March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Japan tsunami: Lessons from forecast assessment

The tsunami generated by the 11 March 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan has devastated local coastlines of Japan and impacted shorelines all over the Pacific. While the complete damage assessment for this event is still underway, the immense impact of this tsunami raises questions about mitigating the impact for such an event at different time scales, from real-time tsunami warning guidance to long-term hazard assessment. Lessons learned from the Japan tsunami will provide direction to research and emergency management communities on how to develop tools, models and methods for mitigating impact of such devastating event both locally and globally. Assessing the use of real-time tsunami forecasting tools during the Japan-Tohoku tsunami is an important part of this process.