The contribution of international scientific cooperation and related institutions to effective governance for the oceans: the cases of regional tsunami early warning systems and the Argo Project - Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century - page 282

8.3.2 Institutional arrangements and decision-making

As primary subsidiary bodies of the IOC (IOC, 2005f ) , the ICGs provide scientific and tech-
nical advice and guidance to the IOC governing bodies, the Assembly and the Executive
Council, and determine technical policies for the implementation of its programme of activ-
ities. The ICG has officers (a chair and one or two vice-chairs) and a steering committee that
coordinates and integrates the work of the ICG in the intersessional periods.
For the technical development and implementation of the programme of activities, the
ICGs establish standing working groups and task teams of a limited duration. All ICGs have
established working groups related to (a) hazard assessment and modelling; (b) seismic and
sea-level measurements; and (c) advisories, public awareness, and preparedness.
The ICGs are assisted by the IOC Secretariat, through its Paris headquarters and
through decentralized offices and/or outposted staff in Apia, Samoa (PTWS), Jakarta, In-
donesia and Perth, Australia (IOTWS), and Kingston, Jamaica and Port au Prince, Haiti
(CARIBE-EWS). The PTWS relies also on the essential technical expertise of the US In-
ternational Tsunami Information Center (ITIC), established by the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Honolulu, Hawaii. On the model of ITIC, tsunami
information centres (TICs) were established in Jakarta, Indonesia for the Indian Ocean, Par-
is, France for the north-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, and Bridgetown, Barbados for
the Caribbean: Jakarta Tsunami Information Centre (JTIC) (see Table 8.2 for expansion of
scope to the Indian Ocean); Tsunami Information Centre for the North-Eastern Atlantic and
theMediterranean (NEAMTIC);andTsunamiInformationCentrefortheCaribbean(CTIC).

Table 8.2 Changes in the life of the ICGs

ICG / Major changes Changes in key

concepts and
principles

Changes in the group
of leading actors

Expansions in the
functional scope

ICG/PTWS 2014: Change from the

issuance of warnings to
advisory tsunami wave

1965: Establishment of
the Tsunami Warning
System in the Pacific

2014: Change from the
issuance of warnings to
advisory tsunami wave