Post-Tsunami Field Survey Procedures: An Outline

Destructive tsunamis are infrequent comparedwith other natural disasters, andtheir evidences tend to disappear quickly.Conventional data acquisition havebeen limited in coverage and tend to beunreliable. Readily available andtransient data should be collectedby field survey teams as soon as possible. Since tsunamis are always triggered by the simultaneous or in-advanceoccurrence of another phenomena, they can be considered close to thesource as a syndrome, leaving a variety of almost simultaneous effectsat the nearby coasts. By observating the evidence left bythese local interaction effects, the surveyors should be able to identifyand evaluate at least the maximum horizontal extension and the verticalreach of the inundation. High water marks and lines of landward limitof sea grass, debris or sediment deposited, may help in this identification and measurement process. Guidelines to conduct post-tsunami field surveys and standards for theobservations have been established by the International Coordination Groupfor the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific (ICG/ITSU) upon agreement with the scientific community. A Post-Tsunami Survey Field Guide was published by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2000