Italy will also be among the countries involved in the international exercise on tsunami risk of the NEAMTWS (North-Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas Tsunami Warning System) of the IOC-UNESCO, scheduled from 31 October to 3 November . The initiative, called NEAMWave17, includes exercise tests on four different simulated scenarios which will involve, on different days, three areas of the Mediterranean and an area of the north-eastern Atlantic.
This is the first exercise after the establishment of the National Seaquake Alert System (SiAM), envisaged by the Directive of the President of the Council of Ministers of 17 February (in the Official Journal of 5 June 2017). The SiAM - created to assess the possibility that a tsunami may occur as a result of earthquakes at sea or along the coast and of what magnitude and to disseminate warning messages - is made up of INGV - National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, which operates through the Tsunami Warning (CAT), ISPRA - Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research and Civil Protection Department.
On 2 November, the scenario that will affect not only Italy but the whole Mediterranean is based on a hypothetical earthquake of magnitude 8.5 with its epicenter south of the island of Zakynthos, in the western segment of the Hellenic Arc, and will allow a simulation of a real alert process on a national scale.
The exercise will therefore include the analysis of the tsunamigenic potential of the earthquake carried out by CAT-INGV, the real-time study of the tide gauge data collected by ISPRA and the application of the rapid alert procedures by the Civil Protection Department. It will also be an opportunity to test the ad hoc technological platform for the rapid sending of alert messages, which will allow simultaneous transmission through three channels: email, SMS and IVR (Interactive Voice Response).
The alert messages will be forwarded to all the Regional Civil Protection Operations Rooms and for the Regions of Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia - those most affected by the exercise scenario - communications will reach, again through the platform, some municipal administrations identified by the regions themselves .