The fifteenth working session of the ICG/NEAMTWS – Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas. The appointment was aimed at taking stock of scientific progress, tsunami risk mitigation strategies and their implementation in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean region to improve the safety of coastal populations. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), the Department of Civil Protection (DPC) and the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) participated in the event as an Italian delegation as member bodies of the 'Seismic Tsunami Alert (SiAM).
An important part of the discussion concerned the analysis of two recent tsunamis: the Sulawesi tsunami (Indonesia), triggered by the 7.4 magnitude earthquake of 28 September 2018, which caused about 2000 victims and 1000 missing, and the small tsunami generated by an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 which occurred on 25 October 2018 in the Ionian Sea, near the island of Zakynthos (Greece). The latter event triggered an orange tsunami warning (corresponding to very limited expected flooding and possible strong currents) for the southern coasts of Italy.
The analysis of these two events highlighted the need to speed up and intensify work on the so-called "last mile" of the warning system, improving on the one hand the ability of the civil protection system to disseminate warning messages to the entire population concerned from the risk, on the other hand that of the citizens to respond to the event, above all through the rapid evacuation of the threatened coastal strips. As advised by all tsunami warning centres, the evacuation must take place not only following the warning messages issued by the authorities, but also through a correct interpretation of the natural signals that accompany a tsunami: the strong and/or prolonged shaking of the ground , a loud noise that comes from the open sea, sudden sea level anomalies (for example the withdrawal of water or strong currents).
To concretely follow up on this work, the "Indications to the components and operational structures of the National Civil Protection Service for updating civil protection planning for tsunami risk" were recently published in the Official Gazette. The Indications were presented to the delegations and to the Coordination Group, together with the general progress of the creation of the SiAM, the report of the exercises carried out (for example NEAMWave17) and the methodology for the definition of the evacuation maps produced by the SiAM for all the Italian coasts based on the TSUMAPS-NEAM hazard model (www.tsumaps-neam.eu).
During the meeting, the results of the "Pilot Research on Tsunami Risk Perception" carried out by INGV on a statistical sample of 1021 residents in the coastal municipalities of Puglia and Calabria were also presented. An analysis of the possible consequences related to tsunami risk management in terms of criminal and civil liability for scientists and Civil Protection authorities was also proposed.
The results of these research activities aroused great interest among the representatives of the fifteen delegations present and will be considered in the drafting of the new NEAMTWS Implementation Plan and the Operational Users Guide.
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