A tsunami is a series of ocean waves typically generated by an underwater earthquake. The size of the resulting tsunami depends on a complex set of factors, including the earthquake’s magnitude, its depth below the ocean floor, depth of the overlying water, type and amount of seafloor movement, and energy released. A tsunami wave may be very small in the deep ocean, but as it approaches land, it can increase to tens of feet in height and reach shore as a fast-moving wall of turbulent water. Tsunamis can be classified as local or distant. A tsunami generated by an earthquake off the coast of Alaska would be considered a local tsunami for that state’s coastal areas, striking within minutes of the event, while the same event would be considered a distant tsunami for the coast of Washington, which would not likely be hit until 3 or more hours later. Both types of tsunami pose an inundation threat to low-lying coastal communities from multiple destructive waves that can penetrate far inland. Local tsunamis pose particular emergency preparedness challenges because there may not be enough time to sound a warning. In this situation, public education and outreach can save lives by teaching the community to recognize the emergency and move immediately to higher ground. The process that the tsunami warning centers use to detect potential tsunamis and issue warnings involves several steps. The warning centers first monitor and evaluate data from seismic networks, and if a tsunami is likely, they transmit a tsunami warning message to NOAA’s weather- forecasting offices and state emergency management centers, among others. The warning centers also monitor coastal water-level data, as well as data from NOAA’s network of Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) detection buoys, to determine if a tsunami has actually been generated and, if not, to cancel any warning (see fig. 1). NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) conducted the research and developed the DART buoys and conducts other research in support of the Tsunami Program, such as the development of tsunami inundation forecast models for at-risk locations. Tsunami forecast models are used by scientists at the warning centers and the research laboratory to help estimate the size of the expected waves and their potential impact on coastal areas. For example, after a massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile in February 2010, NOAA scientists initially warned that tsunami waves of about 8 feet could strike Hawaii, but as the tsunami moved across the Pacific, the forecast models helped to more accurately predict the approximately 3-foot tsunami waves that actually struck the islands more than 12 hours after the earthquake. NOAA allocates its annual appropriations and other funds to three main categories of activities in its Tsunami Program: warning: including activities pertaining to tsunami warning centers, DART buoys, seismic and sea-level monitoring networks, and tsunami data management; mitigation: including activities pertaining to NTHMP, TsunamiReady, and the International Tsunami Information Center; and research: including activities conducted by PMEL and the National Data Buoy Center. From fiscal year 1997 through fiscal year 2004, NOAA’s allocations to fund tsunami activities remained fairly constant, ranging from about $5 million to $10 million. After the Indian Ocean tsunami, funding increased significantly, from about $27 million in fiscal year 2005 to $42 million in fiscal year 2009 (see fig. 2). While funding levels generally increased from fiscal year 1997 through fiscal year 2009 for all three categories of tsunami-related activities, according to NOAA officials, the proportion allocated to warning increased from about 40 percent from fiscal year 1997 through fiscal year 2004 to approximately 70 percent of total program funding from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2009 (see fig. 3). In comparison, the proportion allocated to mitigation decreased from about 50 percent from fiscal year 1997 through fiscal year 2004 to approximately 30 percent of total funding from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2009, and the proportion of research funding remained relatively constant, at about 6 to 10 percent of the total. Starting in fiscal year 2009, funding for the Tsunami Program—including all three categories of tsunami-related activity—received a significant boost from the proceeds of the Federal Communication Commission’s auctioning of the broadcast frequency spectrum previously devoted to carrying analog television signals. The auction proceeds are to provide a total of about $50 million to the program through fiscal year 2012, when this funding will expire. In fiscal year 2009, spectrum auction funding provided $13.7 million, which amounted to 32 percent of the $42 million of total Tsunami Program funding for the year. The program also benefits from significant in-kind support and resources, such as data from seismic and water-level monitors operated by other agencies or nations; NOAA has not estimated the monetary value of this support. The planning processes NOAA used to develop its Tsunami Program and NTHMP strategic plans followed the three key practices leading organizations use to create effective