utilisationoftropicalcycloneandrelatedhazards’warnings.docVIP

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION ________________________________________ RA V TROPICAL CYCLONE COMMITTEE FOR THE SOUTH PACIFIC AND THE SOUTH-EAST INDIAN OCEAN TWELFTH SESSION ALOFI, NIUE, 11 TO 17 JULY 2008 RA V/TCC-Doc.10 (30.VI.2008) ___________________ Item 6.3 ENGLISH ONLY REVIEW OF THE TECHNICAL PLAN AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAMME Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Component Utilization of tropical cyclone and related hazards’ warnings and information for improved coastal risk management (Submitted by the WMO Secretariat) 6.3 Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Component (agenda item 6.3) 6.3.1 Introduction Between 1970 and 2007, tropical cyclones have resulted in nearly 600,000 casualties and 500 billion USD of economic losses (source: OFDA/CRED global disaster losses database), respectively accounting for 21% and 30% of loss of life and economic losses from all disasters triggered by natural hazards. For the pacific region tropical cyclones have accounted for almost 30,000 casualties and 11 billion USD of economic losses. The main hazards that have caused disasters in the region are windstorms (40%), floods (23%), and earthquakes (11%). According the IPCC 4th assessment report, climate change will exacerbate the severity and frequency of hydrometeorological hazards like tropical cyclones and flooding. Furthermore, it is expected that sea level rise linked to impacts of climate change would increase the vulnerability of the coastal regions and especially the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). WMO, through the crosscutting framework of its Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme, with the participation of the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), Tropical Cyclone Programme, the Commission for Atmospheric Science (CAS), the Commission of Hydrology (CHy) and the Commission for Basic Systems (CBS) is initiating a coordinated project for development and demonstration of i