The Snapshots aim to bring the work of the IOC UNESCO REGIONAL Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) to a wider audience. This project of the IOC UNESCO Tsunami Section takes place within the framework of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and its goal of a Safe Ocean. It complements the more specialized fact sheets by regularly highlighting actions, communities, officers, events, Tsunami service providers and tsunami information centres.

The need to develop the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAMTWS) was recognized early in the European Council Conclusions of December 2007 on the development and establishment of Early Warning Systems in the EU, on the establishment of an Early Warning System for tsunamis in the North-East Atlantic and the Mediterranean region, and in the Council Conclusions on Reinforcing the Union’s Disaster Response Capacity of June 2008 – towards an integrated approach to managing disasters.