The meeting of the Steering Committee of NEAMTWS (North East Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas Tsunami Warning System), the body of the coordinators of the Tsunami Service Providers and the coordinators of the Working Groups and Task Teams of the area, concluded in recent days in Paris NEAM.
The meeting presented the new document on the strategy that the NEAMTWS has put in place for the defense against the tsunami risk of the Euro-Mediterranean area up to 2030.
The document, drawn up by the specialized NEAM team coordinated by Alessandro Amato of INGV (Italy) and Brian McConnell of GSI (Ireland), saw the contribution of the tsunami warning centers of France, Turkey, Greece and Portugal and was published after over two years of work.
The strategy devised by NEAM is based on three pillars:
1. Assessment of tsunami hazard and risk;
2. Monitoring, tsunami warning and dissemination of messages;
3. Awareness and response.
For each of the three pillars, some priority strategic objectives have been identified which will be pursued over the course of the decade.
The strategic document was delivered by the NEAM Secretary, Denis Chang-Seng, to the Executive Director of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO), Vladimir Ryabinin.
Alessandro Amato, coordinator of the team and head of the INGV Tsunami Alert Center (CAT-INGV), illustrated the contents of the text to the Italian scientific representation at UNESCO, Prof. Maria Vittoria Cubellis.
At the end of the day, the NEAM Secretary symbolically handed over the Strategy brochure to Stefano Lorito, CAT-INGV seismologist, who assumed the role of Task Team coordinator together with the head of the Greek Tsunami Warning Center, Nikos Kalligeris. The two researchers will work on the new Operational User Guide of the NEAM alert centres, intended to replace the previous version of 2011.
The document is available (in English) at this link:
