More than 80 scientists from India and abroad will explore and address the latest advances in tsunami hazard assessment, detection, monitoring, early warning systems, mitigation strategies and community preparedness at the 32nd International Tsunami Symposium (ITS) being held at the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) from November 12 to 14.
“The primary objective of this symposium is to develop and implement a robust ocean hazard mitigation program,” said INCOIS Director TM Balakrishnan Nair, who briefed delegates on the proceedings during the First Conference of the Ocean Decade Tsunami Program (ODTP), co-organized by INCOIS and IOC-UNESCO earlier this week.
Because tsunamis originate from a variety of sources, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, atmospheric pressure disturbances (meteotsunamis), and even meteorite impacts, the science is inherently interdisciplinary and includes seismology, volcanology, marine geology and geophysics, hydrodynamics, and ocean-atmosphere interactions.
The Tsunami Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), also known as the Joint Tsunami Commission (JTC), conducts the ITS every two years. This event brings together tsunami researchers and disaster prevention experts worldwide to discuss topics such as tsunami modeling for seismic and non-seismic sources, instrument and observation networks, meteotsunamis (including the 2022 Tonga event), Kamchatka tsunami, southern Alaska landslide tsunami, advanced real-time flood modeling techniques/ML performance.
National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Director Shailesh Nayak spoke about the challenges and timelines for setting up India’s Tsunami Early Warning System, highlighting gaps and areas to focus on in building resilient coastlines.
Experts such as Yuichiro Tanioka of Hokkaido University in Japan and Viacheslav K. Gusiakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences also attended the opening day, according to a Wednesday press release.
Published – 12 Nov 2025 19:02 IST
