Evaluating tsunami preparedness worldwide: a proxy index using Japan as a reference

Date

2026-01-01

Author

Tüfekçi Enginar, Duygu
Süzen, Mehmet Lütfi
Yalçıner, Ahmet Cevdet

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Tsunami risk assessment is crucial for coastal communities, but quantitatively evaluating a nation’s tsunami vulnerability, and preparedness levels is challenging due to the intangible elements of this aspect. This study offers a novel proxy measurement method for assessing the tsunami preparedness of the nations through a reference country approach. The reference country is chosen as Japan according to the rationales based on its exemplary preparedness strategies against tsunamis and results of global-level analysis performed on the historical tsunami events and their outcomes. A proxy index, representing tsunami awareness and preparedness is developed using 39 indicators gathered from global statistical datasets grouped into administrative, educational, and socio-economic domains. The indicators are normalized, and principal component analysis is applied to remove multicollinearity. The Euclidean distance between 52 tsunami-prone country and Japan is calculated to determine their similarity yielding a value scaled from 1 to 10 for each country. This proxy index calculation provides valuable insights on the importance of robust governance, strong public education, and resilient economic systems for effective disaster management and offers a practical measurement method to approach relatively intangible aspects such as human vulnerability, awareness and preparedness for any kind of natural hazards including tsunamis.

Subject Keywords

Global indicators, Preparedness, Proxy index, Tsunami, Vulnerability

URI

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=105028108249&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118590

Collections

Department of Geological Engineering, Article