ADPC Completes Regional Multi-Hazard Early Warning System

ADPC is very proud to announce the successful establishment of a regional multi-hazard early warning center (REWC) on the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand; and for having been given the opportunity to play a very central and critical role in its design, development and implementation. As an outcome of the Ministerial Meeting on Regional Cooperation on Tsunami Early Warning Arrangements, which was held in January 2005 in Thailand in response to the December 2004 Tsunami, ADPC was tasked to design, develop and implement a regional multi-hazard early warning center to provide one component of a coordinated network of early warning centers in the in the Indian Ocean and South East Asia Region under the framework of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Towards this objective, between 2006 and 2008, ADPC received grants from the UNESCAP Regional Tsunami Trust Fund, which was funded by the Royal Thai Government and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); and from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). In implementing this task, ADPC (i) identified and defined the appropriate design and specifications; (ii) acquired and installed suitable detection, monitoring and communications equipments, as well as real-time data-processing and dissemination facilities; (iii) recruited and trained relevant specialists and experts; and (iv) facilitated the establishment of a sustaining institutional entity. In early 2008, the REWC became operational and capable of providing much needed early warnings for hydro-meteorological hazards. In November 2009, an International Technical Committee (headed by the Director of the Pacific Tsunami Early Warning Center) endorsed the REWC’s technical readiness to provide regional tsunami early warning services in accordance with Service Level One, as prescribed by the IOC/UNESCO for the Indian Ocean region. To assure the sustainability of the early warning center, with the approval of the REWC Steering Committee, ADPC facilitated the establishment of an inter-governmental entity, the Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES), which assumed institutional, managerial, operational and financial responsibility of the REWC from 1 January 2010. RIMES, currently comprising the nations of Cambodia, Comoros, Laos PDR, Maldives and Seychelles, was registered as an international agreement with the United Nations on 1 July 2009, in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations. ADPC will continue to play a dynamic role in collaborating with RIMES in delivering early warning and related technical services to the countries in the Asia and Africa regions.