GNSS Enhanced Tsunami Early Warning and the Role of Scientific Diplomacy
Abstract
Global Navigation Satellite Systems are being developed through investments of more than $100B by nations to insure their national security, develop their economies, and improve the lives of their citizens. The Great Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 claimed over 230,000 lives with little to no warning. Three seminal studies demonstrated that GNSS network data could have significantly improved early warning for the affected coastal communities of the Indo-Pacific. The implementation of these studies and subsequent developments of GNSS Tsunami Early Warning have been very slow to be adopted by those operational agencies responsible for disaster mitigation. Therefore, the IUGG General Assembly of 2015 resolved to encourage its member states and associations to work for the implementation of GNSS enhancements to Tsunami Early Warning (GTEWS). The implementation of the IUGG GTEWS resolution is being advanced by the Global Geodetic Observing System (itself an achievement of science diplomacy) of the International Association of Geodesy. This presentation will document the coordination of several international scientific bodies that led to and supported the IUGG resolution. Prototype GTEWS networks in a number of nations are under development as well as growing collaborations between scientific and operational agencies concerned with tsunami hazards. The engagement of agencies and programs range from the development of technology by NASA, the US National Science Foundation and the Japanese GSI to the encouragement of new governmental policies by the UN General Assembly and the UNISDR. These efforts by numerous agencies to advance GTEWS were unified by a common belief that tsunami disaster mitigation can be achieved through global cooperation in sharing of data and critical data systems.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMPA12A..09L
- Keywords:
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- 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUES