Speaker
Description
Ocean island flank collapses, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, flooding, volcanic eruptions are some of the most dangerous hazards in the Pacific as they have the potential to cause damage and loss of life. In the past, Samoa’s heavy dependence on external sources for monitoring geohazards was risky and problematic this dependency highlighted the urgent need to set-up a monitoring system. In setting up Samoa’s monitoring network, there were many challenges faced in trying to design a system that could withstand the forces of nature (cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, and flooding) as well as the limited and unstable communication and power source options. How then do you design such a network that can allay all these concerns? The Samoa-China Digital Seismic Network is the answer to all of this; the Samoan government has been successful in building a network that is robust and can be duplicated in other countries with similar economic and physical conditions. This new system includes the installation of vaults, equipments and communication with careful consideration of climatic changes, availability, longevity and sustainability. The system also looks at combining the new and existing technologies to ensure an improved and reliable service to the country and the region.
