DPC-ISPRA: National alert system for tsunamis generated by earthquakes (SiAM) (2018)

ISPRA has a collaborative relationship with the Civil Protection Department aimed at developing knowledge, methodologies and technologies useful for the full activation of the National Alert System for Tsunamis generated by managed earthquakes (SiAM). The SiAM, created to analyze the data of the monitoring networks in real time, to evaluate the possibility that a tsunami may occur as a result of earthquakes at sea or along the coast and of what extent and to disseminate warning messages, is composed of three Institutions: INGV-National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology which operates through the Tsunami Alert Center (CAT), ISPRA-Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research and the Department of Civil Protection.
Specifically, the INGV Tsunami Alert Center - which operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day - evaluates the possibility that a certain earthquake, with its epicenter at sea or in the immediate vicinity, could generate a tsunami and estimates the expected arrival times along the coasts. exposed. On the other hand, it is the duty of the Civil Protection Department, based on the assessments of the CAT, to disseminate the warning messages to the structures and components of the national civil protection service in order to reach, in the shortest possible time, the potentially affected population. The data provided by the National Tidal Network managed by ISPRA and the tide gauge present along the coasts of other Mediterranean countries allow, finally, to confirm whether or not the eventual tsunami is.