evacuation Planning
   • Evacuation Map Development (inundation modelling and map creation)
   • Tsunami Warning & Emergency Response SOPs
   • Conducting Tsunami Exercises (including evacuation)
3. Compile and take into consideration best practices worldwide.
4. Conduct a Pilot(s) using ‘real’ communities to produce an evacuation map.
5. After each training delivery, develop feedback mechanisms that will adapt and lead to improvements in the next course delivery.
6. Produce an IOC Manual and Guide on Evacuation Plans, Maps, and Procedures Membership to include experts in Warning, Modelling, Disaster Management, Community Preparedness, Education and Outreach, reporting to the Steering Committee and chaired by Ms Laura Kong (ITIC)

The Task Team Members are:
Chair – Dr. Laura Kong, ITIC
Caribbean region:  Alison Brome, Caribbean Tsunami Information Center; Patrick Tyburn,
     Martinique
Central America region:  Norwin Acosta, INETER, Nicaragua
Southeast Pacific region:  Representative, National Disaster Management Office, and Chair,
     PTWS Southeast Pacific Working Group (rec from ITIC Assoc Director)
Southwest Pacific region:  'Ofa Fa'anunu, Tonga Meteorological Services; Chair, PTWS SWP WG 
     Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Preparedness:  Julie Leonard, PTWS WG 3
     Vice-Chair (since passed away); John Kimbrough, USAID/OFDA/LAC
Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia region:  Ardito Kodijat, Indian Ocean Tsunami Information
     Center; Irina Rafliana, Indonesia
Mediterranean and North Atlantic Region (NEAMTWS) – Gerassimos Papadopoulos, Greece

3. TEMPP PROJECT
ITIC has led the development of a standardized process and training course through its Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Plans, and Procedures (TEMPP) Project.  TEMPP is a collaborative effort of the USA (NOAA, USAID/OFDA), IOC, and New Zealand.  NOAA’s Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program is a co-lead with ITIC for the TEMPP Project. 

The TEMPP Project develop and piloted a training course that covered the process of producing reliable and practical community-level tsunami evacuation maps. The Course covers cases where modeling is and is not available, demonstrates the application of different levels of tsunami modeling to construct inundation maps, works through the process of creating a community-owned evacuation map, with appropriate routing, safe area assembly, signage, along with a emergency response and evacuation plan, and finally, uses an exercise to test emergency response operational readiness of a community.

A TEMPP Course Development Team (CDT) worked with ITIC to develop the Course. The CDT consists of:

Bernardo Aliaga, PTWS Technical Secretary, Programme Specialist, UNESCO/IOC

Dr. Diego Arcas, Tsunami Modeler, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)
David Coetzee, Manager, Capability & Operations, NZ Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Mgmt
Dr. Laura Kong, Director, ITIC
George Crawford, Community Preparedness, retired from Earthquake and Tsunami Program
     Manager, USA Washington State Military Department Emergency Management Division
Christa von Hillebrandt-Andrade, Chair, ICG/CARIBE-EWS; Manager, CTWP; Carolina Hincapie
Mylene Villegas, Chief Science Research Specialist, Geologic Disaster Awareness & Preparedness
     Division (GDAPD), Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS)
Tim Walsh, Chief Hazards Geologist, USA Washington State, Dept of Natural Resources 

The PTWS Task Team on Evacuation Planning and Mapping provides guidance to the ITIC and the Course Development Team. The CDT has compiled and incorporated best practices worldwide, and is linking existing materials and trainings on tsunami standard operating procedures and exercises.  The TEMPP Course and process built from previous efforts to create a linked series of tsunami trainings. In February 2017, the TEMPP pilot trainings were completed. Next efforts will focus on formalizing the Course and its methodologies to allow it to be offered widely, and to publish the material as part of the IOC Manuals and Guides series.

Targeted trainees included Tsunami National Contacts and Tsunami Warning Focal Points, other governmental institutions staff (local and national) and civil society organizations leaders. Tsunami modeling training targets physical scientists and oceanographers in governmental institutions and universities.

4. TEMPP ACTIVITIES
The TEMPP Project used a Pilot to develop the Course. The Pilot was run in Honduras with the communities of Cedeño (Pacific) and Sambo Creek (Caribbean) identified. After further investigation showed there to inadequate bathymetry to support modeling, and noting Sambo Creek was viewed to be a low tsunami hazard, it was decided to proceed only with Cedeño. While the ITIC and partners led the effort, significant commitments were made by Honduras as the beneficiary country. The Pilot was structured to enable the relevant national agencies to work at the local level with communities in the development of tsunami evacuation plans, maps, and procedures. At the Pilot’s completion, the community should be able to meet the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready guidelines - after successfully conducting a tsunami drill, Cedeño was recognized as Tsunami Ready on 16 February 2017.  

In addition to Honduras scientists and government officials, 1 representative for the other Central American Countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama), and Mexico, was also invited to learn through the TEMPP Pilot. For each training, the typical class size is about 20 persons. On completion of TEMPP, participants should have sufficient training to replicate the process in tsunami-prone communities in their country.

The direct outcomes for the host country include: 

• Communities that know what to do and where to go, and 
• Country capability and tools to replicate the community evacuation map process elsewhere