CoastWAVE 2.0 Tsunami Evacuation Mapping Workshop
Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry,
30 June – 4 July 2025
Organized as part of the IOC-UNESCO CoastWAVE 2.0 project, this international workshop aimed to train civil protection actors, researchers, and local practitioners in tsunami evacuation planning using standardized, reproducible and GIS-based methodologies. The workshop was coordinated by the Geography and Spatial Planning Laboratory of Montpellier (LAGAM), which has more than 15 years of experience in tsunami risk mapping and preparedness. Participants, drawn from countries of the Mediterranean basin (France, Morocco, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey), were introduced to a four-step methodological protocol for tsunami evacuation mapping, based on previous scientific projects and field applications. The training combined theoretical presentations, hands-on GIS exercises using ArcGIS Pro, and discussions on operational implementation, emphasizing the co-construction of evacuation plans with local stakeholders.
Key topics covered during the workshop included:
- How to define tsunami evacuation zones using elevation-based approaches
- How to choose and map safe assembly points for the population
- How to model evacuation routes and walking times with GIS tools
- How to produce clear and usable evacuation maps for communication
- How to align evacuation planning with the Tsunami Ready indicators
The workshop also served as an opportunity to share lessons learned from over 100 local evacuation plans developed by LAGAM, and to support eight municipalities currently pursuing Tsunami Ready recognition, including Marseille and Nice.
Conducted in a collaborative and applied framework, the event reinforced the relevance of coupling advanced spatial analysis with local knowledge and institutional engagement to build robust and actionable tsunami preparedness tools.
English