Wave warning system for Tuvalu helps predict sea inundation

Transcript

MIA RAMON: What happens is the inundation events can be triggered by a high wave or a high weather level or their co-occurrence even as far away as Vanuatu, and affect a country like Tuvalu. So this system that we've developed aims at predicting off shore wave and water level conditions seven days in advance. So this is going to enable the government of Tuvalu in all of their outer islands, including Funafuti the capital, to predict when there is such inundation that might be coming in and to make sure that people are evacuated to safety and to be able to plan for disaster management. And also for crop inundation and all sorts of infrastructure implications. So this system is really, really important for the government to be able to trigger their response for coastal inundation.

JENNY MEYER: How does it work? Is it a system of buoys and satellites, or what happens?

MR: There's a very advanced software system. And we worked through our scientists who are working with both the Lands and Survey Department and also with the Met. And there are some drones that have been purchased for the government and the pilots have been trained. We've got some plans to put in wave buoys, at this point we're using the tide gauges that are in Funafuti and the temporary tide gauges that we take out to the outer islands. And there's also a modelling system in the software that's in the Met that enables, after the tide information is collected from the gauges and from the field work done, and the drone work and the survey work, and the mapping and the hydrography; all of these are put into a modelling system and this is critical scientific capacity built at the country level for Tuvalu. So they're able to then use this software and use this very expensive but also very needed equipment for their for their country level capacity.

JM: We've heard a lot in the last few days with the global climate report being released about this kind of problem. Do think this goes some way to helping the people in Tuvalu remain on their islands for a bit longer?

MR: I think this report can only help to pinpoint to the world that the science is showing that countries like Tuvalu are absolutely the first and the worst affected and that the time line to really deal with this problem from the side of the industrialised nations that are contributing to climate change is ticking much faster. Tuvalu people want to stay home. And the Tuvaluan Prime Minister is very famous for saying "If you save Tuvalu, you can save the world". Because Tuvalu represents really where the hardest hit people will be. The lowest lying atolls. And the ones who are the most affected. And we expecting that these severe weather patterns are just going to increase and multiply over the next few years. And SPC is putting all of our scientific effort and all of our technical assistance behind our member states, especially our small islands states to be prepared for these disasters.