This bill reauthorizes through FY2030 the federal tsunami program and expands its activities relating to warnings, hazard mitigation, and research. A tsunami is a series of waves created by a large and sudden displacement of the ocean.
The bill reauthorizes the tsunami program that is generally administered by the National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in collaboration with public and certain private entities across the U.S. and internationally.
Also, the bill expands federal tsunami forecast and warning activities to include
integration of global navigation satellite system information into forecasting, broader interagency coordination on earthquake assessments and warnings, updates to tsunami inundation maps to support mitigation and recovery, outreach from regional and local weather forecast offices to help prepare coastal communities, provision of a Tsunami Warning Coordinator by tsunami warning centers to coordinate with partners and stakeholders, and tsunami alerts through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. In addition, the bill expands authorized federal tsunami hazard mitigation activities by specifying that regional risk assessments may include digital elevation models for at-risk coastline and evaluation of the impacts of tsunami debris and sediment.
The bill also requires the program's tsunami research component to develop a data portal, decision support tools, and, every three years, a research and development plan to improve detection and forecasting.