Background

Efforts to focus on building tsunami resiliency at the community level by developing a global programme began to be dicussed in the Caribbean (Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunamis and other Coastal Hazards for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions) in 2011 (ICG/CARIBE-EWS-VI, April 2011).  The success of the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service (NOAA NWS) StormReady® and TsunamiReady® Programs was noted, as these worked with communities to prepare them for extreme weather and water events with the goal of building a US Weather-Ready Nation.  At the same time, destructive local tsunamis as in Japan (2011) and in Chile (2014, 2015) attested to the importance of community readines - when a tsunami arrives and communities are ready to respond, lives are saved and fewer people die.

The US NOAA NWS TsunamiReady® Programme was established on 20 June 2001. TsunamiReady® helps communities minimize the risk posed by tsunamis through better risk assessment, planning, education and warning communications.  The main goal is to improve safety before, during, and after tsunami emergencies. The Program is a voluntary community recognition program that promote preparedness as an active collaboration among federal, state/territorial and local emergency management agencies, community leaders and the public.  For recognition, a community must have implemented activities according to the US TsunamiReady Guidelines (rev 2016).  The recognition process (application, review, recognition) is overseen by local offices of the National Weather Service (NWSI 10.704, 2022).  

In June 2011, the US NWS provided initial funding to support a joint NWS and UNESCO/IOC TsunamiReady® recognition pilot project as an initial rollout for the Caribbean and the international community. The NOAA Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program (now ITIC Caribbean Office), in coordination with the ICG/CARIBE EWS, worked with the Governments of Anguilla and British Virgin Islands to help those islands strengthen their local operations and improve tsunami readiness that led to their recognition in 2011 and 2014, respectively.

In 2015, the UNESCO IOC ICG/CARIBE EWS-X) recommended the approval of the Tsunami Ready Recognition guidelines, and this recommendation was approved by the IOC General Assembly. Subsequently, the IOC global TOWS Working Group IX (February 2016) took note of the ICG/CARIBE-EWS adoption of the Tsunami Ready Recognition guidelines. 

In July 2016, the ICG/Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System Steering Committee (PTWS SC, July 2016) acknowledged the preparedness potential of the guidelines and requested its Working Group 3 on Disaster Management, Preparedness, and Risk Reduction to investigate the possibility of piloting an experimental Tsunami Ready Recognition process.  

In 2017, the TOWS WG X (February 2017), following its Inter-ICG Task Team on Disaster Management and Preparedness (TT-DMP, 2017), recommended the IOC Assembly to instruct ICGs to consider piloting guidelines with a view toward developing a harmonized consistent global guidelines. 

At the ICG/PTWS-XXVII (March, 2017), a PTWS Task Team on Tsunami Evacuation Maps, Plans, and Procedures (TEMPP) and the Tsunami Ready Recognition Pilot Programme was established to facilitate the piloting of the CARIBE-EWS guidelines in the Pacific, and the Southeast Pacific (SEP) and Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICT) Regional Working Groups also identified Tsunami Ready Recognition as a priority activity for the intersessional period.  At the ICG/CARIBE-EWS-XXII (May, 2017), the CARIBE-EWS Task Team on Tsunami Ready was continued to also facilitate the piloting in the Caribbean.  At the ICG/IOTWMS-XI (April 2017), Indian Ocean countries also expressed interest to piloting Tsunami Ready.  

At the ICG/IOTWMS-XII (Mar 2019), the IOTIC reported on the piloting of the IOTR indicators, which included an additional indicator requiring a community tsunami risk reduction plan, in India and Oman as part of the Indian Ocean Wave 2018 exercise. At the ICG/PTWS-XXVIII (April 2019) and ICG/CARIBE-EWS-XIV (April 2019), both ICGs agreed on revisions to produce a common set of guidelines for the Pacific and Caribbean.

In June 2021, the IOC Assembly approved the establishment of the IOC Ocean Decade Tsunami Programme, with the aim of making 100% of communities at risk of tsunami prepared for and resilient to tsunamis by 2030 through the implementation of the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready and other initiatives."  The implementation of Tsunami Ready will be a key contribution to achieving the societal outcome ‘A Safe Ocean’ of the Ocean Decade (2021-2030).

Later in 2021, the ICG/IOTWMS-XII (Nov 2021) decided that a Tsunami Ready Working Group should be formed to lead and coordinate the implementation of the Programme in the Indian Ocean.  At the ICG/NEAMTWS-XVII (Nov 2021), Member States established a Task Team on Tsunami Ready to promote, coordinate, and advise on NEAM region implementation.

Altogether between 2017 and 2022, pilots were conducted in 16 countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago)

Based on the pilots, and forward-looking progress reports from all regions, the TOWS WG Inter-ICG Task Team on Disaster Management and Preparedness (TOWS WG TT-TMP) was asked to finalize the guidelines.  The UNESCO/IOC Standard Guidelines for the Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme (IOC MG 74) was published in early 2022.  

In February 2022, the TOWS WG-XV TT-DMP (2022) met to discuss Pilot results, progress made in developing Tsunami Ready resources shared (IOC MG 74, Tsunami Ready Interactive Viewer, website, graphical standards and logo, OTGA Training by IOTIC, BMKG (Indonesia), and ITIC, Tsunami Ready Board Game, Education and Awareness Materials compiled by the IOC TICs), and review the Tsunami Ready Programme proposal and Tsunami Ready Coalition Terms of Reference (TOWS WG-XV Final Report, Appendix 2).  With satisfaction, it recommended to transition from a Pilot to a UNESCO IOC Programme, and this was approved by the TOWS-WG-XV (February 2022).

In June 2022, the IOC Executive Council, at the recommendation of the TOWS-WG-XV (February 2022), approved the establishment of the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme. UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Information Centres (TIC) in each region (CTIC, IOTIC, ITIC, NEAMTIC) have the role facilitating the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme.

 

Additional Information