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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13010981/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- This document discusses the vulnerability of Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) to tsunamis, and the many challenges that exist throughout the tsunami risk management process in this region. It offers various recommendations to scientists, policymakers, and communities interested in understanding tsunamis and mitigating their disastrous effects. The Pacific Ring of Fire, with its substantial seismic activity, is historically known for producing massive tsunamis. Though the region is quite familiar with these devastating events, the authors point to a number of significant knowledge gaps that need to be addressed by the disaster management community. According to the note, the Pacific experiences tsunamis larger than predicted using standard modeling scenarios. This, it is argued, is because understanding of locally sourced tsunami events is rather murky. Many of the tsunamis in the Pacific are the result of non-traditional sources such as ‘slow’ earthquakes, submarine landslides as a result of quakes beneath the ocean floor, and volcanic activity. Subduction zone activity may account for only half of the potential tsunami sources threatening PICTs. Nevertheless, even the relationship between subduction zone dynamics and the magnitude of tsunamis is poorly understood. There is also an absence of context in the assessment of tsunami hazards in general due to the limited nature of the historical record of tsunamis, lack of detailed offshore bathymetry and onshore topography, as well as failure to take sea level rise into account. Further hampering the tsunami risk management process are issues assessing exposure and vulnerability. Exponential population growth and unregulated urbanization in many developing countries means that exposure and vulnerability are not fixed but highly dynamic, and thus more difficult to address. The way forward according to the authors is to improve how science is communicated and integrated into policymaking so that it is actionable. They also call for developing better long-term understanding of tsunamis through in-depth studies on historic and prehistoric tsunamis, and investigation of all potential tsunami sources. Another important measure is to review lessons learned after each tsunami, and incorporating these into mitigation strategies. The note cautions against the notion that communities in PICTs are completely vulnerable to tsunamis, emphasizing how there are certain resiliencies built into their cultures that tsunami risk management practitioners should not only learn from but also seek to protect and strengthen. ( English,French,English )
- Subject:
- Disaster Risk Management
- Scope and Content:
- The general context p. 1; Impacts of recent tsunamis & their characteristics p. 2; What does 'tsunami risk management' involve? p. 3; Challenges in identifying, assessing & monitoring tsunami risks p. 4; Approaches for prevention & mitigation p. 7; Good practice cases p. 8; Recommendations & ways forward p. 9; Endnotes p. 11; Boxes: Box 1. Notable Pacific tsunamis
and examples of their impacts and lessons learned p. 2; Box 2. Cook Islands: An example of the
disjunct between existing assessments & geological evidence p. 5; Figures: Figure 1: The Pacific Ocean with examples of local, regional, and distant tsunami sources. p. 2
- Citation/Reference:
- Dominey-Howes, D., Goff, J. (2011). Tsunami risk management in the context of the Pacific Islands. The World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- This publication is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. For full details of the license, please refer to the following: http://creative-commons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13010981
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