Wave Exercises
Wave exercises and drills are essential ways to mitigate the risk faced by coastal communities, especially in light of the infrequent occurrence of tsunamis.
Regular exercises evaluate the ability to respond to different tsunamis: they test communications, review the readiness and efficiency of operating procedures, and ensure the general population knows how to act and where to go.
Accurate reproduction on a human scale of a real crisis enables the carrying out of very effective awareness-raising campaigns on how to react in case of a tsunami.
Stakeholder agencies, community organisations, and citizen groups can devise plans on how to cooperate;
Schools have effective ways to educate schoolchildren on how to identify a tsunami's natural warning signs, and what to do when one might occur;
Media outlets that cover or participate in drills help raise tsunami awareness across and beyond communities.
There are exercises in all regions. Nearly 800,000 people participated in the 2019 regional CARIBE WAVE exercise, making it one of the most attended events on the UNESCO-IOC global calendar.
Types of Exercises
Exercises can comprise parts of the response, or simulate an entire end-to-end warning and evacuation scenario – from mere orientation workshops on what to expect, to slow discussion simulations between responders, and as far as fully involved, real-time exercises.
Similarly, they can be conducted only within departments or organisations, or involve entire communities, states, provinces, a single country, or many countries comprising an entire ocean basin.
The main five types of exercise are:
It lays the groundwork for a comprehensive exercise programme.
It's a planned event, developed to bring together individuals and officials with a role or interest in multi-hazard response planning, problem solving, standard operational procedure development, and resource integration and coordination.
It should have a specific goal and written objectives to result in an agreed-upon Plan of Action.
It’s a planned activity that tests, develops, and/or maintains skills in a single or limited emergency response procedure.
Drills generally involve operational response of single departments or agencies, such as educational or health facilities. They can also involve internal notifications and/or field activities.
It's a planned activity in which local officials, key staff, and organisations with disaster management responsibilities are presented with simulated emergency situations.
Often informal and held in a conference room environment, it's designed to elicit constructive discussion from the participants, who will examine and attempt to resolve problems based on existing plans and procedures, and with an emphasis on slow-paced problem-solving, rather than rapid, real-time decision-making.
It should have specific goals, objectives, and a scenario narrative.
It's a planned activity designed to test and evaluate a community's organisational capacities and emergency management system capabilities by fully simulating a major disaster event.
Based on a scenario narrative, it should take place at the appropriate coordination location (e.g. an emergency operations centre) – message traffic will be simulated under real time constraints and public evacuations may be included.
Both internal and external agencies (government, private sector, and volunteer agencies), as well as decision makers, controllers, simulators, and evaluators designated by the plan should be involved.
It should have specific goals, objectives, and a scenario narrative.
It's a planned activity in a “challenging” environment that encompasses a majority of the emergency management functions – the culmination of a progressive programme that has grown with a community's capacity to conduct exercises.
It involves the actual mobilisation and deployment of the appropriate personnel and resources needed to demonstrate operational capabilities, activating emergency operations and command centres.
It's the largest, costliest, and most complex exercise type, although it may or may not include public evacuations.
How to conduct them
1. Briefing
Brief staff, exercise control and evaluators, other agency personnel and media starting immediately after the exercise announcement and until just before it takes place.
The key points to raise during the briefings regardless of group of people are:
- Timings and duration of participation required;
- Boundaries in terms of role-playing and operational response, as well as physical limitations of the exercise;
- Locations of key venues or activities where relevant;
- Expected result of the exercise;
- What the emergency procedures are;
- What the logistical and administration arrangements are and what to do in case of a real warning or emergency.
2. Start the exercise
Tsunami exercises may be started immediately following the last participant briefing.
The in-country/agency Exercise Director ensures that all Exercise Control staff is in place and ready to begin.
3. Introduce bulletins
Each in-country/agency Exercise Director controls the exercise, ensuring that any problems are rectified to keep the exercise flowing. The Exercise Director can modify the flow of the exercise to make sure objectives are met.
Once the exercise has started and participants are in place, tsunami bulletins or products can be introduced.
Tsunami bulletins may be disseminated via the international and regional tsunami warning centres or by each country/agency Exercise Control team via the exercise manual, which will outline what method must be adopted for each exercise.
4. Sustain and control exercise
In order to keep the exercise flowing without exerting too much control over participants, the following recommendations can be followed by Exercise Directors:
- Information must be delivered at an appropriate time to control the pace of the exercise;
- Depending on how new developments are reacted to, the rate at which these are delivered may be increased or slowed down;
- Participants may react in a different way than anticipated – in such case, it's important to check whether this will have a domino effect on the exercise;
- Exercise Control staff must keep track of developments following the exercise plan;
- Spontaneous problems or solutions introduced into the exercise may prevent it from derailing due to unexpected reactions or a lack of focus;
- Exercise Directors may step in to put an exercise back on track;
- Exercise Directors may also pause an exercise to resolve any excess frustration or conflict that may arise – it's important to ensure a positive experience for participants;
- Since communication channels can get back-logged or even shut down in real-life situations, agencies should have a public information and media plan to guarantee the flow of critical, time-sensitive safety information.
5. End the exercise
Finishing the exercise is a controlled activity – Exercise Directors end it at a pre-planned time (e.g. the international cancellation tsunami bulletin).
An immediate debrief should be provided for all participants and staff to provide key information and feedback.
For health and safety purposes in functional exercises, all participants and staff should be accounted for before ending the exercise.
Delve into the more technical aspects of conducting and evaluating tsunami exercises for your community.
Latest & upcoming exercises
Once the site has been published, content regarding exercises across regions will show up here.
Further impact
TICs aid Member States in tsunami preparedness through capacity-building training programmes.
This community-based programme seeks to get 100% of at-risk communities certified by 2030.