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Cooperation With Stakeholders of the Future Earthquake Early Warning System (EEW) in Nicaragua

Session: Earthquake Early Warning System in the Americas: The On-Going Effort and the State of the Art I

Type: Oral

Date: 4/19/2021

Presentation Time: 05:45 PM Pacific

Description: 

Seismic hazard is high in the Nicaragua and it is the second poorest country of the Americas. Thus, the main EEW targets should be the millions of poor people living in homes very vulnerable for seismic shaking. Since 2016, we develop EEW in Nicaragua and Central America, supported by Swiss Technical Cooperation and Swiss Seismological Service at University of Zurich.

INETER´s seismology section transformed into a warning center on earthquakes and tsunamis including accelerographic monitoring of facilities in Nicaragua. Following a call from the regional community (CEPREDENAC-Regional Disaster Prevention Center) and a development project with the Japanese Cooperation we operate, since 2019, the Central American Tsunami Advisory Center (CATAC) guided by IOC/UNESCO. We use INETER´s Seismic Network (2015: 50 stations; 2021: 150 projected) and additional data from Central America and surroundings and are integrating GPS data for extreme earthquakes and fast tsunami warnings (support: UNAVCO, NASA, UNESCO).

We approached stakeholders interested in EEW. Since 2016, EEW is internally used at INETER and we provide it to the Nicaraguan government. Starting 2019, we facilitate EEW to SINAPRED (disaster prevention system) and Civil Defense (Army). In 2020, we formed working groups of stakeholders at Central and local governmental institutions, universities, enterprises, to cooperate with monitoring, distribution of warning messaging systems using a TV/Radio stations and Apps, information and education. In 2021, EEW will extend to larger groups of decision makers and target institutions of CATAC. Experimental EEW will be included in disaster exercises of SINAPRED paving the way for the future EEW to the general public.

Presenting Author: Wilfried Strauch

Student Presenter: No

Authors