ITIC Working with Others

As an international centre with focus on tsunamis, the ITIC has for many years worked with organizations around the world to heighten awareness in order to encourage the building of better technical warning systems, and a better prepared public.  Towards these ends, the ITIC and IOC maintains and develops relationships with:

Intergovernmental and United Nations Organizations

All Member States of UNESCO, IOC and its Intergovernmental Coordination Groups for Tsunami Warning and Mitigation; International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG); World Data Service and System Centers (WDS); World Meteorological Organization (WMO); International Hydrographic Organizaton (IHO); UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR); UN Development Program (UNDP); UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP); International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC); International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and other  development, environmental, and technical aganecies in disaster risk reduction.

Regional Organizations

Regional science, technical, meteorological, and disaster management organizations include the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), Asia Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), South Pacific Community (formerly SOPAC), Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Centro de Coordinación para la Prevención de los Desastres Naturales en América Central (CEPREDENAC), Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS), and Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).

Scientific Community

Scientists and researchers in academic organizations, universities, and institutions worldwide.  Gaining a better understanding through research of how tsunamis are generated, propagate , and inundate our coasts is critical for savings lives and reducing impacts to property and infrastructure.  Post-tsunami science and social science surveys after destructive events collect the data needs to improve our predictions and forecasts, and build stronger, tsunami-resistant structures.

International science organizations which collect and archive data include

• WDC-SEG-TSUNAMIS / NGDC – for the collection and archiving of significant tsunami events and building of a global, high-quality, referenced database, including both runups, wave and earthquake observations, and also sea level mareograms.  WDC-SEG-TSUNAMIS / NGDC – for the collection and archiving of significant tsunami events and building of a global, high-quality, referenced database, including both runups, wave and earthquake observations, and also sea level mareograms.  
  
  
• IUGG-Tsunami Commission – for the encouragement of tsunami research, organization of post-tsunami international tsunami surveys to collect perishable data to improve hydrodynamic models and develop tsunami-resistant engineering guidelines, co-sponsorship of tsunami workshops to highlight issue of common priority and also to bring tsunami science to countries through pre-ICG/PTWS workshops.  ITIC and NGDC work together with IUGG-TC.
  
  
• US Geological Survey  / IRIS Global Seismic Network (GSN) / Federation of Digital Broadband Seismographic Networks (FDSN) – for the cooperation to install and support real-time continuous waveform data streams that are essential for tsunami warning monitoring.  Installation of high-quality, broadband stations (STS-1, or STS-2 or equivalent), and free and open data sharing are essential for issuing timely warnings since seismic waves travel more than 40 times faster than tsunami waves.  The USGS provides both earthquake monitoring on 7x24 basis, and also provides infrastructure through which the GSN data is made available.  The FDSN is the overarching international coordination organization to which the ITIC hopes every country contributing to seismic monitoring will join.
• University of Hawaii Sea Level Center (UHSLC) / IOC Global Sea Level Observing System Group of Experts Chair (GLOSS GE) – as a resource supporting and installing sea level stations in the IOTWS since 2005, for the continued efforts over that last decades with the Pacific through numerous programmes, and as a resource for IOTWS and PTWS Sea Level Working Groups for data collection platforms and station configurations, transmission arrangements and standards, and data archiving of GLOSS stations.

Countries and Local Officials

ITIC informs Member States of developments in tsunami research and education, and develops and distributes awareness materials globally. ITIC initiates, co-ordinates, and/or conducts technical training programmes, workshops, and seminars dealing with all aspects of tsunami preparedeness to help countries strengthen their national tsunami warning and mitigation systems. ITIC aims to make authorities more aware of the tsunami hazard, and assists in planning programs for the protection of life and property and for evacuations from dangerous areas during tsunami warnings.

General Public

ITIC informs the general public of the tsunami hazard through lectures, publications, educational materials and disaster preparedness programs, and participates in local outreach and preparedness fairs and training. ITIC provides information on the latest tsunami alerts issued by the PTWC, NWPTAC, US NTWC,  and other IOC Tsunami Service Providers.