Comment Notification Systems (Score 1) 351
- Check out U of Colorado's Natural Hazards Center. They have info on the major disaster research mailing lists, and put out a very good bulletin on the latest and greatest of ideas.
- A tsunami notification system (via email or SMS) already exists; it has the same inherent flaws as any other automated tsunami warning in that it only activates for earthquakes (not landslides) and lacks in expert judgment on if an event is likely to occur.
As for the easiest, cheapest, and most effective means of reducing tsunami danger: let the mangroves regrow. Mangroves act as an absorbing buffer; the areas with the least destruction and deaths from the Boxing Day Tsunami were all where the mangroves were intact. Tourist destinations tend to pluck the mangroves (huge beaches are so much more attractive for hotels), removing that protection. For the ugliest enactment of this risk-increasing policy, check out the mudflats of Cairns, Australia.