Technical specialist

Rationale

The tsunami early warning program at ADPC was developed in response to the Thai Government’s request in January 2005 for ADPC to act as a sub-regional center for tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, and with the mandate received in July 2006 from the governments of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Maldives, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam to act as a regional tsunami watch provider and facilitate the establishment of an end-to-end multi-hazard early warning system in the region. The program is end-to-end, covering the whole spectrum of early warning – from hazard detection to community preparedness, and will be multi-hazard, integrating tsunami warning into existing warning systems for other natural hazards, having five components:

1) Establishment of the regional seismic, sea level and tsunami observation system, including regional support to national systems in the areas of evaluation and prediction
2) Capacity building of national systems in early warning, disaster management planning, communicating risks, and emergency response
3) Capacity building of local authorities and communities in disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness
4) Regional exchange of information, best practices, and lessons learned
5) Research and development

The Technical Specialist will work under the supervision and guidance of the Team Leader, Early Warning in adapting and implementing tsunami early warning and emergency management tools.
Supervisor(s): Team Leader, Early Warning
Evaluator(s): Team Leader, Early Warning

Required Qualifications/ Selection Criteria

• Preferably an advanced university degree (Masters or equivalent) in disciplines such as engineering/sciences/environmental management, or equivalent professional knowledge/training
• At least five years demonstrated technical experience in disaster management and related areas.
• Understanding of global, regional and national tsunami early warning systems, including public alert and warning systems
• Demonstrated research experience to be able to articulate disaster risk information needs of institutions and community to the research community to enable focused research to meet such disaster risk information requirements
• Expected to initiate and oversee the transfer of new technologies from research community to operational environment
• Experience in developing and conducting training needs assessment for disaster risk management
• Proven ability to strategize, plan and organize events (workshops, trainings. conference)
• Excellent knowledge of computer, computer systems skills and analytical abilities on spatial and temporal database for hazards analysis
• Excellent English proficiency in communication, presentation skills and report writing
• Excellent interpersonal skills, team-oriented work style, and experience of working in a multi-cultural environment.
• Strong desire to learn and undertake new challenges; must be a creative problem-solver; must have self-confidence; willingness to work hard; good sense of humor, but with seriousness about the quality and excellence of work.

Duties and Responsibilities

The technical specialist would be expected to mainly undertake the following tasks:
• Asses institutional systems for disaster management, including early warning and develop strategies to further enhance such systems
• Assist in the development of strategies in enhancing disaster preparedness and mitigation capacities
• Undertake warning information flow audit in an end-to-end framework
• Plan, design, implement, and monitor activities for tsunami warning center operations, public alert and warning, and emergency management
• Replicate use of tools that assist countries in tsunami risk evaluation, subsequent generation of warnings/ alerts, warning dissemination, emergency response, and local disaster preparedness and mitigation.
• Design and deliver need-based training for enhancing multi-hazard early warning systems; support capacity building relating to operational tsunami warning; facilitate technical trainings for institutions and the communities to better communicate, receive and respond to warnings; facilitate transfer of technology and practices on end to end early warning in collaboration with partner organizations; facilitate in organizing, evaluating trainings and workshops
• Enhance partnerships and networking with relevant agencies and coordinate with project partners and other stakeholders in the target countries for the successful implementation of program activities
• Develop decision support tools and liaise with research community to further develop decision support tools to meet institutional and societal information needs; undertake research to integrate technological advances for decision support tool development
• Document/ promote, share and develop tsunami good practice examples, tools and best practice information for capacity and resilience building and emergency management
• Prepare project progress reports, implementation plans, work plans and related documentation

In addition, the technical specialist may contribute to the following tasks

• Undertake activities related to mainstreaming tsunami warning and mitigation systems into development planning and practice, including policy and institutional development, project identification, sector policies, risk mitigation and recovery processes
• Assist in developing project/technical proposals for seeking support to expand the early warning program/R&D
• Prepare and present technical papers on all aspects of multi-hazard early warning system
• Prepare reports to document procedures, methodologies and other aspects of the end to end early warning system and other documentation as may be required
• Contribute to development of a web-based resource center / clearinghouse for tsunami preparedness and mitigation activities
• Perform other tasks that may be assigned by the Team Leader (Early Warning)