SENAT
Report n° 117 (2007-2008) by M. Roland COURTEAU, Senator (for the parliament office for the evaluation of scientific and technological choices) - Appendix to the minutes of the 7 December 2007 session
Disponible au format Acrobat (21 Moctets)
(2) The actions of the International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC)
The International Tsunami Information Centre (ITIC) continues to play a fundamental role in the tsunami warning system: as secretary of the intergovernmental coordination group for the tsunami warning system in the Pacific, it coordinates its members' preventive measures and recommends necessary improvements with regard to data collection and dissemination. It has organized 3 ICG/Pacific meetings since 2004, as well as the first warning exercise for the entire Pacific zone, which was held on 16 and 17 May 2006 and for which it later published the assessment.
It also helps the member states set up national and regional tsunami warning systems.
|
The role of national and regional warning systems On the one hand, they serve to better protect the populations of certain zones poorly covered by the tsunami warning system in the Pacific. Indeed, the Honolulu warning centre's original mission was to protect Hawaii from teletsunamis. However, computer simulations have since shown that the seismic zones liable to provoke a tsunami which could threaten Hawaii are the North Pacific (Alaska and Russia), off the coast of Chile and the Mariana Islands. The Solomon Islands, the Loyalty Islands and the Tonga Archipelago do not endanger Hawaii. As a result, the United States has not installed DART buoys in these two regions. However, other computer simulations have shown that a tsunami provoked by an earthquake in the Solomon or Loyalty Islands could affect Australia, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. It is therefore in the interest of these territories to set up a regional tsunami warning centre, which would take into account their geographic specificities. On the other hand, the national and regional centres complement and improve the effectiveness of the international system by increasing the number of measuring devices in service, thereby increasing the amount of available data; they also add to the overall capacity for analysis and assessment. |
The ITIC also publishes a newsletter and educational pamphlets, including The Great Waves and The Tsunami Glossary (both edited and published in France). It carries out public-awareness campaigns and has even developed, in cooperation with Chile, educational programmes for children which have been integrated into this country's school programmes. In addition, every year it organizes in Hawaii or some other location training courses for those persons responsible for managing its members' national warning centres.
Finally, its writ has been extended since the Sumatra tsunami of 2004, and it is now in charge of helping countries in the other basins to develop their own warning systems. The ITIC is particularly active in the Indian Ocean, where it plays an advisory role with regard to data communication, the interoperability of seismic and tide gauge networks and the methods used for forecasting tsunamis. It also organizes on-site assessments 12 ( * ) , training courses, symposiums and work group meetings.
Overall, the warning system in the Pacific works well and represents the most sophisticated and operational system. That is why PTWC has been put in charge of issuing warnings for the Indian Ocean zone, until this basin has its own warning system up and running.
Likewise, in the interim, PTWC covers the Caribbean zone and issues warnings to those countries surrounding the South China Sea (China, Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). 13 ( * )
Nevertheless, certain improvements could be made to render the system more effective in the Pacific. Several regional warning centres should be set up, so as to better take into account the risks posed by regional tsunamis. The concerned regions are the Southwest Pacific, Central America, South America and the China Seas.
What's more, the absence of any devastating trans-Pacific tsunamis for over 40 years could make it difficult to fund the system in the long term. As has already been pointed out, maintaining the DART buoys is particularly expensive and the United States is the main contributor to the warning system. The decisions made by the United States Congress are therefore closely monitored by all the other countries of the intergovernmental coordination group.
During the last meetings of the ICG/Pacific, two priorities were established:
- improve the warning messages, so that they include information on the expected magnitude of the tsunamis along the Pacific coasts;
- revise the warning system, to make it operational in the event of local tsunamis.
* 12 Assessing a country's capacity to set up a tsunami warning system.
* 13 For this zone, both PTWC and JMA are responsible for issuing warnings.