.jpg/image_preview)
Dr. Bhichit Rattakul, ADPC Executive Director a.i.,left, is seen with Prof. Said Irandoust, President of AIT, at the signing ceremony.
New Regional Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia regions
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) have launched a partnership agreement for the development and implementation of a Regional Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia regions.
The launch for the Partnership Agreement took place at a signing ceremony on 3 October, 2007 (at 1:30 p.m.) at the AIT campus located 42-km north of Bangkok, in Pathumthani. The partnership agreement was signed by Dr. Bhichit Rattakul, ADPC Executive Director a.i., and Prof. Said Irandoust, AIT President
The partnership agreement aims to develop and implement a multi-hazard early warning system in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia regions, in response to the requests of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Maldives, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, and under the frameworks of UNESCO/Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and WMO.
Based on the partnership, AIT and ADPC will establish the Regional Multi-hazard Early Warning Center within the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology, which meets the standards of UNESCO/IOC for a Regional Tsunami Watch Provider as follows:
• Operating as a multi-hazard/multi-purpose center on a 24 hours, 7 days-a-week basis;
• With contingency plans, secure infrastructure, and uninterruptible power for continuous operation;
• With capacity to back-up another regional center and continue the other center’s full capabilities;
• With capacity to collect all available data in real-time and analyze and interpret information;
• With ability to undertake numerical modeling; and
• With communications infrastructure, capable of effectively disseminating all information to recipients.
Under the new agreement, AIT and ADPC will undertake collaborative research to enable the rapid determination of tsunamigenic seismic activity and anomalous sea level conditions. AIT officials say such a capability will enable them to better prepare communities to respond to warnings in a timely and appropriate manner through the quick and efficient provision of accurate and detailed warning information. The partnership will seek to continuously develop and improve the regional multi-hazard warning systems in place.
According to the terms of the partnership, both AIT and ADPC will operate a regional multi-hazard early warning system that:
• Receives, processes, exchanges and archives real-time data from observing stations in the region;
• Undertakes numerical modeling;
• Evaluates the risk to the region;
• Rapidly provides tsunami watch and locally-specific hydro-meteorological disaster risk information to national focal points of participating countries;
• Assists participating countries in building national and local capacities in risk assessment, warning dissemination, community preparedness, public education and awareness building, emergency response, and mitigation;
• Facilitates exchange of scientific and technical knowledge, information, practices and experiences;
• Undertakes research to continuously improve system performance and warning-recipient response.
AIT and ADPC will also jointly develop and detail a plan of action to implement the areas of collaboration. Liaison responsibilities shall be handled by Mr. A.R. Subbiah, Director, Climate Risk Management, ADPC, and Dr. Pennung Warnitchai, Associate Professor, Structural Engineering Field of Study, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology.
ADPC also collaborates with AIT in launching a new academic program on "Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation and Management" starting from Jan 2008 for advanced training and capacity building in the region.