33 U.S.C. § 3205 — Tsunami research program

(a) The Administrator must support or maintain a tsunami research program, consulting relevant Federal agencies, State, tribal, and territorial governments, academic institutions, the coordinating committee, and the panel named in the section. The program must develop detection, forecast, communication, and mitigation science and technology, including advanced sensors, information and communications technology, data collection and analysis, tsunami tracking and numerical forecasting, and standards. (b) The program must: (1) consider cost-effective ways to reduce tsunami impacts, including better near-field and distant detection and forecasting, a new generation of the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis array, sensors in commercial and Federal telecommunications cables, other real-time monitoring, and Administration supercomputing for rapid forecasts for all United States coasts; (2) coordinate with the National Weather Service on technology to move into operations; (3) conduct social-science research on community warnings, education, and evacuation materials; (4) develop the technical basis for validating tsunami maps, numerical models, digital-elevation models, and forecasts; and (5) make research and findings available to the public and scientific community.