When Heaven (hardly) Meets the Earth: Towards Convergency in Tsunami Early Warning Systems

When Heaven (hardly) Meets the Earth: Towards Convergency in Tsunami Early Warning Systems

Jonatan A. Lassa#

#BIGS DR ZEF, University of Bonn, Germany & Institute of NTT Studies
jonatan.lassa@uni-bonn.de or jonatan.lassa@gmail.com

Abstract— The people at risks, the end-users of warning services, are the raison d'etre of tsunami early warning systems (TEWS) and not the technology. Therefore, central weight of TEWS should be on the people at risk not the technology, despite the importance of technology as means in achieving human security in regards to disasters and catastrophes.

There is no instant way to convergency in the application of TEWS and it becomes much more difficult when challenged to be measured by effectiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy (EEEL) principles. The question of how to improve the level of uptake of the DSS for better TEWS governance cannot be answered easily, depending on tradeoffs and interplays of the EEEL principles.

The “early warning science” is often associated with the “last miles” approach that is highly criticized due to its shortcomings in getting the things rights on the ground. The space based technology in the sky often receives much more attentions in the investment of TEWS. The risk of such an approach is the low level of DSS uptakes from the end users community. I argue that this is not a sustainable approach.
Index Term—early warning system, tsunami, sustainability, interdisciplinary approach