UNESCO unveils roadmap for global tsunami preparedness to protect all coastal residents by 2030

UNESCO unveils roadmap for global tsunami preparedness to protect all coastal residents by 2030

Sub : Geo

Sec: Geomorphology

Context:

• Marking 20 Years Since the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: UNESCO’s Call for Preparedness.

UNESCO’s Tsunami Preparedness Roadmap:

• Goal: Establish 100 tsunami-ready coastal communities globally by 2030.
• Platform: Unveiled during a four-day international conference in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, commemorating the devastating 2004 tsunami.
• Outcome: Adoption of the Banda Aceh Statement, a global commitment to enhance tsunami warning and mitigation systems.

Key Highlights from the Conference:

1. Global Tsunami Risk and Preparedness
   • 700 million people live in tsunami-prone coastal regions; expected to rise to 1 billion by 2050.
   • High-risk areas like the Pacific face tsunamis every 1–2 years, with a near 100% chance of a tsunami in the Mediterranean within 30 years.
2. Progress Achieved
   • Over 30 countries have benefited from UNESCO’s Tsunami Ready Programme since its launch post-2004.
   • New Tsunami Ready communities recognized:
     • 26 in India
     • 12 in Indonesia
   • Real-time tsunami drills conducted in Banda Aceh villages tested preparedness.

Three-Step Warning Process:

1. Detection:
   • Advanced systems like seismic sensors, deep-ocean tsunami buoys, and submarine cable observatories for rapid sea-level disturbance identification.
2. Warning:
   • Accurate forecasting of wave propagation and immediate impact assessment.
3. Dissemination:
   • Alerting populations through sirens, radio, smartphones, and other communication channels.

UNESCO’s Expanded Global Network:

• Assets:
  • Tens of thousands of seismometers.
  • 1,200+ active sea-level stations.
  • 74 deep-ocean tsunami buoys.
• Coverage: High-risk areas worldwide, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.
• UNESCO aims to confirm tsunami threats within 10 minutes or less for high-risk coastlines by 2030.

Lessons from Past Events

• 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: Claimed over 227,000 lives across 15 countries.
• 2011 Japanese Tsunami: Nearly 20,000 fatalities within minutes, highlighting the need for swift action and robust community preparedness.

What is Tsunami Ready?

• The UNESCO-IOC (International Oceanographic Commission) Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme (TRRP) is an international community-based effort to bolster risk prevention and mitigation across global coastal zones.
• It aims to build tsunami resilience through awareness and preparedness strategies that will protect life, livelihoods and property from tsunamis.
• Methodology:
  • This voluntary, performance-based community recognition programme is a collaborative effort to meet a standard level of tsunami preparedness.
  • 12 indicators have been conceived to provide a consistent evaluation standard. All must be met to gain the recognition, which is renewable every four years.

Tsunami:

• A tsunami or a seismic sea wave is a series of waves that are caused in a large water body like an ocean by the displacement of massive volumes of water. The displacement can occur due to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, meteorite impacts, underwater explosions, etc.
• Tsunamis are sometimes called tidal waves because they resemble rapidly rising tides, but scientists avoid this usage since tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon whereas tsunamis are caused by water displacement.
• On 26 December 2004, a megathrust earthquake with its epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia struck the Indian Ocean and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis that affected 14 countries including India, killing a total of about 2,80,000 people.
• About 2004 Tsunami disaster:
  • The 2004 tsunami was caused by a massive earthquake that was the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. It measured between 9.1 and 9.3-moment magnitude. The duration of faulting was between 8.3 and 10 minutes and this was the longest ever.
  • The epicentre was in the Indian Ocean between Simeulue and mainland Indonesia.
  • The scientific community named this earthquake the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake. Its very high intensity makes it a megathrust earthquake.
  • About 1600 km of fault surface slipped 15 m along the zone where the Indian Plate slides under the Burma Plate.
  • It triggered several aftershocks for up to 3 to 4 months after the event. An enormous amount of energy was released as a result of the seismic activity and the earth is said to have wobbled minutely on its axis. The alteration in the mass and the energy released also caused a change in the earth’s rotation.
  • Due to the earthquake, the seabed rose vertically by many metres displacing a huge volume of water thus, causing the tsunami.
  • Indonesia was the first country to be hit by the tsunami because of its proximity. It also saw the maximum casualty, close to 1,70,000 being killed.
  • The eastern coast of India was hit about 2 hours later sometime after 9:00 AM local time. Kerala was hit after another 2 hours. It also hit countries far away like Somalia, Tanzania and even South Africa. Bangladesh was spared the horror despite its nearness to the epicentre because the tsunami waves were in the east-west direction.
  • The tsunami was also detected in Antarctica, Mexico and Vancouver in Canada.

Source: DTE