Between May and September 2005, national assessments of 16 countries in the Indian Ocean were conducted to identify capacity building needs and support requirements for developing an IOTWS. National assessments were conducted by international expert teams working together with experts from each participating country. Three-day missions were conducted to each country to meet with national experts from government agencies and non-governmental organizations involved in tsunami or natural disaster management to complete a questionnaire covering all aspects of tsunami warning and mitigation system. Mission teams were composed of international experts from the UNESCO-IOC, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction/Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning (UN-ISDR/PPEW), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) and subject matter experts from Australia, China, France, Finland, and the United States of America (USA). Country teams that participated in the mission discussions included national experts from academic institutions, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations from each participating country.
An overall regional summary indicates:
- Most countries have established or strengthened their disaster management laws, national platforms, and national and local coordination mechanisms to guide all-hazard disaster risk reduction and to establish clearer responsibilities for end-to-end early warning system. Not all have specifically addressed the tsunami coordination aspect.
- All participating countries receive international tsunami warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) except Somalia, and most countries receive these warnings at facilities with back-up systems for receiving warning messages that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Few countries operate a national tsunami warning centre or have the capacity to receive or provide real-time seismic or sea level data.
- Few participating countries have developed tsunami emergency and evacuation plans and signage or tested response procedures for tsunamis or earthquakes. Much of the information and data needed to develop these plans, such as post-event surveys, inundation modeling, and tsunami hazard and vulnerability assessment, has yet to be collected.
- Many participating countries have assessed local government capacity for disaster preparedness and emergency response but not community preparedness. Community education and outreach programmes are being developed but are largely not in place in most participating countries.
- Most countries have made progress developing policies, assessing technological needs, and establishing coordination mechanisms at a national level for tsunami warning and mitigation. Local planning and preparedness activities are being carried out first in selected target areas, or cities and towns, rather than as comprehensive national programmes.
The national assessment missions provided an opportunity to define the components and implementation actions of tsunami early warning and mitigation systems and to identify related capacity building opportunities, and the Report provides a summary of the types of guidance documents and capacity building activities that will help to catalyze national actions..
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