strategic plans. The plans also generally include the critical components of effective plans—such as mission statements and long-term goals—and are closely linked through their goals and strategies, but some components of the plans have not been fully developed. In our prior work, we identified three key practices that were critical for leading organizations to follow in the creation of effective strategic plans: Involving stakeholders, such as federal agencies, state governments, or others, in defining the mission and desired outcomes helps ensure that their expectations and interests are met and that resources and efforts are targeted at the program’s highest priorities. Assessing external and internal forces helps managers anticipate future challenges and make adjustments before potential problems become crises. For example, external forces—such as emerging technological trends and new statutory requirements—and internal forces—such as culture, management practices, and business processes—may influence the program’s ability to achieve its goals. Aligning program activities to support mission-related outcomes helps ensure that programs effectively and efficiently produce services that meet customers’ needs and stakeholders’ interests. Assessing the extent to which a program’s activities, processes, and resources contribute to meeting its mission and desired outcomes can identify inadequate or obsolete organizational structures that need to be changed. NOAA adopted strategic plans in 2008 for the Tsunami Program and in 2009 for NTHMP. We found that NOAA’s planning process for developing these plans included the three key practices. Specifically, to develop the Tsunami Program’s strategic plan, NOAA assembled a planning committee of relevant agency officials, who drafted the plan, and then involved stakeholders, including NTHMP members, by giving them the opportunity to review and comment on the draft plan. The planning committee assessed the external and internal forces relevant to the program by analyzing the program’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For example, the planning committee determined that the tsunami warning centers were issuing confusing information statements during events, an internal weakness that threatened its warning mission. In addition, as the planning committee developed the Tsunami Program’s strategic plan, NOAA officials aligned the program’s structure to meet the purpose of the program as provided in the Tsunami Warning and Education Act and to ensure that its activities supported this mission. For example, the plan identifies four areas of responsibility in the Tsunami Program that align with the main sections of the act: (1) tsunami forecasting and warning, (2) National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, (3) tsunami research, and (4) global tsunami warning and mitigation. Likewise, when developing the NTHMP’s strategic plan, NOAA assembled a planning committee of stakeholders and then shared a draft of the strategic plan with all NTHMP members to incorporate their comments, helping to ensure that their interests and expectations were met. According to NOAA officials, the planning committee assessed the external and internal forces potentially affecting the NTHMP, as was done for the Tsunami Program. For example, the analysis identified certain NTHMP goals that depended on external forces, such as state and local agencies, and were therefore beyond the program’s full control. Finally, NTHMP’s strategic plan was organized to align its goals and strategies with key components of the program as identified in the Tsunami Warning and Education Act, specifically, to coordinate warning activities, promote and improve community education and mitigation, and improve the quality and extent of inundation modeling and mapping. Our past work has shown that effective strategic plans should include six critical components: A comprehensive mission statement that explains why a program exists and tells what it does. Long-term goals and objectives that specify how an agency will carry out its mission and explain what results are expected from the program. Strategies to achieve the goals and objectives that are specific enough to allow an assessment of whether they will help achieve those goals. For example, strategies may describe the processes, skills, technologies, and resources needed to achieve a program’s goals and objectives. A description of how performance measures will be used to assess progress toward long-term goals, including (1) the specific activities within the program that will be assessed for performance and (2) the target level of performance to be achieved for each measure. The identification of external factors that could significantly affect achievement of the strategic goals, such as economic trends or actions by Congress, state and federal agencies, or other entities. Assessing external factors helps agencies evaluate the likelihood of achieving strategic goals that depend on the actions of others. A description of how program evaluations are to be used to establish or revise strategic goals and a schedule of future planned evaluations. We found that the Tsunami Program and NTHMP strategic plans generally include most of the critical components of effective strategic plans.