Euro-Med Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System

The 3^rd Meeting of the Intergovernmental Co-ordination Group for the North-East Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (NEAMTWS) was organized by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in Bonn (Germany) on 7-9 February. Delegations from 17 European and North-African coastal countries, as well as 8 international organisations including MAP-PAP/RAC met to define the Euro-Med Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System its objectives and deliverables. An initial detection system is expected to be ready by the end of 2007, with the full system - covering all coasts from the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the North-Eastern Atlantic - available by 2011.

This system will be based largely on existing national seismic and sea level monitoring activities, which although extensive, need to be integrated to function as an effective regional system. About 45 million people live along the coasts of Europe, and 10 percent of all observed tsunamis in the world occur in the Mediterranean Sea.

PAP/RAC Director, Mr. Ivica Trumbic, took an active role in the Working Group 4, which was concerned with the advisory, mitigation and public awareness measures, in particular the integration of the vulnerability assessment in the ICZM process. This important issue will also be discussed in the forthcoming meeting in Loutraki on 12-15 February when the text of the Mediterranean ICZM Protocol will be negotiated.