Intersessional meeting of ICG/IOTWS working groups

At the 8th Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS) held in Melbourne, Australia, 3-6 May 2011, the ICG decided to hold Working Group intersessional meetings at the end of 2011.

Working Group 1 on Tsunami Risk Assessment and Reduction

The Working Group 1 intersessional meeting will be held at the Mercure Convention Centre, Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia, on 30 November - 1 December, hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) and the Government of Indonesia.

The meeting will include the following topics:

• Role of Risk Assessment Working Group in the context of ICG/IOTWS:
- Report from ICG/IOTWS-VIII meeting
- Collaboration with WG 2 and WG 3
- New demands arising from the operation of the Regional Service Providers; Risks and uncertainties of early warning

• Training Workshops in Risk Assessment
- Review of Training Workshops
- Proposed plans for future Training Workshops
- Establishment of a sustainable mechanism for training in Risk Assessment and Management for Continuing Professional Development

• Compilation of Case Studies on Tsunami Risk Assessment – Progress and future needs with particular reference to collaboration with other Tsunami Warning Systems

• Review of publications available for Tsunami Risk Assessment and Mitigation - future needs

• Revision of the Tsunami Risk Assessment Guideline
- Areas which have not been covered adequately in the first edition
- New developments arising from the operation of IOTWS
- Risk assessment within a tsunami forecasting and early warning framework
- Lessons learnt from recent disasters in Chile, Samoa, Indonesia and Japan.
- Collaboration with other Tsunami Warning Systems to produce global documents.

• Progress of investigating the Makran Tsunami Hazard Source

Working Group 2 on Tsunami Detection, Warning and Dissemination

The Working Group 2 and RTSP Task Team intersessional meetings will be held at the Mercure Convention Centre, Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia, on 30 November - 1 December, hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) and the Government of Indonesia.

The meeting will include the following topics:

• Report on Exercise IOWave11

• Report on the Status of implementation of the IOTWS Seismic Stations

• Report on the Status of implementation of the IOTWS Sea Level Stations

• Tsunameter Standards; Vandalism; Near-field Tsunami Detection Issues

Working Group 3 on Tsunami Awareness and Response

The Working Group 3 intersessional meeting will be held at the Mercure Convention Centre, Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia, on 30 November - 1 December, hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) and the Government of Indonesia.