PTWS-XXIV - International Co-ordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific, Twenty-fourth Session, Beijing, China 24-27 May 2011

The Twenty-Fourth Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/PTWS) will be held in Beijing, People’s Republic of China 24-27 May 2011.

This is the second time in its 46 years of existence that China is hosting the ICG/PTWS, formerly known as ITSU and which 11th session took place in Beijing back in 1987. Since then the ICG/PTWS has developed and matured considerably but it was only recently submitted to severe tests from the nature, for the purpose it was created in 1965. Although much progress has been made in implementing tsunami warning systems globally in the last 6 years, the tsunami events of Samoa/Tonga in 2009, Chile in 2010 and Japan in 2011 clearly demonstrate that there is still much to do and that there is no room for complacency. The Twenty-Fourth session is a timely opportunity to explore ways and means of improving tsunami preparedness in the Pacific Ocean.

The session will also hold the workshop, LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD:  SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, OPERATIONAL, AND PREPAREDNESS ASPECTS OF THE SAMOA 2009, CHILE 2010, AND JAPAN 2011 TSUNAMIS, to share experiences and lessons learned from recent tsunamis and to discuss and elaborate on how effective the PTWS, both as a system and individually as countries, has been in providing early, timely warnings to communities at risk. Recommendations from this Workshop will serve as a catalyst for improving the system.

 Informational Documents