A Tsunami Ready community consists of all citizens, representatives of territorial activities, local governments, emergency management organizations and governmental organizations, who actively interact to increase tsunami risk awareness and mitigate the effects in case of tsunami. The Tsunami Ready program, one of the SiAM's three-year (2019-2021) program objectives, has been tested in some high tsunami risk regions of the world and was recently solicited by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) for NEAM area countries by Circular Letter No. 2821.
In 2020, the Tsunami Ready pilot program was launched in Italy, the first nation in the NEAM area to adopt it. Three pilot municipalities were selected in Lazio (Minturno), in Calabria (Palmi) and in Sicily (Pachino, specifically the locality of Marzamemi) located in areas of moderate to high tsunami risk.
The three Municipal Councils have consequently deliberated to join the Program between December 2020 and April 2021.
Moreover, on May 4, 2021 - by signature of the Head of the Italian Civil Protection Department, Fabrizio Curcio - the National Board of Tsunami Ready (NTRB) was officially established. It is composed by:
- Luigi D'Angelo - Director for the coordination of Emergencies of the National Civil Protection Department.
- Alessandro Amato - Head of the Tsunami Alert Center of INGV.
- Maurizio Ferla - Head of the National Center for environmental characterization and protection of the coastal area and operational oceanography of ISPRA.
According to the official Guidelines, the NTRB is responsible for supervising the Tsunami Ready program, and for community applications approval, before the official recognition by IOC-UNESCO.