India refining tsunami early warning system

India is developing a tsunami early warning system to provide timely advisories to concerned government departments and to vulnerable communities, minister of state for science and technology and earth sciences Prithviraj Chavan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today.

The Indian tsunami early warning system comprises a real-time network of seismic stations, bottom pressure recorders (BPR), tide gauges and 24 X 7 operational tsunami warning centre to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes and to monitor tsunamis.

Called the `Expert Decision Support System' or DSS, the tsunami early warning system is based on state-of-the-art information technology (IT), visualisation, geo-spatial and remote sensing technologies, according to the minister.

The system has a dedicated tsunami warning centre operating on 24x7 basis for generation of timely advisories. It also has a network of land-based seismic stations for earthquake detection and estimation of focal parameters in the two known tsunamigenic zones for real-time communication to the early warning centre.

The system has a network of bottom pressure recorders capable of detecting and measuring a change in water level of 1 cm at water depths of up to 6 km to detect and monitor tsunami around these two tsunamigenic zones.

The system is currently building capacity and training and educating all stake holders on utilisation of the maps, warning and watch advisories, the minister added.