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warning and preparedness programs through its TsunamiReady program as well as operating
the TWCs.
The Paciic Region's Paciic Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and the Alaska Region's West
Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WC/ATWC) are administered within the NWS, although
the two TWCs report to their respective regional NWS ofices. The two TWCs have distinct areas
of responsibility as described in Chapter 5. The NWS also houses the National Data Buoy Center
(NDBC), which operates and maintains the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis
(DART) buoys. These buoys monitor and alert the TWCs of sea level changes associated with
a tsunami. OMAO collaborates by providing detection system maintenance support and
conducting coastal surveys. NOS provides state and local coastal emergency managers with
hazard-related information such as training and assessment tools, and also operates coastal
tide stations and sea level gauges that monitor changes in sea level. OAR comprises a research
network involving internal research laboratories, grant programs, and collaborative efforts
between NOAA and academic institutions. Paciic Marine Environmentla Laboratory (PMEL),
within OAR, focuses on designing optimal tsunami monitoring networks, improving forecast
modeling, and improving impact assessment on coastal communities. NESDIS provides ac-
cess to global environmental data; such as climate, geophysical, and oceanographic data. The
National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), housed within NESDIS, manages a database for
historic tsunami events, maps, and DART and tide gauge records. Some negative consequences
arising from this distribution of tsunami detection, forecast, warning, and planning functions
across different parts of NOAA and across different NTHMP partners is discussed in greater
detail in Chapters 3 and 5.
ASSESSING THE NATION'S EFFORTS
Because tsunami warning and preparedness efforts are distributed across federal and
state agencies and were historically conducted without a federal coordination mechanism, the
committee faced a number of challenges in assessing progress in the nation's ability to warn
and prepare for the threat of tsunamis. The irst challenge results from the need to assess many
individual activities. Secondly, it is dificult to extrapolate from these individual activities to
assess whether all the distributed efforts can function coherently during a tsunami to warn and
evacuate people in a timely fashion. To help address these challenges, the committee began its
analysis by sketching the required functions and elements of an idealized integrated warning
and preparedness effort based on available research indings in the hazards and high-reliability
organizations (HRO) literature (see section below). The committee then sought to compare its
vision of an idealized system with the evolving status quo.
An ideal integrated TWS comprises multiple technologies, systems, individuals, and orga-
nizations. A comprehensive view of the elements therefore includes technical, organizational,
social, and human components. The ideal system incorporates risk assessment, public educa-
tion, tsunami detection, warning management, and public response (Figure 1.3).
Protecting and warning the public begins with an understanding of the tsunami risk envi-
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