Summary

The Inter-ICG Task Team meeting on Tsunami Watch Operations (TT -TWO) will be hosted at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, 19-20 February 2024 in parallel to the Tast Team on  Disaster Management and Preparedness  (TT- DMP) meeting. The two meetings will share joint agenda items. 

Both Task Teams will report immediately to TOWS-WG on 22-23 February 2024, which in turn will report back to the forthcoming IOC Executive Council in June 2024.  Agendas for the two Task Team meetings will be sent out separately to members of the Task Teams.

Through Resolution XXIV-14, the IOC Assembly at its 24th session decided on the establishment of a Working Group on Tsunamis and Other Hazards Related to Sea-Level Warning and Mitigation Systems (TOWS-WG). The group is tasked primarily to advise the IOC Governing Bodies on coordinated development and implementation activities of warning and mitigation systems for tsunamis and other hazards related to sea level of common priority to all Intergovernmental Coordination Groups of Regional Tsunami Warning and Mitigation Systems.

By its IOC Decision A-31/3.4.1 on Warning Mitigation Systems for Ocean Hazards, the IOC Assembly in 2021 reaffirmed the need for continued inter-ICG coordination through TOWS and the extended tenure of its two inter-ICG Task Teams on:

• Disaster Management and Preparedness (DMP), and
• Tsunami Watch Operations (TWO)