Post Tsunami Hazard

This monograph focuses on a variety of topics related to reconstruction and restoration in post-tsunami conditions. Aspects such as coastal engineering, early warning systems and technological approaches, urban planning and settlements relocation, socio-economic redevelopment and policy, coastal ecosystems and agricultural redevelopment as well as pollution assessment are included. The reader will benefit from the various case-studies drawn from a number of countries hit by the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the Great East Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011 in Japan. This book will appeal to scientists and scholars, decision makers, students and practitioners interested in post-tsunami reconstruction and restoration processes.

This volume features contributions from the first Meeting of the Tsunami Commission after the big 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It presents consolidated findings based on hydrophone records, seismometer readings, and tide gauges. In addition, the volume provides reports of post-tsunami surveys and numerical simulations for tsunamis such as the 2004 Indian Ocean event. It also details tsunami dangers and early warning systems.

Many coastal areas of the United States are at risk for tsunamis. After the catastrophic 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, legislation was passed to expand U.S. tsunami warning capabilities. Since then, the nation has made progress in several related areas on both the federal and state levels. At the federal level, NOAA has improved the ability to detect and forecast tsunamis by expanding the sensor network. Other federal and state activities to increase tsunami safety include: improvements to tsunami hazard and evacuation maps for many coastal communities; vulnerability assessments of some coastal populations in several states; and new efforts to increase public awareness of the hazard and how to respond. Tsunami Warning and Preparedness explores the advances made in tsunami detection and preparedness, and identifies the challenges that still remain. The book describes areas of research and development that would improve tsunami education, preparation, and detection, especially with tsunamis that arrive less than an hour after the triggering event. It asserts that seamless coordination between the two Tsunami Warning Centers and clear communications to local officials and the public could create a timely and effective response to coastal communities facing a pending tsuanami. According to Tsunami Warning and Preparedness, minimizing future losses to the nation from tsunamis requires persistent progress across the broad spectrum of efforts including: risk assessment, public education, government coordination, detection and forecasting, and warning-center operations. The book also suggests designing effective interagency exercises, using professional emergency-management standards to prepare communities, and prioritizing funding based on tsunami risk.

Many coastal areas of the United States are at risk for tsunamis. After the catastrophic 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, legislation was passed to expand U.S. tsunami warning capabilities. Since then, the nation has made progress in several related areas on both the federal and state levels. At the federal level, NOAA has improved the ability to detect and forecast tsunamis by expanding the sensor network. Other federal and state activities to increase tsunami safety include: improvements to tsunami hazard and evacuation maps for many coastal communities; vulnerability assessments of some coastal populations in several states; and new efforts to increase public awareness of the hazard and how to respond. Tsunami Warning and Preparedness explores the advances made in tsunami detection and preparedness, and identifies the challenges that still remain. The book describes areas of research and development that would improve tsunami education, preparation, and detection, especially with tsunamis that arrive less than an hour after the triggering event. It asserts that seamless coordination between the two Tsunami Warning Centers and clear communications to local officials and the public could create a timely and effective response to coastal communities facing a pending tsuanami. According to Tsunami Warning and Preparedness, minimizing future losses to the nation from tsunamis requires persistent progress across the broad spectrum of efforts including: risk assessment, public education, government coordination, detection and forecasting, and warning-center operations. The book also suggests designing effective interagency exercises, using professional emergency-management standards to prepare communities, and prioritizing funding based on tsunami risk.

The tragedy of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has led to a rapid expansion in science directed at understanding tsunami and mitigating their hazard. A remarkable cross-section of this research was presented in the session: Tsunami Generation and Hazard, at the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics XXIV General Assembly in Perugia, held in July of 2007. Over one hundred presentations were made at this session, spanning topics ranging from paleotsunami research, to nonlinear shallow-water theory, to tsunami hazard and risk assessment. A selection of this work, along with other contributions from leading tsunami scientists, is published in detail in the 28 papers of this special issue of Pure and Applied Geophysics: Tsunami Science Four Years After the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Part I of this issue includes 14 papers covering the state-of-the-art in tsunami modelling and hazard assessment. Another 14 papers are published in Part II focusing on observations and data analysis.

The promontory of Gargano in the southern Adriatic Sea represents one of the most interesting Italian coastal zones subjected to tsunami hazard. Figure la gives the geographical map of Italy; with a box embracing the region of Gargano; details of that region are in turn sketched in Figure lb. Because of the incompleteness of the earthquake and tsunami catalogues, no reports on tsunamis in this area are available prior to 1600 AD. The Gargano events have been recently revised in order to establish their reliability and to attain the phenomenological reconstruction of the tsunamis (Guidoboni and Tinti, 1987 and 1988; Tinti et. al. , 1995). This work fits the general purpose of assessing tsunami hazard along the Italian coasts and represents a continuation of a previous study, where the first quantitative description of the 1627 tsunami from a numerical modeling viewpoint was performed (Tinti and Piatanesi, 1996). The earthquake took place on 30 July 1627 about mid-day and was followed by four large aftershocks. It claimed more than 5,000 victims and destroyed completely numerous villages in the northern Gargano area, with the most severe damage located between S. Severo and Lesina. The earthquake excited a tsunami with the most impressive effects in proximity of the Lesina Lake where the most reliable contemporary chronicles report about an initial sea water withdrawal of about 2 miles and a subsequent penetration inland.

Tsunamis are underrated as major hazards, mainly due to the misconceptions that they occur infrequently and happen along some distant shoreline. However, evidence for past great tsunami has recently been discovered along apparently aseismic and protected coastlines, such as those of Australia and Western Europe. This is a comprehensive and well illustrated textbook on all aspects of tsunami. It can be used by a student or layperson to gain encyclopedic knowledge about tsunami.