At the 8th Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWS-VIII)held in Melbourne, Australia, 3–6 May 2011, the ICG decided to hold an Indian Ocean Wave Exercise (IOWave11) on 12th October 2011. A Task Team was established to organise it, with membership comprising Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Oman. The timetable for the transition to the Regional Tsunami Advisory Service Provider (RTSP) service for the IOTWS was adopted, with the service scheduled to commence on 12 October 2011, following the IOWave11 exercise. An Indian Ocean-wide tsunami exercise is an effective tool for evaluating the readiness of the IOTWS and to identify changes that can improve its effectiveness. There have been few major Indian Ocean tsunamis in the last few years and the IOTWS must be prepared.

no event notes available