March 11 marked the somber anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, a day that forever changed the lives of thousands. Thirteen years have passed since the waves unleashed by the Great East Japan Earthquake claimed over 15,000 lives and left countless others grappling with injuries, displacement, and profound grief.
The Seventeenth Meeting of the Working Group on Tsunamis and Other Hazards related to Sea Level Warning and Mitigation Systems (TOWS-WG-XVII) concluded on February 23, 2024, in Sendai, Japan. Hosted at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, the meeting ran parallel to the Task Team on Disaster Management and Preparedness (TT-DMP) and the Inter-ICG Task Team on Tsunami Watch Operations (TT-TWO) meetings, sharing joint agenda items.
Over 40 national representatives, stakeholders and experts assembled at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris for a meeting of CoastWAVE, a Project implemented by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and funded by the European Commission's DG ECHO in the context of the UN Ocean Decade 2021-2030.
In a groundbreaking achievement, the Municipality of Cannes (France) has been officially recognized as the first UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready community in mainland France and the Mediterranean. The momentous event unfolded on January 19, 2024, at the Salon Marianne at City Hall, marking a pivotal milestone not only for Cannes but for the entire region.
On 3rd November 2023, the village of Sila and Navuevu in the District of Cuvu in Nadroga Province received their certificate of recognition as a Tsunami Ready community through the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme under the Ocean Decade Tsunami Programme (ODTP) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/IOC).
During the Official Handover Ceremony of the official certificate of recognition, the Fiji Government Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources, Mr Filimoni Vosaroga highlighted that “the UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Programme is timely for us as Fiji Government intend to increase the knowledge and understanding of tsunami risks and warning arrangements, especially for the vulnerable people of Fiji under the National Disaster Risk Reduction Policy 2018-2030.”
The UNESCO/IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Program is an integral component of Fiji’s Community Based Disaster Risk Management Handbook that will guide practitioners in government and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) when preparing communities for a tsunami threat.
In the pursuit of enhancing the tsunami preparedness of coastal communities, the IOC/UNESCO together with the Seismology Team at the Geological Survey Department of Cyprus, organized between 26-27 September, 2023 a workshop focused on developing tsunami evacuation maps for Larnaka, a coastal town that aspires to attain UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready status by mid-2024.
This essential workshop, a constituent of the IOC EU DG ECHO CoastWave project, facilitated constructive engagement with relevant stakeholders, including Cyprus Civil Defense. The event leveraged local expertise and experience, allowing stakeholders to validate the evacuation base map while also identifying potential challenges linked to the mapping of tsunami evacuation routes and assembly areas.
Participants of the workshop