NEAM-COMMITMENT: Strengthening Tsunami Risk Governance through National Inundation Mapping and Multi-Hazard Evacuation Planning

The NEAM-COMMITMENT project, funded by the European Commission’s DG ECHO and aiming to support improved tsunami risk management and planning in the North-Eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean, and connected seas (NEAM) region, has entered the final phase of its implementation. Here, we present the progress achieved so far in two key components of tsunami risk governance: (1) capacity building through tsunami hazard assessment and mapping at the national scale, and (2) improved tsunami evacuation planning at the local level through a novel multi-hazard approach.

For the first component, the project aims to develop national tsunami inundation maps for Cyprus, Greece, and Spain by applying a GIS-based methodology previously implemented in Italy, leveraging offshore inputs from the NEAM probabilistic tsunami hazard model (NEAMTHM18; Basili et al., 2021, Frontiers in Earth Science) to define large-scale coastal inundation zones. A capacity-building workshop has already been held in Rome to train partners on the new tools and to gather feedback for further methodological improvements. At the national level, technical workshops have been conducted in the three countries developing the maps, during which design parameters and safety factors (to translate offshore hazard curves into runup values) were selected through a science-informed, participatory decision-making approach. This process enables decision-makers to take ownership of the products and maximizes implementation effectiveness.

For the second component, the objective is to develop and test a multi-hazard approach to tsunami evacuation management that accounts for cascading effects, thus complementing existing guidelines. This approach is being applied at local pilot sites in Greece and Italy, focusing on earthquake–tsunami and volcano–tsunami scenarios, respectively. In this context, hazard workshops were conducted in Methoni and Stromboli, where scientists engaged with local communities and explained the multiple hazards affecting each area. The outcomes of these workshops will inform the next step in the process, to help designing tsunami evacuation maps for both sites.

The project builds on previous and ongoing initiatives, including TSUMAPS-NEAM, CoastWAVE, EPOS TCS Tsunami, and the Global Tsunami Model, among others, and fosters multinational collaboration among 13 institutions from four NEAM countries. This collaboration strengthens cooperation within the NEAM Tsunami Warning System and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The resulting national and local tsunami mapping products will be supported by open-access guidelines, tools, and OGC web services that ensure compliance with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles, with the aim of contributing to improved tsunami risk management in the NEAM region and beyond.