Japan continues to deal methodically with the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami by introducing incremental improvements in the design of its coastal cities and their defences and greater protection for critical infrastructure. 

What has become clear to me as we commemorate the second edition of World Tsunami Awareness Day on November 5, is that much of the work of reducing disaster risk depends on forging a deeper understanding of disaster risk if we want to prevent future disasters even as conditions on this planet conspire to drive up the possibility of future losses. 

The same risk factors apply to tsunamis as they do in the case of extreme weather events but perhaps even more so. 

Poverty, inappropriate land use and building codes, the disappearance of protective eco-systems such as mangrove forests, weak governance, population growth in coastal areas are all factors which drive exposure and vulnerability to floods and storms, the two most common natural hazards. 

If you are aware of your tsunami risk then you are likely to be aware of the other risks which could impact your community in the age of climate change when sea levels are rising, oceans becoming warmer and storms are becoming more intense. 

Tsunamis have profoundly shaped international agreements on how we reduce disaster risk. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) was adopted by UN Member States just weeks after the Indian Ocean tsunami killed some 228,000 people. 

It was an event which shocked the world into action and the adoption of the wide-ranging goals of the HFA helped to raise public and institutional awareness, generate political commitment and mobilise key stakeholders across civil society, catalysing actions by a wide range of stakeholders at all levels in an effort to reduce disaster losses. 

The consultations for its successor, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 were formally launched by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on the 1st anniversary of the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami which claimed over 18,000 lives and caused a nuclear meltdown.