Tsunami Data and Scientific Data Diplomacy

Free and open access to data and information fosters scientific progress and can build bridges between nations even when political relationships are strained. Data and information held by one stakeholder may be vital for promoting research of another. As an emerging field of inquiry, data diplomacy explores how data-sharing helps create and support positive relationships between countries to enable the use of data for societal and humanitarian benefit. Tsunami has arguably been the only natural hazard that has been addressed so effectively at an international scale and illustrates the success of scientific data diplomacy. Tsunami mitigation requires international scientific cooperation in both tsunami science and technology development. This requires not only international agreements, but working-level relationships between scientists from countries that may have different political and economic policies. For example, following the Pacific wide tsunami of 1960 that killed two thousand people in Chile and then, up to a day later, hundreds in Hawaii, Japan, and the Philippines; delegates from twelve countries met to discuss and draft the requirements for an international tsunami warning system. The Pacific Tsunami Warning System led to the development of local, regional, and global tsunami databases and catalogs. For example, scientists at NOAA/NCEI and the Tsunami Laboratory/Russian Academy of Sciences have collaborated on their tsunami catalogs that are now routinely accessed by scientists and the public around the world. These data support decision-making during tsunami events, are used in developing inundation and evacuation maps, and hazard assessments. This presentation will include additional examples of agreements for data-sharing between countries, as well as challenges in standardization and consistency among the tsunami research community. Tsunami data and scientific data diplomacy have ultimately improved understanding of tsunami and associated impacts.