World Tsunami Awareness Day - 5 November 2022

For 2022, World Tsunami Awareness Day is promoting Target (g) of the "Sendai Seven Campaign" which calls for Substantially increasing the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030.  

Effective early warning systems are end-to-end, from detection to risk assessment, warning, and evacuation to safety.  They also must be people-centered, and focus on ensuring everyone knows what a tsunami is and what to do when a tsunami will strike. 

For this reason, UNESCO will extend its Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme to all at-risk communities by 2030, working with governments, schools, community institutions to build resilience to coastal hazard and risks - to get Tsunami Ready!  Contact the UNESCO IOC's Tsunami Information Centres for more information (Caribbean (CTIC), indian Ocean (IOTIC), Northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (NEAMTIC), and the Pacific (ITIC). 

Key life-saving strategies

Get to high ground! 
Simply moving inland and to high ground will save your life from a tsunami. Tsunami drills help communities to be ready by practicing beforehand. All individuals, schools and communities are invited to raise their awareness of tsunami risk by organizing drills, taking part in simulation exercises or walking tsunami evacuation routes as part of the #GetToHighGround campaign. 

Leave no-one behind
Evacuation planning should address the needs of all members of society, including those most vulnerable such as the young and elderly, and those with physical or mental challenges.  Education and preparedness is crucial.

Early warning for early action.  
In March 2022, the UN Secretary-General announced "the United Nations will sprearhead new action to ensure every person on Earth is protected by early-warning systems within 5 years." For tsunamis, early-warning alert systems now exist in all the world's main ocean basins coordinated by UNESCO IOC.

Multi-hazard early warning systems
The January Hunga Tonga - Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic Eruption and Tsunami was the most recent multi-hazard example where the early warning system needed to monitor a range of geologic, oceanographic, and atmospheric data systems to be able to warn responsibly.

Click left to view EWS Video, right to download Tsunami News

In-person / online events will take placeon November 4 at  UN Headquarters in New York, USA (8-10 am EDT, 1200-1400 UTC) and in Bangkok (9-10 am Bangkok, 0200-0300 UTC)

   
   Click to view New York                                                Click to view Bangkok 

Tsunami Early Warning and Early Action videos

Short videos created by the UNDRR in collaboration with UNESCO IOC showcase progress in early warning systems and tsunami readiness from countries and partners around the world working together to save lives from tsunamis.

For more information on the UNESCO IOC Tsunami Ready programme, click here.

For playlist, click here