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Hong Kong Observatory Hosted the South China Sea Region Tsunami Ready Related Training Course Online

12 January 2026

The South China Sea Region Tsunami Ready Related Training Course was successfully organised online by the Task Team on Capacity Development and Services (TT-CDS) of the Regional Working Group on Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System for the South China Sea Region (WG-SCS) on 22-23 December 2025. WG-SCS1 is one of the working groups of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the Pacific Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (PTWS) under the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. The course brought together experts from the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC), Hong Kong Observatory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Sun Yat-sen University, Indonesia Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG), the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, and the International Tsunami Information Center to share knowledge and experiences at the course for enhancing regional tsunami preparedness. There were more than 50 participants from five countries around the South China Sea region including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The course covered key elements of the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme (TRRP)2 including tsunami ready indicators in respect of assessment, community-based preparedness and response such as identification of tsunami sources in the South China Sea region, tsunami hazard assessment, tsunami ready tools and the application process for TRRP. Tsunamis are one of the deadliest oceanic hazards in the world. The training course contributes to the capacity development for working towards achieving the UN Ocean Decade Goal3.

Group photo of the South China Sea Region Tsunami Ready Related Training Course on 22-23 December 2025

Group photo of the South China Sea Region Tsunami Ready Related Training Course on 22-23 December 2025.


Ms Queenie Lam, Senior Scientific Officer of the Hong Kong Observatory (Chair of the TT-CDS of WG-SCS) delivered a talk on the potential tsunami sources in the South China Sea region at the online training course

Ms Queenie Lam, Senior Scientific Officer of the Hong Kong Observatory (Chair of the TT-CDS of WG-SCS)
delivered a talk on the potential tsunami sources in the South China Sea region at the online training course.


1 The Group is composed of members nominated by Member States Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and invited experts.

2 IOC’s webpage for Tsunami Ready (https://tsunami.ioc.unesco.org/en/tsunami-ready)

3 100% of communities at risk of tsunami prepared for and resilient to tsunamis by 2030.