The Tsunami Warning System in Thailand: A Part of the Reconstruction Process After the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 113

Table 8.3 Criteria of tsunami warning based on earthquake-relate d parameters

Hypocenter
Less than
100 km

Magnitude of the
event (Richter scale)

More than
100 km Area of surveillance in Thailand

(1) Latitudes of N3-N23 &
Longitudes of E88-E103

5.0-6.5 Advisory Advisory

6.6-7.7 Watch Watch

7.8 and higher Warning Watch

(2) Latitudes of S7.5-N25 &
Longitudes of E75-E125

5.7-7.0 Advisory Advisory

7.1 and higher Watch Watch

Other than (1) and (2) 7.0 and higher Advisory Advisory

Source: Ekmahachai 2013 ; Thailand National Disaster Warning Center. NDWC

Table 8.4 Broadcast channels as of September 2013
Channel Number Channel Number

Short message
service (SMS)

More than 20
million users

Warning box at City halls and
the National Broadcasting
Services of Thailand

166 boxes

Fax server 16 equipments Village alarm tower 654 towers

Hot lines 8 Village leader radio devices 1,590 devices

Email - News center 70 terminals

Television program
(via the Television
Pool of Thailand)

6 public
channels

Government Information
Network

All government
agencies

Website - Smartphone server 600,000 licenses

Warning tower 328 towers Web EOC -

Source: Ekmahachai 2013 ; Thailand National Disaster Warning Center. NDWC

Finally, the NDWC (A2) is responsible for retrieving the seismic information to
analyze the severity of the situation and potential hazard issuing the warning as
appropriate. Once the disaster is over, the NDWC terminates the warning process.
This agency has two offi ces being the operational one primarily run by the Bangna
Offi ce which is located in the same area as the TMD and works 24 h a day, 7 days a
week to ensure that highest possible level of effi ciency. In the case of an electrical
black out, the NDWC is able to continue operating using their emergency power
supply for at least 12 h.
Figure 8.2 Organization Construction Diagram of Tsunami Early Warning System
in Thailand Currently, there are many communication channels used by the NDWC to
broadcast the warnings (Fig. 8.2 -CA3) as seen in Table 8.4 . As it happens, although the
warning broadcast towers have been installed in all areas of the country, especially on
the coastlines, the exception is the capital city (Bangkok) because of the problem of
land availability. However, the other available channels are believed to reach the met-
ropolitan area, particularly through television channels. All the broadcasted messages
given through the warning broadcast towers include English, German, Chinese, and
Japanese for foreign tourists as well as Thai language for the locals; the messages also
give instructions to the citizens regarding how to respond to the specifi c warning.