IHCantabria promotes international collaboration to improve tsunami risk management

The NEAM-COMMITMENT project responds to the need for a multi-hazard approach to enable more effective tsunami planning, risk management and evacuation.

The Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria) organizes on January 20th and 21st at the Real Observatorio de Madrid two days of collaborative work, exchange and transfer of knowledge in the framework of the NEAM – COMMITMENT project (NEAM Collaboration for Improved Tsunami Risk Mitigation and Management). This project, which started in February 2025, aims to improve tsunami risk management and planning in the NEAM region (Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean). It also aims to contribute to capacity building through tsunami hazard assessment and mapping at the national scale, as well as improved tsunami evacuation planning at the local level through a novel multi-hazard approach.

National tsunami inundation maps are key tools for coastal planning, local evacuation strategies, and advancing global initiatives such as the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Reconnaissance Program and the Tsunami Decade Ocean Program.

Specifically, the workshop taking place today, January 20th, is aligned with the first objective of the NEAM-COMMITMENT project, to develop national tsunami inundation maps in Spain, Greece and Cyprus using the methodology applied for the development of evacuation maps in Italy, in order to achieve compatible maps throughout the NEAM region.

The purpose of this workshop is to support decision making by national decision makers regarding the updating of the national tsunami map, considering seismic sources through a probabilistic approach (S-PTHA). The workshop will be divided into two parts: the first part will present the project and the methodology applied; the second part will present the results obtained during the course of the project and will be followed by a discussion session. This discussion will complement the work developed with the contributions of the participating experts, thus helping to facilitate decision-making on design parameters and to ensure the validity and applicability of the maps generated.

Partners: National Observatory of Athens (NOA) Greece, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) Italy, Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de Cantabria (FIHAC) Spain, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) Italy, Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Italy, University of Malaga (UMA) Spain, Municipality of Lipary (MoL) Italy, Academy of Athens (AoA) Greece, General Secretariat of Civil Protection (GSCP) Greece, Geological Survey Department (GSD) Cyprus, Dipartimento della Protezione Civile (DPC) Italy, Dirección General de Protección Civil y Emergencias de España (DGPCE), Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) Spain.

The goal of NEAM-COMMITMENT is to develop compatible national tsunami inundation maps throughout the NEAM region