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Assessment, STrategy And Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe

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The Challenge

Tsunamis are low frequency but high impact natural disasters. In 2004, the Boxing Day tsunami killed hundreds of thousands of people from many nations along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean. Tsunami run-up exceeded 35 m. Seven years later, and in spite of some of the best warning technologies and levels of preparedness in the world, the Tohoku-Oki tsunami in Japan dramatically showed the limitations of scientific knowledge on tsunami sources, coastal impacts and mitigation measures. The experience from Japan raised serious questions on how to improve the resilience of coastal communities, to upgrade the performance of coastal defenses, to adopt a better risk management, and also on the strategies and priorities for the reconstruction of damaged coastal areas. Societal resilience requires the reinforcement of capabilities to manage and reduce risk at national and local scales.

The Concept

The on-going set up of the North Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas region (NEAM) tsunami warning system (TWS) needs to consider these lessons when developing societal and structural resilience, also considering that, on average, there is one decametric tsunami per century in the region and many more of smaller size. Most types of known potential tsunami sources can be found in Europe: geological structures with large and well known neo-tectonic activity (e.g. from the Hellenic Arc, and the North and East Anatolian Faults, to the Fracture Zones in the Western Mediterranean Sea) and complex seismogenic environments that already generated mega-tsunamigenic earthquakes in the past (e.g. off SW Iberia), mega-landslides (Norwegian margin), and active volcanic areas with a well-known (Santorini, Stromboli) or likely (Canary Islands, Phlegrean Fields) ability to generate tsunamis.

The Goal

ASTARTE is organized to foster tsunami resilience in Europe, through innovative research on scientific problems critical to enhance forecast skills in terms of sources, propagation and impact. ASTARTE will employ lessons on coastal resilience learned from disaster surveys following tsunamis and hurricane surges. Within ASTARTE, we will acquire new information to complete the existing European knowledge base, and we will benefit from a stronger integration than ever attempted previously in the field. This will involve close cooperation with coastal populations, civil protection, emergency management and other local organizations.

Objectives

The ultimate goal of ASTARTE is to reach a higher level of tsunami resilience in the NEAM (North East Atlantic & Mediterranean) region, to improve preparedness of coastal populations, and, ultimately, to save lives and assets.

Read more about ASTARTE's objectives.

Methodology

ASTARTE is organized into a number of work-packages that correspond to the different modules of research, operational development, and interaction with the stakeholders.

Read more about ASTARTE's methodology.

Test Sites

Test sites include a broad geographical coverage, in both North-east Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. They were selected considering they can be impacted by regional and local tsunami sources, which put different levels of stress on detection and forecasting.

Read more about ASTARTE's test sites.

Consortium

The ASTARTE Consortium consists of research groups that contributed to the progress of tsunami science and technology in Europe and the five Tsunami Watch Providers (CTWP) in the NEAM region. There are currently 5 CTWPs: France, Greece and Turkey already in operation and 2 future centes in Italy and Portugal.

Find out about the ASTARTE consortium members.

Latest news

15.04.2020 14:30

ASTARTE Documentary is live

You can now watch ASTARTE's documentary.

Read more … ASTARTE Documentary is live

05.04.2018 11:14

Tsunami session at the European Seismological Commission

The 36th General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission (ESC) will take place in Valletta, Malta, from 2nd to 7th September, 2018.

Abstract submission deadline has been extended to: 16 April 2018

Further information can be found at http://www.escmalta2018.eu/page/home

Read more … Tsunami session at the European Seismological Commission

21.08.2017 16:14

New release of the ASTARTE database

Read more … New release of the ASTARTE database

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 603839
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© ASTARTE EU Project Built with RockSolid Contao Themes

© 2013 ASTARTE Consortium
Project number: 603839
Project acronym: ASTARTE
Project title: Assessment, Strategy And Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe
Starting date: 1 November 2013
Duration: 36 Months
ASTARTE is a collaborative project within the FP7-ENV2013 6.4-3