International Early Warning Programme
Encyclopedia
The International Early Warning Programme (IEWP), was first proposed at the Second International Early Warning Conference (EWCII) in 2003 in Bonn
, Germany
. It developed increasing importance in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed over 200,000 lives and injured over half a million people.
In January 2005 the United Nations
(UN) launched extensive plans to create a global warning system to lessen the impact of deadly natural disasters at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction
, held in Kobe
, Japan
. The UN programme would help improve prevention
and resilience to all types of natural disaster
s, including droughts, wildfires, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, landslides, volcanoes and tsunamis, by using a comprehensive set of methods including rapid information sharing and training communities at risk. It is believed that the loss of human life would have been dramatically reduced, if a tsunami warning system
, like the one that exists for the volcano-and-earthquake prone Pacific Rim
, had been operational in the Indian Ocean
. Technology, such as tremor and tidal gauges, fast data transfer and alarm mechanisms, used in combination with training in the danger zones, would have given hundreds of thousands of people time to move to the safety of higher ground.
Early warning systems are now widely recognised as worthwhile and necessary investments to help save lives. In 2004, millions of people in the Americas and Asia were evacuated when tropical storms struck, which saved thousands of lives. According to Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, about 90% of all natural disasters were caused by hazards related to weather and water. Speaking at the conference, he said: ‘It is WMO's aim to halve the number of deaths due to natural disasters of meteorological, hydrological and climatic origin over the next 15 years, more specifically to reduce by half the associated ten-year average fatality from the period 1995-2004 to the period 2010-2019 for these disasters.’http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/intergover/observer/wmo.pdf
There was unanimous support among participants to the January 2005 conference, as an initial step towards an International Early Warning Programme, for UN-led efforts to establish an Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
.http://www.crisscross.com/jp/comment/715
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It developed increasing importance in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed over 200,000 lives and injured over half a million people.
In January 2005 the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
(UN) launched extensive plans to create a global warning system to lessen the impact of deadly natural disasters at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction
World Conference on Disaster Reduction
World Conference on Disaster Reduction is a United Nations conference bringing together government officials, non-governmental experts and other specialists from around the world to discuss the growing trend of people affected by natural disasters....
, held in Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The UN programme would help improve prevention
Hazard prevention
Hazard prevention refers to the prevention of risks. The first and most effective stage of hazard prevention and emergency management is the elimination of hazards...
and resilience to all types of natural disaster
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard . It leads to financial, environmental or human losses...
s, including droughts, wildfires, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, landslides, volcanoes and tsunamis, by using a comprehensive set of methods including rapid information sharing and training communities at risk. It is believed that the loss of human life would have been dramatically reduced, if a tsunami warning system
Tsunami warning system
A Tsunami warning system is used to detect tsunamis in advance and issue warnings to prevent loss of life and damage. It consists of two equally important components: a network of sensors to detect tsunamis and a communications infrastructure to issue timely alarms to permit evacuation of coastal...
, like the one that exists for the volcano-and-earthquake prone Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim refers to places around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The term "Pacific Basin" includes the Pacific Rim and islands in the Pacific Ocean...
, had been operational in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. Technology, such as tremor and tidal gauges, fast data transfer and alarm mechanisms, used in combination with training in the danger zones, would have given hundreds of thousands of people time to move to the safety of higher ground.
Early warning systems are now widely recognised as worthwhile and necessary investments to help save lives. In 2004, millions of people in the Americas and Asia were evacuated when tropical storms struck, which saved thousands of lives. According to Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation, about 90% of all natural disasters were caused by hazards related to weather and water. Speaking at the conference, he said: ‘It is WMO's aim to halve the number of deaths due to natural disasters of meteorological, hydrological and climatic origin over the next 15 years, more specifically to reduce by half the associated ten-year average fatality from the period 1995-2004 to the period 2010-2019 for these disasters.’http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/intergover/observer/wmo.pdf
There was unanimous support among participants to the January 2005 conference, as an initial step towards an International Early Warning Programme, for UN-led efforts to establish an Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System is a tsunami warning system set up to provide warning to inhabitants of nations bordering the Indian Ocean of approaching tsunamis. It was agreed to in a United Nations conference held in January 2005 in Kobe, Japan as an initial step towards an International...
.http://www.crisscross.com/jp/comment/715
See also
- IDNDRIDNDRCreated in December 1999, is the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction . It is the successor to the secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction with the purpose of ensuring the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction...
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction - Emergency managementEmergency managementEmergency management is the generic name of an interdisciplinary field dealing with the strategic organizational management processes used to protect critical assets of an organization from hazard risks that can cause events like disasters or catastrophes and to ensure the continuance of the...