Fig. 32: Tsunami Website showing the Indian Ocean tsunamigenic events on 19 August 2020

Fig. 32: Tsunami Website showing the Indian Ocean tsunamigenic events on 19 August 2020.

y Storm Surge Early Warning System established by the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS):

Æ Detailed storm surge bulletin consists of detailed geo-location specific information with parameters such as State, District, Mandal/taluka information with associated storm surge heights and expected coastal inundation extent.

Æ Information used by the coastal administrators and disaster management officials for further actions to mitigate the effect of the hazard.

Æ INCOIS has issued storm surge advisories to more than 50 cyclones since inception. y A National Board was established under the chairmanship of the Director, INCOIS for advice, advocacy, and evaluation of the Tsunami Ready performance-based programme indicators at communities and to provide national recognition and recommend UNESCO/IOC recognition to the communities.

Æ India was the first to implement ‘Tsunami Ready’ in the Indian Ocean Region; Odisha is the first State with two of its villages - Venkatraipur in Ganjam district and Noliasahi in Jagatsingpur district to get the UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)’s Certificate of Recognition. Outcomes Achieved

Avoiding Relocation and Rehabilitation Expenses

ITEWC continues to make significant contributions toward tsunami disaster risk reduction in the Indian Ocean region. Timely and accurate advisories generated by ITEWC for the above events avoided false alarms and unnecessary evacuations.

Based on the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) survey report on ‘Economic Benefits of Dynamic Weather and Ocean Information Services, the economic benefits of the Tsunami Early Warning Centre by the list of undersea earthquakes in the Indian Ocean Region with a ‘No Tsunami Threat’ advisory issued by ITEWC, avoids relocation and rehabilitation expenditures of human settlement in the affected regions. The report considered 23 cases from 2007-2014, where ‘No Tsunami Threat’ was issued and assumed that an expenditure saving of around Rs 3,500 crore for one relocation and rehabilitation (based on the Phailin case study), would result in cumulative savings would amount to Rs 80,500 crore.

This would translate into an annuity (savings due to “No Tsunami Threat”) of Rs 11,500 crore. The compounded investment in the Tsunami Early Warning Centre since its inception was a mere Rs 133 crore in 2014 prices at the social discount rate of 12 per cent. The gross economic benefit far exceeds such gross investments.

Disaster Management and Community Safety

The Storm Surge early warning advisories from INCOIS are very useful to the disaster management authorities, coastal administrators, and local governments to make appropriate actions to save the precious lives of the citizens living in the low-lying areas. This is especially true for the east coast of South Tamil Nadu, the coast of Krishna, West and East Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh, north Odisha coast and the whole of West Bengal coast, which are most vulnerable to storm surges.

Through the Tsunami Ready initiative, Indian states are ensuring community tsunami risk reduction plans, designated and mapped tsunami hazard zones, public display of tsunami information, easily understood tsunami evacuation maps, outreach and public education materials, three outreach or educational activities annually, annual tsunami community exercises, community emergency operations plans, supported emergency operations centres, and a reliable means for a 24-hour warning point to receive official tsunami threats and issue round the clock tsunami alerts to the public.

The Tsunami and Storm Surge Early Warning Services and Tsunami Ready Programme are contributing to several SDGs, but most specifically address Goal 11: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Communities recognized as Tsunami Ready contribute to increasing the number of settlements adopting strategies to become disaster resilient

Contact Information

Name of Contact Person: Designation: Organization Name: Email: Telephone: Dr T. Srinivasa Kumar

Director INCOIS director@incois.gov.in 040-23886001

Alignment with the IGIF Strategic Pathways

Sl.No. IGIF Strategic Pathways Remarks

SP3 Financial The economic benefit of the Tsunami Early Warning Centre is an estimated USD 10 billion, with an annuity of USD 1.44 The compounded investment in the Tsunami Early Warning Centre since its inception was a mere USD 16 million in 2014. Hence this programme is a great example of making investments in Geospatial information management that reaps economic benefits.

SP4 Data

SP5 Innovation

SP7 Partnerships The robust data infrastructure set up for the centre assimilates data from various sources and delivers warnings, analytics and predictions through various channels. This example exemplifies unique data curation and delivery practice and highlights smooth data supply interlinkages. Tsunami Early Warning System established with a real-time network of data sensors to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes/events with the capability of issuing Tsunami bulletins in less than 10 minutes after any major earthquake is an innovation in process improvement and application of technological advancements. The programme is a unique example of cross-sector linkages and partnerships involving a plethora of stakeholders right from central government ministries to the coastal communities. The programme also has International collaborations as the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre has been recognized as one of the Tsunami Service Providers (TSP) for the entire Indian Ocean Region by the International Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) under the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.