Today, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) opened their training workshop "Coastal Hazard Assessment: Applications in Risk Assessment, Management and Mitigation" in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where the 2004 tsunami killed more than 35,000 people.The workshop, taking place from 2 to 5 June 2015, is bringing together 27 participants from 17 countries exposed to tsunamis here in the Indian Ocean.
Risk assessment and risk management are one of the three key areas of work of UNESCO-IOC. The workshop is part of the “Tsunami Risk Assessment and Mitigation for the Indian Ocean” project (TRATE), sponsored by UN ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), and one of the activities of the recently established Working Group on Risk Assessment and Mitigation of the International Coordination Group of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System. The project involved a revision of the Tsunami Risk Assessment guideline. This updated version is being used in this training workshop.
UN-SPIDER has been part of this effort and is contributing with an overview of vulnerability, disaster preparedness and the use of space-based information in risk assessment and early warning.
