Disaster Management in Fisheries

7.1.4 Land use and Hazards

Progress has been made in the Mediterranean region to bolster and integrate different national seismic and ocean observing networks, and in transitioning from using the instruments for research to using them as part of an operational early warning system.

For the sea-level stations, Green said, "the first steps are to identify the stations that need to be part of the network, then upgrade them to real time [sea-level reporting], then combine them with the seismic effort to make a system."

Until a full-fledged system is in place for the Mediterranean, Italy will provide 24-hour-a-day watch coverage of seismic data from the seas around Europe. Portugal and Spain are providing access to real-time seismic data.

In the meantime, contemplating Europe's heavily developed and populated coastlines, the Mediterranean group brought to IOC's attention the need to bring hazards and coastal zone practices for mitigation and land adaptation and use into every aspect of coastal life. (See related article .)

As a result, IOC brought together experts from its member states, including the United States, and from the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The group will develop a set of guidelines for including ocean hazards in integrated coastal zone management.

The concept of integrated coastal area management has been in place since the 1990s for sustainable management of coastal zones but until now has not been applied to tsunami planning.