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which in turn also requires some amount of time. With the specialized expertise of
the offi cials and more supporting information, the current timing for the tsunami
warning drill process could become shortened. Its important to note also that accord-
ing to Suppasri et al. (
2012
) due to the location of the possible earthquake epicenters
and the geography of the country it seems to allow for a certain period of time
(approximately 90 min) for announcing the warning and conducting the evacuation.
As stated by Joseph (
2011
), “A timely, 100 % accurate and precise warning is of
no use as far as protecting citizens unless the information reaches them in time and
unless they know how to respond to the emergency”. Moreover, as the Hyogo
Framework highlighted the importance of “integrated, multi-hazard approaches”
(UNISDR
2005
) and de León et al. (
2006
) suggested “Effective early warning sys-
tems require strong technical foundations and good knowledge of the risks”, we
conclude also that as part of the current developed and further improvement of the
early warning system procedures as well as the evacuation drills in Thailand, there
is a need to increase the evacuation effi ciency itself. For the purpose there is a need
for the responsible agency to develop a computerized user-friendly tsunami evacu-
ation maps to optimize the evacuation process especially the traffi c management
during the evacuation. Likewise, we suggest that there is a need to include the wave
height into the criteria of tsunami warning since the tsunami wave heights may also
differ depending on other conditions (e.g., geographical conditions, coastal depth).
Further refi nement of the existing early tsunami (and overall) warning system is
possible by also considering recent knowledge and experiences as well as research
studies from abroad, as well as from Thailand. This is of particular importance not
only for the country but also as the existing early warning system could be trans-
ferred to other developing countries.
Like in Thailand, countries in the Indian Ocean Region have developed tsunami
early warning systems i.e. India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore (Joseph
2011
;
PTWC
2009
). As of March 2013, the PTWC has stopped taking on additional areas
of responsibility in the Indian Ocean, most likely due to the development of early
warning systems being developed by Regional Tsunami Service Providers in
Australia, India, and Indonesia (PTWC
2009
) posing a challenge and opportunity
for the early warning Thai system to prove and improve its effi ciency, while encour-
aging the development of networks in the Region.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Tokyo Tech Risk Solutions 2013 Program
and the Tokyo Tech ACEEES Leading Program Educational Research Funds 2014. The authors
would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT), the Academy for Co-Creative Education of Environment and Energy Science (ACEEES)
of Tokyo Tech and the IRIDeS of Tohoku University, as well as Capt. Song Ekmahachai (acting
Director of NDWC), Mr. Burin Wechbunthung (Director of Seismological Bureau of TMD), Prof.
Junichi Iijima (Tokyo Tech) and Iijima Laboratory.
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