The Municipality of Palmi, in the Reggio Calabria region, will tomorrow receive the prestigious ‘Tsunami Ready’ recognition, awarded by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, thus becoming the second Italian Municipality, after Minturno (Latina), to obtain accreditation. The ‘Tsunami ready’ program promotes the preparation of communities for tsunami risk, involving civil protection, administration and citizens, with the aim of improving readiness and reaction capacity in the event of an event.
Palmi, a municipality on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria, is located in a medium-high danger area, hit in the past by tsunamis, as documented by the INGV’s Italian tsunami effects database. The path that led to this recognition involved the population and the coastal area, strengthening awareness of the tsunami risk and the response capacity of the Palmese community. An important step was taken with the involvement of the Municipality of Palmi in the CoastWave 2.0 project, financed by the European Commission through DG Echo (European Civil Protection) in 2025 and 2026.
As part of the project, specific evacuation maps for tsunami risk were developed, which identify the areas potentially affected by flooding and the evacuation routes from the coastal strip towards the collection areas. The maps can be consulted on the INGV Tsunami Warning Center website.
Representatives of the Tsunami Warning Center, the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the Department of Civil Protection and the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, the mayor of Palmi, Giovanni Calabria, the deputy mayor, Salvatore Celi, the president of the Palmese youth council, Daniele Trimboli, and the commander of the local police, Francesco Managò, will be present at the ceremony. The ‘Tsunami ready’ certification will be delivered by Denis Chang Seng of Ioc-UNESCO.