6-Aug-2020: Virtual Event on UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition to Odisha Communities on 07 Aug 2020.

It has been observed that when people at tsunami risk receive accurate warnings in a timely manner, they can take life-saving actions, reduce losses and speed up response. Through the continuous effort of scientists and emergency management officers, there has been substantial improvement in tsunami warnings and timelines by deploying better sensors, accurate models and concurrent multiple modes of dissemination. However, the success of a warning is measured by what actions people take once the respective authorities issue a public warning.  Surviving a tsunami depends on the ability of an individual in the hazard zone to recognize warning signals, make correct decisions, and act quickly.

Tsunami Ready is a community performance-based programme initiated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO to promote tsunami preparedness through active collaboration of public, community leaders, and national and local emergency management agencies. The main objective of this programme is to improve coastal community's preparedness for tsunami emergencies, to minimize the loss of life and property and to ensure a structural and systematic approach in building community preparedness through fulfilling the best-practice indicators set by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) of UNESCO-IOC. Fulfilment of the guidelines ensures communities have a strong end-to-end tsunami early warning and mitigation system with a particular focus on community awareness and preparedness to respond.

The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), INCOIS is the nodal agency to provide tsunami advisories to India. INCOIS is also providing tsunami advisories to Indian Ocean region (25 countries) as a Tsunami Service Providers as the responsibility assigned by IOC-UNESCO. To create awareness and preparedness about the tsunamis, INCOIS regularly organizes Tsunami Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) workshops, training sessions and seminars for state and district level Disaster Management Officials (DMOs) of the coastal states. ITEWC at INCOIS also conducts IOWave Tsunami mock exercises biannually in coordination with ICG/IOTWMS and conducts at National level mock exercises alternative years in coordination with Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and State Disaster Management Agencies (SDMA) to strengthen the readiness to handle the emergency situations with stakeholders. The recent tsunami mock exercises i.e. IOWave18 (September 2018) and Multi State mega mock exercise (November 2017) were great examples on building a tsunami resilient community. To strengthen communities further, ITEWC-INCOIS coordinating with the DMOs for implementation of Tsunami Ready programme in India.

To implement and monitor the implementation of Tsunami Ready and IOWave Exercises in India, Ministry of Earth Sciences established a National Board under the chairmanship of Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Centre (INCOIS) with members drawn from Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), Andaman & Nicobar Islands Directorate of Disaster Management (DDM) and INCOIS.

The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), Odisha has now implemented the Tsunami Ready programme in two villages viz., Venkatraipur in Ganjam District, Noliasahi in Jagatsinghpur District. The National Board, after the verification of implementation of the indicators at those villages as per guidelines, decided to recognize them nationally and recommended to UNESCO-IOC for the recognition.  Based on the National Board recommendations, UNESCO-IOC has approved the recognition of two communities viz., Venkatraipur and Noliasahi as Tsunami Ready Communities. With this recognition, India is the first country to implement Tsunami Ready in the Indian Ocean Region and Odisha is the first state.

To confer the UNESCO-IOC’s Certificate of Recognition and Certificate of Appreciation to Venkatraipur and Noliasahi communities, OSDMA Officials, a virtual event is organized jointly by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS),  ICG/IOTWMS  Secretariat and Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Center (IOTIC) of UNESCO-IOC on 07 August 2020.

26-Jul-2019: China, Russia, France share satellite data on Assam floods

With Assam inundated by floods, several countries including China, Russia and France collaborated with India on sharing satellite images of the scale of inundation. As signatories to the "The International Charter Space and Major Disasters", any of the 32 member countries can send a ‘request’ to activate the Charter. This would immediately trigger a request by the coordinators to space agencies of other countries whose satellites have the best eyes on the site of the disaster.

Based on an activation request by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 17, France’s National Centre for Space Studies, China National Space Administration and ROSCOSMOS of Russia shared satellite images of the flood situation in the districts of Dhubri, Marigaon, Barpeta, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur in Assam with ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre. ISRO’s CARTOSAT satellites too got the Indian space agency its own images.

Combining earth observation assets from different space agencies allows resources and expertise to be coordinated for rapid response. This was a “standard practice” and in the past ISRO too had provided information to other space agencies in response to similar requests. In August 2014, for instance, ISRO’s CARTOSAT shared images after an activation request from China after an earthquake struck Yunan province and killed 398.

Since 2000, when the Charter came into operation there have been about 600 activations and data from 61 satellites have helped with disaster operations in 125 countries.

About: The Charter is a worldwide collaboration, through which satellite data are made available for the benefit of disaster management. By combining Earth observation assets from different space agencies, the Charter allows resources and expertise to be coordinated for rapid response to major disaster situations; thereby helping civil protection authorities and the international humanitarian community. This unique initiative is able to mobilise agencies around the world and benefit from their know-how and their satellites through a single access point that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and at no cost to the user.

In addition to the space agencies that form the Charter, national and regional disaster monitoring organisations also support the Charter's efforts as co-operating bodies. Members and co-operating bodies join an international initiative to provide support to those in need following major disasters, and benefit from the wide distribution of data that the Charter offers. Organisations that wish to co-operate with the Charter in this way must be approved by the Board, and may be granted exceptional requests for data from Charter satellites.

The satellite data obtained by the Charter offers invaluable aid to the end-users - typically disaster relief organisations. Following a successful activation of the Charter, they may receive satellite data of affected areas within a matter of hours or days; depending on the type of the disaster and available satellite resources. The data is delivered on an ongoing basis throughout the duration of the Charter activation and provides valuable information about a disaster that is not possible to obtain on the ground.