Introduction - Tsunami Warning and Preparedness - page 11

TIO

VE

identify
needs

identify
needs inform

alert

Risk
Assessment

Public
Education

Threat
Detection

Warning
Management

Public
Response*

warn

*Assuming prior
public education has
prepared individuals
to properly respond

interpret

interpret

monitor
environment

(Required if at-risk individuals are
to recognize environmental cues
or properly respond to official warnings)

TSUNAMI
TRIGGER
(e.g., earthquake)

Recognition of environmental cues
(Assuming prior public education has trained
individuals to recognize such cues)

DIN

FIGURE 1.3 Components of an integrated warning system: Risk assessment includes all assessments
required to effectively plan evacuations (including tsunami source determination, inundation modeling,
and evacuation mapping) and prepare the communities to evacuate in the event a warning is issued or
received. Risk assessments identify needs for public education. Public education aims to ensure maximum
preparedness and a public that knows what to do when it receives a warning or feels the ground shaking
in the case of near-ield tsunamis. Threat detection comprises the continuous monitoring of the natural
and technological environments that could create an emergency; it informs the warning management
and public response component using threshold criteria and communication technology. Warning man-
agement interfaces the threat detection component with the public response component and is respon-
sible for tsunami alerts, warnings, and evacuations; in consultation with the threat detection component
it will alert and warn the public. Public response is the ultimate outcome of the integrated warning system,
and it integrates public education, threat detection, natural cues from tsunami triggers, and warning man-
agement. SOURCE: Committee member; design by Jennifer Matthews, University of California, San Diego.

ronment. This must be done before a tsunami is generated in order to design the threat detec-
tion system, the education and awareness campaigns, and the evacuation and response plans.
To understand the risk environment, both hazards (the physical characteristics of tsunamis
and the inundation area) and vulnerabilities (the people and properties in harm's way) need
to be characterized (National Research Council, 2006). Pre-event public education is required
to enable at-risk populations to correctly interpret: (1) natural cues from the environment
(e.g., ground shaking from the earthquake) or (2) warnings from a technical detection system
as a signal to evacuate to higher ground in a timely fashion. The threat detection component
monitors the environment for threshold events using cues from natural and technical systems
(Mileti, 1999; Mileti and Sorenson, 1990).