Indian Ministry or Earth Science Focuses on Developing Tsunami Early Warning System

In an interview conducted with Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Science (Government of India), we discussed the use of GIS in developing a tsunami warning system that was begun shortly after the Indonesian tsunami in December 2004. India recognized a need for a rapid response system for tsunami warning. His department instituted a program to develop a three-part system using sensor systems to monitor tides, ocean bottom pressure recorders, and other coastal monitoring stations. He emphasized the need to acquire data in real-time. However, in order to enact a warning system that was accurate, there was a need to establish a huge database of tsunami models.

Models developed by the U.S. and Japanese scientists are very good for use by India, but those models cannot be run in real-time as they occupy some 14 terabytes of information. So, an index was developed that can quickly assess a tsunami-genic event. Once an event is identified and its potential recognized using the indexing system, the Ministry of Earth Science provides a bulletin that encompasses three levels of communication with local communities that might be affected. The highest alert level advises an immediate evacuation; the second level is an alert that communicates that the tsunami-genic event has occurred but is not severe and evacuation is not necessary; and the third level is an advisory notice only that a tsunami-genic event is not imminent.