INGV: The Tsunami Warning Center participates in the XIV annual meeting of the ICG/NEAMTWS

The fourteenth session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) of the member states of the IOC (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission) of UNESCO was held in Lisbon from 21 to 23 November, for the Tsunami monitoring and warning system in the North-East Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected basins (NEAMTWS). Like every year, the Italian delegation, made up of researchers and officials from the Department of Civil Protection (DPC) and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), is among the participants.
The meeting, organized by the ICG together with the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), was fundamental for the definition of the policies to be adopted at an international level for the reduction of the risk from tsunamis.
During the meeting, the first after the accreditation of the Tsunami Warning Center (CAT-INGV) as Tsunami Service Provider (formalized during the annual meeting of the IOC in Paris last June), the results of the monitoring and research carried out by the INGV Tsunami Alert Centre.
Alessandro Amato, head of CAT-INGV, illustrated the good performance of the Center during the two small tsunamis in June and July between Greece and Turkey, while Stefano Lorito, researcher and CAT-INGV member showed the Probabilistic Maps of tsunami hazards of seismic origin produced on behalf of DG-ECHO in the European Project TSUMAPS-NEAM.
During the meeting, the aspects more connected to civil protection were also discussed: Luigi D'Angelo, director of operations for the coordination of emergencies of the Civil Protection Department, presented the national warning system for tsunamis generated by earthquakes - SiAM; Marzia Santini, of the Procedures, Emergency Planning and Exercises Service of the DPC, proposed a reflection on the measures necessary to improve the awareness of the population exposed to the tsunami risk. An in-depth evaluation of the NEAMWave2 international exercise was also carried out on 17 November which made it possible to simulate the efficiency of the warning procedures by the Tsunami Service Providers in the area towards the national Civil Protections and various local authorities.
At the end of the session, the Officers of the ICG/NEAMTWS for the next two years were elected: as Chair, Gerassimos Papadopolous of NOA (GR), succeeding Ahmet Cevdet Yalçiner of Koeri (TR); however, the Vice-Chairs Stefano Lorito of INGV and Anna von Gyldenfeldt of BSH (DE) were confirmed.
The assembly also conferred some positions on members of the Italian delegation: Francesco Mariano Mele (INGV) succeeds Alberto Michelini as co-chair of Working Group II, (Seismic and Geophysical Meaurements); Marzia Santini, of the DPC, was confirmed as co-chair of Working Group IV (Public Awareness, Preparedness & Mitigation) with the programmatic mandate of the assembly to enhance the initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of the Tsunami risk by citizens and communities exposed in the coasts of the NEAM Region. The assembly then decided to set up a new Documentation Task Team to update the NEAMTWS implementation and operating procedures, of which Alessandro Amato (INGV) was appointed co-chair.